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Mark interviews Roger Friedman of Showbiz411. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, Roger Friedman, the great entertainment reporter. His website if
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: you should check it every day, there's always good stories.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Showbiz for one one dot com. Showbiz for one one
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: dot com. Roger Friedman, how you doing.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I'm great. It was fun seeing you last night.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Mark, Well, last night was you know, there was Elaines
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the great celebrity restaurant for fifty years. Last night was
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the reunion of Elaine's. The customers, the crowd, but it was.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: The fifteenth anniversary of Elaine's passing, which she would be
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: ninety five, I think, or ninety six. But it's amazing
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  Speaker 3: the fifteen years have gone by, and the place where
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: they had this event, called Hudson Malone on it's fifth
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: forward fifty third Street was packed, just packed with people
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  Speaker 3: who'd been to Alan's. An amazing situation. She would have
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: been so thrilled to see all those people in there
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  Speaker 3: toasting her and you know, just having a good time.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Except great crowd, but you know, we had seen these
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: people twenty years ago. Twenty five looked a lot older,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: These people crowd. We didn't look at it old, but
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: they did.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: But people always ask the same thing. Elaines you could
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: go in there any night and was filled with famous faces, celebrities,
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  Speaker 1: movie stars, all these making Why is there nothing like
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that today?
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  Speaker 3: You know, there might be somewhere, but people don't since
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: the pandemic in particular, people don't really.
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  Speaker 2: Go out anymore.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: They did and it's packed in.
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  Speaker 2: But Elaine's was a place where he weren't really late
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  Speaker 2: at night.
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  Speaker 3: At the end of the night, you would at ten
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  Speaker 3: or eleven o'clock, when you were finished at theater or
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: dinner or whatever, you would say, let's go to Alan's.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: And that's what made.
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  Speaker 3: It special because people came pouring in very late and
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: stay till two in the morning, and it was, you know,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: lots of great conversation. I just interviewed Woody Allen. It's
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: on my site on Showbiz four one one. I just
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: interviewed Woody Allen for his ninetieth birthday ninety and ninety
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: and we had it's a great interview. It's an hour
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  Speaker 3: and a half and on video. And we talked about
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  Speaker 3: Elaines and he said he even at the height of
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  Speaker 3: his fame with any Hall and all, that he was
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: the least famous person in the restaurant and he was
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: constantly meeting people. In fact, he met the philosopher Simone
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: de Bouvoir there, of all people, I mean, that's how
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: crazy it was where people came.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: From all over the world to be at Alaians.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes you see the biggest Hollywood writers, but they
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: give you an awe because like the greatest figures in
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Saul Bella would be there, and this guy.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So Robert Altman, a, Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller and
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: all kinds of people like that. I'm at Urdigen and
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: movie stars came in all the time. I used to
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: sit late at night with Daphney Coleman when he was
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: in town, and all kinds of great One night I
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: met Greg Allman in there. That was amazing. And Phil Spector.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: On my fortieth birthday. Phil Spector came in and he
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  Speaker 3: had like ten bodyguards, all with holsters and guns. And
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  Speaker 3: Elaine said to me, go talk to him, and I'm like,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I'm right, what are you talking about? He has ten bodyguards.
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  Speaker 3: She goes, just go on over and say hi. So
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I did, and I had a good interview with him.
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  Speaker 1: Although I remember him one night he punched somebody who
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: did he punch? He got no fight there one night,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: did he really?
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Not there occasionally there were fights. And last night in
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: front of the bar, which is a very nice place,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: this restaurant, there was some kind of fight on the
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  Speaker 3: street on the Sidefeld. It was just like a lanes.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: It was like in honor of Elaane.
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  Speaker 1: So you know what, here's why there's no big celebrity
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  Speaker 1: residence where you're going. There's a million, sir. Nowadays, there's
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: no celebrities that everybody would know. You know, like if
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I read page six, I don't know who any of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: these people.
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  Speaker 2: Are, and now well there's somebody you know.
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  Speaker 3: First of all, celebrities aren't value sort of the same
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: way now, like the movie studios want to have paid
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: influencers come to the red carpet. They walk the red carpet.
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  Speaker 3: You've never heard of these people before in your life.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: They're dressed very strangely, and then they're supposed to be
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: promoting the movies to their followers. Well, these people are
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: not celebrities, and it's very peculiar to see them at
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  Speaker 3: all these movies. There's this happened this week, but two
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  Speaker 3: different two or three different premieres where no one knew
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  Speaker 3: who these people were, Yeah, this is what this is
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  Speaker 3: what the studios want.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: They don't care whether you know candiceberg and let's say
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  Speaker 3: I'm just using her as example, or or any you know,
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  Speaker 3: famous movie star comes to the red carpet. They want
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  Speaker 3: someone who's on TikTok.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because if you bring Kandasbergen or Clint Eastwood, whoever,
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  Speaker 1: or half the world doesn't know who these people are anymore.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very peculiar.
