Speaker 1: Well, hello, gorgeous, we are back at it again.
Speaker 2: Give them la la with rample.
Speaker 1: Dude, exciting things today.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it is a season finale. Vander
Speaker 2: Pomp has happened. Yes, it's over. Let's just take a
Speaker 2: minute and celebrate that. You just rock twenty episodes of
Speaker 2: vander Pump Rules. Yes, yes, Okay, Now I'm gonna interview
Speaker 2: you for a second. Okay, how do you feel about
Speaker 2: your season?
Speaker 1: I feel absolutely epic. You don't, yeah, because like you know,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, and I'm going to really make this
Speaker 1: short and sweet.
Speaker 2: You get the hands up, so I definitely think it's
Speaker 2: gonna be It's going to be intense.
Speaker 1: For me, vander Pump Rules is very much real life, correct,
Speaker 1: that's our real lives correct. However, the show is one
Speaker 1: hour long. It is a produced show. So for me,
Speaker 1: when I have my freakouts or my meltdowns, or I
Speaker 1: have a really great scene, like however I feel about it,
Speaker 1: I disconnect because I'm like, if I take this home
Speaker 1: with me, I'll crawl into a hole.
Speaker 2: No, first of all, we'll back up years before when
Speaker 2: we first started dating. You did take this shit home
Speaker 2: with you, and it was World War three. Right, what
Speaker 2: I'm most proud of is that it really is your
Speaker 2: real life and it kind of all blends together. But
Speaker 2: I think that when you have tough scenes where it
Speaker 2: gets like a little tough for you, I think you're
Speaker 2: able to disconnect.
Speaker 1: Now, well, you have to. And when I watch it,
Speaker 1: when I have to like relive it, I sit there
Speaker 1: and I'm like, fuck, this is entertaining, you know, like wow,
Speaker 1: look at me go And then I know when it's
Speaker 1: like great and I should probably apologize. But in order
Speaker 1: for me to maintain like sanity, I have to just
Speaker 1: look at it and be like, damn, that's so entertaining,
Speaker 1: Like we did a great job. You know. That's how
Speaker 1: you have to look at it. Are you gonna freak out?
Speaker 2: Well, now that Astas calls me a Bravo leberty, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say that I just had a season vander promp
Speaker 2: as well, so I have something to contribute. I after
Speaker 2: my first scene coming out of the gate how to
Speaker 2: let it go too, because I felt that they made
Speaker 2: me look like I am the only person eating at
Speaker 2: that dinner when I had a double chicken.
Speaker 1: Sandap Oh, wow, you're really throwing it back to like
Speaker 1: episode four.
Speaker 2: I only had like two episodes the whole season, so
Speaker 2: let me just revel in my one. First of all,
Speaker 2: I didn't order two chicken fucking sandwiches. And second of all,
Speaker 2: I'll order two more again. And by the way, y'all
Speaker 2: ate two? Why was it only me? Why was it
Speaker 2: only Randall?
Speaker 1: Because it's because it's entertaining, Like that scene there memes about.
Speaker 2: It, there's like slow motion to be eating chicken sandwiches.
Speaker 1: Which keep in mind, I ordered like five dishes. Right wait, wait,
Speaker 1: by the way, you when I know production is paying,
Speaker 1: I'm like, bring them out, bring them out, give me
Speaker 1: all the goodness.
Speaker 2: Off the way you you jacks, you Jacks and Brittany
Speaker 2: or multiple dishes and I was a slow motion chicken
Speaker 2: sandwich heater. It's bunch of bullshit. I also want to
Speaker 2: say that the end of the season was.
Speaker 1: Very Yeah, why are you asking me how I feel
Speaker 1: about it? How do you feel about it? Your first
Speaker 1: your first time ever appearing on Vanner Pump Rules, which
Speaker 1: I literally told everybody that will never happen.
Speaker 2: Never the way I told everybody will never happen.
Speaker 1: And not only did it happen, your manipulator, absolutely, I
Speaker 1: do reality TV. No one is safe.
Speaker 2: And you also you also gave me that bullshit when
Speaker 2: you're like, you know, this is my real life and
Speaker 2: like we need to show this side. And I said,
Speaker 2: you know that's not happening, he said, and then you
Speaker 2: gave me that look like give me right now. And
Speaker 2: then I folded like a like a like a like
Speaker 2: a you know, just fold it.
Speaker 1: Fold is like an envelope, licky lick, throw a stamp
Speaker 1: on it, deliver it to Vanner pump rules.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you I didn't film a lot.
Speaker 2: Obviously I didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't, but it was hardcore. You had a scene
Speaker 1: with James Kennedy. You're like, not only am I going
Speaker 1: to film now, I'm going to have a scene one
Speaker 1: on one with James.
Speaker 2: Now, hold on a second. I got trapped. They call
Speaker 2: me your little producers for they're big producers, but your
Speaker 2: big producers call me. They said, will you show up
Speaker 2: at the at the season finale? And they said, there's
Speaker 2: no reason for me. I'm not relevant to this. I'm
Speaker 2: just going to stay home let Lalla do her thing.
Speaker 2: They said, no, no, no, you got to be there
Speaker 2: for her. It's a last night. We're going to celebrate.
Speaker 2: It's a big party. So I come, I get wasted.
Speaker 2: I'm having the time of my life. And by the way,
Speaker 2: I bring Emma, Martin Scorsese's partner, so she and she's
Speaker 2: a fan girl of the show. So she's going crazy
Speaker 2: taking selfies and we're having the best time. So I
Speaker 2: think this is easy. They're focused on you, guys. I'm
Speaker 2: over in the corner with Emma drinking, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, I get a little tap tap and they say,
Speaker 2: when will you come over here for a second. We
Speaker 2: just need to shoot one little thing with you. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, this is a good bye randal or
Speaker 2: something like that, or maybe they want me to eat
Speaker 2: a chicken sandwich again. Long story, short, long story, Well,
Speaker 2: I was going to order chicken sandwich. I thought they'd
Speaker 2: want a slow motion shot. So they bring me over
Speaker 2: and there's James. They say, James wants to say something.
Speaker 2: You know. I'm like, these fucking people are good. They
Speaker 2: are so but but having said that, now I'm going
Speaker 2: to be the serious side. James was sober, and he
Speaker 2: came over to me and he was beyond sincere and
Speaker 2: very genuine, and it was so endearing and he said,
Speaker 2: you know, I want to apologize for all the things
Speaker 2: I said and did. It wasn't in my right state.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make it okay. I will you, you know,
Speaker 2: forgive me. And I said, dude, that is such a
Speaker 2: big step and a big so big of you to
Speaker 2: do that. Of course I am. I know my fiance,
Speaker 2: you know, and you are very good friends, and I
Speaker 2: want to have the same friendship. And the fact that
Speaker 2: you did this is so honorable and I I forget,
Speaker 2: know and I forgive. And you know what since then,
Speaker 2: he since he's been our podcast and we text each
Speaker 2: other here and there, and it's like, you know what,
Speaker 2: he has come so far, and you know, life is
Speaker 2: about forgiveness. You know we've done We've forgiven each other
Speaker 2: for shit, and we forgive people for doing things to
Speaker 2: us that maybe, you know, aren't the kindness. And at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I'm glad I went to
Speaker 2: that party. I'm glad I went to that final taping
Speaker 2: or filming, whatever you call it. And it was very sweet.
