TMZ Founder-in-Chief Harvey Levin

On this very special episode, Paul and Skip go on location to the nerve-center of entertainment journalism — TMZ’s studios — to talk to the man behind it all: Harvey Levin! The media mastermind gets personal as he reflects on being a firsthand witness to the assassination of RFK as a teen in 1968. He also opens up about getting his start in the business during the OJ Simpson trial, how he came up with the name "TMZ," and what it takes to run his operation today. (Hint: it involves getting up VERY early in the morning!) Levin also offers revealing insights on the ongoing Diddy headlines, and shares an unforgettable musical moment with Paul. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy
Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this
is Paul Anka.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And my name is Skip Bronson.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
We've been friends for decades and we've decided to let
you in on our late night phone calls by starting
a new podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet
some real good friends of ours.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're leaders in entertainment and.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even as sitting
president or two.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Join us as we ask the questions they've not been
asked before, Tell it like it is, and even sing
a song or two.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
We did a doc on the downfall of Diddy on TV. Look,
there's a grand jury right now that has convened and
they're looking at sex trafficking among other things. They are
bringing some of these alleged victims in and it is
not hard for prosecutors to get an indictment, So I think,

(01:09):
you know, I would be stunned if he's not indicted.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Hey, welcome back from your latest tour. I still can't
get over seven cities shows in seven cities in ten days.
I mean, that's it's not like Adele in Vegas, where
she's got a residency and she's just sitting in one
spot works.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
However, many days a week you traveled all over in
the Northeast and into Canada over a period. At ten days,
seven shows, everyone was sold out. I mean, I thought
you'd be exhausted, but for whatever reason, you're not.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
No, I've been doing it for so long. I think
once that button's pressed, you do it. Kind of take
care of yourself. And I was living out of one place,
you know, I was out a Mohican sun and kind
of commuting, and then I popped down to New York
and you know, lived there at the hotel and drove
to a different place. It was cool, you know. I

(02:22):
mean it would have been different for ninety days. But
once you get your arm around it and realize what
it is, and yeah, and the system is there for me.
You know, my guys show up. We got a whole crew.
I just show up about thirty minutes before I go
on and vocalize and walk on stage. You know, I
don't spend time in the theater all day, et cetera.
But it was cool. It was just great, you know,

(02:43):
getting the whole field of the audience again because you
know I was an Asia part of that. That was
a fifteen hour flight and getting back to normalcy if
you it was cool. Yeah, I and you know I
love a skip. The bands are just me.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Know that you get you get energy.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
You don't lose energy.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
From that, I know, get it from.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
How's your bourbon doing good?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, we kind of told you we have a new
CEO who's going to be running the company, highly experienced guy. Yeah,
we're just sort of repositioning it right now. You know,
we're learning as we go. You know, the first built
bottle that we came out with, it was a premium,
was two hundred dollars a bottle.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
So that's you know.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
That that's how we won all these awards best New
Bourbon because the bourbon is incredible. But we then you know,
came out with a second version. But even that's you know,
like sixty five dollars a bottle. In the bourbon world,
that even that's a lot of money. So we're just
talking about new ways to market, new ways to position.

(03:45):
But I was going to say, just going back to
your show, I love that when I saw the show
here in Beverly Hills. Your audience sits there for about
twenty minutes before you come out and lead off with Diana.
They're looking at a stage with that banner that says,
you know, the Our Way podcast, Our Way with Paul
Ankin Skip Bronson. That's getting burned right in, burned right

(04:09):
into their psyche for like twenty or thirty minutes as
they sit there before you come out.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Well, we had thousands of people watching this last tour,
you know, and then we got responses, which is kind
of cool, and but we're not going to bring well
we might just thinking we're going over to Harvey Levins
to one, which I'm excited about. I don't know that
he drinks, but we could think about dropping a few
bottles there for his younger cats there.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, right right at the TMZ studio. And I know
he loves you. I've gotten that feedback already. But there's
so many things that I hope we can get them
to talk about, particularly the oj You know, he was
all over the O. J. Simpson thing long before he
became you know, had a quote entertainment show on television.
He was all over that Ojay story. And I'd love

(04:56):
to get his perspective on you know, how all that went.
I think that'd be fun to listen to him on
my list. I want to squeeze in did he because
they've covered it. I think he had the Uh he
did a documentary on it that was the first I
think they've done it received it's a follow up on that.

(05:17):
And you know, he's only done one podcast. That was
the one he did with Bill Maher and that's the
only one that he's done, right, So this is pretty
cool that because of your friendship with him, we were
able to get him to do this. I can't wait
to do it.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
He's very smart and he really knows his stuff, and
it's going to be very unique, I think, Skip. I
think we're really really enjoy it. I'm looking forward to
going to another space, you know, getting in a room
with someone in that unique situation where it's his studio,
and I'm sure it's gonna be really well appointed.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
I'm not sure how you talked him into doing this,
but I'm glad that you did because I think this
is going to be a good one.

Speaker 6 (05:56):
Well.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
The history and I hope we can get him to
sing is uh, you know I did get a call
when they were rasing about not being able to sing
My Way, et cetera. They just reached out of me
out of nowhere. You know, sing, you know your song,
and you can't sing blah blah blah blah bah bah,
I don't. I just went, well, i'll help I'll help you,
I'll help him. I took him to Capitol Studios. Turned

(06:18):
out to be a big music junkie and loves it all.
And I recorded him with My Way, you know, which
I wanted to do. Was fulfilling for me, and and
that's how it started. So I guess it meant a
lot to him. And if we can get him to
sing my Way, that would be a great.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh, that'd be fun.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
That would bet with you, that'd be great.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yes, all right, something to look forward to him.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 7 (06:44):
Well I'm gonna turn in and uh, I'm going to
watch the hockey game. Go Florida, Go Florida, Go Florida.
And then I'm gonna finally get some sleep, get ready
for tomorrow. See my buddy curly feathers. I'll see them.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Look. Thanks. So, one of the obvious questions getting started,
what does TMZ stand for?