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  Speaker 3: I can't imagine that that's the case, but I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: it probably is. And they're only in you know, during
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the summer, there was this movie with Austin Butler and
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: outside on the Red carpet. It was a beautiful night
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: and there were tons of these people walking around in costumes.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Finally we said to them, who are you?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: What is all this?
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  Speaker 3: And while we were talking to them on the street,
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  Speaker 3: fans were coming up to the people on the street
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  Speaker 3: who had nothing to do with the movie premiere.
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  Speaker 2: We're coming up to them and saying, oh.
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  Speaker 3: I watch you all the time, like you watch them
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  Speaker 3: all the time, and what do they do? You know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: they don't really do anything. It's a different world. Yeah,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: you know, it's just a different world because of the
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: phones and the social media and the access.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Hey well, Avery, watch Roger Freeman's interview with Woody Allen
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: on his site showbiz for one one dot com. So
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: tell us more about what he on. Is he in
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: good spirit?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: He's in great spirits.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: He's in good shape, he told I got him to
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  Speaker 3: tell a story he had told me a long time
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: ago when he was a stand up comedian and he
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: didn't want to be a stand up comedian, but he
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: signed out.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: He had been a writer, you know, for your.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Show, show Sid Caesar and all that stuff, and he
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: got an agent and the agent said, we don't represent writers,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: we only represent performers, so you have to go out
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: and do stand up comedy routine around the country. And
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: he didn't want to do it, and they sent him out.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: And you know, he plays the clarinet. He plays it
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: now and played it then. And he used to bring
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: his records with him to the hotel rooms, but he
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: needed a record player. So in each city he would
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: be at the city for a week or two weeks,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: he would buy a new record player and put it
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: in the room and play his records and come back
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: from the clubs he wasn't like the kind of comedian
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: who stays out all night drinking. He comes back to
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  Speaker 3: the room, practices the clarinet, and then when he's in
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: the city, he leaves the record player there.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, so he left dosens and record players around
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  Speaker 2: the country.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: People are people under thirty are going, what the hell
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: are they talking about? What's a record player?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: What's there's a record player?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, he also writes on an underwood manual typewriter.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: You kidd No, He's written every single thing he's ever
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: written on the same typewriter. He's never seen a computer.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: I've seen I have this and I've taken a nice
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: picture of him in his office with the with the typewriter.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: He goes to I said, how do you get the ribbons?
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  Speaker 3: He says, well, I go down. I go down the
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Union Square. There's some little store still there that's selling
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: the ribbons to this typewriter from seventy.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Four years ago when he got it. Wow, isn't that amazing?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, New York go watch this interview. It's on showbiz
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: fo one dot com. Hey did you know Olivia Nosey?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Did you ever work with her?
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: No?
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: I never knew her. You know her book is out.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: It's a lital failure. It's like number ten thousand or
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: something on Amazon. Nobody wants to buy it. It's the
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: kind of thing that's like a media story. It's just
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: for media gossip. Regular people who are listening to this
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: don't care about it. But Olivia Newsy apparently was writing
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: a profile of Robert Kennedy Junior last year for New
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: York Magazine, and she was having an affair with him,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: and she was blocking negative stories in the rest of
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: the press about him. She's completely crazy. She had a
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: live in fiance and he's a journalist too, and he
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: was taking notes the whole time that this was going on.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: She thought he wasn't paying attention, just having this affair
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: with Kennedy who said he wanted to impregnate her in
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: emails and stuff like that, and the fiance, who had
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: his own problems at New York Magazine a couple of
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: years ago. He kept track of all this. So he's
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: been putting this up now on substack and charging people
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: to read it. Of course, no one's no one's paying
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: for it.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Well, what about the journals.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: They're all Kennedy haters. Why don't they but how come
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: they're not buying this book.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Now, they're not buying the book.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: They have no interest in her because this is legiti
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: because MSNBC, you know, they don't like Trump obviously, but
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: they're actual journalists and this woman has done something that's
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: a violation of every journalistic ethic. So and I think
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: people on all sides feel that way. So she's she's
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: kind of cooked, and she's really doubled down on it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: And Vanity Fair hired her to be their West Coast editor,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: and now of course they want out.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Of the contract. They didn't realize how crazy she was.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: She's like a man out of country now.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: So yes, she's a reporter without a magazine. So it's
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: a disaster. Meantime, Kennedy's wife, Cheryl Hines, published her own book.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Knowing this one was coming out, she published her own.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Book to get ahead of it.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: And that book has sold two copies, maybe three.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: We're out of time, but everybody check out this good stories,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: new stuff every day showbizfour one one dot com, Showbiz
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: four one one dot com, and take a look at
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the Woody Allen interview. It's a powerful video. And Roger
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Friedman thanks for being with us, Thank you, take care,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: don't forget Buck and Clay Noon Today, excellent show every day.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And then the most listened to radio show in America.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You got Sean Hannity three o'clock, Jesse Kelly at six,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and our great new show Jimmy Fayala. He'll be with
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: us in the next hour. Jimmy Fayla now every night
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: at nine o'clock on seven, ten, wor