Speaker 2: And I watched the episode, which I don't watch a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, and the ending was exciting. It was like
Speaker 2: music and that exit and Jackson Lisa going at it.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 1: We broke the fourth wall on vander Pump Rules, Like
Speaker 1: Jax goes crazy and he's talking to Lisa vander Pump
Speaker 1: and he's like, this is my show, and she just
Speaker 1: was like, oh, it's your show, vander Pump Rules, that's
Speaker 1: my name. Like it was crazy. It was amazing, the
Speaker 1: first finale episode I've ever like got intery.
Speaker 2: Oh when you watched it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought it was really sweet.
Speaker 2: I loved it. I love the music. I loved how
Speaker 2: each person or each couple kind of or each cast
Speaker 2: member walked out.
Speaker 1: Hold on. I have a really fun fact though. So
Speaker 1: that night, Danica gets into a little scuffle with like
Speaker 1: this new person that hooked up with Max. Her name's Kara,
Speaker 1: and Danica shoves Kara, and Danica spills her wine on
Speaker 1: my outfit okay, And in the interview process, they wanted
Speaker 1: me to talk about the outfit because in their mind
Speaker 1: it was like some fabulous outfit.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not going to talk about it
Speaker 1: because that outfit costs me all of like maybe a
Speaker 1: hundred bucks for the whole thing, So like we're not
Speaker 1: talking about no big deal, you know. The throat in
Speaker 1: the wash. It's all good exactly like I come. I'm
Speaker 1: a pretender. People think I'm a bougie bitch, but hell no,
Speaker 1: I am scrolling the internet for a good deal. What's happening?
Speaker 2: Sorry?
Speaker 1: Wow, Randall, are you for real?
Speaker 2: No? I was trying to do something.
Speaker 1: Pull it together. Yeah, hold on, get it to the chorus.
Speaker 2: It's coming.
Speaker 1: Turn it to the chorus. It's coming, It's coming. We
Speaker 1: free hold. I wait for every young boom. You know that.
Speaker 3: The best day your glasses, Hi, this one's for you
Speaker 3: soon night, dude.
Speaker 1: It did make me happy. It did make me happy.
Speaker 1: You know what, we are fucking young, wild and free man. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we may have birthdays that make us older. You guys
Speaker 1: are young, You're young, wild and free. To age is
Speaker 1: just a number. I don't believe in celebrating a birthday
Speaker 1: to be like a year older. It's like, no, we're
Speaker 1: celebrating this day because without it, I will an exist.
Speaker 2: I got to tell you eight years.
Speaker 1: So you're freaking welcome.
Speaker 2: You know eight years you were on this show so far?
Speaker 1: Only five I've completed five seasons.
Speaker 2: But the show eight years what an epic run so far?
Speaker 2: And I know you guys are going to go into
Speaker 2: your ninth season, so I get I got to give
Speaker 2: you this episode.
Speaker 1: I love that you said you know that we're going
Speaker 1: into our ninth season, because we don't know that yet.
Speaker 1: But put it into the universe. I speak it.
Speaker 2: I know you are good, not if when when your
Speaker 2: ratings are good, you're going another season.
Speaker 1: It was definitely epic, and you know, the just the
Speaker 1: cast when I watch them. Some like to blame editing,
Speaker 1: which is fine, but it's like if we all just
Speaker 1: looked five star like, we wouldn't be eight seasons in,
Speaker 1: you know, so just be like, thanks for making a
Speaker 1: great scene, even though I look like an asshole. Put
Speaker 1: it out. Mention it all, mention it all.
Speaker 2: Oh you got the hands up fire today? Holy shit,
Speaker 2: I am Yesterday you were like in a hole. Today
Speaker 2: you're like, boom, she's away.
Speaker 1: Boom baby, Bring on the virtual reunion. I'm about to
Speaker 1: slay these hosts. Just kidding a lot at the reunion. Okay,
Speaker 1: I cried a lot, a lot of apologies.
Speaker 2: O question, what was your favorite moment of vander Pump
Speaker 2: this season and your worst moment of vander Pump this season? Oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, don't feel like any pressure to say
Speaker 2: me being on the show, but go ahead.
Speaker 1: That was definitely a highlight. Having you on the show
Speaker 1: was a highlight because we got to hang out all summer.
Speaker 1: It was awesome, which usually we don't get to do that.
Speaker 1: But I think that, yeah, what else besides me, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get cheesy again. I think the highlight of this
Speaker 1: season was just being so clear and aware and waking
Speaker 1: up and not feeling guilty about anything I had done,
Speaker 1: you know, being sober. Completing a season of reality TV,
Speaker 1: which can be a nightmare. I completed that shit.
Speaker 2: Sober and I give you mad props for that.
Speaker 1: Thank you, babe.
Speaker 2: I agree with you and I support that answer. I
Speaker 2: love it. And what was the what was the worst moment?
Speaker 2: Because I don't even know what your worst moment was,
Speaker 2: So what was the worst moment?
Speaker 1: The worst moment was the way I treated Raquel, for sure,
Speaker 1: Like there are a few things that when I watch
Speaker 1: I'm like, don't regret it that it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: can someone please muzzle you? Like you know, but it
Speaker 1: is what it is like again silver Lining. People were entertained.
Speaker 1: They had an opinion whether it was good or bad.
Speaker 1: People had an opinion.
Speaker 2: By the way, that's what makes you, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: why your show is so successful is all of you
Speaker 2: have this thing that happens and then everybody just you know,
Speaker 2: has an opinion because you drive people and what you
Speaker 2: guys do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when people when people write me crazy DMS, they're like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe you acted that way, all I send
Speaker 1: back is thank you so much for watching me. I like,
Speaker 1: for real, without you wouldn't be eight seasons in just
Speaker 1: saying yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the fact that you I have never
Speaker 2: seen you have such conflict right over the years I've
Speaker 2: been with you, where yeah, that's such conflict and it
Speaker 2: be resolved and such amicable and quick way. Like normally
Speaker 2: back in the old days, hence, you know, pre sober,
Speaker 2: you would just assassinate the world, continue to assassinate, blow
Speaker 2: it up three more times, and then eventually start repairing.
Speaker 2: Now I see you.
Speaker 1: Now what I would do is blow things up. Tornadoes
Speaker 1: come through AK forty sevens, and then I'd look behind
Speaker 1: me and be like, why is everyone so sad and upset?
Speaker 2: But now but now you handle things so gracefully. I
Speaker 2: really give you a lot of props, like something will happen,
Speaker 2: and then you'll you'll get home and you'll be like,
Speaker 2: you know, I feel bad and I really, you know,
Speaker 2: didn't want to do that, and and blah blah blah,
Speaker 2: and then you and then on your own, like without
Speaker 2: cameras there, I see you sending text saying, look, I
Speaker 2: really don't feel that way, and I'm sorry that I
Speaker 2: said something. It's just very jack cat.
Speaker 1: My cast members are not just my cast members, that's
Speaker 1: my that's my LA family, Like I love them so much,
Speaker 1: and I know that we're all always going to go
Speaker 1: toes with each other because we're all very strong foreronalities.
Speaker 2: When you go toes, what does it mean exactly?
Speaker 1: Step up, bitch? Oh go toes? Toe to toe? Baby.
