Aubrey Cleland achieved “a first” in the 12 season run of “American Idol.” This year, the fans were able to save one contestant through a special AT&T vote so that they could tour with the top 10 finalists. Cleland will travel the country with her fellow “Idols” for 40 dates in the U.S., starting next month. She called in from her Oregon home to “The Ralphie Show” and talked about both the shows and the final three contestants.
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“Big Ang” will be appearing at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City Saturday night and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs on Sunday – both events hosted by yours truly.
INTERVIEW: ‘Idol’ Aubrey Cleland on Judges, Tour, Top 3
INTERVIEW: Ross Mathews Relives ‘Tonight Show’ and ‘Chelsea Lately’ Tales in New Book
Over 12 years ago, Ross Mathews was fetching coffee as a “Tonight Show” intern when he was approached with an opportunity that would prove to be the biggest break in his career: producers asked him to cover the red carpet for the premiere of “Oceans 11” when another comedian couldn’t make it. Despite his self-doubts, Mathews went in to the project with a plan.
“I’m self-aware. I know that when I open my mouth and start talking on this national television show, that the audience was gonna start laughing at me,” Mathews told me in studio on “The Ralphie Show.” “I decided… just make sure you get them laughing with you by the end.”
Jay Leno’s audience laughed as Mathews befriended some of the biggest names in Hollywood at star-studded events, and soon Mathews grew an audience of his own. He now is set to debut a new talk-show on E!, and is making the media rounds to promote his new book, “Man Up! Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence.” His success can be attributed to not just Leno’s confidence in him, but also that of comedian Chelsea Handler.
“Most comics are kind of insecure,” explained Mathews. “So I’ve been luck with not only Jay Leno of course, but now people are seeing with Chelsea like, everyone can win. That’s something she says all the time. There’s room for everybody. When she’s gone, she lets me guest host her show.”
But the entertainer said that while Handler has a sweet side, she ultimately isn’t that different from what her audience sees on TV nightly.
“She’s exactly the same,” he said. “She is biting, and hilarious.”
Handler recognized Mathews rising star by offering him both the opportunity to write this book and shoot a pilot for the aforementioned talk show. His program will debut this fall.
“’Man Up!’ I define as this: yunno you are what you are what you are, and you have to celebrate what makes you different,” he said. “I think you have to use what makes you different to stand out… because that’s when things really happen.”
Mathews cautions that while his tale is one of a small-town boy who grew up on a farm and is gay, the moral of the story doesn’t concern your sexual orientation. But, when you look back at where entertainment was 12 years ago when Mathews first entered our TV sets, it is almost unfathomable.
“This is before ‘Will and Grace,’ before ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,’” recalls Mathews. “I remember being a kid and not knowing what a happy, successful, grown-up, gay person looked like.”
Now, all someone has to do is look at Mathews to see how one fits that description.
INTERVIEW: ‘Mob Wives’ Star Big Ang Calls ‘The Ralphie Show’
Angela “Big Ang” Raiola called in to “The Ralphie Show” from Staten Island. The VH1 “Mob Wives” star talked about the drama on the show as well as her spin-off – “The Big Ang Show.” Of course, the interview with Ang was anything but ordinary – and you’d expect nothing less.
“Big Ang” will be appearing at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City Saturday night and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs on Sunday – both events hosted by yours truly.
INTERVIEW: Selena Gomez Talks Breakup… With Band
There is at least one breakup in Selena Gomez’s life that doesn’t involve any type of speculation, TMZ report, or deleted Instagram photo: the split with her band known as “The Scene.”
“I am solo for sure,” Gomez said of her performance, not relationship, status on “The Ralphie Show.” “I’ve had my band for so long and I love them so much. I think as musicians though, they want to go and do other things and they’ve been with me for a while.”
A new group of musicians will back Gomez on her upcoming tour; one of a few changes to her stage show.
“I wanted to get in to more performing than anything,” she elaborated. “I’ve tried to get better at dancing and getting more about the entertainment aspect of it, as opposed to more of just me and the band.”
Gomez’s “Stars Dance Tour 2013” kicks off August 14 in Canada. The trek will support her first solo album, due out this summer. The first single is “Come and Get It,” a catchy, mid-tempo song that sounds as if Rihanna could have sang it. Ester Dean, a frequent collaborator to RiRi, Katy Perry, and other pop stars, has a writing credit on the track.
“All artists inspire me, including her,” Gomez said of the Barbados-born singer. “That’s the best part of what I do. I get inspired by musicians that are older than me because I’m still kind of up-and-coming and figuring out what I want to do.”
Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato, two of Gomez’s friends, also inspire the artist, seemingly in more ways than one.
“I think what’s specific about those two individually is they represent the confidence of each things that they’ve gone through,” said Gomez, alluding to Swift’s relationships and Lovato’s stint in rehab. “I appreciate the fact that even as my friends, they’re able to share the things that they’ve gone through.”
So will Gomez take a cue from either on her next album? It doesn’t seem likely.
“It’s harder for me to do that because I tend to clam up about certain things, and I think it’s just because I’m a super private person,” Gomez explained. “But, there is a song on this record that was really personal to me.”
