George Clooney Is Our Friend!
Posted on | December 10, 2016 | 4 Comments
I love this guy. What’s not to love? On the downside, he could have a second career as a used-car salesman … but only as the best ever in the world. Fun guy, nice guy, not afraid to talk about his johnson. Like I said, what’s not to love?
Read the storyKeith Urban’s Hard Road
Posted on | December 8, 2016 | 3 Comments
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’ve got a thing for smells. For whatever reason, smells light up my brain like nothing else. And I’ve met exactly no one who smells as great as Keith Urban. That being the case, I told my editor I wanted to start the second section with how Urban smells. There […]
Read the storyThe World’s Most Dangerous Woman
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 3 Comments
The magazine nearly ruined the lede to this story by worrying overmuch that I made it seem like I was in the bedroom with Rhonda Rousey while she slept. Uh, no. It’s called reporting. It’s called creating a scene out of the reporting. Would such a fuss have been made if the subject was […]
Read the storyCharlie Manson Now
Posted on | February 1, 2014 | 1 Comment
He still calls me (collect) every once in a while. Sometimes I’ll pick up, sometimes I won’t, I’ll just sit there looking at the name blinking on my caller ID and wait until it goes away.
Read the storyTerrence Howard’s Dangerous Mind
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 2 Comments
He’s the leading man on network TV’s biggest new show, but trouble and turmoil have chased him his entire life. The ‘Empire’ star opens up
Read the storyFinger banging w/ Daniel Craig
Posted on | February 2, 2014 | No Comments
He usually doesn’t say a lot but the day we met, over a glass of wine, he got downright chatty. I wonder if he regrets it?
Read the storyJohn Mayer Is Out of His Mind, Maybe
Posted on | June 3, 2012 | 1 Comment
I love John Mayer. I think he’s probably one of the most genuine geniuses out there. Absolutely the real deal. The problem is, his mouth is always messing him up. He just can’t help it. He’s got to say what’s on his mind, he’s driven like that, and there’s no stopping him. I spent two days with him and all I had to do was sit there while he flapped his lips about “the Joshua Tree of vaginas” and the like. Every once in a while, I’d try to get a word in edgewise, but mostly it was to no avail: he’d just roll right over me with his verbiage and keep on going. At the end, I felt flattened, and it took me days and days to recover enough to write my story. It turned out okay and caused a big stink that was shortly overshadowed by more blab-blab by Mayer. Like I say, he can’t help himself.
Read the storyThe Original Son of Anarchy
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 3 Comments
Sutter is one interesting cat. Used to weigh 400 pounds, got rid of it all but for around 180 lbs of it. Just imagine what kind of brain can accomplish something like that. Probably the same kind that could think up Sons of Anarchy. Love the guy, super cool, but I hear he’s a little […]
Read the storyThe Psychedelic Warrior
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 4 Comments
Joe Rogan, over-the-top UFC color man and a 21st-century Timothy Leary, is one of those guys about whom you can only say, sui generis and ultra fun. He tried to get meto go inside a cyro-chamber with him but I kept thinking my messed-up legs would shatter in the cold. And how much ultra […]
Read the storyKaty Perry: Little Miss Sun Shine
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | No Comments
This was an odd one and a real surprise. The reporting was extremely difficult and I thought Perry was being difficult and I felt my interviews with her sucked and, in fact, that she sucked. But oddly enough, in the writing of the piece, I found that I liked her and liked her a lot […]
Read the storyThe Dream Life of Rivers Cuomo
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 3 Comments
HOW FATHERHOOD, FREUDIAN THERAPY AND TINDER HELPED THE WEEZER FRONTMAN FIND HIS GROOVE
Read the storyTodd Phillips’ Chaos Theory
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | No Comments
The director of ‘The Hangover’ and ‘War Dogs’ hustled his way to Hollywood gold, but can he survive fatherhood and middle age?
Read the storyChristopher Walken: the Devil Inside
Posted on | February 3, 2010 | 2 Comments
A couple o’ decades ago, when this story first came out, Bob Dylan called the magazine (Details, a big deal back then) and told my boss it was the best profile he’d read in six years. Bob Dylan! Six years!
Read the storyRiot Girl!
