Contact Music posts the following story which is essentially a re-write of a story that appeared on Celebrity Justice this weekend. However… what no one’s telling you is that this is a year and a half old story. Read first and we’ll comment afterwards.
Los Angeles- The bosses of AMERICAN IDOL have leapt to action, after learning of a gay porn version of the talent search show.
The video, AMERICAN PORN STAR, is a “talent contest” which features three judges, and a “competition” involving hardcore gay sex.
The show is hosted by JASON SECHREST, who uses expressions and mannerisms similar to original Idol host RYAN SEACREST.
Seacrest says, “I had to legally go after someone who was doing an ‘American Idol’ porn. And I was host of the porn! And the guy’s name was Seacrest, and he had blond spiky hair.
“The only difference was, instead of a microphone, he was holding something else.”
Attorney SCOTT ZOLKE, who represents the show and Seacrest, says, “American Idol’ has become an immensely popular television show. So the value of the American Idol look is something that we cannot allow to get tarnished.”
Even before he saw the video, US TV show CELEBRITY JUSTICE reports that Zolke fired off a cease and desist letter to the producers, before meeting with the opposing side’s attorney.
Zolke says that after the meeting, the producers of American Porn Star agreed to alter the movie to distance it from the original.
Gene sez: I spoke to Jason Sechrest about this story and he’s highly amused that it’s been getting the air play that it’s been getting. “For Celebrity Justice to think that this is anything worthy of a top story or breaking news is ridiculous,” says Sechrest. “The story was broken like a year and a half ago. This is totally an old thing. I think it resurfaced because during an interview with Will Smith on Ryan’s show this week it was brought up in some way. I don’t know how it was brought up. But, apparently, it became a topic of conversation and Ryan decided to discuss it openly. I think it’s probably the first time that Ryan himself has discussed it openly. I think while the lawsuit was going on- or had been filed before they dropped it- I don’t think Ryan was saying anything about it publicly at that time.”
Sechrest says all legal action had been dropped almost immediately. “Like within days it was dropped,” says Sechrest. “It was so ridiculous. The great thing is we kind of have to thank Fox for the lawsuit because it gave us such fantastic publicity at the GayVN Awards last week. The movie went home with the top selling title of the year award. The one that Jenna Jameson always wins. It was the biggest selling movie of the year and that probably has a lot to do with the controversy that was attached to it. It certainly got its fair share of publicity.”
Sechrest hosts the show. “I host it like I host my sex talk radio show,” he explains. “I didn’t do anything different. The only thing that I kind of thought would be cute to do, to sort of emulate him [Seacrest], would be to highlight my hair. I did the blond highlights. But my real name was used, Jason Sechrest. We do have the same last name spelled differently. And we have very similar expessions and deliveries.” Sechrest says part of the Fox lawsuit had to do with the similarities in last names.
“I don’t know how much Ryan had to do with that,” says Jason. “Although we have never met each other, we have mutual friends, and Ryan, according to them, had no problem with it whatsoever. It wasn’t him, obviously, who filed the lawsuit. It was Fox. And part of Fox’s lawsuit was claiming that we had taken their host’s last name and tried to use it when, in reality, it is my birth name. The funniest thing is that this is being considered a top news story.”