Trying to maintain her privacy in the spotlight is something the actress struggles with; Gomez admitted to me that she deals with anxiety over some of the headlines and hounding photographers.
“It’s never going to change,” she stated. “So even if I were to sit here right now and tell you guys everything that I’m going through, the media would twist it in some way, or they would make up a completely different story.”
Presumably, this is the reason why Gomez wouldn’t speak about Justin Bieber during our interview. The singer told me the coverage ultimately forced her to put “a guard up.”
PREVIEW: Selena Gomez Sits Down With ‘The Ralphie Show’
Selena Gomez paid a visit to 95.5 PLJ and “The Ralphie Show” last week. Chatting in “The Corner Office,” a newly utilized interview space in the PLJ office, Gomez talked in front of a small group of lucky listeners about everything from her new music and forthcoming tour to her partnership with Adidas and return to the “Late Show” later that evening.
Hear the full interview Monday April 29, 2013 on “The Ralphie Show.”
INTERVIEW: ‘Idol’ Finalist Janelle Arthur Stops By ‘The Ralphie Show’ After Elimination
“American Idol” Top 5 Finalist Janelle Evans stopped by “The Ralphie Show” during her media day in New York following Thursday’s elimination episode. Naturally, we found out that she was most nervous every week to sing in front of Keith Urban.
We didn’t find out much else when it came to the judges, specifically Nicki Minaj, and on who the country singer thinks will win it all.
INTERVIEW: Carly Rose Sonenclar To Headine NYC Show For First Time
Most 14 year-olds aren’t taking time off of school to do press surrounding their first headlining concert. Of course, Carly Rose Sonenclar isn’t your typical teenager. “The Westchester, NY-native and “X-Factor” runner-up will play the Best Buy Theater on August 10.
“On the way here I was driving by, and I drove past the Best Buy (Theater) and I was just kind of like… smiling,” the singer gushed in an interview with 95.5 PLJ’s “The Ralphie Show.” “I couldn’t even believe it.”
This is the first show that Sonenclar will be the top bill for. In between school finals and other ordinary teenage escapades, she’s planning out the show’s set list.
“We have some ideas,” Sonenclar revealed. “I’ve never worked on anything like this before. It’s really fun.”
The set-list will include covers she’s performed on both the TV show and her YouTube account. The artist thinks there might be room to perform one original song. Sonenclar is currently in “pre-production on her first solo album with Simon Cowell’s SYCO Music. After informing Carly Rose that her fans, aptly named “Carly’s Angels” aren’t too thrilled with that term, she explained exactly what it entails.
“Basically, it’s just the early stages,” Sonenclar responded, referring to the album creation process. “It’s going to require patience, and for me as well. I’m going continue to be putting covers out on YouTube and I have the show coming up, but like as far as the album goes, it might be a little bit longer.”
As surreal as it was for a 14 year-old to preach about patience, Sonenclar showed her maturity even more in explaining why she isn’t in a rush to release new material.
“I want to be an artist that’s here for the long-run, not someone who puts out an album tomorrow and then by the time the next run of ‘The X-Factor’ comes around people are forgetting about me,” she explained. “I’d rather, yunno, if it takes waiting a little bit longer so that in the end, I stay in the music business for longer, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
When we were first introduced to Carly Rose on national TV, judge L.A. Reid referred to her as, “an old soul.” Apparently that characterization extends beyond her vocal range.
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More info on the all ages show is available here. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
INTERVIEW: Heidi Klum Talks Judging Contestants, Moving Back to NYC
Singer Melanie Brown is best known as a member of the Spice Girls. Howie Mandel and Howard Stern both have backgrounds in comedy and acting. But the fourth judge on this upcoming season of “America’s Got Talent,” Heidi Klum, is mostly known as a host and model.
“Being in entertainment for 20 years, seeing a lot of things… I’ve been grooming models in Germany. I do Tyra’s (Banks) show (‘America’s Next Top Model’) in Germany,” Klum explained to me during a red carpet media event for the show in Rockefeller Plaza. “You have to be a little bit of an entertainer, an actress, when you’re a model. You can’t just stand there.”
Klum was married to a singer – Seal – for eight years, but also has a little bit of a performance background herself. Before coming to America, the “Project Runway” star danced professionally in Germany.
“When I came here, I found out that I wasn’t that good,” Klum joked. “In Germany I was good, here I was not good.”
While she has no problem taking a light-hearted jab at herself, she has found it difficult at times on set to turn contestants away.
“It’s hard to crush someone feelings, especially when we’re crunched on time,” she said. “I want to say more to send them away, and sometimes you have to be really quick, and then it hurts my feelings to hurt someone else’s feelings.”
Despite the acclimation period for Klum to judging a talent competition, she insists that she hasn’t asked for help or relied on the other judges. Once auditions are over, the judges will return to New York, a place that Klum knows all too well, having lived in the city for thirteen years as a model. But the judge was adamant that she won’t be able to hit up any of her favorite spots around town.
“I’m going to bed, because I’m doing this all again tomorrow,” said Klum of her work day, which can run from 5 am to 9 pm. “A girl needs her beauty rest.”
“America’s Got Talent” premieres June 4 on NBC.