Clay Aiken Newsweek Walkout; Clay Aiken Walks Out Of Newsweek Magazine Interview

January 11th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Tagged as Clay Aiken

Clay Aiken walked out of an interview with Newsweek Magazine this week after interviewer Ramin Setoodeh entered into a tense line of questioning with the alleged “down low” country boy. The interview was supposed to promote Clay’s latest career venture; like all gays, he’s headed for Broadway. Clay will make his Broadway debut in “Spamalot” next week.

Feel free to check out the entire Newsweek interview here. But for fun, we’ve skipped to the part where things got ugly. Let us know what you think. Did Clay overreact?

How did you get into a fight with that lady on a plane?
I’m not going to talk about it.

I was just curious because you’ve never talked about it.
I did talk about it.

What about the Kelly Ripa thing?
I’m not going to discuss it.

Did you think it was homophobic?
I’m not going to discuss it.

What do you want to talk about?
I think we’re done.

Can we talk about something fun?
No, we’re done. I thought NEWSWEEK would be more reputable. I’m surprised.

But I think people are curious about it.
It was a year ago. This is NEWSWEEK. It’s not the National Enquirer. I’d hate to have a job where I had to be rude to people.

We’re just having a conversation.
Change the subject! I’d never take a job where I had to do something that I didn’t want to do.

What about all those Ford commercials on “American Idol”?
That wasn’t a job.

It was part of your job.
It wasn’t a Ford commercial. It was a music video. It was a completely different thing.

I’ll change the subject. What do you do for fun?
I watch the news. I read news magazines, but I’m reconsidering that now.

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That was a kickass article. What do I do now?

5 responses so far ↓

Betts // Jan 11, 2008 at 10:05 pm

This was Newsweek ? It sounds like Old Gossip Magazine .

Good for Clay Aiken .
honor // Jan 12, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Clay is such a whiny baby. Grow up. Clay, this is real life. Deal with it.
KC // Jan 14, 2008 at 7:55 am

I found nothing rude or offensive in the interviewers questions. What I did find was a little boy who couldn’t handle simple questions with any common curtesy or class. Mr. Aiken was the one being rude and I’m quite embarrassed at ever having been a fan.
skye // Jan 14, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Good for Mr. Aiken. There is no such thing as integrity in journalism these days. All the media goes for is tabloid gossip. Mr. Aiken said he wasn’t going to answer but the interviewer persisted. He is the rude one.
This particular interviewer/writer used the same tactics with Kevin Spacey and Mr. Spacey called him on it as well.

BTW, performing on Broadway is not an indication of a person’s sexuality gay or straight. If that were the case, then Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Frenchie Davis, Usher and the list goes on must all be gay as well. Pretty soon there will be no straight people left on this planet.
Diane // Feb 18, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Who cares, maybe Newsweek should stop asking stupid questions like that. Those “scandals” are old. Kelly Ripa was bossy and arrogant towards Clay on the show, and the woman on the plane recognized him and wanted a scandal.

The interviewer knew he didn’t want to answer the first question so why ask three more stupid ones?

People would be responding differently if it was any other celeb being pestered in an article.