Ryan Conklin Visits Chet Cannon

A few days after Ryan Conklin returned home from visiting JD Ordonez in Miami, he was back on a plane, headed to see another Real World Brooklyn cast member, Chet Cannon. The purpose of the trip was to spend some time with Chet as well as go to the Sundance Film Festival, where Chet would be doing interviews for Young Hollywood.

Ryan left Pennsylvania on 1/17, but didn't get to Salt Lake City till the 18th, due to a flight schedule problem that forced him to spend the night in Phoenix. At SLC he was picked up by Chet, who had earlier traveled from his home in LA to meet Ryan when he got to Utah.

Chet was anxious to see Ryan again. Chet tweeted (coincidentally?) while Ryan was visiting JD, "Time to tell that special someone to ditch the zero and get with the hero."

Chet is an important person to Ryan. Like you would expect with a best friend, it appears that Chet is a person that Ryan feels totally comfortable being himself around. For most of the last year, Ryan was in the Army, where there's probably an expectation to maintain a certain butch attitude and to engage in the usual soldier banter. That would let Ryan still show his personality, but not his not-so-butch side that he can let be free around Chet.

Another reason that Chet is important to Ryan is that Ryan wants to pair with Chet on any entertainment business ventures. It's noteworthy that Ryan has shown that he can be successful as a solo talent, writing his own book and starring in his own MTV special. So it wasn't a given that Ryan would want be in a team professionally, as it's kind of unusual for someone after they made a name as a solo artist to reach back and rejoin the group he was in before. However, it's a preference of Ryan to work with others instead of by himself. That may come from his experience in the Army, where you're always working together with others.

That's good news for Chet. He's had some success with hosting and interview gigs, using the big glasses and bow tie shtick, but a partnership with Ryan should really boost his career. It's also probably the quickest and easiest way for Ryan to start another chapter in show business.

It feels unseemly to talk about, but it's been suggested so much by various people that Chet has romantic/sexual feelings for Ryan, and it has to be acknowledged that Chet's behavior has generally been consistent with such an assessment. Looking at Ryan's point of view, notwithstanding the freak-out from the kiss of the drag queen, Ryan had stated on RWB that it doesn't bother him when guys let him know that they think he is hot or even if a guy said he wanted to sleep with him. Accordingly, Ryan gives Chet a lot of leeway when Chet jokingly talks about his feelings or makes use of his hands. As a fail-safe, Ryan knows Chet has vowed to be celibate until marriage, so for that reason, he knows the sex talk is going to be just talk.