FanHouse ErinAndrews

Michael David Barrett, the man arrested for allegedly altering a peephole to film a naked Erin Andrews, is being portrayed by his friends as a "normal guy" despite allegations that he persistently stalked Andrews for some time.

On Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that "authorities allege Barrett called 14 hotels in Milwaukee in July 2008 to determine where Andrews was staying while she covered a Major League Baseball game."

Marshall Grossman, Andrews' lawyer, filed a complaint last Friday criticizing a Nashville Marriott for granting Barrett's request for a room right next to Andrews in September 2008. It was at that hotel that Barrett allegedly "used a cellphone camera to record Andrews after removing the door's peephole and altering it with a hacksaw."

Michael David Barrett, the man accused of illegally taping a naked Erin Andrews through a hotel peephole, was arrested Friday and charged with interstate stalking.

My Twitter followers had plenty to say this week about a couple of media figures who found themselves under intense scrutiny for very different reasons: Orange County Register writer Mark Whicker, whose column detailing the sports events that kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard missed during her captivity was derided as the worst sports column ever, and ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews, who was the victim of a stalker who posted nude images of her online.

Your questions and comments, and my responses, on these two issues are below.

As it turns out, ESPN and Erin Andrews were very, very serious about the security surrounding the "sideline princess" at last Thursday's NC State-South Carolina game. How do we know? Well, that's because her bodyguard (one dude primed to guard her) was trained by the Secret Service. Oy. Vey.

Of course, you may actually remember hearing something like this from FanHouse's David Whitley who was on assignment for the official AOL Erin Andrews Watch (trademark pending!) in Raleigh last week. Whitley was able to get close enough to Andrews to notice a "Secret Service-looking guy" shadowing her.

Obviously folks have noticed that the "mainstream media" (as always, an outdated term, but necessary for this purpose) is showing the Erin Andrews peephole video. CBS did it a few days ago -- which we discussed with Newsday's Neil Best today -- in poor fashion. And then last night, Bill O'Reilly, conservative independent gentleman of leisure, decided to air the tape on his show so he could talk about people using the video to spread a computer virus. Of course he did.

The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

It's been a busy few weeks in the sports media. First, news broke that ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews had been illegally videotaped in her hotel room.

And then on Monday night, we learned that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Las Vegas hotel room last July. The World Wide Leader decided not to report the news because, as ESPN Mac Nwulu told FanHouse's Michael David Smith, " ... [N]o criminal complaint has been filed. As far as we know, this is a civil lawsuit that Roethlisberger has yet to address publicly."

So we fired up the HausCast machine to talk to Newsday's Neil Best who, according to his blog, "leaves no stone unturned as he brings you news and commentary on the world of sports media." Podcast after the jump.

ESPN has confirmed that sideline reporter Erin Andrews was the victim of an egregious invasion of privacy, in which someone videotaped an undressed EA in her hotel room through a peephole and posted the results to the Internet. Marshall B. Grossman, a high-powered lawyer representing Andrews, put out a release late Friday promising a push to bring criminal and civil charges to the unknown videographer as well as "anyone who has published the material."

ESPN released a brief statement Saturday vowing the network's support of Andrews as she deals with the situation.

The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

In Episode 26, Hot Clicks' Jimmy Traina joins Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson to talk about Erin Andrews. Because, well, she's fun to talk about. In addition to the news that she wants to appear on Dancing With the Stars, we also get the lowdown on what that big shiny rock on her left ring finger signified.

Oh, and we also talked sports -- Jimmy's a huge Yankees fan -- before Will inevitably turned the conversation to Twitter. Listen after the jump.

She's the sports world's sports girl, and she may be coming at you from a completely different perspective if Erin Andrews can somehow get her way. Andrews, the darling sideline reporter for ESPN, admitted that she is interesting in appearing on "Dancing With the Stars."

I think we all can agree she's cuter than Kenny Mayne.

Dan Steinberg over at The Sporting Blog caught with Andrews and got some great stuff from the 31-year-old, including her admission to wanting a seat on DWTS in the future.

Erin Andrews. Google her name and you'll get about 771,000 results, many of which are blogs that obsess over the ESPN sportscaster's every word. But meet her in person and you'll find a woman who may seem like you or I, stunning good looks aside. She loves sports, remembers old Nintendo games, and yes, does get her feelings hurt from time to time.

FanHouse recently had a chance to chat with the most popular female sports reporter at the NCAA Football 10 premiere party to find out what drives her, what gets under her skin, and whether she'd drop her career to be a backup dancer for Britney Spears. Our full interview with Andrews is below.