Latest / Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel / Gossip Guru, A.J. Benza, breaks down the Hollywood Gossip and leaves no crumbs!

Transcript

Gossip Guru, A.J. Benza, breaks down the Hollywood Gossip and leaves no crumbs! · Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I remember being in a small town in Italy, struggling
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to order coffee. I just couldn't get my point across
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and it felt like I was missing out on really
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: connecting with the place. It's exactly why Babbel is a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: game changer. It focuses on practical language skills, things you'd
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: actually say in real life situations, not just textbook phrases.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Imagine chatting easily at a cafe in Rome or asking
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: directions in Tokyo. With Babbel, this can happen in just
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: three weeks if you practice daily for only 10 minutes.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: It's designed by language experts, ensuring you learn conversational skills
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that natives really use. Plus, you can fit lessons into
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: any part of your day, making it super convenient. So
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: if you've ever wanted to dive back into a language
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: or learn a new one, now is your chance. Visit babbel.com
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: slash pod to save up to 60% off your subscription.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: That's B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash P-O-D. Start your journey to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: real conversations in a new language today. Welcome back to Misunderstood.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rachel Yucatel. Okay, guys, so if you
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: love gossip, celebrity scandals, name-dropping, and behind-the-scenes scoop, you're going
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to love this episode.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I had the pleasure of talking to A.J.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Benza.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: If you don't know his name, get to know it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: He's a pioneer in the world of gossip. He knows
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: everything about everyone, and he held nothing back with me
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: on this interview. He blasts the doors wide open on
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the world he's been a part of for decades as
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a journalist and TV host, No one is off limits today.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: No story too controversial. You do not want to miss it.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: So get ready for AJ Benza.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: All right, so we're going to get right into this, okay?
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Okay, cool.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be meeting you in person, sort of,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: because after all this time, I feel like our paths
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: should have crossed before now.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I know that my name has come up in the press.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I'm somebody I'm sure you've had to cover at some
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: point or gossip about or write about.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: And, you know, I've.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Obviously heard of you because you've kind of become infamous
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in the job you had. So it's my honor to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: meet you finally. So thank you for doing Misunderstood.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Of course, no problem. Look, I'm misunderstood, too. So I
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: get the title. I get the whole premise. Yeah, I
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: thought we would have met because of my days in nightlife.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: And I don't know why we didn't meet. I assumed
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: we would have met at some point in New York
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: or Miami or I don't know. Yeah. Thank God we
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: have similar friends who hooked us up.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We have a number of different friends that have said
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to me for a long time, oh, I can't believe
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: you don't know AJ. So I'm happy we're here now.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So I want to establish for people listening, because obviously
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you're part of my generation, basically, and I know where
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: you came from. But like, tell me a little bit
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: about your childhood and how you got into wanting to
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: be a journalist.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: I think I just always wanted to be heard and remembered,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: to be really vain about the whole thing. I was
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: always writing as a kid, always performing as a kid
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: with my family. And when I got into... I went
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: to college, got my journalism degree. But I always wanted
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: to be an actor and, you know, just get some
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: work acting. But... I got married young and then divorced
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: five years later. Once I got divorced at 31, my
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: whole life changed. I moved to Manhattan from Long Island.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Got a great apartment in the West Village, and I
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: landed a job at the New York Daily News, where
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I spent about seven years there covering gossip. I was
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: the top gossip columnist at the New York Daily News
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: in the 90s, and the 90s were just exploding with
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: gossip from everywhere. But then there's brothers to Michael Jackson,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: to Tanya Harding. It was endless. Yeah. And I made
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: my name on a lot of TV shows that covered
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: that sort of thing. But yeah, I always love words.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I love writing. I hate to sound like an idiot, but...
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: I always think I have something important to say. So
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: that's why I want to talk to people for a living.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: So this podcasting thing is perfect for me. I get
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: to write and talk and get my boards crossed. Right.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: So what do you think made you attracted to entertainment
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: news and scandals and gossip as opposed to like politics
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: or something?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: My mother used to read the gossip columns when I
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: was young as a kid. She'd read Rona Barrett. I
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: don't know if you know that name.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Liz Smith. And she always would read them out loud.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: I don't know why. But because I loved actors in
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Hollywood so much, I wanted to be around them.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: And when I moved to Hawaii in 97 for my
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: TV shows and some movie work, And I was in
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: that field of people. But doing gossip in New York
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: City was really what got me to Los Angeles. I
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: had a big name in New York City of covering gossip.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: all sorts of trials and tribulations and scandals of people.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, you, I would have written about you constantly,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: to be honest. I mean, it was a great, it's
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: a tremendous story. Uh, but when you had your scandal,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I wasn't writing anymore. So, but, but, but I've always,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: I've always loved secrets and scandals and gossip and, um,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: You know, I got really good at it. I have
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: very good sources. I have a lot of people that
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: I talk to on a daily basis. And there isn't
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: really a story I can't track down to this day.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I just have an intuition of a reporter and dog determination. But,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: you know, acting, movie stars were very attractive to me
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: when I was younger. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: So how did that work, though, for you?
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like you became you started to become
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: friends with some of these people that you were covering
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: stories about them? Did that ever affect you being able
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to write a story in a fair way?
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: What happens is for a long time, I wasn't, but
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I was like, look, most gossip columnists back in the 90s,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: there was about 15 of us in the country, I swear.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: It was like hardly anybody was doing gossip. Now there's
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: thousands of people. I wasn't friendly with them, but I
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: began to stay out with them until 4 a.m., 5 a.m.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: And at those hours, you tend to hear things and
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: people have loose lips. And a lot of things I
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: heard from... Friends I made that are in business I
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: would never talk about. And that gave them a lot
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: of confidence in the fact that AJ won't tell that story.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: He's cool. Don't worry about him. And I still have
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: stories like that that I haven't said.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: But after about seven years of doing it, you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: you feel dirty. You know, you've been dragged through the
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: scandal sheets. You just want to take a shower every day.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: It's not a fun place to be.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Go ahead.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: No, it's just I was really good at it. But
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: what you asked me is very important. Once I was
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: there long enough, I became friends with them and went
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: to their houses. And now you're in Sylvester Stallone's house.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: You're making a movie with somebody. Then my job got difficult.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: So I knew I had to split. And then Lo
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: and behold, Los Angeles called the T-show for me. And
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: I was gone from gossip in 97. And I went
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: on about 10 years or so doing television and movies,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: probably more. But then in the last six years, I've
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: been doing my podcast because so many things were coming
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: up from Harvey Weinstein to Donald Trump, both of whom
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: I know very well. And I said, I got to
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: get back in this. I just know too much about
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: these people. And that's why I started the podcast.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: So I have a couple questions from what you just
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: said before. Was there anyone you felt like ever was
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: a source that really screwed you that kind of wanted
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to narrate a story or get a story out there
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and you found out that that was incorrect? Or was
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: there someone also that you've really protected and you feel
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: like after all this time you really shouldn't have protected
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: them and a story should have come out?
