Gerard Butler: Sinner & Saint
Posted on | March 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
Lots of Butler fans loved this story, feeling that it shed new light on Butler and maybe added some depth. Butler himself, however, has seemed kind of upset by the thing. Check out this clip of him on Jay Leno wherein he talks about the piece and my so-called interview techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt9iHI-LuiE . If you ask me, his response is a little weird. He just seems so damned uncomfortable, even while getting bigs laffs. OTOH, I hear his publicist *loved* the piece and felt that it captures the real Gerry. So … there you go.
Read the storyThe Guys of the Hangover
Posted on | September 24, 2009 | 1 Comment
Hanging with Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, the three stars of Summer 09’s biggest hit movie.
Read the storyThe Heavy Life of Hulk Hogan
Posted on | September 24, 2009 | 1 Comment
Wow. What a guy. And what a lot of stink when the story came about. So he once thought about going OJ on his wife? Big freaking deal. He was in the middle of a brutal divorce. Lots of things go through your head. That doesn’t mean he was going to act on them. Of […]
Read the storySmokin’ with Jason Segel.
Posted on | September 24, 2009 | 2 Comments
The strangest in the Apatow universe is a chain-smoking, hard-drinking, womanizing Everydude who turns each of his humiliating missteps into comedy gold.
Read the storyRobert Downey Jr
Posted on | October 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
I went to a birthday party with Downey, a sit-down affair with maybe about 20 other people, and he spent most of his time with his wife, huddling with her. Other people made a little fuss about him, but he never made a fuss about himself, not even a little. These were Hollywood people, and he seemed content to just be. He’s so wired most of the time, it was nice to see that he can relax and lay off the verbal hijinks.
Read the storyJohnny Depp
Posted on | October 25, 2008 | 1 Comment
This post used to start off, “What more can one say? He’s the best.” And, as the story here testifies, I had good reason to think that. Well, I now have a few reasons to think otherwise. I may post more on this later. Or I may not. Meanwhile, the story remains the same.
Read the storySharon Stone
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
Sharon invited me into a bed and, after due consideration, in I went. Later, someone got the bright idea I was her new fling: Sharon’s Bed Man Revealed. In my dreams. Anyway, she was a delight to pal around with, full of life and high spirits and haughty, too, which is a combination I tend to favor.
Read the storyChuck Palahniuk.
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
Under the skin of Chuck Palahniuk, America’s most deranged novelist CHUCK PALAHNIUK IS PACKING BOXES, large boxes and small boxes. Into some of the boxes go Whitman’s Samplers, chocolate-covered cherries, necklaces strung by him with beads that spell out the names of the addressees, small rubber ducks, birthday candles, novelty erasers and fake dog poo. […]
Read the storyThe Girls of Scream 2
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
Rebecca Gayheart, Neve Campbell, Tori Spelling, S.M. Gellar, etc.
I heard that this story really pissed off Sara Michelle Gellar — and really pleased Tori Spelling. Yeah, well, that’s just as it should be.
Scream Team Kids
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
Another experiment in the “royal we”. I can’t help myself, as in, from the story:
This is no time to be dwelling on moral decay and the loss of true north. We have our Scream 2 Six to think about. There’s Neve Campbell, Party of Five babe and plucky survivor of the first Scream, who in the sequel is a college freshman pledging a sorority. There are her maniac-dodging sisters on campus: Jada Pinkett, so fine in The Nutty Professor and Will Smith’s flame; Rebecca Gayheart, formerly the face of Noxzema and no doubt still quite creamy; and Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy! And then there’s Tori Spelling, who plays Campbell’s character in a movie within the movie (and about whom need we say more?); and, finally, Heather Graham, Boogie Nights’ very own saucy Rollergirl. She is also in the metamovie. It’s called Stab! We refuse to reveal more.
Read the storyMark Wahlberg’s X-Rated Redemption
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
This was my second profile of Wahlberg and my guess is, he wasn’t too happy with it, though in my eyes it’s one big lovefest. In recent months, I’ve run into him several times while out with profile subjects and, grim Wahlberg smile on his lips, he typically says to them, “Be careful. Be very careful.” And then he gives me a hug. I guess that’s the way they do it in Hollywood. Anyway, he’s one of my favorite guys.