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 3 Comments
She was always funny and feisty but Melissa McCarthy spent years struggling in obscurity So how did she become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars? OFTEN, MELISSA MCCARTHY finds herself in an otherworldly fugue state. When this happens, she never knows what will happen. Anything could happen. It’s kind of wild. At one point a while […]
Read the storyVampire of the Hollywood Hills
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 3 Comments
WELCOME TO THE MIDDLE AGE OF MARILYN MANSON: MORE GYM, LESS ABSINTHE – AND HIS BEST ALBUM IN YEARS
Read the storyMike Love’s Cosmic Journey
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | 2 Comments
Mike Love’s Cosmic Journey The Beach Boys singer has been meditating for 49 years. Why is it so hard for him to find peace? MIKE LOVE BOUNDS UP THE STAIRS INSIDE HIS MASSIVE LAKE TAHOE home (10 bedrooms in all, 12 bathrooms, two elevators, not to be believed) and into a large walk-in closet stuffed […]
Read the storyWhy John Cena Can’t Lose
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | No Comments
WHY JOHN CENA CAN’T LOSE The top wrestler in the WWE is crossing over into Hollywood and reality TV — but all he really wants is to make peace with his dad SOMEWHERE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF TAMPA, Florida, John Cena isn’t driving as fast as he normally drives in his Bentley Continental Flying Spur […]
Read the storyDonald Trump Lets His Hair Down
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 3 Comments
Some editors at the magazine read this piece, didn’t know what to make of it, didn’t want to publish it. Thank God for Jann Wenner, who deemed it funny and ran it right away. Lots of press about Donald’s hair-groom revelations followed and I believe the mag sold a few extra issues because of it.
Read the storyGlenn Beck Is Gonna Get It
Posted on | November 20, 2016 | No Comments
He’s just so avuncular in person, it’s hard to see the frothing nutbag he’s generally thought to be. He claims he’s been totally misunderstood, but if that’s the case, then why is he always apologizing for his part remarks? A more complicated guy than I would have thought at first fairly firm handshake.
Read the storyPhil Collins’ Last Stand
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | No Comments
I really liked Phil. It seemed painful for him to be open about certain things but he worked through the pain and said what he said. Readers really responded to the story, with an outpouring of Phil-love that I thought was great.
Read the storyThe Men (Boys?) of ‘This Is the End’
Posted on | March 1, 2013 | 11 Comments
Man, did I get a lot of hate for this one — not from Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, or James Franco, of course, but from Jonah Hill and JH fans. I guess Jonah Hill thought I was rude, not to mention silly and ignorant (see Comments). I have no problem copping to all three. But, golly, does he take himself a little too seriously or what? Loosen up, dude!
Read the storyCharlie Sheen!
Posted on | August 22, 2012 | No Comments
Frankly, I kinda liked this story and I kinda liked Sheen. Actually, I liked him a lot. I have a couple of amusing tales to tell that didn’t make the piece and will reveal all when I get a spare freaking moment.
Read the storyWoody’s (Mostly) Happy Ending
Posted on | June 3, 2012 | No Comments
I went to New Orleans to see Woody Harrelson. I had coffee with Woody, I went back to a hotel room with Woody, I watched Woody get stoned, I watched the sun fade, and I watched the night arrive hard and bleak. At one point, I thought Woody was going to get up and punch […]
Read the storyMark Wahlberg Handles His Business
Posted on | June 3, 2012 | No Comments
This was my third story about Wahlberg and, just like the first two, he hated it. This time around, it’s (mainly) because he said something about 9/11 that got picked up and blown all out of proportion. He had to backtrack on it, say many mea culpas; then he went on to blame me for […]
Read the storyEd O’Neill is the real deal
Posted on | July 2, 2012 | No Comments
This started off as a much longer, much better profile of O’Neill but got cut down to size for space reasons (or so they said). It’s not nearly as good but it does give you a taste of a real Hollywood tough guy.
Read the storyBruce Dern Arriveth
Posted on | January 1, 2013 | 2 Comments
Me and Mr. Dern do Hollywood.
Read the storyDon Johnson & the Damage Done
Posted on | February 2, 2014 | 1 Comment
You know what famous groupie Pamela Des Barres thought and felt upon first seeing DJ in the buff? Well, I’m not going to tell you. You’ll just have to read the piece.
Read the storyAll that Chaz
Posted on | June 3, 2012 | 2 Comments
Chaz Bono, the life & times of going from a her to a him. I think he hated the story, if only because I focused on the most salacious aspects of his world, specifically, his desire for a penis. Me, I don’t think I landed on that because it was juicy, ha ha; it’s just […]
Read the storyWill Ferrell’s Beautifully Empty Mind
Posted on | June 3, 2012 | No Comments
I dunno. Lots of people at the magazine liked this one, but I don’t. I just don’t think I got very far with Ferrell. My editor said I got as far as anyone could. Maybe. But I doubt it. Oh, well. Next!