Speaker 2: So if I'm in a meeting at a studio talking
Speaker 2: about a movie and the guy's pissing me off on
Speaker 2: a deal, can I be like, let's go to toes, bitch,
Speaker 2: I'm just asking you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Right because you have done that.
Speaker 1: Though, when I say let's go toes, if I know
Speaker 1: that that person really is a fighter, like I don't
Speaker 1: want to do it. I'm a very fast runner, like.
Speaker 2: Let's fight the words, you'll back down, you are.
Speaker 1: You kidding me? Do I look like someone who's gonna
Speaker 1: punch anybody?
Speaker 2: So just tell me one thing.
Speaker 1: I am a classy bitch.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, just tell me one thing. Then tell me
Speaker 2: one thing. So in the four years when I've got
Speaker 2: toes with you, I'll give you a never back down.
Speaker 1: Oh the drink. The drink is like like the battery,
Speaker 1: you know, the the drink is like a battery, the
Speaker 1: little fucking engine that could. We're getting up the hill.
Speaker 2: But you know it's funny. I talk shit and you're
Speaker 2: you are a fighter. I pushed in the wrong direction,
Speaker 2: but you know what, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: you are way more of a lover than a fighter,
Speaker 2: way more, way more.
Speaker 1: Of course, I always say like, I hate confrontation, but
Speaker 1: I'm extremely good at it. You professional professional. So I'm
Speaker 1: excited for our guest today though, because he I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest. I looked at his resume and was like,
Speaker 1: am I up for this challenge? Like he's, you know,
Speaker 1: graduating from Columbia, And I'm like, have you ever heard
Speaker 1: of slick like Sally Community College? Up in this bitch?
Speaker 1: Two years? Oh shit, don't be rude. I attempted.
Speaker 2: You know, if I would have known this when I
Speaker 2: met you, I might have diverted.
Speaker 1: And then I got all the credits I needed to
Speaker 1: transfer to the University of Utah.
Speaker 2: University hardly did you go for one day?
Speaker 1: I went for like a month, and I was like
Speaker 1: going through from one class to the other in the snow,
Speaker 1: and I like literally was like, what am I doing?
Speaker 2: You a work?
Speaker 1: Hate this and literally went home and was like, Mom,
Speaker 1: by the way, I'm moving to LA.
Speaker 2: Can't give you a word advice? Tell me from now
Speaker 2: when we lead in about your education, can you just
Speaker 2: start with the University of View talents and pretend the
Speaker 2: community college thing to happen.
Speaker 1: This is who I am. Randall shit, like, are you crazy?
Speaker 1: Why would I ever?
Speaker 2: I thought you went to Harvard?
Speaker 1: Don't I act like it didn't sound like it.
Speaker 2: They So we have Ben Mankowitz, who is the host
Speaker 2: of Turner Classic Movies Channel, the host of screen Time
Speaker 2: segment on CBS Sunday Morning show. His grants. He's his
Speaker 2: grand sorry, his father was a press secretary to Senator
Speaker 2: Bob Kennedy. I mean, this guy is loaded to the girls.
Speaker 2: Now I'm gonna say something. I don't get impressed. That
Speaker 2: easily takes a lot at my old age, right, this
Speaker 2: guy is impressive. And by the way, this and I
Speaker 2: want to tell you, Lala, what really is putting us
Speaker 2: to the test? This this next guest. This isn't like
Speaker 2: a movie guy that I can just kind of like
Speaker 2: sit back and have a cigar. Or it's not a
Speaker 2: cast memory or is that you could just sit back
Speaker 2: and spill the tea as you say this dude, This
Speaker 2: dude is the real shit.
Speaker 1: So we're not only not only is he like epic
Speaker 1: in his family Randall, you're such a rookie. When Ben
Speaker 1: gets on the line, you better mute your phone.
Speaker 2: Okay for real. But this is what I want to
Speaker 2: say about this guest. I feel like this like the
Speaker 2: network threw this guest on us to see are we
Speaker 2: ready for the next level? Yeah? Because if we fucked
Speaker 2: this up, we have to go back to what we
Speaker 2: know and we can never get outside our comfort zone.
Speaker 2: But if we crush this and I want, I want
Speaker 2: your fans and my three fans to write in after
Speaker 2: this episode and tell us did we handle ourselves in
Speaker 2: a professional, engaging manner or did we flop? And we
Speaker 2: need to go back to what we.
Speaker 1: All try try to make the criticism constructive. I don't
Speaker 1: really respond well to people telling me I suck.
Speaker 2: You know, well, just give us advice, like did we
Speaker 2: handle ourselves? Well, we're did we ask intriguing questions? Was
Speaker 2: or were we boring and dismal? Right?
Speaker 1: I don't think that's ever going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: So let's take a short break, and when we get back,
Speaker 1: we have Ben Mancowitz. I won't lie. Our guest is
Speaker 1: someone I read your resume, Ben, and I am extremely intimidated,
Speaker 1: and I don't get intimidated by many things. We have
Speaker 1: Ben Mancowitz on our podcast today.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm freaking and you're the man I just want
Speaker 2: to say. He is host of the new TCM podcast
Speaker 2: The Plot Thickens, about the life and career of one
Speaker 2: of my favorite most epic directors, Peter Bugdanovich. This is
Speaker 2: the coolest thing ever. I just want to know, Ben,
Speaker 2: how do you even come up with the idea to
Speaker 2: do that? Because now I want to go do a
Speaker 2: podcast about every epic director I've ever loved. So can
Speaker 2: you just tell us, like how that even started?
Speaker 4: Well, many of them, of course, have lives that are
Speaker 4: worthy of being chronicled. But first of all, Peter and
Speaker 4: I were friends, and I like Peter. The first time
Speaker 4: I met him, as I tell the story in the podcast,
Speaker 4: I think in episode one, I was very nervous when
Speaker 4: I first met Peter. It was in an event I
Speaker 4: think in twenty twelve or thirteen in Toronto where we
Speaker 4: in advance to the TCM Festival. We did some events
Speaker 4: around the country, and so I was in Toronto with Peter.
Speaker 4: We weren to screen the Last Picture Show. And because it's
Speaker 4: Peter Bogdanovitch the same reason that you admire him, I
Speaker 4: was nervous. This guy. He is an encyclopedia of classic movies,
Speaker 4: and I just thought, you know, you know, the way
Speaker 4: all of us are frequently where you sort of think
Speaker 4: that you've perpetrated your any success you've had in life
Speaker 4: is because you've perpetrated some great fraud. And I thought
Speaker 4: he'd see right through me. But he had a cold,
Speaker 4: pretty bad cold, and he was sniffling and drinking hot
Speaker 4: tea at this bar we met in a hotel, and
Speaker 4: you know, it just humanized him instantly, and he made
Speaker 4: some joke and then Sybil Shepherd, who he hasn't been
Speaker 4: linked to romantically since nineteen seventy nine, called him to
Speaker 4: check on Hi because she was worried about him traveling
Speaker 4: with a WOW And I was like, oh, listen, this
Speaker 4: guy's he's still friends with his ex and he's got
Speaker 4: a cold just like me. And that began a friendship.
Speaker 4: And then so there's a long way of answering your question.