Speaker 5 (07:17):
TMZ stands for thirty mile Zone, which is so funny.
I remember we were trying to come up with a
name for this thing, and we were going through name
after name after name, and one day, it was a Sunday,
somebody said, okay, I got sixty names for you, and
they started going through it and they said, at one

(07:38):
point thirty I said, hate it, hate it, hate it,
hated it.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Hit thirty mile zone.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
Because I like the Z, and so we had this
whole thing about I want.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
I thought, this is the name TMZ.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
But there were people at Warner Brothers who were saying
that we were owned by Warner Brothers at the time.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
They said, now it's going to get confused with the.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
DMZ, and it's like who is going to to remember
the demilitarized zone.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
And so it was a big, long fight, but ultimately.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
That was the name in thirty mile Zone.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
Thirty mile Zone is actually built into some of the
after contracts for actors, and what it means is that
if you did a movie within a thirty mile radius
of the Writer's Guild at the time, which was around
where the Beverly Center was, if you did it within
that thirty mile zone, you didn't have to give actors

(08:30):
a per diem. You didn't have to put him up
in hotels. But if you did it outside the thirty
mile zone, then you had to put him in a hotel,
you had to pay him a per diem and all.
And it's it just was a term that they used
in the nineteen twenties and thirties and it went away,
but it was in the little part of the after
contract and somebody spotted it and said, what about that.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
That's how we did.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It, Harve. You're a lawyer, law degree, i am, And
how does it evolve into the entertainment business from being
a lawyer.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
That's that's a long story. I'll do the short version
if I can. So I went to University of Chicago
Law school and everybody was applying to Wall Street, and
I thought, I want to be a legal reporter on TV,
and so I sent one hundred resumes out and got
rejected by absolutely everybody BLOCKXA Mississippi wouldn't touch me seriously.

(09:23):
And so I ended up teaching, and then I practiced,
and then I went back to teaching, and the dean
of the law school where I was teaching, do you
remember proposition thirteen. So this was a big thing where
they were trying to limit property taxes in California, and
there was a guy named Howard Jarvis who became this
big folk hero. And so my Dean was the head

(09:45):
of the No. One thirteen campaign, and everybody that he
was putting up against Jarvis was getting killed because they
were all special interests people. And I'm this like twenty
seven year old kid with no you know, living in
an apartment. And they said, okay, there're they can't really
tag you with anything, so you start debating Jarvis. And
I started debating him and we would take it all
over the state. And then I got offered a radio

(10:08):
show after we lost that election, and I just started
getting into media and it just kind of evolved and
over many many years, so I did TV, I did
TV news reporting, started producing shows. Then one day I
went to Mexico and an a Margarita Hayes. I thought,
you know, if you do a website and you don't

(10:29):
have a time period and you don't have a publishing cycle,
you can beat everybody because.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
When you get it right, you just get it up.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
And it just seemed like such a simple idea, and
that's kind of how it emanated.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Now everybody's emulating you or trying.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
I mean right, I mean, listen, it's your Broadway. You
guys are doing it right. You're all copying and you've
just created this incredible, incredible entity that's just part of
our lives.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
So what I want to know is.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
Paul Anka was able to score something big when he
was like seventeen years old.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
Fifteen fifteen.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
It cheated me out of two years.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
You beat me by fifty years.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Listen, when you're the writer, you have a shot, right, No,
it's all about the writing, you know, It's all about
the writing, you know. I remember you know, I think
where I read somewhere you really invested as you got
into this industry, into the OJ trial, And yeah, I
remember that very very much. And Dominic Dunn became a

(11:32):
buddy and I loved Dominic, good friend at dinner. I mean,
this guy was fascinating. But firstly, tell me about the
OJ trial on your experience.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
Well, at the time, I was the investigative reporter for KCBS,
the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles. Yeah, and so it
was my life for two years, and it was the
only thing people talk to me about. It was the
only thing I did. It was, you know, singular the O. J.
Simpson case for over two years. And it's interesting because

(12:00):
this is now the thirtieth anniversary of the murders, and
I've had all these stories that I've wanted to tell
that I really haven't And we did a documentary just
on things that happened to me and that happened during
the trial and things that I think never made sense
that they tried to present. And you know, one of
the stories is a week after the acquittal and when

(12:24):
he was acquitted in the murder case, I was with
a friend at dinner and I was telling her what
I thought actually he did, as opposed to what the
prosecutor said he did, because I don't think he went
over there to murder Nicole.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
But that's another story.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
So what I told her was I think he went
over to slitter tires and there's a reason for that.
So I drove her over to Bundy where Nicole lived
in the alley, and we pulled up in the alley
because I was going to show her what I was
talking about. And there's a limo that's parked right by
the gate where you would enter the courtyard, and it

(12:59):
was an older limo, and I remember I parked behind
this limo and I saw the driver lock eyes with
me through a side view mirror, and five seconds later,
he starts the engine and starts to drive away.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
And I remember thinking, there's just something odd about that.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
If somebody, why would they leave if I show up?

Speaker 4 (13:21):
And it's like, I'm not a cop, And then I
started thinking what if?

Speaker 5 (13:27):
And so I followed the limo and he's going slow
at first, and then I start following the limo and
limo starts going faster and I start going faster.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
Limo's going faster, and I'm going faster.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
Two minutes in, we are snaking around Brentwood and this
limo is trying to lose me, and I'm just thinking,
I know who's in that limo. And I am following
this limo and we are going fast and we get
to Sunset and he is able to get a cross Sunset,
which is very busy, and I got stuck for a

(14:01):
I don't know, fifteen seconds. So I was behind the limo.
So I zoomed up a side street and then I
turned around and went down Rockingham where OJ lived the
limo was right at Rockingham, and I could tell that
whoever was there didn't have time to get out, and
there was like a standoff for five minutes, and all
of a sudden, that passenger door opens as somebody from

(14:24):
inside the house opens the gate and I see a guy.
I couldn't make out fully his face, but a guy
runs into the house.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
It was OJ Simpson going back to the scene of
the crime.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
Wow, and by dumb luck, I'm the guy that just
happened to be there.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
You were so invested in that obviously, was it two people?
Do you think? No? You think it was just him alone.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
I'm sure it was just him alone.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
And one of the reasons is that it was such
a bloody that if anybody else were there, there would
be other shoe prints that they would have found in
the blood, and they didn't. So for various reasons, he
did this alone. Whether he got help afterward, we get
into that in this documentary, by the way, which is

(15:16):
on two B and it's called TMZ presents Oj how
he really did it?