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: No, not really. There was one guy, I remember his name,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: his name was Ruben Mallorette. He was a publicist and
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: he tricked me. I was young at the game. He
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: tricked me and told me that I think it was
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Cindy Crawford was going to marry this singer named Cheyenne.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: And he called me with a female voice. I couldn't
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: believe he finally told me when I left the job
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: that that was me. So he wanted to get publicity
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: for his.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Singer, Cheyenne.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: I see. And he he just, he has some kind
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: of voice modulator that sounded like a female and I
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: bought it, but that was the only time I was fooled.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: I was never fooled beyond that. Yeah.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, good.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: So you never got yourself in trouble by saying things
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and then having to retract them?
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Well, I had lawsuits that were thrown at me that
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: never materialized. Robert Downey Jr. was somebody I covered when
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: he was involved in all his drugs. I was covering
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: the Oscars, and I went to Andre on the strip,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: and I saw him, and he was wasted. And I
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: reported that story. And then I got all these letters
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: from his lawyers, Marty Singer, all the big time lawyers
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: that you're going to be sued. Robert Downey was in Georgia.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: This is not true. And I told my editors, it's
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: totally true. I was 10 feet from the guy. And
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: then I found out many years later when I moved
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: here that it was true. His manager told me, He
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: wanted to go party one night at the Oscars and
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: then go back to Georgia where he was doing a movie.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: But by doing that, he broke his parole.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: So they protected him. Yeah. So I was never sued.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: A couple of actors tried to. It didn't go anywhere.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: I broke this Jamie Foxx story about three months ago
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: where a source, a very good source of mine who
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: was in his room in the hospital told me that
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Now partially.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Blind and partially paralysed.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: This is in May.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: So I spoke about that on the show, and his
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: people called my producer, but nothing came of it. So
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: I know I'm right. To this day, he's not explained
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: what happened to him. He won't say it, which I
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: find annoying, and so do a lot of people. But,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: you know, things like that happen here and there. I
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: knew Jamie for years. I would be with him at
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: nightclubs and stuff. So whenever I was friendly with actors,
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: I felt like it was better for me to break
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: the story because I could bother with them. I could
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: ease up or take my foot off the gas when
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: they needed that time.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: And some people came to me for that reason. Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: You know, there's going to be a scandal about me.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I was caught having an affair. Maybe you can write
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: this this way and not say this. And, you know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: I owe you down the road. God, a simple point
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: is pretty much quid pro quo, where, you know, you
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: rub their back and they rub yours sometime later. So
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: it's a lot of backdoor dealings and that kind of stuff.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: And I don't think a lot of people realize that
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of times when you read an article and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: it says a source says that source is the person
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: who's trying to get their version out and they just
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: have had a relationship with the. With the journalist, or
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: even not so. They just are willing to talk to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the journalist off the record because they at least want
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to tell their story and be anonymous about it.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: You know what's even worse, though, is that so many
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: of these actors and recording artists pay their publicists tens
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: of thousands of dollars a month, and yet those are
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: the people who sell them out. Right. And I would
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: get a story about Naomi Campbell, right? And I'd call
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: her publicist. And she'd say, please don't write that. It's
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: so in trouble. Please write that. And that was really
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: hard callback that I'd say, well, you got to give
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: me something today. I want a story today from somebody else.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Get something or else I'm writing about Naomi. And sure enough,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: before the end of the day, I'd have a gossip
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: item about somebody else. So the Naomi story went away
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: and I wrote about someone else. Right. So there are
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: people who sell them out a lot of the time. Yeah.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I have been privy to that. I've been part of that,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: seeing how that happens. So I can attest that that
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: is the way that it works. And sometimes you can
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: only hold the original story out of the news for
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: so long.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: It eventually comes out one way or the other.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: So to go back to your Jamie Foxx thing, I mean,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I did read about that.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I saw that you had, you know, made a statement.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: You had kind of broken that story of why he
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: was in the hospital based on your source. And then
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I did see that his team put out that that
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: was incorrect. It had nothing to do with the COVID vaccine,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I guess, is what they were saying.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And that he was going to be fine. And we
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: have not heard from Jamie Foxx as to what, what
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the reason was, what actually happened. Um, so, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: for people to sort of say that you were incorrect
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: or you made an incorrect statement, we don't even have
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the facts that that's true. It's just, he said, she said,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: until we really find out the truth, if we ever do.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't think we will. I, it was in
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: May and, um, I got it from a tremendous source
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: of mine. I had no qualms talking about it on
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: the air. I talked about it on Dr. Drew Pinsky's
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: show to begin with. He's got a big audience, and
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: that's why it blew up. But all Jamie Foxx had
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: to do was hold up his iPhone and talk to
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: the phone and show people he's okay. But, you know,
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: his daughter made it racial. His daughter said in the press,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: some crazy white man said something about my father, and
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: he was playing pickleball yesterday. It's just complete horseshit. It's
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: just a lie. But look, I think Jamie Foxx is
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: probably the most multi-talented actor in Hollywood. Sing, dance, comedy, drama,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: you name it. So I wasn't happy to write that story,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: but man, when something that big comes along, I, you know,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: I had to, I had to talk about it. Yeah.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Well, for sure.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Um, talk to me a little bit about what it
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: was like to then be a part of things that
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: were bigger than just being a New York, uh, gossip columnist.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Like you all, you got, uh, work with Howard Stern, right?