Speaker 4: Peter did all these wonderful interviews with classic film directors Hitchcot,
Speaker 4: john Ford, Orson Wells, Howard Hawk's, many others, including dating
Speaker 4: back to the Silent era before he became a director,
Speaker 4: when he was a film writer, a very good one
Speaker 4: wrote for Esquire magazine, Most Freak Wow, and he compiled
Speaker 4: them into a wonderful book called Who the Devil Made It,
Speaker 4: which is a great Howard Hawk's line about how when
Speaker 4: you watch a movie, you should know who the devil
Speaker 4: made it, like there should be some signature about the
Speaker 4: director which you would be able to identify. Peter had
Speaker 4: recordings of these interviews, and I thought we should do
Speaker 4: a podcast. I wanted to do a podcast for years,
Speaker 4: and TCM was interested, but I was pushing, i must say,
Speaker 4: and I thought Peter would be a great topic and
Speaker 4: we would spend each episode talking about one of these
Speaker 4: directors and play clips, and then professional storytellers took over,
Speaker 4: namely our executive producer for this podcast, Angela Corone, and
Speaker 4: they were like, yeah, that's a great idea. Here's what
Speaker 4: we're going to do instead with Peter, And they just
Speaker 4: made this whole thing ten thousand times better because Peter's
Speaker 4: life is a story worth telling, full of success, failure,
Speaker 4: horrible tragedy, hubris with the normal parts of recovery from
Speaker 4: a tragedy, and it turned him into a different person
Speaker 4: and he is an interesting guy, incredibly funny, incredibly smart,
Speaker 4: and I find now incredibly inviting and caring and thoughtful.
Speaker 4: So it worked out great, and Peter was so open
Speaker 4: with us and willing to tell his crazy, crazy Hollywood story.
Speaker 1: Well, it's absolutely fantastic. I found myself listening last night.
Speaker 1: It's very well done, and it's such a safe platform,
Speaker 1: so people just are feeling comfortable to tell it all.
Speaker 1: And I thought that it was you know, the episodes
Speaker 1: that you have out are very well done. So again
Speaker 1: that is the plot thickens and it's about the life
Speaker 1: and career of Peter Bogdanovich amazing. And I have a
Speaker 1: question because I know that, you know, you come from
Speaker 1: a background of journalism. I mean, your resume as far
Speaker 1: as education is incredible. What you've done, you know in
Speaker 1: your your what is the word I'm looking for your
Speaker 1: career when you, you know, started as the reporter and anchor
Speaker 1: for w c SCTV and Charleston, Like, when did you
Speaker 1: realize that news journalism wasn't really what you wanted to do? Well?
Speaker 2: You know, first of.
Speaker 4: All, I grew up a Jewish kid in Washington, DC,
Speaker 4: you know, in sort of a middle class to upper
Speaker 4: middle class upbringing. And you're like, well, I guess I
Speaker 4: go to law school. That's what we do, doctor, I'm
Speaker 4: a jew from Miami. Well that was or lawyer? Yeah, doctor,
Speaker 4: there was no chance of that.
Speaker 2: I did not.
Speaker 4: I thought, you know, you can sort of you know,
Speaker 4: I have these images of me in front of a jury,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, well, I can try to be charming
Speaker 4: in front of a jury, but you can't, like be
Speaker 4: charming in front of a ruptured spleen. Like I'd actually
Speaker 4: have to know what I was talking about. So but
Speaker 4: I wasn't really into that, And and my you know
Speaker 4: father was in politics and the media, and and you
Speaker 4: know he'd sort of been a pre bitnot sort of.
Speaker 4: He was press secretary to Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 2: Oh, Ben, Ben, Ben, real quick, Yeah, I heard that.
Speaker 1: He just dropped you.
Speaker 2: But Ben, let me tell you something, the fact that
Speaker 2: your father was a press secretary to the center of Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 2: Just explain what that was like for a minute, please,
Speaker 2: because that's that's epic. Epic. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, first of you know, my dad he died six
Speaker 4: five and a half years ago and he was ninety
Speaker 4: and he led this. He wrote a book called so
Speaker 4: As I was saying because everything every story my dad
Speaker 4: told is like in the middle of a story, like
Speaker 4: he would starting expect you to He's like, you got
Speaker 4: to have to catch up, like I.
Speaker 2: And so I met.
Speaker 4: But that helped me tell the Peter story. That helps
Speaker 4: me in interviews, right, I mean I and it helped
Speaker 4: sort of. It helped me even though I'm talking a
Speaker 4: lot now. It helped me be a really good listener,
Speaker 4: which is definitely a strength that I have when I
Speaker 4: do these interviews. But the so he was in the
Speaker 4: he was my dad was the Latin American director of the
Speaker 4: Peace Corps first Latin American Director of the Peace Corps.
Speaker 4: And he met Senator Kennedy first in a phone call
Speaker 4: when the Senator was going to come down to Peru
Speaker 4: and sort of figure out what was wrong with American
Speaker 4: foreign policy in Latin American, and he got this itinerary
Speaker 4: to like, you know, go to the American language school
Speaker 4: and go to a party at the you know, at
Speaker 4: the ambassador's house, and tour the embassy. And my dad
Speaker 4: spoke up and he was like, yeah, look, man, you
Speaker 4: could do that from Washington, Like that doesn't matter. You
Speaker 4: want to meet striking you know, vegetable pickers, right, and
Speaker 4: you want to go through the barrios of people living
Speaker 4: in incredible poverty in Lima. And my dad was like,
Speaker 4: who's this guy? And said, can I meet you? I'm
Speaker 4: flying into Panama, come meet me. Who's gonna land in
Speaker 4: Panama to refuel like two thirty in the morning.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 4: So my dad went to Panama to meet him and
Speaker 4: they met for like three hours, and Hannity was like, look,
Speaker 4: whenever you're done here, come work for me.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, if you knew my dad, you would
Speaker 4: know that story is that makes total sense. He was
Speaker 4: just my dad was always the smartest person in the room,
Speaker 4: and I wow, other people thought that too, So he
Speaker 4: hired him. He was the press secretary in the Senate
Speaker 4: and then he ran for president and then famously you
Speaker 4: can see my father announcing the senator's death after he
Speaker 4: was when he was murdered.
Speaker 2: So I have a question, So growing up with a
Speaker 2: father who was the press secretary, I mean, did you
Speaker 2: grow up going to the White House like it was
Speaker 2: like a regular thing.
Speaker 4: No, of course, all know the uh no, because as
Speaker 4: soon as I was of age, Richard Nixon.
Speaker 2: Was in the White House.
Speaker 4: Oh, my dad very famously was on the White House
Speaker 4: enemies List, something he was very proud of till this wow,
Speaker 4: till the day he died. He wrote two really good
Speaker 4: books on Nixon. His first book was the bestseller, was
Speaker 4: called Perfectly Clear. And then after Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon,
Speaker 4: my father wrote a book about what the prosecution of
Speaker 4: Nixon would have looked like.
Speaker 1: Oh, my god was blown. So then, with you know
Speaker 1: your dad and what he was doing in his accomplishments,
Speaker 1: did you ever feel pressure to be on that same path?
Speaker 1: Did he kind of pushed that onto you in any way.
Speaker 4: So my dad was as good a dad as you
Speaker 4: can get. So he never he never pushed anything onto me.
Speaker 4: He was great, he was supportive. I was a huge
Speaker 4: sports fan. He was as he was. He was very
Speaker 4: you know, I wanted to go into sports, you know,
Speaker 4: when it became clear I couldn't play, I wanted to
Speaker 4: be as you know, like a baseball broadcaster.
Speaker 2: That was sort of but.