Speaker 2 (15:21):
So tell me we think of this.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
So I know one of the lawyers that was on
his defense team, Should I say his name?

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
He's no longer with us. Howard Weitzman.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
Howard was a very good friend of mine and he.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Was my lawyer and friend. And I kept asking him.
I said, well, look, well, obviously he did it right.
And he always would change the subject and I said, look,
he did it. I mean, obviously he did it. It's
very clear that he did it right. Kept changing the subject.
Before he passed. I said, look, Howard, come on, I mean,

(15:53):
obviously he did it.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
He said, skip. They framed a guilty man. You feel
about that.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
How would they frame the guilty Well, because.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
They planted evidence.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
They didn't plan well that that was that was but
that was the allegation, right, I mean, that's.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
What they ridiculous. It was ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
Johnny was Johnny was one of the He's the best
trial I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Howard.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
You know what really happened with Howard because one of
the people in my documentary is his wife, Margaret, And
the reason Howard left the case was Margaret said, we
don't have blood in our driveway, and if you don't
leave this case, I'm going to divorce you.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
That's why Howard left.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Wasn't one of the most important people though.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
The woman who was the jury expert, the one who
Joellendrius Joe Demetrius, right, Joellen.

Speaker 5 (16:47):
Demetrius, one of them pury right, Yeah, she knew how
to pick a jury.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
But Johnny was yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:53):
I mean look, Johnny was a friend as well, and
we had disagreements for over this case. I was, I
don't know, I mean look, I saw this coming like
a freight train. And Johnny played to the downtown jury
where the black community rightly was deeply, deeply suspicious of
the l a p D because the things the LPD

(17:14):
did in South Central and elsewhere. But the idea that
the DA they should have. They could have tried this
guy in Santa Monica, which is where he lived. That
was his world, and the DA wanted control over the
case and he worked downtown, so they brought it downtown.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Which was deadly, deadly. That was why he was acquitted.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Love, Love don't fit. You must have quit. That was
a turn.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
And who gives an actor a glove to pretend like
they can put it.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
On or not? My god, that was it.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
That was a turn.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
But that glove was not planted.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
But here's what's unbelievable. You you in the right in
the thick of that. You were at the Ambassador Hotel
when Robert F. Kennedy was shot?

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, also another in the elevator going on.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
No, I was actually a high school student still, but
I was the head of students for Kennedy in LA
and I was just deeply involved in this campaign.

Speaker 4 (18:09):
I just loved him.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
I went to the Ambassador and I actually ended up
in an elevator at one point in the evening. And
I don't even remember why, but Ethel Kennedy was there.
I think two of their kids were there. And Rosie
Greer was there and he helps subd Sir Han after
the shooting.

Speaker 4 (18:27):
It was horrible.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
It was just like, if there's anybody I ever idolized,
it was Robert Kennedy.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Well, where were you when the actual shooting was in
the ballroom? In the ballroom.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Never forget that, No, never ever. No, It's like Kennedy,
It's like his brother. I was in Poland getting ready
to go on stage when his brother was assassinated. I'm
sitting in a dressing room with the head of UPI
and I'm listening to this little radio in the corner,
and I'm doing an interview, and I could hear over

(18:57):
the radio, and the president arrived in Dallas at d
d D he was shot. You know, when you're in
Poland and you leave this country where we've got it
all over there, you got one bathroom per flora a hotel,
you're remote. And I looked at the guy Thompson UPI
I said, I think our president has just been shot.

(19:20):
What do you mean we're over huddled around this little
radio with armed forces radio with limited vocabulary. And sure
enough I walked on stage crying the folks, I can't
do the show. I'll come back one day. And I
left the country. It's something I'll never ever forget.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
I got to tell you because I was thirteen, and
there's such a thing as a para social experience where
everybody has this shared experience. And it used to be
like the you know, the town square where everybody would
get together. But you know, we're too big for that
in the United States. But that was the single biggest

(19:58):
para social experience I've ever had in my life. And
I remember everybody in this country was glued to the
TV all weekend long, and you know, you could not
walk away from that television set. And then to see
le Harvey Oswald get shot, you know, and just to
watch the funeral and everything else. It was the one
time in my lifetime that really felt like this entire

(20:24):
country was one that everybody was doing the same thing
at once.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
You know, I lived through the Bobby thing with Bobby Darren.
Did you run into Buck? He was so supportive. He
changed his old life and dedicated Robert Kennedy. He took
it very badly. Bobby moved up to Big sur or something,
but he was hit, really devastated.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
It was terrible.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
Yeah, And you know, and you know what I admired
so much about him was he didn't need to do this.
I mean, he was a rich man, he had power
as a senator, he was Attorney general. He didn't need
to do this, and he knew the consequences because of
his brother. And yet he not only did this, but

(21:08):
he was so passionate. I remember, I mean, I will
never forget the Knight Martin Luther King died.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
How he addressed that crowd.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
And explained it to them and and created this kind
of calm that I just remember thinking, he is just
a remarkable human being.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
I saw the emergence of it even in Vegas when
Kennedy would come out and the mob and that whole
thing morph into that where they just drop Frank and
the guys. And because they were very sincere about what
they wanted for this, Bobby was special.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Did you did you know Marilyn Monroe back then?

Speaker 1 (21:43):
I can't profess to Nora well, but I saw her
socially with the.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Guy, but you never saw her with Kennedy.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
No, we all heard what was going on, right because
back then there's no media driven society, and we were
all carrying on and I'm going the kid in the
middle of the saying do I give this money back to?
But I saw everything going on. You heard all the stuff.
You heard all about Exner. You heard about Marlon and
the guys and Kennedy coming in, and you know they
took care of him.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
They party got Judith Campbell Exner. I haven't thought of
her and so.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Oh she she was molmost Yeah, you know, they take
her to Washington and there's a door over there. It's
called the back door. It exists today where they'd bring
everybody into this back door into the White House. But
Excener was he squeeze FORFK?

