Living With puma: Family Share Home With Pet pantera
Neratinib is suffering greater "approvability risk" after Puma Biotechnology (PBYI) said Wednesday it had to add a second anti-diarrheal to the breast cancer regimen, prodding shares to a three-week low Thursday.
RBC analyst Simos Simeonidissees regulators questioning neratinib"s toxicity profile. Neratinib is used to treatHER2-positive early- and late-stage breast cancer. Diarrhea is a common side effect. In a prior phase 3 trial, 95.4% of patients experienced some form of diarrhea.
On Wednesday, Puma unveiled the results of a phase 2 trial aiming to cut down on neratinib-related diarrheaby combining with anti-diarrheal drugsloperamide and budesonide. Of the 40 patients on the combo, 15% experienced grade 3 diarrhea or above.
That compares with 25%-29% of 135 loperamide-alone patients who suffered grade 3 or above diarrhea.The median number of episodes was one with a median of three days" duration. In combination patients, the median number of days was 2.5 for one episode.
Simeonidisnotes the loperamide-alone data was much worse vs. Puma"s year-earlier presentation at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Then, 16% of patients suffered neratinib-related diarrhea while also taking loperamide.
"A comparison of the graphs from last year"s SABCS distribution of grade 1-4 diarrhea shows that grade 3 only occurred in the first month," he wrote in a report. "However, this year"s presentation shows that grade 3 events occur during the first four months of treatment."
IBD"S TAKE: Drug and biotech stocks tumbled Wednesday on President-elect Donald Trump"s pledge to curb spiraling drug prices. Get the full look on IBD"s Industry Themes.
Still, Simeonidis believes neratinib should garner U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency approvals. Though he wonders whether regulators might hesitate on the drug"s toxicity.
"The recent second negative regulatory surprise for investors increases the approvability risk for neratinib in the form of, "What else could come up that we assumed we were OKwith?"" he wrote.
Credit Suisse analyst Kennen MacKay was more bullish on neratinib and called the results "encouraging." No patient discontinued neratinib use in the most recent trial as a result of diarrhea.
Neratinib alone increased progression-free survival (PFS) by three months with an objective response rate (ORR) of 33%. In combination with chemotherapyfulvestrant, PFS increased by 3.7 months and ORR hit 58%.
Simeonidiskept his sector perform rating on puma stock. mackay has an outperform rating and 111 price target on Puma stock. In early trading on the stock market today, Puma stock slipped as much as 9.4%, touching a three-week low. Midday, it was down 8%, near 36.50.
Here is proof that Lane Kiffin is a great coach | THE HERD Houston closing in on Lane Kiffin as next coach
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Here"s a look at the latest head coach hirings and vacancies in college football. USA TODAY Sports
Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin will be the next coach at Houston.(Photo: Tim Heitman, USA TODAY Sports)
Houston is closing in on a decision to make Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin its next football coach, pending a Thursday meeting at which school President Renu Khator will have to give the final OK, two people with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports. Those people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the school had not yet announced the move.
Kiffin would replace Tom Herman, who left for Texas after two seasons.
Houston has not officially offered the job and can"t until the president signs off on it. Major booster Tilman Fertitta told a Houston radio station Thursday morning that no decision has been made.
Though its possible Houston could backtrack, Kiffin has been operating as if he will become the next Houston coach as of Wednesday night.
As of Wednesday, Houston had eliminated Les Miles as a candidate and was deliberating between Kffin and its internal candidates, most prominentlydefensive coordinator Todd Orlando.Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley had been a candidate but pulled out Wednesday.
South Florida"s opening accelerated the process as Kiffin"s representatives were trying to leverage interest in that job as Houston had dragged its feet this week.
kiffin, 41, was USCs coach for three-plus seasons and at Tennessee for one prior to that. His career record is 35-21. He was fired from USC five games into the 2013 season but landed at Alabama in 2014 to begin to rebuild his reputation.