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: You were working there for a little bit.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: And that obviously must have, uh, you know, made you
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: much bigger to a much bigger audience than what you
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: originally had.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, when Jackie Marlowe... I used to talk to
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Howard and go to the studio quite a bit. Howard
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: loved gossip, and I had a lot of gossip on Howard,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: and I never reported anything about him when he was
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: divorcing his first wife. But I knew who he was
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: sleeping with, where he was living, they were living apart,
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: and he liked that about me. He thought I was
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: a stand-up guy. But, um... When Jackie Marlin quit the show,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: there was an empty chair and Howard tried out a
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: number of people to sit there. Jimmy Kimmel, there was
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: a bunch of us. And I was there for about
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: 20 days, 30 days. And the inside story was Howard
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: liked me. But then I had a fight with Stuttering John.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I smacked him in the face and There went that chance.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: But I didn't know it might have been a career
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: of mine. I wasn't the kind of guy who wanted
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: to go to bed at 8 p.m. and wake up
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: at 4 a.m. That's not my life. My life was
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: stayed up till 4 a.m. So, yeah, the fact that
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: I was on Howard Stern's show, and that was when
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: it was televised as well on E!, that gave me
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: a much bigger profile for sure. Yeah.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: So I've watched that clip and that episode and like what,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you my thoughts after you tell me though,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: like I was shocked that they had, that that was it.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I thought it was, I mean, it was funny. Obviously
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: you were pissed and so was John, you know, but
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: like it looked like part of their show. It's kind
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: of like their whole shtick. So why do you think
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: it got the producer, whoever that guy was at the.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: End who was like, get out? Why did it make
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: him so mad?
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Well, Well, what happened was I had a talk show
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: at the E! Channel that only ran four weeks. They
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: didn't give me a good enough shot to make it
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: a success. And it just ended. So John was allowing
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: callers in to talk shit about my show and why
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: it was canceled. And I was told by E!, My
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: mouth shut. I was filling the contract for several hundred
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars they were paying to do nothing. So I
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: was like, I can't talk about this. But after like
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: a fourth phone call, I said, if there's one more
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: phone call that comes through, I'm going to go smack
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Son of a bitch on the face. Well, then he
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: made his own call with his voice as if it
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: was someone else. And I said, all right, I'm going
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: to go smack him. And Howard and Robin couldn't believe it.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to hurt him on my left hand.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: I'm a righty. I wouldn't knock him out with the
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: right hand, but I slapped my left hand and, uh,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: he got very emotional as well. And because it was
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: workplace violence, um, I had to leave. Howard called me
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: and said, man, I love you. I'm sorry that that happened.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: I wish you were still here. Um, You know, but
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I didn't know, like, I wasn't thinking of that as
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: a career at that point. I just liked being there. Right.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Maybe I lost the radio career. However, he hired Artie Lang,
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: who was phenomenal. Artie earned that spot. Artie was great
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: until he got messed up on drugs. Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Do you talk to either one of those two or Robin?
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Well, I was with Artie the night that his life
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: really spiraled again. He was in L.A. His television show
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: on HBO crashed. It was premiering that night. And he
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: called me and he said, don't get mad at me.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: I said, OK, what's wrong? He goes, I really need
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: to get some cocaine. Do you know anybody? I said, Artie,
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: this is a joke. You're straight. You can't do this.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: He goes, no, man, I got to do something. I
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: got to do this. I got to go to San
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Francisco tomorrow to meet the executives with HBO. I'm freaking out.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: I said, I'll try to call someone. Took hours. Finally,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I remember there's a restaurant here in LA, Dantana's, where
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: you go there late enough and there are dealers in there.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: So I called Antanas and I talked to the host
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: and I said, hey, I got a friend in from
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Antanas who wants to get hooked up. Are there going
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: to be people there tonight with some stuff? He said, yeah,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: of course. They're always here. So we went to Antanas.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Artie bought a bunch of blow. We went back to
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: his hotel. He devoured it. And the next day he
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: called me and asked me if I could get some heroin.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: And I said, I have no idea about that game.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: That's not, that's never been my game. But, After that,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: his life completely went down the drain. He just lost everything.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: And no one even knows where he is right now.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: He lived with his mother and his sister, but he's
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: not doing comedy. He's working a regular job someplace. It's
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: really sad.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: It is so sad. I mean, I know for a
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: while he had a podcast that was doing really well.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It was great. It had great guests on it.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was so fun.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: He lost everything.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I met him a couple of years ago because we
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: were on a podcast together. or on a radio show
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: actually for, I guess it was Sirius, whatever. And we
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: were being interviewed by Sherrod Small.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you know him.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: I know him. Yeah, I know Sherrod.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And we were talking about our dating life. And it
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: was such a fun two hours because he wanted me
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to set up a Bumble account for him. He wanted
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: me to take him out and have him meet someone good.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: He was really, you know, he was really hopeful about me.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: Itching, burning, soreness. When you know it's thrush, you want
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: it gone. Treat the cause, not just the symptoms, with
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: Caniston Combi. Ireland's number one fresh treatment brand. Caniston Combi,
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: pastry and cream contain cotrimazole.
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: Always read the label. Number one based on volume sales data.
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: To verify, contact info.ireland.bayre.com.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Meeting a good woman to help take care of him.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: He seemed sober. He seemed good. He was really funny
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and on and he was so warm and caring. I
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: just had the best time with him. So it's such
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a shame to hear how addiction really is.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: It just kills people.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah. He's got a big audience, has a big heart,
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: really great guy. But his addiction, you know, you can't
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: work the Howard Stern show and then work comedy clubs
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: at night where all the drugs are. Go on these
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: weekends to different nightclubs and make a couple of hundred grand.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: He loved gambling. He loved cocaine. He loved everything. And
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: he just... got the best of him. But he wants
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: to be John Belushi. Yeah. So he kind of became
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: John Belushi. He's just not dead yet.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: It's horrible.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: God forbid.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Life can be hard sometimes.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: That's one thing we all have in common. Maybe you're
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: thinking of changing careers or you're struggling in a relationship.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: You're at a crossroads and could use some guidance. Whatever
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you're going through, therapy can help you break through and
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: find the best path for your future. I've used therapy
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: in the past for certain things that I've been going through.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: They don't have to be major things, but sometimes it's
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: great to just talk it out with somebody who you
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: don't have in your immediate life. It makes things look
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a lot clearer. And finding out about BetterHelp was really interesting.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You download the app, you type in some things that
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: are important to you, and you're matched up with a
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: therapist that may work for you. And I have found
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that my therapist was the perfect match for me. I've
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: And I'm really excited to continue to use her. BetterHelp
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: is a great place to start if you're thinking about therapy.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: It's entirely online, designed to be convenient and flexible. All
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: you have to do is fill out the brief questionnaire,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: like I said, and BetterHelp will match you with a