Speaker 2 (22:28):
So on the Kennedy topic. Do you know Bobby Jr.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
I do.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
As a matter of fact, we had him on our
We had him on our show four or five days ago.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
He's an interesting guy.

Speaker 5 (22:41):
Yeah, there are obviously things I don't agree with, but
you know, he also he was an environmental lawyer for
a long time.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
He's a complicated guy. Personally. I really like him.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
And you know, some of the things that I like
about him is that I love that he challenges people.
And you know, I don't agree with all of his views,
but just the fact that somebody can stand up these
days and challenge things. It's why I love Bill Maher

(23:18):
so much, is that, you know, Bill Maher is not
afraid to challenge all sides. And everybody is so scared
to talk these days, and so scared to express any
point of view because right now, you say anything, and
half the country's gonna hate you, right And Bill doesn't care.
And I don't think Bobby cares that much either. I
think he's saying what he believes. And I don't think

(23:40):
you need to agree with everything somebody says, but the
fact that they're strong enough to say it in this culture,
I think really means something.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then Bill Burr, Yeah, I mean Bill's a variation
of that too. I love Bill Burr. He just tells
it like it.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
Is, Yeah, And people are afraid to do that now.
They're just you know when you look at you know,
look at.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
Diddy that you know, I want to talk to you
about that, and we will.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
But I mean, you know, it's interesting how silent Hollywood
has been about that, you know, given that people will
jump on other things that are not nearly as momentous
as what we now see, but for some reason, they're
really silent on that.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
People are just running scared in life.

Speaker 5 (24:22):
And that's one of the things I've seen in this
job is that it's just amazing that people are afraid
to take any stand.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
So people who take a stand.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
You've got to respect that part of it, even if
you disagree with their votes.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Telling Skiff might take on it all today, I said,
you know, it's become unlike something I've never.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
Seen, right, Oh, it is so tribal.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
It is tribal. And if people just embrace and understand
that it is tribal.

Speaker 5 (24:49):
Well, and the other thing too is and this is
to me so incredibly unhealthy that that people have just
sunk into their own little silos. And so if you
are a liberal Democrat, you only watch MSNBC. You know,
maybe CNN, but you and if you're a you know,

(25:10):
magar Or's conservative Republican Republican, you watch Fox. And if
anybody has ever watched both, you know, within the same
hour or back to back an hour each. It's two
completely different views of the universe. And you know, neither
is telling the full story, neither is painting a real picture.

(25:34):
I mean, they're advocates, but that's not the way we
should be consuming news.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
And that's the way people are consuming news now.

Speaker 5 (25:40):
It's through advocacy, and I think that is one of
the reasons people just hate each other, why it's become
so tribal, because you have a situation now where you know,
if you are in this camp, this camp is crazy
and evil because all you've gotten is information and making
that case and vice versa. Yeah, and I just think

(26:03):
that's so dangerous and it's so damaged our country.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
And the heart of it for me is those people
out there that are looking at it, they don't take
time to get to the source what it really is.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
I think that's really true.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
They're not doing their homework to get to the source.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
They don't want to. I don't think they want to.

Speaker 5 (26:22):
It's easy, it's easy to listen to allies. It's harder
to listen to people with whom you disagree.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
So James carp is a very good friend of mine.
He's been in town this week. We had dinner together,
and he has very strong opinions on you know, and Bien.
I mean, he's a Democrat obviously, but he's worried. And
somebody there was at a dinner I brought him to
a dinner party and somebody asked them, well, why don't
they want to Why don't they listen to you? Because

(26:50):
they don't want to hear anything that does not comport
with what their belief is.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Like, they believe that Biden is the guy. They don't
want to hear anybody tell him. You don't be there.
We got to pivot and go to somebody else. That's
a big part of the problem too.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
People just don't he James Carvell on one of the
cables not too long ago and made that he made
that point and they literally let him go and then
dismissed him as a kook. And look, it's a discussion
worth having that if you're a Democrat and you want

(27:25):
to win, this is a discussion worth having.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
But you're not allowed to have the discussion.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
But you know what, he made it an interesting point.
He said, the Democrats have a deep bench, you know,
Governor Basher, the governor of Shapiro in Pennsylvania. Wretch and
Whittmer somewhat arguet Gavin Nuss, Well, I mean, you know, so,
I mean there's a deep bench. It's not like, oh, well,
we have to do this because we don't have anybody else.
There are plenty of other people that you know, that

(27:51):
could effectively run.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
But it's a scary time right now.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
And like you know, Bill Mars says.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Bill Mars raised that same thing and said, look, he said,
I'm I'm going to vote for Biden, but he is
deeply worried that this is going Look what I'm wondering about,
and it's funny you mentioned Robert Kennedy, is whether we're
going to have a replay of nineteen sixty eight at

(28:17):
the Democratic.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Convention in Chicago.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
And that cost Democrats the election in sixty eight, and
I think Chicago is the backdrop now for something similar
that you're going to see protests in the street, You're
going to see protests inside the convention.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Things could get out of hand.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
It feels like this is going to happen, and that
cost the Democrats the presidency in nineteen sixty eight.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Very well, be right, Let's see how it plays out
the circus. Let's see if it even is going to
be Biden.

Speaker 5 (28:50):
You know, it's funny there are people that have kind
of raised that at this point, I don't see how
that shifts at this point.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
I just don't see how that.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
The whole protest thing is so different now. Freedom of
speech is one thing, but building encampments and you know,
trying to take over buildings at colleges. You know, it's gotten,
it's gotten so ugly right now. It's just there's more anger.
Peggy Noonan wrote in Trust in Common. I don't know
if you read Peggy Noonon, but last week were she
talked about the hatred that everybody has for everybody.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's not a good not a good place that we're
in right now.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
I mean, look, when when I was in college that
was right in the middle of the Vietnam protests, and
there were buildings that were taken over there, and you
know this was also where the students were the ones
who had there were direct consequences because they're the ones
getting drafted.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
I kind of have a different view of this that look.