A brilliant offensive mind, Kiffin has been crucial in Alabamas transformation to a more varied up-tempo attack and it was only a matter of time before he got another chance as a head coach despite questions about why it ended so badly with the Trojans.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. Before making the blockbuster Aroldis Chapman trade with the New York Yankees, the Cubs checked in with the Kansas City Royals about Wade Davis and found the asking price to be Kyle Schwarber.
The psychology and the supply-and-demand dynamics are different in July. Schwarber had been damaged goods, still recovering from major knee surgery and months away from his dramatic return in the World Series. Davis also could have impacted two pennants races for his new team instead of one.By the time a $10 billion industry reconvened this week outside Washington, D.C., for the winter meetings, the small-market Royals could compromise with Jorge Soler, betting on his long-term upside and facing the reality that their World Series closer could have been part of a mass exodus of free agents after the 2017 season.
The Cubs also checked into the g*****d National Resort & Convention Center knowing that Soler is a diminishing asset for a loaded team at a time when his best attribute right-handed power could be found on the free-agent market in sluggers like Edwin Encarnacion and Mark Trumbo. I think theres some great baseball ahead for him, team president Theo Epstein said Wednesday night after the Cubs finalized the Soler-for-Davis trade. I think its more likely that he reaches his ceiling now than it was 24 hours ago, because hes got a chance to play every day.
Soler became a top priority within the first weeks of the Epstein administration as Cubs officials scouted the Cuban defector in the Dominican Republic before Thanksgiving 2011, picturing him as a building block for future playoff teams at a renovated Wrigley Field.
Even chairman Tom Ricketts met with Solers camp during a trip to the Dominican Republic before the Cubs won the bidding war and the prospect signed a nine-year, $30 million major-league contract in the summer of 2012.
Years later, manager Joe Maddon would describe Soler as Vladimir Guerrero with plate discipline, the kind of talent who would be drafted No. 1 overall if he had been born in South Florida.
Soler showed flashes of superstar potential. He absolutely crushed the St. Louis Cardinals during the 2015 playoffs (2.341 OPS) and will get a well-deserved World Series ring. But he didnt look like a complete player or an athlete the Cubs could count on to stay healthy, profiling more like a designated hitter in the American League.
When George was playing sporadically, he became a little bit more of an all-or-nothing power threat, Epstein said, because its hard to get into a good rhythm and youre not seeing pitches as much. Youre not recognizing spin the same way.
When hes locked in, he can work really good at-bats. And hes a hitter not just a power hitter. So I think its more likely now that his potential gets unleashed at some point. Were rooting for him.
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Maybe Soler who still hasnt turned 25 yet can avoid some of the leg injuries as a part-time DH and put it all together in Kansas City as the Royals try to balance the present, the future and their financial realities. But the Cubs are a win-now team that believes Davis could get them the final out of the 2017 World Series.
An October legend (Schwarber) and a $184 million Gold Glove defender (Jason Heyward) would keep blocking Soler at the corner spots in Wrigley Field, where a National League MVP (Kris Bryant) and a World Series MVP (Ben Zobrist) can move away from the infield. Javier Baez is another versatile, well-rounded player who would continue to marginalize Soler.
It became tough for us, Epstein said, with Schwarber looking like hes destined to play quite a bit of left field. Not ruling catching out as an option to some extent, but hes going to play a lot of left field.
And with Javys emergence and what that means for Zobrists possible role in the outfield as well at times it just became tougher and tougher to see George getting regular at-bats with us.
We felt like he needed to play and it would have been a tough fit.
It would have been even tougher to trade a spare outfielder during his fourth season in the big leagues. Stashing Soler who has 27 career homers in less than 700 big-league at-bats at Triple-A Iowa wouldnt have been the answer.
The Cubs saw this day coming. Schwarber wrecked his knee in early April and Soler injured his hamstring two months later and wound up missing two months.
He just couldnt quite stay healthy enough, Epstein said, and kind of slumped at the wrong time and started to get hot right before he got hurt.
