by Jesse Stirling
Ashlan Gorse hosts “E! News Now” with Ryan Seacrest. A fixture on the red carpet, she has become our go-to girl for celebrity interviews and Hollywood events. Adorable, relatable, in great shape and with a classic fashion sense, this statuesque Southern Belle discusses beauty, fame and the perils of dealing with teenage divas.
CAREER START: I grew up in North Carolina. My dad worked for a cell phone company, my mom is a real estate agent. I studied journalism in college. I didn’t want to cover “hard” news. That sounded like hell to me. I wanted to be an entertainment reporter. So I began to work my way up from the bottom. I was an intern at NBC, then went on to CNN and Fox News.
HER DREAMS: I am living out my dream. I wanted to work at E! since middle school. I was watching “Wild On” with Brooke Burke, and I remember telling my parents, “That’s what I want to do, mom and dad!” And they were like, “Um, okay, sure.” (Laughter). I’m just so lucky to be able to do it.
LOVE LIFE: It’s good. Well… I am so busy at work, especially now that our show is an hour long, I’m always running around like a crazy person. So I can’t say that my love life is taking a front seat. I recently adopted a Siberian Husky named Aurora. I love her so much, more than I could love any boy at this point.
E! NEWS NOW: It’s such a fun show. Compared to the other entertainment shows out there, we’re definitely the youngest and coolest. Viewers from 13-40 can relate to the material.
CO-HOSTING WITH RYAN SEACREST: I love Ryan. Any day that I feel tired, or have to get up early for a shoot and complain in front of him, he looks at me and says, “Oh really? What time did you get up today?” The man is at work at 4:30 a.m. every morning. He full-on has three jobs. Ryan is an extremely impressive person.
FAVORITE PART OF HER JOB: I get to meet all different kinds of personalities every day. On a set visit you’ll meet four or five actors, each one so unique.
HER INTERVIEW STYLE: I never want my guest to feel threatened. Sometimes, there’s a serious issue, something so big that it wouldn’t be true journalism if you didn’t ask the tough question. But there’s a nice way to ask it and a jerk way to ask it.
FAVORITE INTERVIEW: I just interviewed Cher. And I didn’t know what to expect from her. But she’s (bleeping) amazing. She’s in her mid-60’s, and she’s wearing this low-cut mini dress, with her
boobs pushed up. She wasn’t a diva at all, she was totally chill, cursing during the interview, high fiving me. She was such a normal person— but she’s Cher!
MOST NERVE WRACKING INTERVIEW: I never really get nervous. But… One of my first interviews ever was with Meryl Streep. I went in, and did my thing, and at the end of the interview she patted me on my hand and said, “That was a really good interview,” and I said, “Thanks.” When I walked out the door,
this wave of nausea came over me and I was like, “Oh my God, I just interviewed Meryl Streep.” That’s when the magnitude of Meryl Streep kicked in.
WORST INTERVIEW: (Very long pause.) Okay, I’ll say it, because I don’t care. Demi Lovato made me wait four hours for her, on a set visit up in Canada in the middle of the night. As soon as the sun sets in Canada, it gets freakin’ cold. And we weren’t dressed to be outside. A quick visit turned into a freezing all-nighter.
PROUDEST CAREER MOMENT: I recently interviewed Taylor Swift. She walks through the door, runs up to me, gives me the biggest hug, and says, “I just watched you ten minutes ago, because I TiVo your show and watch you every day and I love you!” She told me I was her favorite and that was the cutest thing ever.
24 HOURS IN L.A. WHAT IS THE MUST-DO THING? Paradise Cove in Malibu. Love that place. I’m such a lazy person, I just want to lay out on the beach all day.
THE CALIFORNIA LIFESTYLE: I drive a convertible car and have the top down all the time. It’s so nice. The weather is always beautiful. You feel like a slob if you’re not outdoors on a pretty day.
FAVORITE TRAVEL SPOT: Last year E! sent me to Bora Bora. Amazing.
ON FASHION: I was born in the wrong decade. I think I was supposed to be a pin-up girl. My style is classy, with a little bit of sex appeal. Some people go too sexy and then you just end up looking trampy. Not good.
ON FITNESS: You have to go to the gym, but I hate it. For me, I live in West Hollywood where you can walk to a bunch of different places; walk to your errands, walk to the grocery store, walk to the dry cleaners. That’s kind of my thing. Just get outside. The fresh air is healthy.
ON BEAUTY: What people need to remember is that we’re all not supposed to look the same. I see these women, and they all have the same lips, the same nose, and the same Botox and they all start looking exactly the same. God gave you what ya got, so work with that and make it the best that it can be.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORLD OF CELEBRITY: Twitter is the bomb. It’s so fast and easy and simple and in-your-face. When people read tweets from Brittney Spears or Demi Moore or President Obama, they feel like they have an immediate connection with them.
LAST WORDS OF ADVICE: If something is truly your dream – 
and you’re not going to be able to live if you don’t achieve it – then never give up.