Speaker 4: I was shy, and so it was hard for me
Speaker 4: to sort of do that. I'd go to ball games
Speaker 4: and sit up in the you know, behind home plate,
Speaker 4: way up in the top deck, and I you know,
Speaker 4: broadcast games into a.
Speaker 1: Tape recorder, and oh I love this.
Speaker 4: So and then my dad was president of National Public
Speaker 4: Radio two for six years. So journalism was just sort
Speaker 4: of in my blood. My brother is twelve years older
Speaker 4: than I am. He's a correspondent for Dateline NBC. And
Speaker 4: so my brother sort of taught me how to be
Speaker 4: on TV and you know, how to do all these things.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, he taught me how to be
Speaker 4: a reporter, which I was first. And so eventually when
Speaker 4: I sort of got and became less shy, I just
Speaker 4: sort of thought, well I try and I'll try and
Speaker 4: do what my brother does. But politics was always super
Speaker 4: important to me also because I grew up with I
Speaker 4: grew up in DC, and I grew up where in
Speaker 4: a family where were very prominent, and they just they mattered.
Speaker 4: They weren't like, they weren't a game. They were about
Speaker 4: the future of country, of the country and making people's
Speaker 4: lives better. Like That's how it always seemed to me.
Speaker 4: So I never had this cynical view of politicians. I
Speaker 4: thought the people who many of the people who served most.
Speaker 4: And I think it's still true. Most of the people
Speaker 4: who serve they get.
Speaker 2: Into it because they they want to change the world.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because my dad ran George McGovern's campaign in nineteen
Speaker 4: seventy two, and so you know, Robert Kennedy and George
Speaker 4: mc govern with these sort of like these were guys
Speaker 4: who were in it for the right reasons.
Speaker 1: You know, Wow, it's really amazing to hear all of
Speaker 1: these things. And then you know, you say, Ben, like, no,
Speaker 1: there was no pressure, way could do it. You know,
Speaker 1: like it's pretty insane. You would think coming from that background,
Speaker 1: that there would be tremendous pressure on you to kind
Speaker 1: of stay on the same path. I think that's really beautiful.
Speaker 4: Well okay, so now you think it won't be beautiful my.
Speaker 1: Dad, Okay, just spill the tea. Spill the tea.
Speaker 4: My dad put note pressure on. But you know, he's
Speaker 4: the person I admired most. And you know, boys who
Speaker 4: love their dads and admire their dads want to impress
Speaker 4: like him. I want to impress him. And the way
Speaker 4: to impress him was to try and be as smart
Speaker 4: as he is. And so eventually you just give up, like, okay,
Speaker 4: he loves me anyway, that's good, but I can't fight
Speaker 4: this back. I can't do it. So there was enormous pressure.
Speaker 4: You know, my grandfather and my great uncle they you know,
Speaker 4: won Oscars for you know, my grandfather wrote Citizen Kane and.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's away fen so Ben, you know what, But
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a movie nerd. Obviously I've produced a
Speaker 2: lot of films. So I read I read this, Just
Speaker 2: just take a beat on that he co wrote Citizen Kane.
Speaker 2: Come on, I mean that's I mean for me, that
Speaker 2: would thrust me into like movie anxiety at the highest level.
Speaker 2: Did you like, what was the takeaway you got being around,
Speaker 2: you know, this family that has epic oscars and you know,
Speaker 2: writer Citizen Kane, the greatest movie of all time period.
Speaker 2: Did you get anything out of, you know that, that relationship? Yeah,
Speaker 2: of course.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, it's weird because my dad was this,
Speaker 4: you know, mythic figure to me. But again it was
Speaker 4: totally normal, dude. I mean, you know, but my so,
Speaker 4: my grandfather, who Sherman Manglho by the way, wrote Citizen Kane,
Speaker 4: didn't co write it. I know that it says he
Speaker 4: co wrote it, but he okay, I the uh so
Speaker 4: the uh that was a you know, source of great controversy,
Speaker 4: the writing credit for that. Whether it's my grandfather's Orson Wellson,
Speaker 4: oh my, but it's.
Speaker 1: A fun story about that.
Speaker 2: We deal with that every hour.
Speaker 4: And by the way, Peter's on the other side, Bogdanovitch,
Speaker 4: So that's a fun conversation for me and Peter to
Speaker 4: have a good natured conversation. And by the way, just
Speaker 4: real quick, doesn't matter. It's Orson Wells's movie, and nobody
Speaker 4: should mistake that one hundred percent his movie. He just
Speaker 4: didn't write, right, this is great, you know, but like
Speaker 4: you know, it's like saying that, you know, I mean
Speaker 4: Martin Scorsese. He didn't write screenplay for The Irishman, but
Speaker 4: that's a Martin Scorsese movie, and nobody should doubt that
Speaker 4: for a second. So the Hollywood part of the family
Speaker 4: I knew about, of course, but it didn't mean anything
Speaker 4: to me. The politics part mattered. I came out to
Speaker 4: La I think when I was twenty one, like before
Speaker 4: my senior year of college, and a cousin of mine
Speaker 4: who's also a Mankowitz, but he doesn't have the same
Speaker 4: last name. I went to a party with him and
Speaker 4: I got introduced to the coast of the party because
Speaker 4: he was like, I brought my cousin, he's out here,
Speaker 4: you know, Ben Mankowitz, and the guy I put his
Speaker 4: heels together and bowed and said Hollywood Royalty. And I
Speaker 4: literally I just remember thinking, is like, you know, Larry
Speaker 4: Spielberg behind me, like what.
Speaker 2: About you know?
Speaker 4: So it just was then I was like, oh, like,
Speaker 4: I mean, of course I knew it. We have you know,
Speaker 4: Joe Maco, who's one of the great writer directors of
Speaker 4: all time, and Herman's brother, my great uncle, and and
Speaker 4: other cousins who you know, my cousin Tom Mancowitz, you
Speaker 4: know wrote three Bond movies, Superman one and two. But
Speaker 4: I didn't know that it like to the people who
Speaker 4: love movies, right, that it mattered to them like that,
Speaker 4: and so and that was nice, of course, you know.
Speaker 4: But so yeah, there's pressure to make sure you're not
Speaker 4: the You're not the one in the family who.
Speaker 2: Faltered fault right, who screws it up.
Speaker 4: You're the You're the one who didn't. He didn't get
Speaker 4: that gene, you know.
Speaker 2: I I think I think hosting uh the uh Turner
Speaker 2: Classic Movies Channel and doing all the different things that
Speaker 2: you do far exceeded all of those, you know, expectations
Speaker 2: on you. We're gonna cut to a quick break then,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna come right back to talk to you about.
Speaker 1: We are back my Loves with Ben Mankowitz. You're super legendary.
Speaker 1: I'm just listening to you. My mind is blown. And
Speaker 1: I'm actually really curious because Randall just said earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: like he's over here making movies and then he sees
Speaker 1: you know that you come from a line of family
Speaker 1: that's I don't know, just writing citizens Kane, Do you
Speaker 1: have any interest in ever directing or producing films?