That was kind of how we envisioned it: Hey, if theres an opportunity, this guy can take the job and run with it and then we have an even more valuable trade chip or weve got an everyday leftfielder/middle-of the-order bat. It just didnt quite come together.
But I think this trade despite that recouped a lot of his value. It made sense for him, for us and for the Royals.
Trump Picks EPA Critic Scott Pruitt to Head EPA Credit: Getty Images
Donald Trump has officially tapped Scott Pruitt Oklahoma Attorney General, a vocal EPA critic, and climate-change skeptic to lead the Environmental Protection Agency under his administration. With environmental activists already concerned about Trumps voiced resolution to dismantle Obamas climate change regulations via the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Accord, the new hire has most people, well, pretty worried.
Planetary Politics: What Trump Could do to the Environment
Pruitt already has a track record for taking EPA efforts to reduce global warming effects to court: In 2014, he waged a legal fight against Obamas Clean Air Act (which demands that power plants reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, a known cause for global warming). And since 2011, Pruitt also sued the EPA (unsuccessfully) for a variety of regulations ones that would not only help the planet but improve public health, too. These included laws that would control smog pollution across interstate lines, toxic mercury emissions from power plants, and haze in national parks.
So what does Pruitt care about? Pruitts alliance with big energy industry officials to aggressively block Obamas climate change agenda is his most clear environmental policy point.
MORE: What Bill Nye Wishes We All Would Do About Climate Change
Its no surprise, then, that Pruitt also questions human-caused climate change. He has written extensively that the climate debate is far from settled despite the vast majority of climate scientists telling us otherwise and his stance aligns well with that of Trumps. Environmentalists have already voiced concern: Rhea Suh, president of the National Resources Defense Council, tweeted that while the EPAs mission is to safeguard the planet, Pruitt seems destined for the environmental hall of shame. Of course, while his views on climate change are dangerous (science shows the phenomenon is very much real, we cant jump to conclusions about how exactly pruitt will run the epa. it"s safe to say, though, the organization will see significant change in its policies and focus from Obamas administration.
In 2010, General Kelly earned a painful distinction when his son, Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, was killed after stepping on a land mine while leading a platoon in Afghanistan. General Kelly became the highest-ranking military officer to lose a son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump, according to a person briefed on the decision, has not yet formally offered the job to General Kelly, who is out of the country. The president-elect plans to roll out the appointment next week, along with his remaining national security choices, including secretary of state.
Immigration advocates reacted to the news with measured approval, in large part because Mr. Trump did not choose Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, who is known for his extreme hard-line views on immigration and had been championed for the post by anti-immigration groups.
Frank Sharry, the executive director of Americas Voice, an immigration reform group, said General Kellys warnings about terrorist groups using smuggling rings were a little over the top. But he said they were understandable coming from a general.
Graphic
A list of possibilities and appointees for top posts in the new administration.
One positive thing is that he understands the problem of root causes of immigration, said Mr. Sharry, noting that General Kelly had spoken about the need to stem violence in Central American countries, a core cause of immigration toward the United States.
General Kelly would be the third retired general to get a senior position in Mr. Trumps cabinet, reflecting the president-elects comfort with military men in important national security posts. He has selected Gen. James N. Mattis as defense secretary and named Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn as national security adviser. He is also considering David H. Petraeus for secretary of state.
But it is General Kellys experience with nonmilitary issues at Southern Command that put him in line for the Homeland Security post.
Less focused on combat than other regional military commands, Southern Command has a reputation for emphasizing soft power over hard military might. It gets deeply involved in issues such as migration, organized crime and disaster relief, as well as programs to train local militaries.
A lot of the work we do with countries in our hemisphere focuses on transnational threats, like crime and drugs, said Jeremy B. Bash, a onetime chief of staff to a former defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, who worked closely with General Kelly at the Pentagon. It is an excellent preparation for someone whose job it is to protect the border.
General Kelly served as the senior military assistant to both Mr. Panetta and his predecessor, Robert M. Gates. He forged close ties to Jeh Johnson, who was then the Pentagons general counsel and later became secretary of Homeland Security.