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: licensed therapist. And if you don't click with that therapist,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: you can switch at any time for no additional charge.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Let therapy be your map with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: understood today to get 10% off your first month.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: That's BetterHelp.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: H-E-L-P dot com slash understood. So I wanted to ask
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you really briefly about your stint in reality TV. You
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: did a couple shows. You did Celebrity Fit Club and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Gimme My Reality Show, which, by the way, I don't remember,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: but that sounds amazing.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: It was. Look, Celebrity Fit Club was interesting because it
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: came at a time where money was tight. You know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: the phone stopped ringing in Hollywood, and that's a scary feeling.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: And they offered me $ 80, 000 for eight weeks, two days
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: a week to work out. And I said, yeah, I'm in.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I met a lot of funny people. Willie Ames, Aaron
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Ramsey from Happy Days, Amy Yothers. A lot of people
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: that didn't have their time in the sun. And I
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: had a ball there. That was good. The next thing,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: giving my own reality show, that was... I got down
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: to the final three with Kato Kaelin and Danny Bonaduce's ex-wife.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: And I just quit the show. On that episode, I quit.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: I thought to myself, I didn't want my kids, who
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: were very young at the time, to have sound packs
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: on their body and to be seen on television. And
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: for Hollywood to come into my home, When I was
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: married to my wife, it just felt gross. And I said,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: why am I competing in this? I don't want to show.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: So I quit. And when I did the winning, I
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: think she had a show for a few weeks. It
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: went nowhere. It went nowhere. But I love Kato Taylor.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: He's one of the funniest, most genuine guys in the world.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: He's the best. I've had him on this show. He's fantastic.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Kato's great. Kato's so happy all the time. I don't
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: know what he does, but he's always up and at
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: him and happy and fun. I love being around him.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I've told Kato, if that OJ thing didn't happen... He
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: would have had his own sitcom for years. He's that good.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: He really is.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I agree. And rightly so.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: This is why I had him on the show because
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: he's one of the most misunderstood people and had to
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: live with an awful stigma just being this, you know,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: freeloading guest, you know, in the back house or whatever.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: And he's just anything but. He's terrific.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: People don't understand. There's so many people in L.A. who
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: live in guest houses. Yeah. It's just a very common thing.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: You know, it's common. People want a company. They've got
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: an extra house in the back. And it's so common
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: that he's not a freeloader. He was just, you know.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And he clarified that he paid rent, by the way.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: So it didn't matter.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he did. Yeah, yeah.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: So anyways, he was great. So I want to talk
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: to you.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: About your podcast and the fact that now you cover,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: you know, gossip again, sort of, and you're really touching,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you're touching on the top stories at the moment, right?
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Am I categorizing that right?
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: And so I wanted to get your take on a
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: lot of like top stories or things that are going on.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Can we talk about some of them?
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: So I think this week you talked about Brittany and Sam,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you know, being Splitsville. What are your thoughts on that?
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Well, I said that one last week. Two years ago,
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: I said, this will never last. She's going to become
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: this generation's Trudy Garland or worse. You know, Sam Ashgari,
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: I know so much about this story because I have
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: a source who was a lawyer for Britney who told
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: me everything. I was always ahead of the press by months.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: And Sam was on her father's payroll. Sam was being
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: paid $ 500 a day to look out for her. Truth
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: of the matter is, Britney probably should never have gotten
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: out of that conservatorship. Now we're seeing what she's like.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: You look at her Instagram, stripping, dancing on poles, writhing
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: in the sand and, you know, using an English accent.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: She's completely shot. She's gone. I don't think there was
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: any cheating involved. I just think he had enough. And
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: I always say when I cover the story that he's
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: going to get about five million bucks to go away. Yeah.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: And I still feel that way.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: So you think he's just had enough or you think
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: he was in it for the fame and then realized
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: he could get bigger by breaking up with her and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: then becoming someone?
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: I don't think he thought about breaking up with her
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: to get bigger because I don't know what kind of
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: talent he has. He's certainly handsome. He could be working
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: for the house of Gucci in a minute. He's got
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: a great physique. He's a good looking kid. But no,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I just think he got wrapped up in all of it.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: You know, when you're around stars like that, it's a
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: very enticing way to live. I mean, you know, money
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: is never an object. There's private jets everywhere. You're traveling constantly.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: But that's not really what life's about. It's very shallow
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: if there's no real love between them. I don't even
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: think they got married. I think that was just a party.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: I've never seen the certificate of marriage before. I don't
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: believe it was a marriage. You know, the people she invited, Madonna,
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton, there's never a picture of her girlfriend. Yeah.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: There's never a picture of her with someone she likes.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: She's a little girl lost, and she's stuck in 2003. Yeah.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: She dresses the same. She looks, you know, the hair extensions,
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: the makeup is on for three days. Yeah. any man
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: at some point would go, I'm out of here. This
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: is ridiculous. Right. Right.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is really sad.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So many people are pulling for her and believe in
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: her and remember her as who she was, like you said,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: in 2003 or whenever she was just the biggest deal.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: And we love her that way.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: But it is such a, I always look at these
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Instagram things she's posting and I'm like, Why is somebody
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: not coming in there with a new set of extensions?
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the first thing I see. What is that?
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: And why is no one helping her with some eye makeup,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: removal stuff? I mean, she could do commercials for things
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: like that because she's such a mess. And we just
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: love her and we want the best for her. And
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: you look at these comments from people. And her followers
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: love her so much that no one says anything to
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: help her. Like, girl, I'll come do your extensions. I'll
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: fix your makeup. I'll give you some new clothes. I'll
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: be your best friend. But instead, people are just obsessed
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: with celebrity, you know?
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: That shows you how nobody cares. Yeah, it's sad. And
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: part of the problem was all of her millions of
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: fans cheering her on those videos saying yes queen you
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: do you you're the best and it's like no she's
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: not she's the worst you're killing.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Her right it is sad well we wish britney the best.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: For sure sure we do sure sure um.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: All right what are your thoughts on this scooter braun
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: scandal why is everyone jumping ship and then why do
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: we hear on the opposite side no one's left me
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: everyone still works with me I.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Don't think that's true. I think Scooter Braun, well, he's
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: always been looked upon as sleazy in terms of taking
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: people's records and, you know, what he did to Taylor
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Swift by taking her, what do you call it? He
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: took all her music and she had to buy it back.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: Scooter Braun, you know, now they're talking about He's doing
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: a lot of cocaine, which is par for the course
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: in this town when you're that age and that popular.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: And I think that Taylor Swift engineered this and has
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: told all these people from Rihanna to Idina Menzel to
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: watch out for him and you're better off getting away
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: from him. I think Taylor Swift, I don't know more
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: than three or four of her songs, but she's such
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: a powerhouse right now.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: Itching, burning, soreness. When you know it's thrush, you want
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: it gone. Treat the cause, not just the symptoms, with
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: Caniston Combi. Ireland's number one thrush treatment brand. Caniston Combi
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: Pestry and Cream contain cotrimazole.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Always read the label.