Read the storyGeorge Clooney in Rolling Stone
Posted on | November 10, 2011 | No Comments
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, everything that’s currently being taken from the story by the tabloid media — about Clooney’s virginity, first O, and all that — is not what the story itself is about. Those are only the most so-called newsworthy items and there’s more to it than that. Or maybe there’s not, and I’m fooling myself. I dunno. Go read the story in full (I will put it here in about 30 days) and judge it, and me, and Clooney, for yourself.
In the meantime, let’s listen to George talk about getting things in his head as a kid — like jumping off a cliff — and getting stuck on the thought, shall we?
Read the storyJeremy Piven
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | No Comments
Nothing about this little piece is any good. Nothing. Oh, well.
Read the storyAlec Baldwin’s Spectacular Failure!
Posted on | March 26, 2010 | 1 Comment
Here’s how this story almost never happened. The day before the scheduled interview, I was staying at a fleabag hotel out in the Hamptons, when the phone rang with Baldwin on the other end. Earlier, he’d asked me to pick a restaurant for our meeting. I’d scouted around and found one that he apparently frequented. But now, on the phone, he was boiling, furiously mad. He laced right into me. He said, don’t you know nothing? He said, that place is a pit. He said, you know what? He said, If this is the kind of place you choose to meet me in, I’m going to think hard about whether I want to do this or not. And then he hung up on me. Wowza! Anyway, things got smoothed over and we had breakfast the next day at another joint, with not a word from him about his explosion. He didn’t apologize, he didn’t shrug and laugh, he didn’t say anything. He just pretended it didn’t happen. Got to love that. What a character!!!!
BTW/ No issue of Men’s Journal has sold more than the one w/ Baldwin on the cover. It was the magazine’s biggest seller ever. Go Baldwin!
Read the storyGlee Gone Wild, the Article
Posted on | August 19, 2010 | 1 Comment
Well, it did create stink for a few moments and then, like all things, the uproar passed. I heard through the grapevine that the piece really pissed off everyone at the show — everyone but for Chris Colfer. Which is as it should be. Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, while chatting with Russell Brand at the Chateau Marmont, I saw Glee creator Ryan Murphy slide into the table next to mine and until I left, we both ignored each other, studiously. Then again, maybe it was only me doing the ignoring. By that time, he’d probably long moved on and forgotten even my name ….
Read the storyReader reaction to my Glee piece …
Posted on | April 5, 2010 | 5 Comments
has been uniformly and without exception negative. I’m unable to post the entire Glee piece here yet but I thought I might post a bit of the commentary, as in:
“Erik Hedegaard’s piece on the cast of Glee was some of the most self-
absorbed adolescent twaddle I’ve seen in a professional publication.
His puerile, confrontational questions, snide asides and bored
posturing suggest he is either too burned out to do his job, or
sabotaged the piece out of spite. In any event, your readers deserve
better.” J.E. — Sierra Madre, CA
Personally, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or what. I’ve only regretted writing one or two pieces ever, the story about Kiefer Sutherland being one of them. Will I end up feeling the same way about Tales of Glee? Come back here in a few months and see …
update: Finally, a somewhat positive response:
Erik Hedegaard’s interviews with the Glee cast were a victory for everyone
who ever suffered the psychic vampirism of the high school thespian crowd.
It is funny, if sad, that any of them actually thought that the same weak
personae they cultivated in high school by which they sucked all energy
out of the universe around them would work in the setting of a Rolling
Stone interview. It is sadder that Jane Lynch is looking at 50 and has not
evolved. These are not smart people. — Jared, Sacramento, Ca.
Ricky Gervais
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 3 Comments
I went to see Gervais expecting to love the guy, because I’m a huge fan of his stuff; but the visit was somewhat less than a meeting of like minds. The result is the story I wrote, which was exactly true to my experience of the guy. Got lots of hate mail, however, from Ricky […]
Read the storySnooki!
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 3 Comments
What else can I say?
Read the storyGerard Butler, Saint & Sinner
Posted on | February 2, 2010 | No Comments
After this one, Butler made fun of me on Jay Leno’s show — my rope-a-dope interview style. I don’t think he cared for the story. I kinda did. Oh — I heard from a very reliable source that during the filming of Chasing Mavericks, Butler rented an extra Four Seasons hotel room to store his surfboards in. Yeah, well, I guess he’s got the money …
Read the storyRoseanne Barr sees pedophile cults
Posted on | February 2, 2014 | No Comments
What more can I say? She’s got a bee in her bonnet.