Speaker 4: I have some you know, I'm not a director, and
Speaker 4: I'm really appreciative of the I love artists, man, and
Speaker 4: I you know, admire what they do. I'm not I
Speaker 4: would never be a director. First of I don't. I
Speaker 4: don't really think visually, guys. Wife, you could literally hang
Speaker 4: a new painting or poster in front of me in
Speaker 4: my home office and nine months later I'll be like,
Speaker 4: when'd you put that up? It's ten feet from your face,
Speaker 4: and I put it up in twenty eighteen. But I'm
Speaker 4: not a bad writer, and you know, a storyteller, So
Speaker 4: I mean, if I ever got the courage, it would
Speaker 4: probably be to right. And you know, producing, I love
Speaker 4: that producing can mean ten billion things. I have come
Speaker 4: to meet some producers who are so hands on. I mean,
Speaker 4: I you know Irwin Winkler, of course, who you know
Speaker 4: worked on the on the Irishman, and but who had
Speaker 4: produced you know, some of the Seminals Corsese movies earlier, earlier.
Speaker 2: I've known Irwin forever. I produced. I produced the movie
Speaker 2: that Irwin directed. That's how he met.
Speaker 1: What movie was that Home of the.
Speaker 2: Brave, Home of the Brave? Well, yeah, sure, a while back,
Speaker 2: but that was how I met Irwin yeah, and Irwin
Speaker 2: is uh so like and Irwin. You know, Irwin's not
Speaker 2: the kind of producer who you know, just puts up
Speaker 2: money and then you know, has his name on the credits.
Speaker 2: At least he wasn't.
Speaker 4: Then you know producers who who.
Speaker 2: Now he's his hands on?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and and sort of and you protect the director
Speaker 4: from the studio that's who have the money, right, That's
Speaker 4: a big part of it. And I admire that part too,
Speaker 4: and that that has always struck me as something that
Speaker 4: but I don't do it. I mean, the fact is
Speaker 4: I don't so I you know, I think we have
Speaker 4: our answer.
Speaker 2: I don't do it. I have a question. So so
Speaker 2: now we know how you know, TV has become epic
Speaker 2: and huge and really gone to another level today. I'm
Speaker 2: just curious on your take with film versus TV today.
Speaker 2: You know, how do you feel and what are your
Speaker 2: favorite TV shows, if any that you watch?
Speaker 4: I know I watch a lot of television. I mean,
Speaker 4: I've been so busy the last few years that I've
Speaker 4: watched less. But I still manage with a you know,
Speaker 4: young daughter and fairly busy schedule, which I'm grateful for
Speaker 4: to to get a fair amount of shows in. I
Speaker 4: love that we're at this sort of you know this,
Speaker 4: what is it be third Golden age for for television.
Speaker 4: I don't see television and movies competing. I just think
Speaker 4: they're all this visual storytelling. And I hope we never
Speaker 4: lose the theater experience. I don't think we will. I
Speaker 4: think it'll come back. You know, it's going to change
Speaker 4: and maybe there won't be as many, but you'll still
Speaker 4: be able to go to a theater. It's still a
Speaker 4: night out. It's still a social connection, and I think
Speaker 4: we all realize now how valuable that is, how much
Speaker 4: we miss it. So I think as soon as it's safe,
Speaker 4: it will come back. I don't think people will be like,
Speaker 4: oh great, I never have to leave my I think
Speaker 4: it'll be the opposite. But that's okay. It's also okay
Speaker 4: to have movies show up on streaming services. There's no
Speaker 4: it's all good. But you know, I mean, I have saved.
Speaker 4: I have not watched this season A Better Call Saul.
Speaker 4: I wanted to watch it all at once. It became
Speaker 4: easier during this to do that because nobody was spoiling
Speaker 4: it for me. I love Better Call Saw, I love
Speaker 4: the Americans. I love succession of.
Speaker 2: Our favorite show, our.
Speaker 4: Favorite successions, maybe a top ten. That's season two of
Speaker 4: Succession one of the best seasons.
Speaker 2: To tell it was unbelievable, unbelieved.
Speaker 4: I watched Homeland, you know, I mean it sort of
Speaker 4: run its course, but I watched it all. I watched
Speaker 4: you know, Ray Donovan.
Speaker 2: And Billions are are two of my favorite I love.
Speaker 4: Well a dollar Bill on bill the great an actor
Speaker 4: named Kelly o'coyney's one of my best friends. Oh really, guy, yeah,
Speaker 4: and would be a great guest for you guys.
Speaker 2: He would love wait wait, not only hold on, not
Speaker 2: only will I kiss his ass on the show, but
Speaker 2: tell him that I am a fan, and if he
Speaker 2: wants to reach out to me through you, I would
Speaker 2: love when he's off the show to put him in
Speaker 2: one of my films. He is. What a great actor,
Speaker 2: What a great actor.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys watched The Americans, which is,
Speaker 4: by the way, the show totally worth seeing.
Speaker 2: It's great.
Speaker 4: It's not rand on FX, it's done, it's phenomenal. It's
Speaker 4: as good as TV can be. And but Kelly played
Speaker 4: a character there that is so dramatically different than Dollar Bill,
Speaker 4: so it buttresses your point. Kelly is a really skilled actor.
Speaker 4: I went to high school with him, were on a
Speaker 4: basketball team. He's one of my closest friends.
Speaker 1: Yes, thout my the Americans. That's on the list.
Speaker 2: We're going to watch Americans and we have to get
Speaker 2: him in.
Speaker 1: And since we're talking about guests that we should have on,
Speaker 1: I want to know, Ben, who have been some of
Speaker 1: the favorites of yours that you've interviewed this year?
Speaker 4: Well this year, I mean obviously Peter. You know that
Speaker 4: was fifteen hours of interviews Peter Bogdanovich. Wow, And you know,
Speaker 4: interviewing for a podcast where you're trying to get somebody
Speaker 4: to sort of tell their life story to take you
Speaker 4: through the highest point. You know, he was at the
Speaker 4: top of the world nineteen seven. He was Scorsese and
Speaker 4: Coppola and Friedkin and Mike Nichols. In the early seventies
Speaker 4: he was as big as any of them. And then
Speaker 4: he had some flops and people didn't like Peter. He
Speaker 4: was perceived as arrogant in part because he was arrogant,
Speaker 4: but that's sort of his his his but his arrogance
Speaker 4: is like it's the right kind of arrogance in that.
Speaker 2: It's his genius. It's probably his genius, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And he's not putting it on. It's sort of
Speaker 4: just the way he talks. He doesn't look down on people. Well,
Speaker 4: he just he's very smart about the things he knows
Speaker 4: and he wants to talk about them. And anyway, he
Speaker 4: was he and Sybil were so perfect together and on
Speaker 4: the cover of Magazinis and so so his fall was
Speaker 4: his fall. Hollywood sort of took lee in his fall.
Speaker 4: Billy Wilder, the great director, great writer, director, said I'm
Speaker 4: gonna paraphrase it here, but he basically said that, you know,
Speaker 4: everyone says that that Hollywood is a splintered town, that
Speaker 4: we're all, you know, in this for ourselves and we
Speaker 4: never look after each other. He goes, that's nonsense. We
Speaker 4: all come together to celebrate a Peter Bogdanovich flop.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: So that's sort of what Peter was up against. And then,
Speaker 4: you know, and then is the woman he loved, the
Speaker 4: woman who's going to marry, was murdered and he went
Speaker 4: into a five year depression, tail spend, lost all his money.
Speaker 4: So that's a challenging interview and a great interview. But
Speaker 4: TCM is fort you got.
Speaker 2: No, I just want to say I agree with you.