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: Number one based on volume sales data. To verify, contact info.ireland.bayer.com.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, a powerhouse that she could talk to all
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: these people and they'd listen and say, if Taylor says it,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do it. That's what I really think happened.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: I think she engineered this, you know, people leaving, this exodus. Yeah, right.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: It is so interesting how Taylor has become who she
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: has become. I mean, I brought my daughter, who's 11,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: to her concert. I didn't think I knew many songs.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I thought I knew just about the same as you,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: four or five. And it was like the best concert
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: I've ever been to. By the way, and the, you know,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I spent over $ 5, 000 on two tickets and like getting that.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: It's crazy. I mean, totally nuts.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: But I will say it was amazing because the level
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: of excitement of everyone in the stands, there wasn't a
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: seat available and people were on their feet screaming, crying,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: singing the whole time. And it was so, it brought
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: me to tears to see how excited everyone was. So
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, it was worth it. So then
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: my daughter went to Beyonce last weekend here in Miami.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: And the prices were just a couple hundred dollars. A
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: lot of the seats were available. She didn't know most
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: of the songs, although she had been studying the songs
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: with her friend, you know, until they got there.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: And, you know, they left a little early.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: And Beyonce used to be the biggest deal, right? So
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I find it so interesting that Taylor is the it thing.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: It's like when I was younger, the it.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: musician was like, you know, a Whitney Houston or a Madonna.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: For me, the big band was Hall and Oates.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, if Hall and Oates walked in, I'd just
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: pass out.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: They're the best. They're the best.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Best ever. Best ever. Yeah. You know, I think what
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: happened is Taylor Swift has stayed, stayed pretty much non-political.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: She's just kind of kept to her own. Beyonce began
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: to get political and, and got very liberal about things
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: and and a lot of her songs have to do
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: with race and racism and i think people are just
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: tired of that and and want to move on from
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: it i mean there's no denying her talent when beyonce's
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: on she's amazing but uh i'm sorry so some leaf
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: blower outside my room right now it's Los Angeles after all.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: That's okay. You can't even, you can't even hear it
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: actually over here.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah. I think, I think Beyonce just became too,
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: too into what's happening with, with regard to race and
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: police and, you know, her last few shows were all about,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: you know, marching and I don't know, you know, just
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: I don't want to say the wrong thing, but very pro-Black.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: And I don't think that's a good thing to do
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: because white people buy tickets, too.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: I think she kind of annoyed some people. But, you know, look,
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: she's worth a half a billion dollars. She doesn't care
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: what I say. She's fine. Right, right. You know, her
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: and Jay-Z are fine. Yeah.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Well, you said something that I want to get to
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: because you said, oh, I don't want to say the
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: wrong thing. I want to talk about cancel culture for
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: one second. So to me, it's so... Interesting, right? That
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: someone like, we'll talk about current people, like that, well,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Lizzo is in the process of being canceled, sort of.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: I'm so happy about that.
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: You were?
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, so you knew that this was coming down the pike?
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: I've been calling her out for two years. Wow. She's
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: so full of shit. I don't look at, I'm sorry
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: to interrupt you, but... You cannot come out and be
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: as famous as she got and act like being obese
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: is beautiful because it's not. The way she weighs right
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: now is no different than walking around with cancer and
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: not treating it. She's a mess. I'm not trying to,
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: you know, bitch about overweight people. I could lose 20,
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: 30 pounds myself. But Lizzo acting like this is beautiful.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: I saw a video on Instagram where she put a
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: donut and ice cream and milk into a blender and
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: drank it. Kids don't need to see this. America's the
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: fattest country in the world. I don't like that she's
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: so gorgeous and That whole thing I'm not into. I
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: don't like that Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition now allows overweight women.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Victoria's Secret is the worst now because they allow transgender.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: To me, it's gone so overboard that the pendulum has
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: to swing back very soon. We're out of our minds
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Well, but it's interesting that you say that because some
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: people are able to have a comeback and some people aren't.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Like Morgan Wallen, for example, was completely canceled.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And now he's back and, you know, everyone loves him.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: But then someone like Chris Noth, who everyone was in
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: love with, you know, goes on a date with someone
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: and it seems like he doesn't really know, you know,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: how to have a date. Again, I don't want to
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: say the wrong thing, but like, it's very hard to
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: date sometimes, you know, and he was a guy who
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: everyone was obsessed with. Anyone would want to date or
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: sleep with or whatever. And, you know, he was on
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: a date with someone who, you know, didn't want to
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: go to bed with him or whatever.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: And they didn't. It didn't even happen.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: But, you know, this guy, they've now canceled him out
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: of the show. They've actually made the memories of him dead.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, the guy's just over. So how do you
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: know when someone deserves a comeback and when they don't?
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Well, I know Chris very well. I used to coach.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: I coached his son in Little League with my son.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: And back around 2017, when all the Me Too stuff
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: was happening, He came to me and I said, do
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: you see what's happening? Because I used to hang out
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: with Chris in New York City back in the 90s.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: And he had a ball. Every girl wanted to hang
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: out with him. Handsome guy, wealthy. And I said, I
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: talked to Harvey Weinstein before he went away. Because Harvey
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: was a friend of mine. And that's a whole different
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: story that people think I helped him with this raping stuff,
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: which I never did. And I'd love to tell you
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: that story. But I said, yeah, it's going to get
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: really serious. They're going to go after a lot of
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: people who, you know, it's not fair because it might
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: have been just a bad date. The girl didn't like you.
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: And now 15, 20 years later, she can say he
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: tried to rape me or did this and that. And
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: Chris got so angry. He said, how long do you
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: think they're going to go back in time? I said,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: I don't know. When I said that, I felt like
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: he was nervous for himself. Oh, yeah. And then sure enough,
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: all this crap comes out. Chris had a reputation of
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: being physical with women. I remember those stories in New
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: York with Beverly Johnson. He denied it, of course. I
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: like him a lot. I think generally people disappear for
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: two years before they start to get work again. But
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: it's going a little bit longer for Chris. And, you know,
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: I know his wife. Like I said, I know his son.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: I don't know why it's taking him longer. It's just
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: not fair. Yeah.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: So, you know, it's interesting what what we're talking about,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: because cancel culture and also gossip now there's it almost
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: seems like journalists are becoming a dying breed. Right. It's
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: like everyone know you went to school for it. And
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: then there's like journalism 101 through graduating through a course.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: When we were back a couple decades ago, when I
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: was in the press, when I was reading your articles, whatever,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: there was a certain way journalists were putting something out.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: And then there was an appetite that the public had
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: for that. And that made you guys do more, look
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: into more, put out more sources about it or more
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: stories about it. But now everyone's a journalist. Everyone is
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: creating their opinion and making that into fact. And it's
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: like these, you know, people behind a keyboard are just,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: you know, typing as fast as they can on social media.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: And that is going viral. And, I mean, I think
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: it's dangerous. What do you think about it? I mean,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: it just seems like there's no journalism. There's no way
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to have credible information come out. And then people's lives
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: are being ruined because of it or their reputations.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's terrible because I was very proud to be
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: a journalist. It requires a lot of intuition and reportage
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: and developing sources, which takes years. Shaking 5,000 hands and
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: you shake 5,000 hands, that means you make money. you
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: might know 10,000 more people because they know people that
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: can help you. So I was always out in the street,
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: in the clubs, getting my information. But nowadays, and by
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: the way, we had an actual press pass. I didn't
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: wear it, but the press pass meant that you were
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: allowed to cross police lines and go into a crime scene,
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: and that's all gone now. Now, anybody with a laptop
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: and an opinion... can say what they want about someone's life.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Perez Hilton, who was really, you know, in Bartonville, everyone
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: really follows him like they did in the early 2000s.