Read the storySnoop Dogg
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
Snoop’s Higher Vision For the Doggfather, global domination ain’t nuttin’ but a g-thang
Read the storyAll about Eva (Longoria)
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
Eva Longoria is TV’s hottest, youngest and least desperate housewife These days, lots of people want a piece of Eva Longoria, who is probably the biggest thing to come out of the biggest must-see water-cooler-type program to arrive on network TV in years: ABC’s weird and warped suburban soap opera, Desperate Housewives. Let’s say she […]
Read the storyKiefer Sutherland
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
Drinking to forget with the star of 24 — the magazine gave the story a subhed along those lines, naturally, because it hints at the most lurid bits in the piece. I wasn’t happy with it. And wish I’d done the story differently, too. Kiefer deserved better.
Read the storyThe Words of Leonard Carlo
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
The Words of Leonard Carlo: In a little bar out west lives the most profane man in America. And when he speaks, people listen. Not so much because he’s got all that much to say, but because he’s certain he has the right to say it. This is a story about the perils of freedom, to the soul of one man, at one time.
Read the storyInside Pro Bodybuilding
Posted on | February 2, 2010 | No Comments
This one is from a long time ago, when the great John Homans was my editor at Details, which was then one of the hottest magazines anywhere and routinely ran longform stories. Got many threats upon its publication — threats of physical violence and lawsuit-type threats. None were carried out. Actually, everything I wrote in the piece was true, as was acknowledged by the bodybuilding buff magazines, which in print begin referring to me as a “pencil necked geek.”
Read the storyGisele Bundchen pre Tom Brady
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
She speaks quickly, melodically, charmingly, volubly, dizzyingly, jumping from thought to thought. Soon she is holding forth on her sleeping habits. “Sometimes when it’s too hot,’’ she says, “I just sleep in my underwear. If it’s colder, I sleep in pajamas. I don’t like to feel closed in. I like no pillows. I like very fluffy beds. I sleep on my stomach and sometimes on my side, but never on my back. Now, if I have my boyfriend with me, I kick him out of bed, because I move around a lot. I’m the worst person. I steal blankets.’’
Read the storyArianna Huffington
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
BEAUTY AND THE BLOG
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON abandoned her right-wing ideals, spawned a wildly
influential liberal Web site and made plenty of enemies along the
way-but she’ll still charm the pants off you.
Jack Nicholson
Posted on | October 21, 2008 | No Comments
I’m still too close to this one to say anything about it. I need distance from … the dent! Nonetheless, Nicholson was great to talk to, open and funny and game to go almost any place I wanted to go. More later
Read the storySimon Cowell
Posted on | October 21, 2008 | No Comments
I had more fun reporting and writing this story than just about any other. Cowell is a tremendous character. He’s full of surprises and likes nothing more than for you to tangle with him, roll your eyes in his direction, and snort like you really don’t believe a word he’s saying, even when you do.
Read the storyJustin Timberlake
Posted on | October 21, 2008 | No Comments
In many ways, he’s an interviewer’s dream: open, friendly, not given to taking offense at intrusive questions. It took a while to get him to open up, but once he got going, he basically interviewed himself, asking himself the same kinds of questions I would have asked. A good guy.
Read the storyUma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino
Posted on | October 21, 2008 | 1 Comment
This is one of my most favorite stories ever, in terms of lots of things but mainly structure. I used the royal “we” to write it, since the first person and I have never been on agreeable terms, and caught a lot of flak for doing so. What did Q & T think of the piece? Quentin hated it, or at least his publicist did (see freaked-out letter). As to Uma, how could she not think I’m the swellest guy ever?
Read the storyOwen Wilson and Vince Vaughn
Posted on | October 21, 2008 | No Comments
I got word that Owen, at least, wasn’t thrilled by this one. It seems that I didn’t spend enough time in the story talking about his versatility as an actor. As it happens, however, I am not a film critic, so his versatility, whatever it may be, is not something I thought I could honestly address. As a film-goer, I did feel comfortable saying that he seems to play the same character lots of times; maybe that’s what he really took exception to. In any case, I hope he doesn’t think I was trying to get even with him for how badly he trounced me in foosball. I walked into the game thinking I was pretty good but he beat me fair and square. And I didn’t even mind his gloating. It was well earned.
Read the storyP. Diddy
Posted on | October 20, 2008 | No Comments
I went, I saw, I hung out with. One thing I liked about him, he took care of me while I was in his orbit. Most of them don’t.