Mr. Johnson, a person briefed on the matter said, considered General Kelly to take over the Secret Service after it fell into disarray amid a skein of scandals and security lapses.
On Wednesday, Mr. Panetta endorsed General Kelly, calling him an excellent choice and urging the Senate to confirm him. He has led our women and men in uniform and understands what it takes to keep our nation safe, Mr. Panetta said in a statement.
General Kelly, several former colleagues said, was revered in the Marine Corps for his loyalty, humility and honesty. On the issue of Guantnamo Bay, his reputation for candor and bluntness sometimes put him at odds with the White Houses preferred narrative.
In March 2013, when a mass hunger strike swept the detainees in the prison, General Kelly testified before Congress that the root cause of the unrest was mounting despair among prisoners that they would never go home because Mr. Obama, stymied in part by congressional transfer restrictions, appeared to have lost interest in closing it.
In talking to the hunger strikers, they had great optimism that Guantnamo would be closed, he testified. They were devastated when the president backed off at least their perception of closing the facility.
He also sought $200 million to rebuild prison facilities and housing for guards at the detention center, an awkward request when the president was saying it would be closed and during a time of budget cuts.
At a news conference at the Pentagon marking the end of his command, General kelly offered a characteristically frank assessment of what would happen if former detainees re-engaged with terrorism: If they go back to the fight, well probably kill them. So thats a good thing.
As Mr. Panettas military assistant, General Kelly worked to carry out the Obama administrations policy of allowing women into combat roles. But he later questioned the policy, saying the military would have to lower its physical standards to fulfill the requirement.
If we dont change standards, he told reporters, it will be very, very difficult to have any numbers any real numbers come into the infantry, or the Rangers or the SEALs, but thats their business.
As a wartime commander, General Kelly led troops in intense combat in western Iraq. In 2003, he became the first Marine colonel since 1951 to be promoted to brigadier general while in active combat. He has said little publicly about the death of his son in Afghanistan. But it may have played a role in his selection. Mr. Trump, people close to the transition said, wanted people on his national security team who understood personally the hazards of sending Americans into combat.
Choosing a bereaved father could also help heal the rift from Mr. Trumps clash in the summer with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Pakistani-American parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq war.
The Khans appeared on behalf of Hillary Clinton during the Democratic convention, and later came under sharp criticism from Mr. Trump.
COLGADOS DEL ARO T2 - ¿Larry Bird o Magic Johnson? El debate - Semana 10 #CdA46
The image echoes through basketball"s eternity -- confidence, accuracy and excellence all epitomized by a single finger aimed at the heavens. The multicolored ball hung in the middle of its arc, en route to its iron home, when Larry Bird looked away, still wearing his warm-up jacket, because not even that could slow down arguably the greatest shooter the game has ever known.
A heartbeat earlier, "Larry Legend" had hoisted his final shot in the 1988 3-point contest, an event he had won the previous two years, and he knew as soon as the ball departed from his fingertips that he had won it again. He raised his right index finger and walked toward midcourt, while the ball continued along its parabola before splashing through the net.
Before the event, Bird asked his competitors which one of them was finishing second. Then, without breaking a sweat, he collected a $12,500 check and his trophy. bird led the nba in made 3-pointers in 1985-86 and 1986-87, ranked in the top five in three other seasons and spent seven seasons ranked among the league"s 10 best for 3-point field goal percentage. He led the NBA in free throw percentage four times. He scored 21,791 points (37th all time), was a 12-time All-Star, and won three NBA titles and three consecutive NBA MVPs. But that, of course, was then.
On Wednesday, the Boston Celtics icon and president of the Indiana Pacers turns 60. Bird spoke recently with ESPN about the nuances of his shooting technique, why he never tired in games, the relief he felt when he retired, the challenge of guiding a new generation of players and more.
Baxter Holmes: I heard a legend that you"re still tough to beat in shooting contests, even as recently as this summer, and that even Paul George still couldn"t beat you?
