As Ryan Seacrest’s former stylist for “E! News” provides detailed allegations of sexual harassment by the TV personality, Variety reports that ABC and E! are standing by Seacrest.
Seacrest has been at work on “Live with Kelly & Ryan,” the ABC daytime show he co-hosts with Kelly Ripa, and will soon begin appearing on ABC’s revival of “American Idol.”
“Seacrest is being paid $12 million a year for his work on ‘Idol’ — having closed the deal with the FremantleMedia-produced competition within weeks of starting his daytime-talker duties — and $15 million per year for ‘Live,'” Variety reports. “A source close to both programs told Variety that Seacrest would appear as planned on New York-based ‘Live’ on Feb. 27 and would be in Los Angeles the following weekend to film ‘Idol.’”
The report notes that Seacrest also maintains a relationship with E!, where he produces “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
“Although he no longer works on the daily ‘E! News’ telecast, he still hosts event coverage for the cable channel,” Variety reports. “Asked via email whether Seacrest will, as planned … serve as host for the channel’s red-carpet pre-show for the Academy Awards, an E! spokesperson wrote, ‘Of course he is.’”
Suzie Hardy, Seacrest’s former stylist, made detailed allegations against Seacrest in a report published Monday by Variety.
“Hardy claimed that Seacrest groped her vagina, rubbed his erect penis against her while clad only in his underwear and slapped her buttock so hard that it left a large welt still visible hours later,” Variety notes in today’s follow-up report.
You can read Variety’s report detailing Hardy’s allegations by clicking here.
Interesting response from the networks and lack of response from the media. I wonder why they are standing by Seacrest, without investigating the allegations. Does it have anything with his “star power” or his contacts or his political contacts or whatever? I have no clue. It’s just that when other people have been accused of sexual harassment, the immediate response in the media seems to be, “guilty until proven innocent”. It’s nice to finally see an, “innocent until proven guilty” response.