Speaker 5 (29:58):
I mean, I have a lot of emotion about what's
going on in Palestine right now because it's just beyond
heartbreaking to see the devastation in Gaza and you know,
thirty thousand Palestinians killed, you know, and yet when people
are protesting that, I get it. But when people are

(30:20):
embracing essentially exterminate the Jews, which a lot which there
is a contingent doing that there, and those people are
getting embraced that a professor I believe at Cornell talked
about October seventh, is exhilarating.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
It's like what has happened? You know?

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Sick?

Speaker 7 (30:38):
Yeah, very sick.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Not a good commentary about this country and leaving Asia
as I did a few weeks ago, and hearing of
the periphery and people over there, they are totally laughing
and disgusted with us. Yeah, that's a new power pocket.
But let's get let's pivot.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
To a happier point.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Okay, yeah, what about you for a minute, Yeah, so
Paul and I laughed. Because Paul's a nocturnal person. I'm
an early morning person. I thought I was an early
morning person because I'm up at five.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
In the morning until somethive in the morning. Is somebody
somebody said to me, we want to hear what you do.
I said, skip, hold on, he's up at three in
the morning.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
I said, it's perfect, I said, because he gets up
at the time Paul goes.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
To bed, right, So this is the perfect fit.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
No, what's what's your schedule? You get up at two,
four or five? And I'm looking at folks, I'm looking
at a body here just stopping.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
No, I tell me it's not great.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
I mean, you know, give me because you don't want
to get up there.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Who does you do? No, I don't you got an
empire going here?

Speaker 1 (31:39):
I would do it.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
No, it's I work on the website for about a
half hour, and then I work out. I work out
at home and in the gym, and then I go
I have a gym at home, and then I go
to a proper gym, and then I go to a
different gym and then I swim and I get here
by six o'clock.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
So and the day ends.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
The day ends at five thirty six, and then I
go to bed at seven.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Okay, tell me what your diet is, because you look great.
What I'm a funny eater. I mean, I've lived like
this all my life. I want to hear what you know.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
I'm not like crazy when it comes to like counting.
I don't count calories or anything like that. Yeah, I mean, honestly,
the magic for me is swimming. Swimming is such great
exercise with you on that and it new or we
always I've been doing it for twenty years and it
lecks for me at least, it creates a certain thing

(32:31):
in my metabolism or whatever that makes it easier to
pretty much. I mean, I don't like eat a lot
of sugar and sweets and things like that. And I'm
not I'm not crazy when it comes to diet.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, you're a cold plunge guy.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
I am a wuss.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
I would do I didn't scan they back in the fifties.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
One time, one time I did it over.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
No, But that's the that's the thing now, right, Yeah,
I know that dead mind.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Let them have it.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Let them have it.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
And then what we used to do with the guys
in Vegas and with the mob guys used to take
a basket, put ice in it, attached the basket with
the ice to the head of the shower, you stand
under it, and that was enough.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
That was years old.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
That was my cool bats Right, Let's get the ditty, Yeah,
I mean, I love the first dock.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Right.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
We did a doc on the downfall of Ditty on
two B.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Where do you go from here with?

Speaker 5 (33:30):
Well, look, I mean I look, there's a grand jury
right now that has convened and they're looking at sex
trafficking among other things. They are bringing some of these
alleged victims in and it is not hard for prosecutors
to get an indictment.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
It's just not hard.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
The defense doesn't have the right to go in and
present in anything, and I'm not sure what they're gonna
they would present at this point. So I think, you know,
I would be stunned if he's not indicted. That's just
you know, if they got a search warrant already to
search warrants, and so getting a search warrant means a
judge has already found there's probable cause he committed a crime.

(34:10):
So now the issue is, well, the grand jury think
there's a reasonable chance of securing a conviction. And you
know when the prosecutor has already gone to the judge
and the judge a signed off and they've already seized
all of his equipment and videos and computers and everything else.
I would be stunned if he's not indicted. I don't know,

(34:33):
but I would be stunned if that doesn't happen at
this point and he's in trouble. And this Cassie video unbelievable,
you know, and there are people, there are people who
have talked about this, but very few. There's a woman
Aubrey O Dat who was in making the band. She
was in Dannity Kane, and she's been talking about this

(34:54):
for years and she's been a lone voice, and people
dismissed her as a kook. And then if you look
at did he you know, these were rumblings were going
on forever. But you go and look at video of
parties he threw, and every big star in the country
is at these parties, and nobody would listen either. I

(35:14):
don't know that they didn't listen because everybody heard the rumblings.
But you know, Abriode was just one of the few
people who would just speak out about it. And now
that all of this has surfaced, so many people are
we talked about this a minute ago, so many people
are silent, and you got to wonder why are they
so silent? And you know, I think part of it

(35:35):
is nobody knew he had videos that he was taking
of everything. And that doesn't mean people did things that
were necessarily wrong. But I don't think they want to
be seen in the middle of all of it. And
so I just find the reaction from Hollywood is kind
of anemic.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
But this won't surprise you. We've all seen this before.
So the place where I go for my physical therapy,
I've had a bunch of surgeries, compliments of Neil Elatroje,
best in the business, best and the best anywhere. And
I go to a place for physical therapy and I
was in there one day and on the next table
there's Diddy. This is not long ago. This is about

(36:14):
two weeks before he was busted. And I introduced myself.
I said, Hi, I'm Skip Bronson, and I said we
have a mutual friend, and I mentioned a friend.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
The nicest guy in the world, right.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
I mean, just the very calm, Really, what what are
you in here for?

Speaker 2 (36:30):
You know, what are you working on?

Speaker 3 (36:31):
You know home, You've been coming to this place just
you know, just not like a monster, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
So, so'sild addage. You meet somebody, you're meeting their representative exactly.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
I mean, right, I mean everybody's got different dimensions, but
what he his different dimension? I mean when you look
at that Cassie video, it is just it's mind blowing.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
That's exhibits A, B and C.