Speaker 2: By the I was just thinking about Hollywood. It's like
Speaker 2: they lift you up, they build you up, they build
Speaker 2: you up, they build you up here the underdog. Once
Speaker 2: you get there, then they want to see you fall.
Speaker 2: And it's just this weird, weird, bad thing. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I hope that through this pandemic that we're in, and
Speaker 2: I feel like people really come together and I feel
Speaker 2: like the world is changing for the best. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm an optimist, you know, Ben, So I don't know
Speaker 2: if I'm delusional, but I do feel that people are
Speaker 2: really leaning on each other right now, more than I've
Speaker 2: ever seen, you know, versus like a hurricane or a tornado.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe they'll come together and then once it's
Speaker 2: kind of gets better, everybody goes back to their regular lives.
Speaker 2: This is effect that the entire universe all at the
Speaker 2: same time, and we've never experienced this. So I'm hoping.
Speaker 1: Well, the silver lining is, you know, we have to
Speaker 1: figure out how we can do better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 4: So I'm not as I'm pretty optimistic. We know, we
Speaker 4: started talking about my father, and my father's the most
Speaker 4: optimistic person in the world. So in a sense, I'm
Speaker 4: glad he's not living through the last few years politically
Speaker 4: because it would really have distressed him. But I hope
Speaker 4: we come back together. I certainly do. Hollywood, though, is
Speaker 4: a there's a and I love Hollywood and I love
Speaker 4: the people and yeah, I just meet Yeah, I like,
Speaker 4: you know, I had this reputation when I came out
Speaker 4: to l A about you know, what kind of town
Speaker 4: it was going to be, and you know, it's superficial
Speaker 4: and that's all horseship.
Speaker 2: I mean it can be and it can like it
Speaker 2: can be and yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, no, yeah, of course we could have that
Speaker 4: idea where, you know, where people celebrate other people's failures.
Speaker 4: And there is a slightly weird thing when a friend says, hey, man,
Speaker 4: they bought my screenplay that you think, why did they
Speaker 4: buy my screenplay?
Speaker 2: You know, for an.
Speaker 4: Instant that that that's that's sort of unique to LA.
Speaker 4: But the flip side is, man, I would you know,
Speaker 4: I'd play poker and I'd meet some guy.
Speaker 2: Oh, hold on, we're super time out.
Speaker 1: Then you keep dropping things like, you know, Robert Kennedy
Speaker 1: than poker, like your.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know what they call it, semi
Speaker 2: professional poker player. I live for poker. I play on
Speaker 2: television on a regular basis up until COVID. I am obsessed.
Speaker 2: If you google me, you'll see my poker antics. I
Speaker 2: play in the World Series. I go for the entire month,
Speaker 2: play all the events. I live for poker. So if
Speaker 2: you love poker, when I wherever you where are you based?
Speaker 2: Oh you're based there? Okay, So when when COVID goes away,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna invite you over to my poker game so
Speaker 2: we can hang out and play poker.
Speaker 4: You know, by the way, we have the same birthday.
Speaker 4: I just want to point that out.
Speaker 2: Oh this is getting better by the minute. This is
Speaker 2: just getting better. We're gonna party together next year, and
Speaker 2: we're gonna have poker together. This is great.
Speaker 4: Most of my gambling is a sports gambling. I mean,
Speaker 4: I love gambling. I just you know, it's part of mine.
Speaker 2: That makes two of us funny, two of.
Speaker 4: But you know, you'd go and you so you'd be
Speaker 4: I just playing poker with friends and they some friend,
Speaker 4: some guy somebody there would bring a guy. And you know,
Speaker 4: I met a couple of incredibly successful writer producers on
Speaker 4: big s and comedies, and like the whole night he
Speaker 4: would you know, the guy would like, never say anything
Speaker 4: remotely funny. He tried and I and he didn't seem
Speaker 4: and I'd be like, how's this possible? And then the
Speaker 4: next week somebody else would come and it's a bartender, right,
Speaker 4: and a waiter and a guy working hard to make it,
Speaker 4: and I would think, this is the most talented person
Speaker 4: I've ever seen in my time, Like, how how is
Speaker 4: this guy not? You know? So I love that And
Speaker 4: I love meeting creative people. You know, every time I
Speaker 4: run into somebody you can make fun of writers at Starbucks,
Speaker 4: but then you have a conversation with him and it's
Speaker 4: incredibly interesting. Like I love artists, man, I like being around.
Speaker 2: I do to not only that, I want to say everyone,
Speaker 2: my guy, oh on, my, my producer Timmy, who was
Speaker 2: sitting here too. I found him at Starbucks. He was
Speaker 2: a a barista, then he became an intern, then he
Speaker 2: became an assistant, then he became a junior development executive,
Speaker 2: and now he's the president of the company.
Speaker 1: Wow, Hollywood dreams come true?
Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Working at Starbucks one day filmmaker the next So yeah,
Speaker 1: of course you touched on how your wife sometimes decorates
Speaker 1: your office and you don't notice, which I love that.
Speaker 1: How did you meet this epic woman who was just
Speaker 1: like putting fabulous art in your office.
Speaker 4: We met at the TCM Film Festival, the first ever
Speaker 4: TCM Film Festival. She was like, she's a big movie fan,
Speaker 4: she loves TCM, and she tried to get she was
Speaker 4: working in the city. She was in New York, and
Speaker 4: she wanted to get a bunch of her girlfriends to
Speaker 4: come out with her to the our first ever film festival.
Speaker 4: And you know, they were like, oh, we don't want
Speaker 4: to go to a film festival black and white movies
Speaker 4: or whatever, whatever dumb thing they said.
Speaker 2: And so she's cool, and.
Speaker 4: She was like she loves architecture too, so she's like,
Speaker 4: screw it, I'm going. So she went herself, why don't
Speaker 4: you take a week a week afterwards in la and
Speaker 4: Palm Springs to tour to just look at great houses,
Speaker 4: look at you know, Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses, and
Speaker 4: like she was just she was like, I'll take a
Speaker 4: ten day vacation by myself. And we met at the festival.
Speaker 4: I had a girlfriend at the time, but we met
Speaker 4: and then you know, I broke up with my girlfriend
Speaker 4: like three months later, and I met Lee Lee again
Speaker 4: then at a TCM event in Atlanta where she was
Speaker 4: with girlfriends and I was hosting some event and we
Speaker 4: hung out. And then you know, over the next like
Speaker 4: year and a half, she lived out of town. She
Speaker 4: lived in New York and then moved briefly to Saint
Speaker 4: Louis and we you know, she'd come into town a lot,
Speaker 4: and we'd see each other and it's just sort of
Speaker 4: and then one because again she takes charge. It's like
Speaker 4: two Christmas seasons later, she was like, yeah, I got
Speaker 4: work to let me come to LA for two months.
Speaker 4: I'm going to rent a small little house in LA
Speaker 4: for two months and let's just see how this goes. Wow,
Speaker 4: and now we have, you know, dogs and a family
Speaker 4: and a daughter.
Speaker 2: How many years have you guys been together since then?
Speaker 4: So we've been sort of like seeing each other since
Speaker 4: like twenty eleven, and we got married in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now I have one other question. You got married
Speaker 2: on a cruise for the same festival, is that or
Speaker 2: explain it?