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: He never had a press pass. He was just a
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: guy working at Starbucks with a laptop and making fun
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: of celebrities. And he became so powerful. It always bothered me.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: When I was working, you needed two sources for every story.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: And your editor made sure you did that. And after that,
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: your lawyers at the Daily News, there were three of them.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: They would check every column, every story before it was published.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: Now it's just press send, and it's out to the world.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: And it's very dangerous, and it's getting a lot of
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: people in a lot of trouble who don't deserve the trouble.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: So it's just, you know, I picked two different careers
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: that kind of went sideways. TV hosting now is very,
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: it's not used as much. They use voiceovers instead of
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: a person in front talking. As a journalist... anybody can
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: be a journalist now i just did i'm on a
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: series now on that geo called um i think it's
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: called reeling in the.
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: Night itching burning soreness when you know it's thrush you
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: want it gone treat the cause not just the symptoms
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: with caniston combi ireland's number one thrush treatment brand caniston
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: combi pessary and cream contain cotrimazole always read.
• 44:27
  Speaker 6: The label number one based on volume sales data. To verify,
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: contact info.ireland at bayer.com.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: He's just something like that. And I'm the only journalist
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: on the show. Like, everybody else is a stylist or
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: a publicist or... I don't even know what they are.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: But they didn't go to school to write, to learn
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: about reporting, and yet their words matter. It bugs me. Right.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: And it's also making people famous as the story themselves. So, like,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: what's going on on social media and this whole reality
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: reckoning thing, right? I mean, it's just completely taken over
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: not only social media and those platforms, but the news.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's in mainstream media, in Wall Street Journal,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: in the New York Times. They're covering this kind of thing.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting to me because people that are either
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: podcast hosts that cover reality TV or Bravo, they are
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the ones being interviewed by news organizations at night for
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: their take on what's going on. And, you know, and
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: then they're feuding with each other. It's almost like the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: thing that everyone is upset with with Bravo right now
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: about how dangerous it can be.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: That kind of.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: toxic environment is also being played out on social media
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: with people that are covering this, talking about it. You
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: see people sharing DMs that they've had with famous stars
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: in reality.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's really nuts. What's your thought of this
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: reality reckoning?
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: It's very scary. Honestly, the whole Bravo stuff I stay
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: away from because if I see one more article about
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: Tom Sandoval and Rachel, whatever her name is, I don't
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: give a shit. They're people on a reality show. They're
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: not important, but yet the newspapers and websites and– I
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: know my podcasters have them on the show that you
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: get views. But I just, I would never want to
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: be around those people. They're nothing. They're nothing to me.
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: They aren't tens of thousands. I'm going to have to
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: be superstars who matter. And it is really dangerous that
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: you can't have DM somebody years ago or written an
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: email saying, I'll tell you something that Harvey Weinstein told
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: to me. Naturally, Harvey told me that everything he did
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: was consensual. And I talked to some of the girls
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: that went through that, some of his victims, and I
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: didn't believe him. But he said, AJ, if it were
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: back in the 90s and you were still at your job,
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: they'd come after you too. And I said, yeah, you're
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: probably right. And then you start thinking. Were there dates
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: where it didn't end good? Usually I was really good with,
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: I had a lot of options back then. If I
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: dated a girl from 9 o'clock to 11, nothing happened.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: That was fun. I knew who I could call at
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: 12 a.m. or 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. and do
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: my thing. But, you know, it's scary that somebody can
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: say he did this to me, he did that to me,
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: and automatically the man is guilty. Just guilty. Right. You
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: lose everything. So on my show, I really rail about
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: that a lot because it's changed the whole spectrum of
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: what news and journalism is. And it's very dangerous that
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: suddenly we're no longer a country where, you know, you're
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: innocent until proven guilty. Yeah. Now you're guilty immediately. You
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: get your sentencing, your cancellation or your jail time. And
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: it's hub and smoke. It is gone.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: The court of public opinion seems much more powerful than
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the courts, the court system. And it's very, very scary
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: because you are, you know, you're at the mercy of
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: people that either like you or don't like you or believe,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: you know, believe your story as opposed to looking at facts.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: And that's really a very scary thing to look at.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, I know Donald Trump for many years.
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: And I was out with him years ago. We dated
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: the same girl. Kind of at the same time. Who? Yeah,
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: a little weird. It got a little weird. Him and
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: I had a big fight.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Who was the girl?
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: Kari Young, the model. Okay. And I moved to L.A.,
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: and we weren't together. But every time I came back
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: to New York, I'd hook up. We'd be together, but
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: she was dating him. So we kind of crisscrossed a
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: little bit. Okay. A lot of people like to call
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: him racist. I was at tables with him at restaurants
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: where he signed checks for people like Russell Simmons, Sean Combs,
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: who wanted to start a restaurant, or whatever kind of
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: clothing line. Didn't even ask for when they can pay
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: him back. Jesse Jackson loved him. Al Sharpton was at
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: his tables. Girlfriend. I'm mentioning is half black. He's not racist,
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: but it takes one person to say it. Yeah. And
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: it just sticks like glue.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I'm trying.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: To say he used the word rigors the other day
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: for election rigors. And CNN and MSNBC said, I think
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: we know why he chose that word. It rhymes with
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: the N word. No, just stop it. I mean, these
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: are real professional people saying this kind of shit. It's
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: so ridiculous.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: So you know him personally. What are your thoughts on
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: everything that's going on with him? I mean, today he's
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: showing up in Georgia. And what are your thoughts on
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: what's going on with Donald?
