The first clue in the sentence is "contradictory," and this is used in reference to the relationship between demeanor (of the artist) and reception (by the media). Thus, you can conclude an artist with an unpleasant demeanor is paradoxically well received by the media. Since the word "least" comes before the blank, you can predict pleasant or cooperative. Choice (C), cordial, matches. Even if you didn't know what cordial meant, you could still eliminate choices (A), (B), and (E) based on word charge. They all have a negative or neutral charge and the correct answer is a positive word. By narrowing your choices in this way you can guess strategically.