Speaker 4: The festival is here in LA like at those great
Speaker 4: theaters at the Chinese and the Egyptian sort of in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: That's where were the base at the Roosevelt Hotel. We
Speaker 4: of course had to cancel it this year, but it'll
Speaker 4: be back, you know, hopefully in twenty twenty one. We're
Speaker 4: working on it. So, but that's here, that's where we met.
Speaker 4: But then we also have a cruise and so you know,
Speaker 4: we were seeing each other and we were on the
Speaker 4: cruise and I proposed to her and we thought, oh,
Speaker 4: this will be fun since we met at TCM, like,
Speaker 4: let's get married on the cruise and have you know
Speaker 4: Gavin McLeod marius, you know, and oh wow, and you
Speaker 4: know it wasn't Captain Steuben, but it was. And then
Speaker 4: of course it turns out it turns out you get
Speaker 4: married in the Caribbean on a cruise, it doesn't really count,
Speaker 4: right because.
Speaker 2: You have to have allasis of the piece in the city. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Mostly you have to pay for a marriage license. That's
Speaker 4: what that's what California wants.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 4: We came back and got married again, and but do
Speaker 4: we count the real date is that one of the crews.
Speaker 4: That's our anniversary was fun. Robert Wagner, who was a
Speaker 4: guest on the cruise. He walked, he walked my wife
Speaker 4: down the aisle.
Speaker 2: Come on, I mean, you just live. You live. Honestly,
Speaker 2: we are definitely playing poker together. You live the coolest life.
Speaker 2: I'm dead serious. As soon as this shit's over, where
Speaker 2: you're coming to a poker game because I think you
Speaker 2: and I have a lot more in common. Even though
Speaker 2: I am not as highly educated as you, I'm a
Speaker 2: film school education. I definitely can relate to the gambling
Speaker 2: and the fun that I think you are.
Speaker 1: Just the story like I want to come to just
Speaker 1: hear everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have one last question question. I know you're like,
Speaker 2: you know, you're a phenomenal interviewer and you've interviewed pretty
Speaker 2: much everybody on the planet. What interview tips would you
Speaker 2: give us young ones who are only like twelve episodes in?
Speaker 2: What what? What? What? What?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: What do we need.
Speaker 1: To give used?
Speaker 4: So the best thing that I look first of all,
Speaker 4: I paid attention to Howard Stern, David Letterman, and Dan Patrick,
Speaker 4: who I think is actually a really good interview interviewer.
Speaker 4: They're all different, but the most important thing, you know,
Speaker 4: prepare right, like, don't get caught up because the preparation
Speaker 4: helps you, and it helps it also helps them, but
Speaker 4: it helps you. You don't need to memorize it. But
Speaker 4: when you feel secure that you're not going to get blindsided,
Speaker 4: that you're not afraid to figure out how to pronounce
Speaker 4: somebody's name or what movies they did or who directed
Speaker 4: those movies, it just gives you confidence. It gives you
Speaker 4: confidence to then be funny because you're not scared. So
Speaker 4: the preparation, it's not so much that you need to
Speaker 4: recall what you prepared. It's fine if you can't remember something.
Speaker 4: But when I realized that if I prepped and I
Speaker 4: felt confident, then when I couldn't think of something, I
Speaker 4: didn't have to pretend I could day. You know, when
Speaker 4: you were doing oh for crying out loud the Hitchcock
Speaker 4: movie with Carrie Grant Ingrid Bergmann had come down the stairs,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, and then the person go notorious.
Speaker 2: I go right notorious.
Speaker 4: Whereas if I weren't prepared, I'd be terrified of that moment.
Speaker 2: So it's really just doing your homework, like, really do
Speaker 2: your homework.
Speaker 4: So they do two things, Okay, two things real quick,
Speaker 4: So yes, do your homework because it lets you be
Speaker 4: funny and spontaneous, which you might be afraid to do.
Speaker 4: And then secondly, this is obvious, but it's really hard
Speaker 4: to do. It took me a long time. Don't worry
Speaker 4: about your questions. Think about what you want to ask,
Speaker 4: but then just listen. If you're really listening, you will
Speaker 4: ask something different. And frequently the best questions are really
Speaker 4: because then there's some personal just because then the person
Speaker 4: will just go on or huh, and I didn't know
Speaker 4: that really those three things that just gets people talking,
Speaker 4: and they like it when people are interested in what
Speaker 4: they had to say. And if you avoid the cliches
Speaker 4: of in an interview, and don't fake laugh, and don't
Speaker 4: you know these little things. I learned all that stuff
Speaker 4: from being on local TV. And I'd see myself fake laugh.
Speaker 4: If I recorded a and i'd cringe.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, you knew it was a fake laugh.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, that's the time that I pretended super hard, right.
Speaker 4: You could you know you're an ankor you're an anchor
Speaker 4: and the weather person says, you know, you'd say to Sherry,
Speaker 4: you'd be like, you know, our weather person, you know.
Speaker 4: I'd be like Sherry, what's our Sunday looking like? Like,
Speaker 4: why a laughing laugh?
Speaker 2: That's not kidding, I'm kidding. It's not even a joke.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 4: Well that no, right, My laugh is like now you know,
Speaker 4: because it's so absurd, you know. Okay, Sherry, great stuff,
Speaker 4: thanks you, Thanks for the good weather today.
Speaker 2: This is good. Honestly, Ben, that is really good advice
Speaker 2: because number one, I need to shut up a lot.
Speaker 2: You can see that, so I'm going to get better
Speaker 2: at that. But two, I do like the preparation because
Speaker 2: I feel like in the twelve episodes we've done, when
Speaker 2: we're prepared, baby, we we are really like on point.
Speaker 1: But we'll be honest though, Ben. Sometimes I'm interviewing, you know,
Speaker 1: like people on vander Pump Rules, which you probably don't
Speaker 1: even know. That is easy. When I look at a
Speaker 1: resume like yours, I'm like, what's my name again?
Speaker 2: I feel like I feel like I'm talking to a
Speaker 2: colleague versus having no clue. When we bring on the
Speaker 2: vanderfug people and I'm like, who did you beat the
Speaker 2: shit out of last episode? I have no clue. So
Speaker 2: this has actually been really enjoyable, Ben, and very appreciative
Speaker 2: and I'm a huge fan of yours now and we
Speaker 2: could go on for another hour, but they're telling us
Speaker 2: we got to wrap it up, which Ben, is there
Speaker 2: anything else I can say or or let people know
Speaker 2: where to find you besides the new podcast? Is there
Speaker 2: any other things? Sure?
Speaker 4: Definitely check out Definitely check out the block thickens. I'm
Speaker 4: still Peter Bugdanovich. Wherever you get podcasts. We've had four episodes,
Speaker 4: we got I think the three or three more and
Speaker 4: you can on Twitter's really the only place I am.
Speaker 4: Ben MANK seven seven perfect.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Ben, I'm so appreciative your your
Speaker 1: story is epic. Plus you gave us advice. I feel
Speaker 1: like I should be paying person.
Speaker 2: Thank you, it was fun.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Ben.
Speaker 2: Hi, this is Kim.
Speaker 3: I love, love, love your podcast.
Speaker 2: And just to let Randall know he does have fans
Speaker 2: because he is the number one guy.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my loves to everyone who has already left
Speaker 1: us epic messages and keep.
Speaker 2: Them coming because we love hearing from you. Guys.
Speaker 1: Call us anytime at eight sixty six La La Pod.
Speaker 1: That's eight sixty six La La Pod.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you for listening.