Speaker 5 (36:57):
Right, Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see whether
you know, it really depends on what they charge him
with whether the judge would allow that in because what
happens in a trial is every piece of evidence by
definition is prejudicial. You're trying to sway a jury one
way or the other. But at a point, if it
becomes so prejudicial that it outweighs any real value it

(37:21):
has in getting it the truth, a judge won't let
it in. And this is so incendiary, I wonder if
the judge will allow it or not.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
But these stories like for you, who are the guests
that are sort of like the gift that keeps on giving,
Like the people that.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
People have asked that it's not that simple. There can
be somebody who comes out of the blue that nobody knows.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Gypsy wrote Gypsy Rose. You know this.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
No Gypsy Rose, You're no, I'm talking no, I'm talking
about Gypsy Rose Blancheford, who is whose boyfriend killed her
mom and she ended up doing prison.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
Well who would think.

Speaker 5 (38:08):
But now she's a big celebrity that everybody follows. So
it's not you know, I mean, the Kardashians, you know,
have been around from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
But Britney spears, right, I mean.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
Britney spears. Is is a tragic story.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
But it's an annuity, right, I mean, she just keeps
coming and coming.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
I you know, I honestly I don't look at her
that way I have. I've only met her once and
there are you know, the free Britney people hate me
because you know, I have said for a long time
that this conservatorship had real value and she probably would

(38:48):
be dead if there wasn't a conservatorship back in two
thousand and seven. She was in that bad of shape
and I think just the fact the way it ended,
I'm not saying that her dad was the right person
to continue it, but she had a structure, and she
was taking her meds and she was solvent, and she
was relatively stable, and I know she was unhappy being

(39:11):
in it, and that's bad. And maybe by getting a
different conservator that would help. But now she has no structure,
and she is not taking her meds, and she is
in a deep, deep, deep hole just in terms of
her emotional and mental state. And she's isolated and she
doesn't have friends and it is dire, and everybody around

(39:32):
her that we've spoken with has told us the same thing.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
And she is in real trouble right now.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
It doesn't have friends. But is it fair to say
she has a huge fan base?

Speaker 5 (39:41):
Yeah, but what does a fan base do when it
comes to taking her meds? What does a fan base
do when it comes to giving her the kind of
real emotional support or a doctor who can help, you know,
those are things that the fans who were saying free Brittany,
Free Brittany never talked about her mental illness. Never heard
a single person that I heard, at least, you know,

(40:04):
talk about the.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Reason she was in it in the first place.

Speaker 5 (40:06):
That she has a really serious mental illness, no fault
of hers, but she has it. And now the question
is what do you do in a situation like that?
And I just feel just personally, I see this happening,
and it's it's really tormenting because I just really fear

(40:28):
something really bad is gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Are you any big will, big whale that you haven't
really done anything on or that you want to Is
there somebody out there that you'd really like this?

Speaker 7 (40:48):
Sitt?

Speaker 4 (40:48):
Oh my god, I mean there are a million people
that will let me.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Give me three who you're curious about it?

Speaker 5 (40:53):
I'm really you know, I'm really curious about Michelle Obama.
I'm so curious about Michelle Obama, and I'm curious about
it for all sorts of reasons.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
I have a friend who went to.

Speaker 5 (41:02):
Harvard Law School with her and was just telling me
how remarkable she was. But I just think she has
such an interesting worldview, and I know her husband's worldview,
and I'm into it. But you know, she's a person
who could be president if she wanted to.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
She hates politics.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
You don't think last minute?

Speaker 4 (41:23):
No, No, really, she hates it. She hates it.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
And you know, I've read her book and I've read
books about her, and I'm fascinated by her.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
And to that point, they have a perfect life. Why
give that up their life right now?

Speaker 4 (41:36):
You're going to put in her time?

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah, they did it, been there, done that.

Speaker 5 (41:40):
And you know it was rough for her and you
know when he was in the state legislature, she was
taking care of the kids alone. I mean they talk
about this, you know, in different books, about how difficult
it was for them. So she's really put in her time,
and she had an uneasy time in.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
The White House as well.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
But I'm just fascinated by her, and I really do
think she could be president if she wasn't.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
I think so listen to these politicians when you look historically,
they have a needle up their arm. They never quit.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
But she's not one. No, But which is one of
the reasons that fascinating.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah, yeah, I still think she's the long shot. I
don't know why. I just think somewhere, you know, as
intelligent as we all sit with intelligent people, to realize
there's another backstory agenda going on with those in power
that you have no ideas going.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
That's true, but she's not. She doesn't have that needle
in her arm. That's what makes her really interesting. She
I mean, think about it that she cares.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
She totally cares.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
But the idea that all of these people are just
would do anything to become president of the United States.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
She could be, but isn't doing it. I find that
really interesting.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
And she's from you know, she's in a family where
politics was kind of a core, yet she wants nothing
to do with that and she does care.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
And I just find that really fascinating.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Well besides her, Yeah, we else would you like that?

Speaker 5 (43:09):
I can't give you like a name where I say
I'm just dying to there. There aren't that many people honestly,
you know, the way I cover things and the way
we cover things at TMZ, you know, we we follow
people over the years, and I you know, when I
was talking about Robert Kennedy, he was so special because

(43:30):
that's the kind of person that I'm just so drawn to,
you know, But there just aren't a lot of people
like him around these days.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Is there is there anyone that any any story, anything
that you did that you'd like to take back? Is
there one that you built?

Speaker 4 (43:49):
I mean, I don't I don't want to say take back.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Well, you know what I'm saying that you wish hadn't occurred.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
Or.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
You know, I honestly, and I know this sounds like
I'm skirting it, I don't look back that way.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
And I'll tell you why.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
What we do here, I mean, we have a big newsroom.
We have two hundred people, you know, in the organization,
and I don't have an office. So I'm in the
middle of the newsroom and always have been. And we
always have arguments and discussions and debates and consensus, and
you know, we we really talk about we want to

(44:25):
be fair, and that's what I care that people see
that at least we are trying to be fair and
accurate and honest. And once you feel like you've done that,
I don't look back that much. I mean, I just don't, because,
first of all, it's hard to constantly look in the
past when you've got so many things to do in

(44:47):
the present. But you know, you do your best, and
you know and and if you make a mistake, you
correct it.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
That's the best you can do.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
But as long as you really been honest and you've
tried hard, and we do and look and you know,
people can say what they want and they may like
what we do, and they may not like what we do.
But what I care about is at least if they
believe that we've been honest about our approach in it.
And that's to me, what's paramount.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
But you're so many things. You're an investigative reporter. There's
so many things that are going on here. So my
question paparazzi a necessary evil, Well, you.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Know, we scaled back on that.

