Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Carrie Underwood's Love Life... and other things you wonder about.

Update: Lots of Carrie quotes in this morning's Tennessean.

Well. Let me just say I've never seen that much media at a #1 party. Ever. And I've been to a bunch of them. It would be easier for me to tell you which country music media outlets weren't there: None of them.

Before the party Carrie did about 15 minutes with radio and print, and then did one-on-ones with tv. From my scribbled notes, some of the things she talked about:

- The current single "Wasted"
- Grammy's: 1st time going to the Grammy's, she's excited to be going and proud to represent country music in the all genre categories.
- Upcoming album
- Co-writing... she's got writing appointments, not sure where it's going to go. Brett James and Hillary Lindsey are a couple names she mentioned.
- Her size. I'm not sure what this was all about (maybe the CarrieFans can enlighten me?) but apparently it's been in print that she's lost a lot of weight. She was incredibly tiny. She said she's done nothing unhealthy, but didn't specifically say what she'd done. She said she was her heaviest on Idol at 125, and was now around 110, but that was over 2 years.
- The pressure of following up the success of her first album
- Her fans (my question!) She talked about how widespread her fan base was in terms of demographics, and credited it all to Idol.
- What it's like to read things about herself - she says 90% of what is in print isn't true.
- Her new website - she posts on the message boards and hopes that will cut down on the rumor mill.

And what y'all REALLY want to know about: her love life.

She is NOT dating the Dallas football player (and was a little irked that she got blamed for them loosing the game, LOL.) She hadn't even met him until Christmas Day, she's talked to him a couple of times, but didn't even sound like she knew him very well. She hasn't talked to him since he made the comment about dating her so she was not sure why he said that. She took it - as did I when I read it - as the guy deflecting the Jessica Simpson questions with a smart alek "Nah, I'm dating Carrie Underwood."

We've worked with Carrie probably 4-5 times prior to this, in one-on-one interviews, round robins like this, and backstage at award shows. She's always been a bit of an edit...she's an "umm"-er. At her Triple Platinum party she was a little overwhelmed at sitting down in front of about 10 microphones. However, the young lady sitting before us today was very poised and polished, not at all daunted with having 30+ media people sitting around her throwing questions at her. I don't recall a single "umm..." I don't know if she's gone through media training, or if she's just grown more comfortable in the spotlight, but I do believe our little girl is growing up nicely.

Sorry I forgot to take my camera. Ed Morris from CMT was there, I presume they'll have a story and photos up tomorrow.

On a completely unrelated side note... the food at this one was an odd combination. Fried chicken strips cut into bite size pieces... fresh strawberries...cookies... and... sushi. Don't ask me.

18 comments:

Monica said...

WOW.. great recap J!! I love reading your posts!! Miss you!

Anonymous said...

Camera... :(

Glad to hear that Carrie's doing so well. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting us in on the party and Carries comments, I think everyone over at Carriefans is excited to hear that Carrie is performing at the Grammys and we are all a little stuck on that. The picture of the invitation doesn't come up and alot of us couldn't see it. Can you repost it.
Thanks

Anonymous said...

Can you be more specific with the questions and answers? Do you have the entire interview would love to read it.

Anonymous said...

I want to first thank you from all Carrie fans for the "inside scoop" on the party. It is refreshing to hear how she has handled the media well and after say...tons of interviews, I'm sure she is a pro by now! :)

Great info on her upcoming single, album work and the overall atmosphere of the event.

Being from California, hey...I like the sushi! Carrie's bringing a little of California to Nashville!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the information."our little girl" is indeed growing up very nicely.
I agree sushi.Ewwwwwwww

Anonymous said...

Why do girls have to lie about their weight? 110lbs, riiiiight!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the recap. Us carriefans.com people truly appreciate it! :)

Producer J. said...

So nice to have y'all here! I don't have a transcription of the interview, I work in radio, but you should be seeing a bunch of quotes from her in the press over the next few days.

Are y'all sure she's performing on the Grammy's? Her publicist told us they weren't sure yet.

Now someone needs to link me to where I can get caught up on whatever the brew-ha-ha is about her weight. Please. :-)

Anonymous said...

thanks J.

i too was impressed with the way carrie handled the questions about the rumors, based on what ive read. she was pretty open about it instead of becoming defensive. looks like shes learned to manage these things instead of fighting them.

Anonymous said...

J-Here is a link to the recent press release about her performing at the Grammys: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070118005372&newsLang=en

It was just announced, so I'm sure her publicist wasn't able to give that info when asked.

I believe the weight talk may stem from the recent article in US weekly, where Carrie was featured on the cover. A lot of negative posts showed up on their website. Here is the link from carriefans.com showing the mag and some comments. http://www.carriefans.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60340&highlight=weight

Anonymous said...

And for the record-Carrie looks great. All the bru-ha-ha is just ridiculous. The girl lost this weight over the course of TWO years. Hardly a significant weight loss given the amount of time. Plus she played something like 110 tour dates--JUST THIS YEAR. It's no wonder she dropped a few pounds. She has been very forthcoming about the fact that she has just changed her eating habits a bit and that's it. Unfortunately the press always wants to make it into something more.

Anonymous said...

I think that since she's a vegetarian or vegan, it's possibly harder for her maintain her weight, with those additional pressures? Who knows.

Anonymous said...

Too many anonymous people...or are you one and the same person? Just click "Other" and put your username in (you don't need to put a password or web page to continue). :-)

Welcome to all the Carrie fans! Joyce is a gem and a font of information on country music who is always willing to share as much scoop as she can. :-)

I've liked Carrie since I first saw her during the audition process for AI (which lately feels like I'm watching a train wreck).

Paula

Anonymous said...

Enjoy reading your inside scoop! Great to know that "our little girl" is indeed getting use to being in the spotlight!:)

Sushi!! That's good! Just Ca. roll for me though;)lol!

Strawberry dip in chocolate I hope....:)TC

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I can't say enough how incredibly proud I am of Carrie. I have been a fan since day one and I beam with pride with how she has grown. She's really coming into her own!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing your story.

Anonymous said...

I hope Carrie can hold up in the pressure cooker.