Read the storyPerez Hilton
Posted on | October 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
QUEEN OF MEAN
How did a pudgy TV addict from Miami become the most hated man in Hollywood?
Read the storyJon Bon Jovi
Posted on | October 19, 2008 | No Comments
Jon Bon Jovi
He’s a rock-star mogul and family man, political activist and
philanthropist, with a number one album, but he’s still spooked by
elevators.
Dana White of the UFC
Posted on | October 19, 2008 | No Comments
What the f**k is Dana White fighting for?
How a street-brawling, trash-talking hustler from Las Vegas turned the Ultimate Fighting Championship into the fastest-growing sport in America
The way things are going, Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting
Championship, may soon be hailed as the greatest sports promoter ever,
of all time, bigger even than boxing’s Don King, bigger even than pro
wrestling’s Vince McMahon.
He’s taken mixed martial arts, a sport that was essentially
Read the storyJohn Mayer
Posted on | October 19, 2008 | No Comments
The Wonder of John Mayer Land
He’s a hyperverbal rock star hunting for a wife, a hugely. talented
guitarist and songwriter who needs to be a stand-up comic. But don’t
believe the tabloids–nobody knows what’s going on in his head.
The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt
Posted on | October 17, 2008 | 1 Comment
This is the first longish story I’ve done in RS in a while. So far, it’s been all over the JFK-assassination blogs but not one mainstream news organization has picked up on it. Hmmm. BTW / as noted in the piece, I attended high school with St. John Hunt. He was a great guy then and seems to be the same now, despite his decades of meth madness. It was
Read the storyaudio test
Posted on | October 15, 2008 | No Comments
this is a test nothing but a test this is a test nothing but a goddamned test.
Read the storyMickey Rourke
Posted on | October 13, 2008 | 1 Comment
Mickey Rourke used to be the next Brando, but then everything went to hell. Now he wants another chance
Read the storyShania Twain
Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments
Got a call from Twain’s manager, the great Jon Landau, after the story ran. He told me he truly loved the piece and that it was the most insightful writing on the singer to date (yeah, yeah) but that he was sure she would either hate it or be deeply conflicted about it. Never heard one way or the other, however, which is par for the course.
Read the storyBOB SAGET IS ONE DIRTY DAD
Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments
Bob Saget is relaxing on the beach in Miami, shaded from the sun and heat by a cabana and letting his head spin. Once, everybody thought he was Mr. Wholesome, a reputation based on his role as the goody-two-shoes dad on TV’s Full House (also starring those Olsen twins) and the grinning, cheeseball host of […]
Read the storyShane Black
Posted on | October 9, 2008 | No Comments
A decade ago, the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood up and vanished. Now he’s back HOT COMEBACK YOU PROBABLY DON’T know who Shane Black is, but he lives in Los Angeles, in a humongous mansion of the French château style, fourteen great-big, dimly lit rooms in all, where he can shuffle around for days on end […]
Read the storyMe, Professional Gambler
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
It didn’t last long. And it didn’t end well. But at least I left with my shirt.
Read the storyIggy Pop
Posted on | October 9, 2008 | No Comments
WITH A HEART FULL OF NAPALM, HE TERRORIZED AND REVOLUTIONIZED THE WORLD OF ROCK & ROLL NOTHING MAKES SENSE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHO IGGY POP WAS. BACK THEN, RIGHT around 1969, while the rest of the world was going psychedelic, he presided over quite some reign of perverted rock & roll terror. He would slather […]
Read the storyChloe Sevigny
Posted on | October 8, 2008 | No Comments
Chloë Sevigny talks sex, drugs, fashion and her useless brush with Oscar EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, IT SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA TO check in with wispy, ultra-happening, Oscar-nominated, New York-living actress Chloë Sevigny, 28, and see what’s up with her, because a lot often is. This time, she’s found oking a Parliament at […]
Read the storyChristopher Walken
Posted on | October 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
Inside the Mad, Mad Head of Christopher Walken
After this piece ran, Bob Dylan called the magazine to say that it was the best profile he’d read in the past 6 years!
Lefty Kreh’s Only Flycasting Failure
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
Sports Afield reported an unprecedented, record-breaking number of hate calls and letters after this one came out. It was flooded with subscription cancellations. Seems readers thought I had gored the sacred cow. Indeed, one of the magazine’s largest advertisers — Llyon’s Publishers — threatened to pull its advertising for a full year because of it. Wow!
