Clay's CD sales are still going strong at No. 1, woohoo! And now, as announced just a couple of days ago on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which featured Clay, Ruben and Justin Guarini ( the runner-up from the first American Idol ), Clay will be on the cover of the June 20th issue of Rolling Stone magazine!!!. The picture was shown on American TV as well, and people tell me Clay's wearing a black suit, and looks great. Rolling Stone photographers are famous for their original and glamourous shots of celebrities, so I'm calling my favourite bookstore to reserve a copy. Don't think any other American Idol finalist has received this honour before, so congratulations Clay!

And here's a review predicting huge success for Mr. Aiken from none other than Billboard. All right!

Also bumped into a lovely lady from the U.S., who managed to wrangle tickets to Oprah's show, and gave us a rundown of the experience, which was surreal, to say the least! During the commercial break, Clay went around giving hugs to fans in the audience! And this lady was one of the lucky recipients. :) And her exact words were, "Clay gives AWESOME hugs!" The reason she said that is because he gave her a big tight hug that lasted 6 seconds. Aaaaaawwwwww. :D
Anyway, there's a post on the Clay Aiken website here, though it's by another fan. Really funny. :)

The Oprah AI special was screened just 2 days ago, and Singapore cable tends to bring her shows over as soon as just 2 weeks later. Keep your eyes peeled for it, especially on Tuesdays. It comes on everyday at 1pm on Channel 18, with repeats the next day at 9am.

Caught the pilot episode of "Joe Millionaire" last night, and it is tacky beyond imagination. Commentaries are given by the butler (???), and Evan Marriott, who plays the supposed rich guy, is boring. Not to mention a little crazy to let himself be put in such a situation -- deceiving 20 women on international TV. But then, if he was smart, he wouldn't have agreed, though he did get half a million bucks for his efforts.
The only beauty in this show is in the form of the chateau, which is breath-taking and located in the French countryside. The women look ordinary, with some resembling trailer trash. But there's the Asian doctor, and a few pretty ones scattered around. Watch out for Heidi, the banker who's also a b***h. But ultimately, it's embarrassing to watch the women grovelling because they think Evan is worth $50 million, rather than because they sincerely love him for himself. It's a fascinating study of the dark side of human nature, if the guy doesn't put you to sleep first.

And of course, "The Bachelorette" debuts on local television tonight, with Trista the cheerleader being wooed by 25 hunky fellas, after being dumped by The Bachelor last year. ( Alex and Amanda broke up soon after, so Trista must be thanking her lucky stars. ) This will be interesting... Brings back memories of my junior college days, when my GP teacher said I'm "radical", after I said that if men can have more than one wife, women should be allowed to have more than one husband ( hopefully with the husbands supporting her :)). So I'm supporting Trista all the way here. Women doing the choosing and men sweating it out -- best idea anyone's had in a long while. :D