Speaker 5 (45:29):
I mean, we used to have twenty some people out
you know, all over the country who work directly for
you or yeah, because we didn't want to rely on
people where they weren't. You know, we we have a
handbook of things, rules they have to follow where you're
not supposed to chase people, and all sorts of other things,
and so we've kind of scaled back on it years ago,

(45:49):
where you know, we've kind of evolved. I mean, I
think we're different than we were when we started. Paparazzi
have been around since the beginning of entertainment, and you know,
there are people I'm not going to tell you who,
but I remember the story about somebody who you all know,

(46:10):
a famous person who would take a music express a
limo to the airport and this person would ask the
driver to go around the airport three times so she
could apply her makeup and so be good, knowing that
there were paparazzi there. And then when she'd get out
of the car, she'd look and say, oh, paparazzi, And

(46:33):
so yeah, I mean, look what you know, people, They
it all feeds on itself. I mean when you look
at what's going on right now in entertainment, everybody is
buying for a little piece of the pie right now.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
I mean it's hard.

Speaker 5 (46:48):
To get publicity when it comes from all directions. Now,
it could come from streaming. It'd got movies and songs
and you know, just celebrity and reality and all this stuff.
So to get attention and maintain a level, you need
it and.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
They need it.

Speaker 5 (47:02):
So I always tell people there are five restaurants in
LA where you know there are paparazzi, and then there
are thousands of restaurants where you know there aren't. When
you see big celebrities going to one of those five restaurants,
they know the drugs.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
They know what they're doing.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Hervey Dominic Dunn, it was a dear friend of yours
and who I loved. When I see him socially, tell
me how he influenced you. Oh, and the daughter with
that whole.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
With Dominique, with he was, he had a profound influence
on me. And I watched him, you know, for people
who don't know his daughter, Dominique was strangled to death
by a guy named John Sweeney, who was the manager
at Mo Mason Restaurant, which was the big restaurant in

(47:53):
town at the time.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
And the trial was a travesty of justice. It was.

Speaker 5 (47:59):
It would make your blood boil to know about this.
We did a documentary on this called Death of a
Movie Star. It's on Hulu, remember, and what the judge
did in that case I think is unforgivable. John Sweeney
had tried to strangle and beat and sent to the
hospital other girlfriends, and one in particular, wouldn't let her testify.
There were all sorts of things that went askew there,

(48:21):
and he ended up just serving a couple of years,
and it really.

Speaker 4 (48:26):
Devastated dominic and his family.

Speaker 5 (48:30):
And I watched him pick himself up and then decide,
because there was a point. He told me he was
up in the mountains and he thought about suicide, and
he got himself together and then decided he was going
to be an advocate for victims, and he really devoted
a lot of the rest of his life to that

(48:51):
and it was so moving to watch the way he
did it, and he did it with such integrity.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
And he was also just such a.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
Smart, funny, engaging guy who you just loved. I mean,
you knew him, he loved loved being around that. I'm
he is just somebody that is in.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
My heart still.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
Are you friendly with Griffin?

Speaker 4 (49:12):
I'm friendly with Griffin.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
I Griffin was in the documentary that we did and
he his book just came out, and he's a great guy.
He's just a great guy. Dominic was so proud of him.
He's a great guy.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
So on weekends, because you're is it fair to say
you're a workaholic during the week Yes, okay, so on
weekends you're not a workaholic?

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Are you working on the weekends? Also?

Speaker 5 (49:45):
Yeah, I mean we've got you know, this is a
tough business now, and this is a business where I
think you know, there's there's a guy that started TMC
with me. His name is Jim Perritorre, who is tragically
but Jim used to always say, you grow or you die.
And you've done this in your career. I mean, you've

(50:07):
actually been a role model for me. I really mean it.
You've been a role model for me to see what
you've done for as many decades and to see how
relevant you've stayed and how you've pivoted and changed with
the times.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
I just have so impressed with your life.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
And you know, in my field, television is not going
to get bigger.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
That's just not the way people are consuming things now.

Speaker 5 (50:33):
So it's not like you can just say, oh, I'm
just gonna do television because television may go away, and
even you know digital that you know, things are you know,
challenging when it comes to ad revenues. They're challenging for everybody.
And so how do you maintain and grow a business.

(50:55):
We use start documentaries and you do other shows, and
you do a bus tour of the city and you
you know, we do all sorts of things and you
then pivot to TikTok. But you've got to do that.
So it's created an enormous amount of work. So I
remember when I graduated from law school, I went down

(51:16):
to Miami for a year to teach law school before
I came back to California, and there was a guy
that I knew who I remember where he said it,
and we were talking one day and he looked at
me and he said, I want to give you some advice.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
Don't live for the weekends.

Speaker 5 (51:31):
And I remember thinking, wow, that's really true, that you
don't just live on Saturday and Sunday, but you've got
to live well.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Not only did they give up the weekdays.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
AI?

Speaker 4 (51:44):
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Can AI changed this for you? You think AI is
going to have any impact.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Then I think AI is going to have an impact
on humanity everything.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
But how does it impact your business?

Speaker 5 (51:53):
I think it's going to impact every element of life absolutely,
and including relationships. I mean, I think you know the
movie Her, there will be people in the not too
distant future who will have relationships.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
With absolutely absolutely absolutely lookout.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
I mean it's already happening where you know.

Speaker 5 (52:14):
You look at gen Z and I think they have
lost their ability to communicate. That when you text all
the time and you're not face to face with people
and everything is what you write, what you type on
your phone, and you've devalued communication and even devalued relationships,

(52:34):
that it's only a matter of time before all of
a sudden, well you can get a Scarlett Johansson type
on you know, your computer who will talk to you
and tell you what you want to hear, and they
will eventually be able to even create what appears to
be emotion in these people.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
And I think you're going to see that.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Only the second inning. We're in the second in the
seconding at best, absolutely at best.