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll be very upfront. I'm a Trump guy. I
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: used to hate his guts. I used to write about
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: him all the time in New York. Mm-hmm. I hated
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: him after the whole girlfriend debacle. And then I began
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: to like him. And I voted for him. I had
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: a conversation with him about why he's running and how
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: much he thinks he can do. And he sold me.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: I like outsiders. I like people who come in a
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: room and change shit. Kick over chairs and make people
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: take notice. So I voted for him twice. I'll tell
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: you right now, I think he's gonna beat this rap.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of it's gonna be thrown out.
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: But I'll tell you right now, that mugshot they take
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: of him is gonna be bigger than Che Guevara t-shirts
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: and Mickey Mouse t-shirts. Millions of people are gonna wear
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: that shirt. They've made him a martyr now. And Joe
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: Biden can barely find the light switch in his bedroom.
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: You can't you they've just given they've just given Donald
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: Trump so much more power. And I think he'll I
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: think he'll succeed. I think he'll come back and win.
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: And I think we need it because the country is
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: going to shit. Right. I'm sure you're I'm sure you're liberal.
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: It's OK. No, no.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, listen, I'm more. Yeah, I'm more liberal.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: But I also know I also know Donald Trump. I.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: You know, I find him interesting.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: I find him funny.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of things that I like
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: about him. There's a lot of things I don't like
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: about him in the way that he treats people. And,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: you know, some of the things he says are very abrasive.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: And listen, I had my own experience with him where
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: he asked me to be on Celebrity Apprentice.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask you that. Yeah. Yeah.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: And I, I met up with Michael Cohen. They asked
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: me to do the show. They came to me. I
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: didn't go to them.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: And I ended up choosing to do celebrity.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Rehab with Dr. Drew because I felt seen by Drew.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, I felt like this guy can really help me.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: And I was really struggling. I had become a recluse.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: I felt like the whole world was talking about me
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: and I wanted the opportunity for the world to see
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: me for who I was, and I felt like I
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: wouldn't get that chance on The Apprentice. I thought that
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: really I could get some help with Drew, but also
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I could feel like I was in a safe place.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: And when I told him that I wasn't doing his show,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: I remember he did some article with TMZ and said,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: I don't even know who that girl is.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: Who is she?
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: I would never ask her to do my show. And
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: I was like, how could he say that? And then
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: later he invited me to his Christmas party. He brought
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: in a fake guy, a guy that looked like Tiger
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Woods to say that we were in the same place.
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: Really crazy. So, yeah, I mean, so listen, I get Donald.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: I understand him. I'm a New Yorker.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: I get that like vibe that he has going. A
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: lot of people, it's too abrasive, but he does some
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: things that are way too abrasive for, he does.
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: He does. He has very little truth. He's abrasive. He, um,
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: I like to say that he's from the ready, fire,
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: aim school of speaking to people. He doesn't aim, he
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: fires first. But he is a counter puncher and a
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: tough guy that I know that can be very, people
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: can take that and want to hate him. I get it.
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: But I also know his funny side and his helpful
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: side is, And I grew up in that. I'm a
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: New Yorker. I was around mafiosa guys all my life.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: So I know what they're like. They work with iron workers,
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: concrete guys, window people, construction guys. And you adopt a
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: certain personality that's different than a Jeff Bezos billionaire. You
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: develop a different kind of exterior when you're around those
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: tough guys. So to me, it's fine. I'm a loud Italian.
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: He doesn't scare me. I told him I was going
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: to kill him. You know, we had a big fight
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: and then we made up. Yeah. But yeah, I totally
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: know what you're saying. Sometimes I go, why did he
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: just say that? That was stupid. You know, I know.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: I know. Yeah.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: So incidentally, do you still speak to Harvey Weinstein in prison?
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: No, not since he's gone away. What happened to Harvey
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: and I, I'll tell you as briefly as I can.
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: I had somebody paint a painting for him because he
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: was very good to me. You know, a book deal,
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: a movie deal. So I got someone to paint a
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: painting that said Harvey Wood instead of Hollywood. When I
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: went to go pay for it to get it, some
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: girl asked me, who is this for? I said, it's
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: my friend, you know, Harvey Weinstein. He's a producer. And
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: she goes, oh, he's dating a friend of mine in England.
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: And I knew Harvey was married here in Connecticut. And
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: I said, okay. So I called him and said, Harvey,
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: nobody says you're dating a girl in England. That's not true.
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: And he called me back and said, it's true. What
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: do we do? So we got together. And what we
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: did was I said, I will... write, I will call
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: your publicist, Miramax, I'll give them stories of other people.
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: So if any other paper calls to ask about this
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: affair you're having, they can trade and butter and give
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: them another story. So he paid me a lot of
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: money every month for about a year, cut to 2017.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: I'm coaching my son. He calls me on the sideline.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: He goes, I need you at the Four Seasons. When
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: can you get here? I said, in about an hour.
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: I go to the Four Seasons. He goes, they're doing
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: a hit job on me. I said, who? I don't know.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: But they're asking questions about me. And a lot of
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: people are talking. We've got to find out who's doing
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: this story. I'll pay you X amount. Find out about
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: the author, who's doing it. I said, all right. OK.
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: He never said the word rape. He just said a
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: hit job. And I thought, that's probably a story about
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: him being bossy and a prick and loud. I called
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: him about a week later. He said, and it was strong.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: He goes, no, hold tight, hold tight. I'll let you know.
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: Don't worry about it. Then I started seeing stories in
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: the paper from Rose McGowan about this producer who raped her.
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: And I was putting two of them together. And I said,
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: that feels like Harvey. And at that point, I knew
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: that that was the job on him. So one night
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: he texted me and said, help me. And I said, Harvey,
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: you know, I call him Ronan Sinatra. But, you know,
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Ronan Farrow is writing this article. He's untouchable. Hollywood liberal
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: elite dating Barack Obama's former speechwriter. There's nothing anybody can
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: do with this kid. He's untouchable. I said, if I
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: were you, I would come up with, were you ever
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: molested by a rabbi or an uncle or anybody? It
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: takes a monster to make a monster. Maybe that's for out.
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: He goes, AJ, it was all consensual. He just kept
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: saying that. I said, well, there's nothing you can do now.
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: It's going to come out. So I never ever helped
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: him throughout his rape situation. I helped him in 2003
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: when it came to his affair. We later married the woman, Georgina.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: He married her, left his wife and married her. So
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: people misconstrue that as if I was there to help
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: him with the rape stuff. Not at all. He asked
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: me for help and I never did anything because I
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: had a wife, I have sisters, I have a daughter.
