Clay on The Internet 12/17

Kelly Clarkson becomes Blender magazine's woman of the year.

Kelly Clarkson is Blender's 2005 Woman of the Year (Explicit Content)
Kelly Clarkson has just sunk her fourth girl-flavored peach-schnapps concoction of the night when AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" beckons from the club stereo. It's a come-hither that Clarkson can't resist: She's been sitting still for almost an hour now -- having just finished a sold-out set at the Theater at Madison Square Garden -- and "Shook" is her favorite song of all time, y'all! So she rises from her corner seat and makes the back wall of this midtown Manhattan club her imaginary grind partner, sliding the back of her gray cargo pants up and down with a mild salaciousness that, while perfectly TV-14, would probably make Clay Aiken even more red-faced than usual.

Article about two photographers who took Clay's July 2005 cover shots for TV Guide.

Making the scene
By KATHI SCRIZZI DRISCOLL
STAFF WRITER

Michael and James Bednark needed a large tree branch, and the storm had brought many down into area yards. They drove by one home and saw a family wrestling with a branch that was the ideal size and shape. The homeowners were glad to have the brothers haul it away.

The Bednarks have designed and built background sets for dozens of photos that have graced the pages, and sometimes the covers, of pretty much every issue of TV Guide this fall.

Employed individually and together, the New York roommates have worked on a long list of magazine photos, theatrical productions, TV shows, commercials, and student and feature films - sometimes involving celebrities such as Dennis Hopper, Patricia Arquette, Robin Williams, Zach Braff, Spike Lee and Clay Aiken.

The brothers acknowledge that few people even think about what it might take to set up certain photos and TV backdrops, but, James notes, ''we love what we do, and a lot of the older people realize how much work it takes.'' And some celebrities take notice, too: Singer Clay Aiken praised the brothers' work in his Web log after a TV Guide shoot, and Comedy Central star Steven Colbert told them their set of a miniature New York Harbor belonged in a museum.

AI2 Idol Julia DeMato arrested for DUI.

An Alex Too Far
DeMato in a parking lot
by Gary Carra

In other news, the careers of former American Idols Clay Aiken , Kelly Clarkson and now Carrie Underwood may be flying high, but apparently, the only thing soaring for 2003 contestant Julia DeMato of late has been her blood/alcohol level. According to the Danbury News-Times , the Connecticut-based songbird was arrested at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4 in the parking lot of Pancho and Gringo's Restaurant in Brookfield. Brookfield Police had reportedly witnessed DeMato pull into the parking lot an hour after that establishment had closed.