Larry Bird: Not anymore. G*d, it had to be five or six years ago. We were on the West Coast. Last time I can remember [shooting] was at the Clippers facility. They just handed me a ball and I started making them. ... That"s about the only time. Maybe when [George] was a rookie, maybe. I haven"t really shot any for about five years.
BH: Miss the game at all?
LB: It"s funny. When I retired, I thought I"d really miss it. But I really feel like there was a weight lifted off my shoulders. I couldn"t believe it. When I got done with that press conference, I walked out of there and I go, "Well, now I"m just a normal citizen. My career is over and it feels good." But when I was coaching, I played against the young guys a little bit -- three-on-three, four-on-four. And I practiced with the Celtics one year, the year after -- well, when I got done, the next year, I had a back fusion. It took me about a year to get over that. But the next year, I played a little bit with them guys at practice. But I never really had any desire to get out there and work out for an hour and shoot a basketball.
I don"t know why. I think because I spent so much time doing it when I was playing and I worked out so hard in the summers that once it was over, you just move on. It"s time to move on. I do get excited when we play in the playoffs in a big game.
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BH: Yeah?
LB: Yeah, I say, "Boy, I wish I could get out there."
BH: So you can still feel those juices flowing from time to time?
LB: I can remember one year, we were playing Miami in Game 7 and we weren"t playing well and I went, "Man, I wish I could get out there and help Paul [George] and David [West] out a little bit."
BH: If you have given up shooting, it"s funny that the legends still kind of linger about you being out there, outshooting much younger players. There was one a while back that you were out there shooting and the Pacers came in and saw you and just stopped and stared and watched you make shot after shot until you left the court?
LB: The problem was, I wasn"t moving. I would walk back and forth a little bit. I wasn"t standing there stationary, but I was sort of [going] from elbow to elbow. You"re just talking 16-, 17-foot shots.
BH: Did you notice them watching you?
LB: No. I didn"t notice until I quit and somebody said, "Why are you quitting?" I said, "Well, why shoot if you"re making all of them?" [Laughs]
It"s the way I worked out, too. I go out in the summers and I"d do everything I had to do before I shot last. If I got out there and I was making everything, I"d go, "Why am I doing this?" So I"d shoot 500 free throws. But the next day, if I come in and I could tell the ball was going a little bit left on me, I could be there for hours, trying to get it back. It"s unbelievable. When I missed consistently, it was always to the right, inside the lip of the basket. That"s because the ball would roll off my crooked [right index] finger out here -- [motions to the right] instead of there [motions straight ahead]. When it started doing that, my hand was sort of going like that [shows a follow-through that fades to the right] instead of down. It took you forever [to fix it]. It could take me an hour to get it back. So when I went through slumps, when I would miss a shot, it would hit on the inside right and spin out or hit straight back. It never was long. It was always the same miss.
BH: With what you know, do you still work with guys on their shooting?
LB: Yeah, I told Paul [George] -- his shot is really looking better now because when he first came in the league, his hand was sort of going across [motions a follow-through that veers toward the right] like that on his shot. You could see it. And now he"s got that thing almost in a perfect position. We were talking and I said, "You finally got that ball where you needed to get it about three years ago." When he gets in shooting slumps, it"s the same thing. It"s like you"re spinning the ball like that -- well, it"s not quite like that. I"m exaggerating. But his hand will start going that way instead of up and through.
BH: I"m assuming when you give them guidance, you"ll just talk to them versus going out on the court and working with them?
LB: Right. I said [to Paul George], "I see that you finally got the ball in the right space." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, you"re starting to knock down shots because your hand"s in the right position when you"re following through. It"s not shooting off to the right." But I tell these guys -- I don"t have all the answers, but I do have a lot of experience. I"ve been around for 36 years in this league. That"s what happens when you get older. You watch all these practices and these games and you figure these guys out. But that"s all I got, is that experience. I always tell them, I don"t know if I"m right. Through my experiences, this is how it happened.