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: I would have fucking knocked him out. I would never
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: have done that. But he said to me, you know,
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: I know the people who are talking about me, George Clooney,
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck. If I told stories about them,
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: Hollywood would fall down to its knees. I know everything.
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: I said, you're probably right. You're probably right. I know
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: I'm right. But I don't rap on anybody. That's the
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: last I heard from him. Wow. Wow.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: So that's very interesting.
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: So I think that people can understand that you've been
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: through everything for the last, how long has it been?
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: 30 years that you've been doing gossip?
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 91. Yeah. 91.
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: So yeah. So you know where the bodies are buried.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: You've been part of some, I wouldn't say scandals, but
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: you've been in the news yourself. What do you think
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: is the most misunderstood thing about you?
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: About me yeah um well I think a lot of
• 58:51
  Speaker 5: people I think a lot of people don't think I'm
• 58:58
  Speaker 5: honest and I'm so on I write the truth I
• 59:02
  Speaker 5: don't care I write the truth about me I tell
• 59:05
  Speaker 5: the truth about me three days ago on my podcast
• 59:08
  Speaker 5: I said I'm going to AA.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: Things have gotten out of control. I lost my nephew
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: who was like my brother. I'm going through a separation
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: and divorce. I'm living in hotels. My listeners know everything
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: about me. I don't like that people think I'm full
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: of shit or just some guy who's coming up with
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: stories and throwing them out there in the universe no
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: everything I do is very open and honest and checked
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: out and other than that I don't even know and
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: beyond that Rachel I don't even care you know I'm
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: 61 right now I've gotten this far I'm not going
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: to fold my hand and walk away. This is who
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: I am. Right.
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: Well, I love that about you.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's, I mean, it's evident you are like
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the OG of like, you know, a reporter, a journalist,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: someone who really gets it, someone who's been through it
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and lived it, understands what it's like to cover a story.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: And there are very few and far between people like that.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Do you have anything in your life you want to
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: share that was like the most exciting thing that's ever
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: happened to you or something you.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: Covered that you just were so proud of?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: Covered. Or dead, whatever. Well, I always liked the fact that,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: this might sound shallow, but when I got the job
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: as a gossip columnist in New York, it gave me
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: entree to every place in New York, every restaurant, every play,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: you name it, I was there. And then... When I
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: left gossip, I became a television personality. I was on
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: the other side of the rope. And I don't think
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: journalists like that because I made the switch. And then
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: I became the guy they hunted. But in terms of
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: what I'm really proud about, I'm proud that at my age,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: with a marriage that was disintegrating, I was able to
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: meet a wonderful girl. And I've been with her for
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: three years now. And I rationalized with myself, you know,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: you probably got 20 years left there. Be happy. Take
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: care of your kids, which I do. I love them.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: I'll see them tonight. But you know what? You got
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: to be happy. You got to find your own happiness.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: And if it's not at home and you meet this
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: girl and she's tremendous, then go get her. And I did.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: It's been three years. So that's right now what I'm
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: most happy about. And I'm really happy that I have
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: this podcast, Same as a Bitch, where I don't really
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: just do gossip. I talk about old Hollywood stories Most
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: of my listeners love the fact that I have all
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: these personal stories, even about my family that they love
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: to hear. So I'm very lucky in that regard that
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: I get to open a microphone and spill my guts
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: every day and have people wait for me and listen and,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: and support me and, It's really a great feeling. I
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: think that you have that now, and you're going to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: have even more of it as you go down this road.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: I remember the rankings when I used to look at them.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: I was up there at the top for a while.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: But I found out I don't read reviews because, like
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: I said before, if you believe the best review, you've
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: got to believe the worst review. And I won't look
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: at anything anymore. I know who I am. My listeners
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: know who I am. My girlfriend knows who I am.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: That's it. My kids, that's it. Everyone else can go
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: fuck themselves.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: I've already done it. I've proved myself.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: You definitely have proved yourself. Okay, AJ Benza, where can
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: people find your podcast?
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: My podcast is on Patreon. It's five bucks a month.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: It's called Same as a Bitch. I usually do one
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: or two free shows a week. You can find them
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: on any podcast service, you know, Apple, whatever. It's out there.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: And I do politics as a bitch as well once
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: a week. But that's where I am. Five bucks a
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: month on Patreon or free twice a week. Awesome.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Well, I will be signing up. I'm so happy we've met.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: I've loved our conversation.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: You'd like it. Yeah. You'd like it. And you know what?
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: If you ever get in a jam again... You know,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: I'm a good guy to know to get you out
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: of the jam.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: That is right.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: Hopefully I won't be calling you about that. But if
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: I get in a jam, I'm calling you first.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: I got to tell you real quick. I don't want
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: to bring up a sore subject. But when Tiger had
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: that car wreck a couple of years, several years back,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: I know what happened. And I know why he was
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: kind of let off. There's a judge down there. who
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: plays golf with him. And he wasn't about to look
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: into Tiger's situation, whether he was on drugs or what
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: have you. So I reported that on my podcast as well.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: I thought you might like to hear that. But I
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: hope he's well. I'm not a golf fan, but he
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: was amazing. You guys had the tabloids screaming for a while.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: And like I said, I go back with you on
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: that awful day of 9-11, seeing your face on the newspaper.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: And once you got infamous or famous, I just knew,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: I know I'm going to know this girl somehow. I
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: know it. And as it turns out, we do. We
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: have similar friends. So I'm glad we do.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm sorry it's taken this long.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: I got 20 more years, but we'll be all right. Okay, good.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate you. We will be in touch.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: All right. Take care, doll.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Misunderstood. I'm your host,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: Rachel Yucatel. Please be sure to subscribe to the show
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: and give us a five-star rating and review. You can
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: support the show by joining our Patreon at patreon.com slash
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: misunderstood with Rachel Yucatel. Do you have ideas for the
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: show or want to reach out? Email us at infomisunderstoodpodcast
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: at gmail.com. That's spelled M-I-S-S understood. Thank you so much,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: and I'll see you next time.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: This family is on the brink of civil war.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: Mobland, the hit original series, is back, exclusively on Paramount +.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: We are the Harrigans. Don't know the name? Google us.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: From the underworld of Guy Ritchie.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: Do you want to step up the ladder?
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 3: I want Conrad dead.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: You want to walk?
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: I'll give you a walk. Stream the brand new series
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: of Mobland from 18th of September exclusively on Paramount +.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: Subscription required. 18 plus. T's and C's apply.