So close, yet no cigar.
Ryan Seacrest greeted us in his dressing room backstage at American Idol this morning and guided us right up to the door of his dually designated bathroom, but that is where he had to leave us as day two of this season's Hollywood round got underway.
"There's a skinny Englishman ready to put a suit on me, or at least jeans and shirt," he said on his way into the generically tiled room (we could see stalls!).
He popped out again to say that, in addition to both an M and a W marking the entrance, the bathroom has "two showers and two toilets, by the way. Yeah, this is definitely the main dressing room..."
He was clad in said suit by 8:40 a.m. and headed for the stage—another place we weren't allowed to follow him to—to hear more results from the day's auditions.
"You're not allowed to go through that threshold," Ryan says. "I wish you could. You'll have to watch, soon."
As for new judge Ellen DeGeneres, who said on her talk show that she had a great first day, Ryan told us that it's "good to have some humor on the panel."
(Originally published Jan. 13, 2009, at 5:35 p.m. PT)
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We wouldn't mind taking a tour of the Idol dressing rooms with all of this season's guest judges, too!