In an era where players his size rarely ventured outside the paint, Larry Bird averaged 38 percent from the 3-point line during his illustrious 13-year NBA career.Ron Hoskins/NBAE/Getty Images
BH: I read that Kevin Durant did some exercise to strengthen his wrist and it was somehow tied back to you?
LB: It"s interesting. When I was in the sixth grade, we had to go in before school and shoot free throws and lift a little bit. Not like they do. But they had a roller -- a wrist thing.
BH: Did it have a piece of string with a weight attached to it, and you"d roll it up?
LB: [Nods yes.] So my coach said, "You"re going to get your wrist stronger." He was the varsity coach. So I did that all the time. And I still think today that"s one of the reasons I was able to shoot the way I shot. That, to me, changed everything. I was in the sixth grade -- what, 10, 12 years old.
BH: And your shot was based heavily on the wrists?
LB: It was a slingshot ... but, more than anything, I [worked] on my wrists. I don"t know why. He was telling me, "Your wrists have got to get stronger." And I would tell kids, when they start, 8, 9, 10 years old, I would do wrist exercises because they could get the ball instead of down here [around the chest], they could get it up here [above the shoulders]. It"s interesting hearing that [Durant] did that, because to me, I always thought that was the key for me when I was young.
BH: He said it made his wrists strong as h**l, I believe.
LB: I guarantee you, I did it, and that made a big difference in my game. It was that and my left hand. I was always told you have to be able to dribble with both hands and use both hands normal.
BH: Did you do anything in particular to train your left hand?
LB: Just pound, pound, pound [the ball with my left hand]. That"s all I did. Plus the wrist exercises. I did the wrist exercises more than I lifted weights. I was sort of like Kevin. To h**l with the weights. I thought basketball would make me strong enough. But the wrist exercises were the key to everything I did.
BH: With as far as science and medicine has come, players today should be in the best shape ever. But some of the methods from the old days were by far better.
LB: The one thing I would"ve liked to have had was core strength. I remember [Robert] Parrish never touched the ball in the summer, but he did yoga. That"s a major part of it -- stretching and breathing. But me, I had to run my 3 miles to warm up. I had to ride my bike 12 miles. I had to sprint. I always felt that I had to do more, more, more. That"s why I broke down. That core strength, I think, would"ve taken care of most of that, other than the conditioning.
BH: You ran a long distance before every game?
LB: Not every game. It just depended. If we were on the road and it was nice out, I would run 2-3 miles just to get going, you know?
BH: I heard there were times in the afternoon when opposing teams would come into the arena for a walk-through and they"d hear footsteps on the concourse and it would be you, running.
LB: Yeah, I would run.
BH: I heard it put fear in them.
LB: [Laughs] I don"t know about that. I did do a lot of running. See, I"d never get tired during the game. I just never got tired.
"Well, why shoot if you"re making them all?" Bird said when asked why he had quit shooting for the day.d**k Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images
BH: Do you feel like if you hadn"t done all that running that you would"ve played longer?
LB: I had to do it.
BH: But do you think you would"ve lasted longer if you hadn"t?
LB: Probably. But I couldn"t [not do all that running]. I had that thing in my body that told me to get up and go -- that clock. When it"s time to run, you go run. That"s just the way I was. I remember my second year in the league, we were in the All-Star Game in New Jersey, and Artis Gilmore told me, "Man, you"re really a good player, Larry. You"re going to be great. But if you keep playing the way you"re playing, you"re not going to last long." I said, "I can"t play any other way. That"s the way I play."
BH: Did he mean how far you ran, or how hard you played?
LB: I think it was how hard I was playing. He never worked out. But I knew it. I knew I wasn"t going to last long. I knew I was breaking down. It was just the way it is. I had this desire to win every game and the only way I felt, in my mind, that I could do that was to be in the best condition.
BH: I talked to Pop [Gregg Popovich] about the art of trying to extend guys" careers and he told me one of the toughest things was making sure the player is on the same page and is looking at the big picture and not just that night"s game.
