Clay Aiken: Fact or fiction?

Broadway.TV wrote a very nice article about Clay Aiken and pointed out that "‘Clay Aiken’ is a household name. And more often than not, negative press is the press that is printed. Be it fact or fiction." If you pay attention to the number of articles written, one of Clay's trips for UNICEF might get a couple of dozen press mentions but if he accidentally bumped into someone there would be hundreds of mentions all over the globe. Gossip bloggers would pick it up, add their own salacious spin to the story, and go on and on about that for months afterwards and, just in case you forgot, they would be sure to report the story again in their year end wrap ups. These same gossip magazines and bloggers have no qualms about reporting pure fiction as fact either.

With that in mind lets take a look back at 2008 and what is verifiable fact when it comes to what Clay has done this past year.

Starting with Januay, Clay organized the first annual "Golfing for Inclusion" tournament and dinner to benefit the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, held at the Mirasol Country Club in Palm Beach, FL. PGA Professional Wayne Player was there hosting along with Clay and gave lessons.

From there Clay hopped a plane to New York City to rehearse for his role as Sir Robin in Monty Python's Spamalot. He made his Broadway debut on January 18th. In addition to performing in 8 shows a week, Clay spent his days in the recording studio recording his new album. He also made time to help out with the fund raisers for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Clay ended his Spamalot run on May 4th and his album, On My Way Here was released on May 6th. After previewing the album on QVC and some NY appearances Clay headed out to LA for more album promo with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

June 1st Clay sang the song Sarah from the musical "The Civil War" during a gala for the Ford Theatre attended by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush. He was hounded by paparazzi because of a story TMZ posted claiming he was going to be a father but more on that later. This is one of the gossip items that was picked up by hundreds of media sites all over the world.

At the end of June, Clay left on another mission for UNICEF. This time to Somalia and Kenya. Sadly, only a handful of media sites bothered to report on this visit. The links to Clay's field notes for this trip were posted here.

On August 8th Clay announced on his official blog that Jaymes Foster had given birth to their son, Parker Foster Aiken and that both mom and baby were doing fine. Clay's announcement put an end to the speculation caused by the TMZ story that broke at the end of May. It also sent shockwaves all over but set the gossip sites to salivating for more negative press. You could imagine them sitting there rubbing their hands together with glee waiting to see how many of Clay's fans would desert him.

Clay returned to Broadway to reprise his role playing Sir Robin in Spamalot in September. He said that because of Parker he wanted to be in one spot rather than traveling all over the country in a tour bus. He wrote on his blog that he and Jaymes were trying to figure out the best way to introduce Parker and on September 26th they did. On the cover of People magazine, with the headline "Yes, I'm Gay". Besides the interview he did with People he also appeared on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer. He talked about Jaymes and Parker and although unconventional they are a family. The sad part is that so many, even recently CNN, insist on referring to Jaymes as a surrogate and ignore the fact that Clay and Jaymes are raising their child together.

Clay was back in Raleigh for a few days in October for his Champions for Change gala for the Bubel/Aiken Foundation. They reported raising $500,000.00. Then it was back to NYC and Spamalot with Jaymes and Parker. He was a guest at the Friar's Club Roast of Matt Lauer and took some ribbing there.

On November 26 he appeared with Rosie O'Donnell on her Rosie Live Special. Thanksgiving morning he visited The Early Show's Dave Price and Maggie Rodriguez during their coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS. He also did an interview with Jann Carl of Entertainment Tonight which they split into several segments and aired on several different dates.


Clay Aiken told People magazine in a December interview that the birth of his son Parker was the most important event of his year and his life. He joined with other UNICEF ambassadors for their 12 Days of Christmas blogs. Clay's blog posted on Christmas Day. He filmed a segment about his foundation with Geraldo Rivera for his show The Waiting List which aired on the FNC network. To top off the year, Clay's caricature was drawn and presented to him by the owner of Sardi's in New York City. It now hangs on the their wall.


Clay's last day in Spamalot is January 4th and then it's back home to North Carolina with Jaymes and Parker for some well deserved Daddy time.




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Clay Aiken, Bubel/Aiken Foundation, Wayne Player, Diane Sawyer, George Bush, Jann Carl, ET, Geraldo Rivera, The Waiting List, Spamalot, Sir Robin, Jaymes Foster