Read the storyChelsea Handler: Dirty, Slutty, Funny
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 3 Comments
The title tells all, and I will say more, but not now …
Read the storyMichael Cera: Nerdchild
Posted on | September 12, 2011 | No Comments
I have nothing really to add about Cera. He’s a nice guy. There you go.
Read the storyThis Is Your Brain on eBay
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | 1 Comment
A tale of addiction, loss, and little gain. While researching and writing this one, I became a buyer, seller, and collector of LED pocket calculators from the 1970s. At one point, I had over 600 of them and was the third largest collector of the damn things in the world. What the hell was I think? Read this and you’ll find out.
Read the storyCarlos Santana!
Posted on | September 24, 2010 | 1 Comment
This story was a failure, largely because I wrote it at around 5,000 words and it got cut to what you see here now. It was a failure at 5k too, but still … So, read it if you must. But if possible please ignore and go on to the next…
Read the storyThe Girls of Pro Bikini Contests!!!
Posted on | February 3, 2014 | No Comments
America’s cups — read all about em here, the groovy girls who roam the pro bikini-contest circuit!
Read the storyRussell Brand: Sexy Beast
Posted on | August 19, 2010 | 4 Comments
Sheesh, I don’t know, I guess I liked him. Hard to tell. Maybe yes, maybe no. Very draining fellow to hang around, though; while he’s awake he’s always on, demanding to be the center of everyone’s attention, charmingly, of course, but relentlessly. Too bad Get Him to the Greek tanked. I really think it was marketed wrong. Brand should have been positioned as the star, not that chubby dude. Anyway … sorry about the sucky ending; I just couldn’t find a better way out. Win some, lose some…
Read the storyJesse James, before the split
Posted on | February 2, 2014 | No Comments
Post cheating on Sandra Bullock, we all know what a self centered jerk he is. I wish I’d been prescient but such was not the case. He is a weird guy to talk to, though; his affect is just a little left of center. It also adds to his appeal, somewhat.
Read the storyRise & Fall of the Campus Nazi
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CAMPUS NAZI Under a hot, cloud-filled sky at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the boys are slapping along in their Birkenstocks, and the girls are skipping along in their frilly sundresses, and on the second floor of the F.W. Olin Building, in Room 213, eight kids are listening […]
Read the storyJoe Walsh Rides Again
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | 2 Comments
He’s trashed hotel rooms with Keith Moon, had a love affair with a chain
saw and was drunk for thirty years, but against all odds he survived.
Now one of rock’s most underrated guitarists is ready to hit the road
with his original band
Little Jimmy Cameron Gets Even
Posted on | March 31, 2010 | No Comments
Jim Cameron, the director of Avatar, must have been some weird kid. In person, he didn’t want to talk about it, but when I got in touch with some of his former classmates, they opened right up. Pretty funny stuff, when you think about how far he’s come. The man’s drive must be ferocious, and if you believe everything you hear, so must be his temper. Naturally, he didn’t put that temper on display for me. He was calm as could be, up until the moment I started talking about his childhood. Then he jumped to his feet, made some comment about “therapy,” and high tailed it out of the room. Must be more there than even his former pals know about. Probably a lot more.
Read the storyThe Lobster Boy Is a Killer
Posted on | February 3, 2010 | 3 Comments
NOT LONG AGO, A FREAK NAMED Grady Stiles sucked on a Seagram’s 7 and Coke, fired up a Pall Mall, and stared at the moist image of actress Sherilyn Fenn and her genetically fine boobies on the TV screen. This was in his trailer home near Tampa, Florida, in a town called Gibson-ton. Grady was […]
Read the storyMegan Fox Is Just Too Hot
Posted on | March 31, 2010 | No Comments
So, I spent about 1.5 hrs with Megan Fox and did what I could with what I got. She sat across a hotel room from me the entire time, in a hard-back chair, legs crossed, perfectly composed, while I did everything I could to get her to loosen up. At one point, I shucked off my shoes and jumped up on the couch and began waving my arms. Nothing doing. She didn’t even seem to notice. The only time I got her off her mark is when I took her to a full-length mirror, to get her to tell me what she saw. That undid her a little.
Nonetheless, I liked her and thought she was pretty fun, despite herself. Go figure.
Read the story