Speaker 5 (53:02):
And it will affect every element of life, including obviously entertainment.
And now the big thing is, you know, we interviewed
somebody the other day about you know, was it Ashton
Kutcher was talking about doing movies with AI and we
interviewed a movie critic who was talking about how bad
that was and you know why? And I said, look,

(53:27):
I said, it's going to happen, and if it really
is bad, consumers aren't going to bite. But if they
do bite, you're not going to be able to put
that horse back in the barn.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
And I think that's what's.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Going on in all over the you know, in every
area of life. AI is going to be more transformative
than the Internet.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Totally agree. I think people will be working three days
a week. Corporate and government.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
Will what are they going to do?

Speaker 1 (53:53):
They'll give them the money and they won't care if
they'll go and spend it. You cannot keep a labor
force five days a week. They don't want it. I
think government and corporate, all profits, everything changes the numbers,
and to be happy to give them the money and
you'll see a three day work week and they'll go
out and spend it, and they'll just keep creating it.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
My friend own's office buildings in New York. He said, Skip,
we've lost Fridays. We're trying to save Mondays because that's
where it is. But to get back to something Paul.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Asked you about, is there a white whale guest? If
you ever.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
Interviewed Elon Musk, if you're regning with him.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
I almost did.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
I had a show called Objectified where I interviewed famous
peep and.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
I can't tell the story. I just there are certain things.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Wait, you outed me when you made me tell you
the name of the lawyer on the OJ thing, and
well I can't tell.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
I we can edit.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
Elon said that he was going to do my show.
Elon was at a point and I went to SpaceX
and we had lunch and we talked about stuf and whatnot, and.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
Shortly before we were going to do it. He got
upset with me over he was interested in a story.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
That I was just not comfortable talking about that involved
things that we had been told off the record about
something unrelated to and he told me off in a
big way one.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Night on the telephone. And that was my last conversation
with Funny.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
So you said, you don't believe in the cold plunge?
Do you sing in the shower?

Speaker 1 (55:32):
He loves his music.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
No, I'll tell you why I don't sing in the
shower because I swim at a public pool and I
shower in the rinse pool.

Speaker 4 (55:40):
And if I started singing.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
At the rins pool where everybody's swimming, I'd be drunk
bad in that pool.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Because that I want you to sing with Paul. I
think that'd be well.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Paul and I have history.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Yeah, we have big history. I got the phone call,
you know, regarding My Way and get Harvey sing blah
blahlah blah blah. I love Harvey and I love the
show and I'm a big fan. He said, Hey, how
do you want me to fit in with However? I'm there.
Bottom line was he shows up, We do My Way
a song that he likes, and that was it.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
Wait a minute, wait a minute, that was it. He
took me to Capitol Records.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
I said that the studio.

Speaker 5 (56:17):
Yeah, that was like the most exciting thing of my
wife that I went into Capitol Records and and Paul says,
this is the microphone Sinatra used to sing My Way,
And just to be in Capitol Records with the history
of the Beach Boys and the Beatles and all that him,
it was like, oh my god, it was like the
most exciting thing in my life.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
So we're setting you up, darling. I want to do
a duet with you.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
We did.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
We did this, Bill Barr. He's saying, I've got you
under my skin, and some of our guests love to sing.
I want to do my Way with you as a
duet today.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
Down, I'm up. But I'm so out of practice.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
We don't have to practice. Okay, this is in practice.
I think it would be very you.

Speaker 5 (56:56):
Know, I embarrassed myself enough already. Well that what the
heck of tea. It's not gonna make my voice any better?

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Okay, And now.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
The end is new, and so I face the final curtain.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
My friend. I'll say it clear.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
I live.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
A life that's full.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
I've traveled each.

Speaker 6 (57:46):
And every highway, but more, much more than this, I did.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
It my.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Way.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Regrets I had a few.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
But then again too few to mention.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
I did what I had to do.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
And saw it through without exemption.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
I'd plum each charter chorus, each scuffle, stuff, long life,
spy way.

Speaker 4 (58:41):
And poor. Much more than this, I did it my way.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Yes, there were times I'm sure you knew.

Speaker 6 (58:59):
When I bit off more than I could choose, but
drew it off when there was doubt.

Speaker 4 (59:11):
I hate it up and spit it out. I faced
it all, and I stood tall.

Speaker 6 (59:24):
And did it.

Speaker 4 (59:32):
I loved, I laughed and cried.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
I've had my film.

Speaker 6 (59:42):
My share of losing, and now it's tears subside.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
I find it all so amusing.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
Just to think.

Speaker 6 (59:58):
I did all And may I say, yes you not
in a shy way?

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Oh no, no, not me.

Speaker 7 (01:00:14):
I did it my.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
Way.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
For what is a man?

Speaker 6 (01:00:23):
What has he got him?

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
Not himself.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
That he has not.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
To say the.

Speaker 6 (01:00:33):
Thing he truly did, and not the world's alond.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Record.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
And what.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Harvey loving folks?

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
Whoa that was cool? So fun?

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
First, folks, drop.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Drop the mic. I need a cold Plunge.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
That was so fun.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
The job.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Oh my god, I love that way.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
You've got a great boy. No, please heat.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
Throat. This was so much fun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
That was so Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
We loved, love, loved it. I appreciate you taking.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
Are you kidding?

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Jordan, our producer wanted me to ask what your greatest
achievement was.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Well, now we know.

Speaker 5 (01:01:46):
This was maybe the most fun. Honestly, going to Capitol
Records that night was one of the highlights of my
life until now, highlights of my life.

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
It was so fun, pleasure.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
And somebody because it all started because people were giving
me shit that's right about singing My Way? And he
called up and he said, I'm going to show them
that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
And we did, Okay, I'm gonna get your work.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Go ahead.

Speaker 8 (01:02:10):
Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson is a
production of iHeart Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
The show's executive producer is Jordan Runtogg, with supervising producer
and editor Marcy Depina.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
It was engineered by Todd Carlin and Graham Gibson, mixed
and mastered but a wonderful Mary Dean.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
us a review.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

Speaker 5 (01:03:00):
The Fun of the

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
St