LB: One game. My thoughts were always that that night was the most important game in the world. Everybody in the world was watching that one game. And I had to be the best player on the court and win that game that night. That was my mentality, and it stuck with me all the way through my career. But knowing that, I knew that I was going to pay for it in a hard way. That"s probably why, when I retired, after the press conference, I probably felt relief.
King Cobra Movie CLIP - Neighbor (2016) - Garrett Clayton Movie
Playing Link Larkin on NBCsHairspray Live!isa full-circle moment for Garrett Clayton.
The 25-year-old actor known for roles on TVsThe Fosters, the indie filmKing Cobraand in theDisney ChannelsTeen Beach movie franchise first chose Larkins signature tune, It Takes Two, as his audition song while studying to get his B.F.A. in musical theater at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.
Since then, Claytons kept16- and 32-bar cuts of the 1950s-style doo-wop ballad in his audition cycle. (Its one of the songs that helped him book the firstTeen Beach film in 2013). And after seven years of crooning for casting agents, h**l finally get the chance to sing the tune live on Wednesday to an audience of thousands.
Its really exciting, he told PEOPLE, when reflecting on the experience in a phone conversation. I even went and bought [the soundtrack] as soon as it came out. I went online and said, I have to buy this because now I get to buy the cast album that Im on. I geeked out a little bit!
It makes sense,because Clayton is a theater kid at heart.
After years of playing sports like karate, boxing, football and soccer, the Michigan native did his first play at a summer camp when he was 13. He was hooked, and joined the drama club full time soon thereafter. There was one summer where I did three shows all at the same time includingYoure A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Clayton said. I really fell in love with it.
But at the beginning of high school, Clayton wasnt as confident in who he was.I was tryingto be someone for the first part of high school, he said.I was kind of this nerdy kid who didnt want to be a nerd anymore. Even talking about it, Im embarrassed. Im like, Ugh, why didyou care what people thought?
Francisco Roman/Disney Channel/Getty
Things changed when his friends circle turned on him. Partway through school, I had dated someonemyother friend liked andall the people who I thought were my friends ended up hating me. They wanted her to date my other friends. And because she dated me, they hated both of us.
When they split, Clayton realized the people in his life werent friends with the real him.
They were friends with this idea of the person I was tryingto be, he said. And when all of those things were happening, I realizedI dont care about what people think of me I just want to be happy. Ever since then, everything Ive done in life, Ive just been chasing happiness and trying to keep honest, good people in my life.
Trae Patton/NBC
Its not just a lesson Clayton learned in life its one Link Larkin learns inHairspray.
Its why I relate to Link, Clayton said. Theres all these idealistic things that TV and moviestell you that you should want to be. And when youre growing up, you find out what you really care about and what really matters.
Link learns that sometimes, the things you want in life arent in line with your heart but that your dreams can come true if you stand up for what you believe in, he added.
Maddie Baillio/NBC
What matters to Link isTracy Turnblad (newcomer MaddieBaillio) the energetic optimist as the center ofHairspray. Their love story is a pure one in many ways, with Link singing to her, Tracy Im in love with you no matter what you weigh!
Its a huge message, clayton said. we live in such a society where there are all these unrealistic expectations placed on women. Its a really good message to say Love yourselves and love the people around you for who they are not necessarily for what they look like.
We all fall in love with someone for the person they are not because of their race, their hair or any of the frivolous things that go away in time, he continued.
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As for love, Claytonsfound iton the set ofHairspray Live! among the cast made up ofAriana Grande, Dove Cameron, Ephraim Sykes, Harvey Fierstein, Kristin Chenowethand Baillio(to name a few). Clayton said hes hopeful hisHairspray stays in touch after their final bows.
We are all so obsessed with each other, Clayton gushes. From day one of rehearsals,everybody came in with really good intentions and wanting to give 110 percent.It doesnt feel like a Hollywood horror story its a really open, loving environment were people want to have fun and tell a good story.
I mean it when I say all of us are going to be sobbing when this show ends, he concluded. Weve created such a good family here and its goingtobe so sad to say goodbye.
Hairspray Live! airsWednesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
