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Mark interviews Roger Friedman from Showbiz 411. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: What's better than two hours of mark simone three the
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  Speaker 1: mark simone show now nine till noon weekdays 7 10
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  Speaker 1: w o r well with us now the great entertainment
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  Speaker 1: reporter roger friedman his website showbiz411. com has a lot of
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  Speaker 1: great stories new stuff every day check it out showbiz411. com
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  Speaker 1: roger friedman how you doing.
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  Speaker 2: So much going on this morning, I don't know where
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  Speaker 2: to begin. Hey, Sting turned 75 today. What?
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  Speaker 1: How could that be?
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  Speaker 2: I know. He looks like he's 55 or 50 or something.
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  Speaker 2: There's never been anyone in better shape. He's on the
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  Speaker 2: stage right this evening. He's been doing his Broadway show
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  Speaker 2: on tour for the last, I don't know, since February.
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  Speaker 2: And tomorrow night is the last night in London of
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  Speaker 2: the last ship. And it's been selling out all over
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  Speaker 2: the world. Amsterdam, Paris, London, New York. And then, like,
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  Speaker 2: after he finishes tomorrow night, like in another week or so,
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  Speaker 2: he picks up his rock tour, Sting 3.0, which comes
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  Speaker 2: to the Brooklyn Paramount Theater. You love the Brooklyn Paramount Theater,
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  Speaker 2: don't you?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my favorite. The what?
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  Speaker 2: I went there once with Cousin Brucie. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's a great theater. They were, you know, they completely,
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  Speaker 2: it was the famous rock and roll theater of Alan
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  Speaker 2: Freed and they completely were, it's been restored. It's right
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  Speaker 2: in Fort green. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And isn't that where the four juniors, the four seasons
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  Speaker 1: made their debut and became famous there.
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  Speaker 2: And yes. Yeah. All the rock star. I went there.
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  Speaker 2: I went there with cousin Brucie and little Anthony. It was,
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  Speaker 2: we had a fabulous time. Um, anyway, uh, love little
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  Speaker 2: Anthony anyway. Um, uh, I think he has like 10.
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  Speaker 2: They just added two more shows. He has 10 sold
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  Speaker 2: out shows at the Brooklyn Paramount in November. So 75,
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  Speaker 2: you know, God bless.
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  Speaker 1: I'm looking at a picture of him. What does this
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  Speaker 1: guy spend like 12 hours a day in the gym?
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  Speaker 1: How do you get to look like that?
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  Speaker 2: He does a lot of yoga.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it looks pretty.
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  Speaker 2: I eat a lot of yogurt and he has a
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  Speaker 2: lot of yoga.
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  Speaker 1: How come we don't look like him? Look at those muscles.
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  Speaker 2: Because we don't. We don't do anything. I like to
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  Speaker 2: sit in a comfortable chair.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. So he doesn't eat at the Carnegie Deli,
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  Speaker 1: in other words.
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  Speaker 2: No, he does not eat at the Carnegie Deli. He
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  Speaker 2: does have meat, though. I've been with him when he's
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  Speaker 2: had steak for dinner.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what does he have, two bites?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably. But, no, he eats on the road when
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  Speaker 2: he's working. They make, like, everything is, you know, fake. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: It's all made by a chef. It's great. Big music
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  Speaker 2: drops today. Beatles, Rubber Soul, Super Deluxe package. It's the
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  Speaker 2: 60th anniversary of Rubber Soul. Great stuff on it, including
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  Speaker 2: a John Lennon, undiscovered John Lennon demo from that time.
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  Speaker 2: All the tracks that they picked, they remastered, remixed. There's demos,
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  Speaker 2: there's outtakes. It's a beautiful package.
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  Speaker 1: It's great for a Beatles collector, but I'm not a
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  Speaker 1: big fan of this remix. The first time, it was
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  Speaker 1: George Martin. I guarantee you, he mixed it perfect the
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  Speaker 1: first time.
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  Speaker 2: His son does it, Giles Martin. He does a great job.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I think he does a great job. There are people
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  Speaker 2: who prefer... In 2009, there was a box set of
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  Speaker 2: all the Beatles albums. And George Martin had done that one.
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  Speaker 2: And people love that box set. But I really kind
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  Speaker 2: of like this, and I've been enjoying it. And you'll
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  Speaker 2: hear some outtakes and things that we've never heard before
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  Speaker 2: of songs from Rubber Soul. And this is really the
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  Speaker 2: album where the Beatles switched over from Help and Hard
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  Speaker 2: Day's Night and Ticket to Ride to their really fabulous
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  Speaker 2: second part of their career. where it was Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper,
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  Speaker 2: the White Album, Let It Be, and Abbey Road. So
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  Speaker 2: you can't even describe their career. In seven or eight years,
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  Speaker 2: they did all of this. We think of it now
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  Speaker 2: as like a long thing that went on, but it
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  Speaker 2: was a very short period. And Rubber Soul is considered
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  Speaker 2: sort of the template for all the stuff that came after. Well,
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  Speaker 2: back then it was the Beatles.
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  Speaker 1: Beatles versus the Beach Boys, and they would do just
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  Speaker 1: hit singles, and then all of a sudden they got
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  Speaker 1: into this much more sophisticated studio work, and it was
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  Speaker 1: the Beach Boys did Pet Sounds, and the Beatles would
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  Speaker 1: respond with Rubber Soul. They'd go back and forth, and
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  Speaker 1: it really elevated everything.
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  Speaker 2: The Beach Boys had a great record called Surf's Up.
