“I’m Ryan Seacrest and welcome to ‘Live from the Red Carpet’ here at the Academy Awards.”
So began Ryan Seacrest as E!’s broadcast began at 2 p.m. PST from the 90th Academy Awards red carpet, flashing his signature white-tooth smile and looking dapper in a navy and black tuxedo from his Ryan Seacrest Distinction men’s collection.
As he and co-host Giuliana Rancic traded greetings and fashion chat, they looked eager to ignore the sexual harassment scandal that’s been swirling around Seacrest and that’s taken on heightened urgency in this #MeToo era and especially in the past week.
But that meant their show had to sacrifice a lot of the usual star power, The Blast said. While Seacrest wasn’t entirely snubbed, the usual “red carpet king” and go-to person for any A-lister at the Oscars, “proved more toxic than gluten to celebrities who mostly bypassed their usual go-to in favor of other outlets,” the entertainment site said.
It certainly looked like people had worked behind the scenes, as had been reported, to make sure that Seacrest wasn’t in the uncomfortable position of interviewing any of the prominent female stars involved in the #MeToo and Time’s Up efforts to fight sexual harassment in Hollywood.
The selection of actresses who came his way were clearly friendly to him professionally or otherwise. About an hour into his show, Seacrest’s “Live with Kelly and Ryan” co-host Kelly Ripa stopped by his post outside the Dolby Theatre to tell him he looks great and is “doing a great job.” Ripa had issued a defense of her embattled ABC co-host last week when she took a few minutes during their show to tell him much she “adores” working with him.
Other female celebrities who chatted with Seacrest included Best Supporting Actress nominees Allison Janney and Mary J. Blige, as well as Taraji P. Henson, Tiffany Haddish and fellow ABC star Whoopi Goldberg.
These women all said it was great to see Seacrest. Haddish said, “I’m so proud of you.” Henson seemed to say much more when she said to Seacrest, either in support or not: “The universe has a way of taking care of good people — do you know what I mean?”
The Blast contended that Seacrest mostly nabbed interviews with men, while many of the other big-name celebrities, both female and male, flocked to ABC’s pre-show.
For example, ABC’s show notably enjoyed a moment with Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, two of the women whose sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein helped sparked the #MeToo movement.
.@MiraSorvino on #MeToo: "I want people to know that this movement isn’t stopping." #Oscars90 https://t.co/4WBryCvrQO pic.twitter.com/ptkQsWTWaR
— On The Red Carpet (@OnTheRedCarpet) March 5, 2018
Judd and Sorvino are among the Weinstein accusers who were presenting at the show. Instead of having Seacrest talk to them on the red carpet, the network cut to a photo of the two and left it to Rancic to discuss the role they have played in the Time’s Up movement.
Indeed, over the course of three hours, Rancic and a panel of experts in fashion and celebrity, stationed at a nearby hotel, offered much of the E! show commentary, while Seacrest seemed sidelined — even though he was positioned in the broadcast’s prime spot.
The scandal involving Seacrest took on a renewed focus this past week because his red carpet duties. The allegations against Weinstein, one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, roiled Hollywood and made it impossible to avoid the subject of sexual misconduct at events this awards season.
Tarana Burke, the creator of the #MeToo movement, told Variety in an article posted on Sunday that the network should not have allowed Seacrest to host Sunday’s show. She said actresses should not have been put in a position that requires them to agree to talk to him or to avoid an interview. “We shouldn’t have to make those choices of, ‘Do we or don’t we?.” she told Variety.
Page Six reported last week that publicists were privately saying that they would steer many of their stars away from talking to him. Other sources told Page Six that the E! producers were figuring out how to pre-arrange his interviews so that he would only be talking to friendly stars who won’t surprise him with any “uncomfortable comments.”
Earlier Sunday, both the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline reported that NBCUniversal, E!’s parent company, had decided to institute a delay of up to 30 seconds, though neither NBCUniversal or E! would confirm that move, the Hollywood Reporter said.
“The plan being considered is to mainly ensure plenty of time to either cut to Giuliana or to pull the plug altogether unnoticed if an on-camera encounter with Ryan goes into tricky territory,” an insider told Deadline. Another executive with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Deadline that the longer than usual delay is one of several “defensive scenario” that E! had considered.
Last Monday, Variety published an interview with Suzie Hardy, a former stylist for Seacrest at E!, who accused him of subjecting her to repeated unwanted sexual touching and propositions while working for him from 2006–13.
Seacrest has repeatedly denied her allegations. E! double-downed this week on its defense of its popular host, who also executive produces “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and co-hosts “Live With Kelly and Ryan” and will host “American Idol” when it returns on ABC this month.
On Wednesday, Jennifer Lawrence, who is presenting Sunday, told Howard Stern that she wasn’t sure whether she would put herself in the position of being one of those celebrities interviewed by Seacrest, according to Vulture. In the interview, the 27-year-old star of “The Red Sparrow” admitted that she was conflicted about talking to Seacrest.
“I don’t know about the Ryan Seacrest thing,” she told Stern. “I think it is scary. He has not been to trial for anything. I am not a judge. I am not a jury. I don’t know … that is where this stuff gets tricky.”
Burke similarly said, “This is not about his guilt or innocence. It’s about there being an accusation that’s alive, and until they sort it out, it’s really on E! News and shouldn’t be on us. … It will let us know where they stand in terms of how respectful E! News is of this issue – and of women.”
Given the controversy surrounding Seacrest, the Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon wrote last week that E! should have immediately cut its losses and asked Seacrest to stay away from the red carpet.
Fallon said there is the practical P.R. reason for doing so. More importantly, he said that having Seacrest on the red carpet at this point in a national reckoning over sexual misconduct is highly insensitive, disrespectful and “tone-deaf.”