Read the storyRoss Jeffries, the Speed Seducer
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
Before Mystery, before Neil Strauss, before any of those conniving seducers, there was Ross Jeffries. This is him and these are his horndog students.
Read the storyCool-Hot Norah Jones
Posted on | October 8, 2008 | No Comments
“Rump steak,” she said brightly. “I’ve always liked the sound of that. Is it really the rump? I guess that’s why they call it that. It’s the ass. It tastes like ass.” She laughed at her own train of thought. She ordered a beef tenderloin, cooked medium, as well as a cucumber salad and avocado dip; and then, with all that to look forward to, launched into a brief account of how she got here in the first place.
Read the storyChris Farley: the Big Guy Goes Down
Posted on | October 7, 2008 | No Comments
CHRIS FARLEY 1864-1997 The last time I saw chris farley was early last summer, in the middle of the night, at the Sky Bar, a breezy, cool, happening joint on Sunset Boulevard, in L.A. He eased on out of his limo as big as ever, in black engineer’s boots, a black suit and a spread-collar […]
Read the storyDenis Leary
Posted on | October 7, 2008 | No Comments
Denis Leary vents his rage onstage so he doesn’t have to deal with it
in real life. Is this any way for a normal person to behave?
Ozzy Osbourne
Posted on | October 6, 2008 | No Comments
Not long ago, this piece was a top-
five finalist at the National
Magazine Awards, which is the
magazine racket’s equivalent to the
Oscars. The piece ran before the
advent of the Osbournes’ TV show
and, in fact, paved the way for the
show. Did they ever thank me with
a nice fat cash gift? Hell no! That’s
gratitude for you.
Smoking Pot with Rodney Dangerfield
Posted on | October 6, 2008 | 1 Comment
Gone to Pot Rodney Dangerfield finally gets a little respect You may be wondering what Rodney Dangerfield, at the age of eighty-two, after nearly a lifetime in the business of making other people laugh, is up to these days. Mainly, he’s bathrobed and hanging out in his airy, ultradeluxe twenty-first-floor apartment in Los Angeles, smoking […]
Read the storyCameron Diaz, Christina Applegate & Selma Blair
Posted on | October 5, 2008 | No Comments
In which we take on the challenge and learn much about sex, swearing, male losers, female bonding, babe-on-babe action and kissing with too much tongue ONE SUNNY DAY, ACTRESSES CAMERON Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair converge on an unsuspecting little bistro and bakery in West Hollywood, where they belch a lot, cuss a lot, […]
Read the storyMichael Bay: the Director
Posted on | October 5, 2008 | No Comments
I hear that Bay called a friend after reading this one and asked her if she thought he needed to go see a shrink. The answer, I have not heard.
Read the storyAsia Argento, So Very Very …
Posted on | February 4, 2014 | No Comments
This was actually an RS cover story and probably one of the worst sellers in the history of the magazine. It’s not because people hate Argento, of couse, but because, at the time, nobody knew who the hell she was. And they still don’t.
Meanwhile, this was one of my early experiments in using the so-called royal we, which I did in order to avoid having to use the dreaded “I” word. This, too, probably held back a few issues from being sold. Oddly, the story was a rush job that I reported over the phone but presented as if I were right there, in the hotel room with her, as she said things like, “Yes, I have many wet dreams, all the time, very sexual dreams. They are the best. Recently, I had one about a love I’d had, and actually the sex with him wasn’t really great. But in the dream he was very good. So maybe I was trying to help him in some way.” Hot. Very, very hot.
Tori Spelling
Posted on | October 1, 2008 | No Comments
This is the second story I’ve done about Tori Spelling. She gets a lot of heat, but I like her (though, as you’ll see if you read my eBay story, I did skip out early during a lunch with her so I could go on an old-calculator hunt in L.A.’s 2nd-hand shops. Hey, you’ve got to have your priorities!)
Read the storyGrady Stiles, the Lobster Boy
Posted on | September 30, 2008 | No Comments
Cruel and Unusual: Grady Stiles was born with claws for hands, flippers for feet, and a stone for a heart. This is the story of the bizarre life and gruesome death of the last of America’s sideshow freaks.
This one has troubled me weekly ever since it came out. I. Can’t. Shake. It. Really, I can’t.