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  Speaker 2: I love that record, and it was very sophisticated. It's
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  Speaker 2: Brian Wilson's, I think it's his best song. Anyway, the
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  Speaker 2: other big music drop today is Elvis Costello, which turns
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  Speaker 2: out to be just a fantastic box set of My
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  Speaker 2: Aim Is True. It's the 49th anniversary. Of course, Elvis
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  Speaker 2: Costello would never do a 50th anniversary. So he's doing
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  Speaker 2: the 49th anniversary of his first album. And I didn't
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  Speaker 2: know what to expect, really, except it turns out the
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  Speaker 2: box set is fabulous. And has all kinds of stuff
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  Speaker 2: that wasn't released as part of the original album. Wonderful songs.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Again, you know why it wasn't released? It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: as good as the rest of the album.
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you why. No, no, no. It was as good.
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  Speaker 2: But I'll tell you why. In 1977, when they put
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  Speaker 2: out I Am As True. They picked 12 songs that
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  Speaker 2: made him seem like an angry young guy. So the
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  Speaker 2: songs that weren't angry and that were very melodic, really
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  Speaker 2: beautiful songs, they just left off the album. So now
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  Speaker 2: all those songs are back. And for the first time,
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  Speaker 2: we're hearing them. And I tell you, I was blown
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  Speaker 2: away by this box set. Just incredible. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: all this older music, legacy music, you know, we love.
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  Speaker 2: I went to see Neil Young last week, and I've
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  Speaker 2: listened to his new album called Second Song. Fabulous album.
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  Speaker 1: What happened? You lose a bet?
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  Speaker 2: Fabulous album. No, he's such a great songwriter and very moving.
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  Speaker 1: If you say so.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a lot going on. The other thing that's happening,
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  Speaker 2: of course, is that the Tom Cruise movie, Digger, opened
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  Speaker 2: last night in previews, and it's not very good. The
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  Speaker 2: reviews are terrible, and we're waiting this morning to see
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  Speaker 2: what the box office is from last night, which is
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  Speaker 2: probably not going to be great. It's one of the
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  Speaker 2: last movies for Warner Brothers as a freestanding studio. Warner
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  Speaker 2: Brothers has now merged with Paramount, and this morning they
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  Speaker 2: announced that the parent company is going to be called Skydance.
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  Speaker 1: I don't like that name.
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  Speaker 2: Skydance? No, Skydance. But they're still going to have Warner
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  Speaker 2: Brothers and Paramount. It's just going to say a Skydance company. Oh, okay. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody seems to love this new Sylvester Stallone book.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I tell you what, I read it. It's
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  Speaker 2: really good. And it's all about everything that led up
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  Speaker 2: to him writing Rocky. It stops at Rocky. So you
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  Speaker 2: learn all about his childhood... Yeah, it's not after Rocky.
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  Speaker 2: It's everything before. And the other night, they gave him
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  Speaker 2: a fantastic book party. I was not invited, but that's
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  Speaker 2: all right. They gave him on the 37th floor of
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  Speaker 2: what we used to call the GM building. Oh, that
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  Speaker 2: stupid Colette Club? Yeah. I don't know anything about it.
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  Speaker 2: Do you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really stupid club. They act like it's
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  Speaker 1: the most exclusive club in the world. Then when you
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  Speaker 1: go in there, Everybody that's a member says to you,
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  Speaker 1: how are you? It's all those people.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. I once had a boss whose
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  Speaker 2: mother came in from Jericho, and she said to all
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  Speaker 2: of us, you people are delicious. Anyway, she was like
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  Speaker 2: Tony Fields.
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  Speaker 1: Anyway, they had.
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  Speaker 2: This ritzy book party with all these billionaires from Palm Beach,
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  Speaker 2: and I thought, this is really... tribute to Sylvester Stallone
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  Speaker 2: that he was, as a child, he was in a
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  Speaker 2: cold water flat in Hill's Kitchen with his parents. They
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  Speaker 2: had no heat, no hot water. They had no money.
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  Speaker 2: He asked, in the book, he says to his father,
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  Speaker 2: I'd like to get a pet cat. And the father says,
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  Speaker 2: no cat, just play with the mice that are in
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  Speaker 2: the apartment. I mean, that's how bad things were. And
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  Speaker 2: then you see what he's done with his life. It's amazing. And,
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  Speaker 2: of course, this movie, I Play Rocky, is coming out
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  Speaker 2: very soon, this fall. And that's the story of how
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  Speaker 2: he made Rocky into an Oscar-winning movie. People love this
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  Speaker 2: I Play Rocky. This guy, Anthony Ippolito, plays Stallone. And
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  Speaker 2: so they reenact Rocky, but it's also the struggle he
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  Speaker 2: had to get it made. And people are cheering. You
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  Speaker 2: remember how Rocky was? I don't know if you remember this.
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  Speaker 2: Were you born in 1975? Yeah. I remember going to
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  Speaker 2: the theater, and people were so excited about Rocky. They
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  Speaker 2: were standing and cheering at the end of it. Wow.
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  Speaker 2: And now, apparently, they're doing the same thing with this
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  Speaker 2: I Play Rocky. So Sylvester Stallone is having his big moment,
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  Speaker 2: and good for him. Oh, great.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, if you want to hear more of these stories,
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  Speaker 1: go to showbiz411. com. That's Roger's website. showbiz411. com. Roger Friedman, great
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  Speaker 1: as always. Thanks for being with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. All right.
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  Speaker 1: Take care. Hey, we've got a lot to get to.
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  Speaker 1: We've got another hour to go coming up. Don't forget,
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• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the most listened to radio show in America, Sean Hannity.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You've got Jesse Kelly at 6. And then at 9,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: very smart and very funny show, Jimmy Fallon, every night,
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  Speaker 1: 9 to midnight, here on 710WOR.