May 12, 2019

"Bragging rights for 'Howard Stern Comes Again' really do go to Donald Trump, who is far and away its most arresting subject.

"Stern has interviewed him many times, and the conversations leap out as if in neon. Some have already been well publicized, as when Trump remarked that dating in the age of AIDS was his personal Vietnam. But there’s so much more. His extreme richness; his treatment of the 'girls' he dates; his easily debunked lies; his excitement about hot new projects (Trump World magazine, Trump University): All are matters of record here. And the transcript of his 2001 radio brawl with the gossip columnist A. J. Benza, with Stern presiding 'like Solomon,' must be read to be believed. Trump: 'I won your girlfriend, A. J. You know it.' Benza: 'He sends things to her, newspaper clippings with him mentioned, circles his name and writes "billionaire." You have no idea. He’s out of his mind.'"

From "Howard Stern Can Talk. This Book Shows He’s Also a Good Listener" by Janet Maslin (NYT). The book, a collection of interviews, is "Howard Stern Comes Again" (available May 14th). Maslin likes the book but warns you not to read it straight through: "That will make it seem long and repetitive, with Stern frequently hitting on his favorite themes — which is to say, the ones that have the most to do with him. He likes asking about masturbation, money, making it big and psychotherapy, all of which demonstrate more narcissism than curiosity."

In NYT fit-to-print style there's this sentence: "[Gwyneth] Paltrow’s helpful hint on how to quiet an obstreperous husband will be one of the book’s big takeaways, even though these radio interviews aren’t technically news." The quote in the book — as I know from reading about it just about anywhere else — is: "One of the things you can do to make your man happy, ladies, is, like, sometimes in the middle of a fight, I just blow him. It ends everything."

ADD: Here is audio of that A.J. Benza/Donald Trump interview. Incredibly entertaining. Thanks to J. Farmer (in the comments) for pointing to that. I don't know how it looks in the transcript (in Stern's book), but in the audio Trump dominates brilliantly and hilariously and Benza is reduced to a pool of beta. Maslin presents it as if maybe Benza got the better of Trump. That's what you call fake news.

45 comments:

Ken B said...

Her company *is* called goop.

rhhardin said...

I never took to Stern. Imus was good.

rhhardin said...

Trump was a regular interview on Imus and apparently Stern too. Imus and Trump hung out together. Imus reported Trump had a great sense of humor, Trump making wry observations on everything.

In the end Imus went 'round the bend and sided with McCain.

rcocean said...

"He likes asking about masturbation, money, making it big and psychotherapy, all of which demonstrate more narcissism than curiosity."

You can just hear some 14 y/o boy yucking it up.

rcocean said...

"In the end Imus went 'round the bend and sided with McCain."

So, that was AFTER the "nappy hoes" remark, and IMUS crawling on his belly to stay on the air?

Limited blogger said...

20 dem candidates who can't come up with one thing to compete with something Donald did/said 30 years ago.

No oxygen left.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

a stern warning: ignore imus

rcocean said...

I never got Howard Stern. First, he's so fucking ugly, he was impossible to watch on TV. Second, there was too much adolescent crap.

J. Farmer said...

Was a huge fan of the Howard Stern Show. It was not syndicated in the Tampa Bay Area, which had a pretty decent talk radio presence in the 1990s, but I would catch the televised version on E! and did have a friend who would send me recordings of the full shows. Stern is certainly a master of the format and was a terrific interview. And not just with big celebrities but with the various oddballs and eccentrics who themselves became part of the show. The so called "wack pack." I remember the interview with Trump when AJ Benza was also on the line, and they both argued over Kara Young, who herself called in later in the show. Benza had dished about Trump's maneuvers on Young in his book Fame, Ain't It a Bitch. The full interview used to be available on YouTube, but now only the first part of it remains, which you can listen to bere. Around 4:30 is pretty interesting given the later claims about Trump's Russian dalliances.

rhhardin said...

Imus went all pro-victim PC after Rutgers and it completely ruined the show. However you could still tune in for him for the unreasonable-boss act until the end.

J. Farmer said...

Never was an Imus fan. He always seemed like a doddering old codger. The antecedent to Stern, for me, was David Letterman. I never got Johnny Carson, who always seemed like a huge bore, but I loved Letterman. And Stern's radio show always struck me as a late night talk show on morning radio.

walter said...

" sometimes in the middle of a fight, I just blow him. It ends everything."
What a dick move.

Drago said...

Trump knows precisely how to engage and dominate the East Coast media markets (centered on Manhattan).

The same skills he brought to a campaign where he maneuvered his way to an estimated $2 Billion in free media coverage.

Without that history and that skillset and that media savvy he would not be President.

Big Mike said...

What’s peaceful world we’d have if only priests, ministers, and rabbis included Gwyneth Paltrow’s advice in their pre-marital counseling for the prospective brides and grooms.

Seeing Red said...

Does Gwinnie have a husband?

BUMBLE BEE said...

Imus turned me on to Delbert McClinton w/Bekka Bramlett, for which I'm eternally grateful.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Imus turned me on to Delbert McClinton w/Bekka Bramlett, for which I'm eternally grateful.

Michael K said...

My partner in practice took a couple of office girls out to lunch one time. He was driving back with this one pretty girl who had the hots for him. She decided to blow him as he was driving along. He came and almost ran off the freeway. Not always a good idea.

Earnest Prole said...

I was introduced to Stern and Trump around the same time, the mid-1980s, on Letterman; they struck me both as freak savant geniuses. Those interviews are available on YouTube: highly recommended.

Tom T. said...

"Lately it seems like my husband is picking fights all the time!"

Bilwick said...

Saw the bit on Stern on today's CBS SUNDAY MORNING. It reminded me of Theodore Sturgeon's dictum to always ask the next logical question. Stern indicated that in many ways he liked and respected Trump, but that he could not support Trump as president. The next logical question (as it almost always is) would be "Why?" or "What policies of his do you object to?" or "What would you have him do different?" or maybe "Do you think Hillary Clinton would have been a better president, and if so, how?"

Tom T. said...

One of Stern's earlier gigs was here in DC, until he got fired for making fun of the airplane crash on the Potomac River.

Fen said...

Never liked Stern. Whenever I would tune into his show he would be prodding some girl to "show us your tits" or insisting she share "what do you fantasize about when you finger yourself".

Funny to hear people outraged by Trump's "let them grab you" remarks defend the show.

Dave Dexter III said...

Stern was never the same after Jackie the Jokeman left.

JAORE said...

" sometimes in the middle of a fight, I just blow him. It ends everything."

Also known as giving a Pepper Potts.

Mr Wibble said...

"One of the things you can do to make your man happy, ladies, is, like, sometimes in the middle of a fight, I just blow him. It ends everything."

She's not wrong. Fill his belly, empty his balls, make him feel appreciated. 90% of you issues with him would disappear.

Clyde said...

"Let's Go Blow This Guy!" - Demolition Man (1993)

I loved that movie.

Sydney said...

Isn’t Gwenyth Paltrow divorced?

richlb said...

Russia come up in the AJ Benza interview. Ha!!

Heartless Aztec said...

Gwyneth is on to something here. I'll suggest it to Mrs Aztec next time we're at crossed swords and get her opinion.

bleh said...

What’s funny is Benza is a pro-Trump 100% MAGA guy.

tim in vermont said...

like, sometimes in the middle of a fight, I just blow him. It ends everything.

Word.

And if that bothers you, maybe you should rethink your relationship.

tim in vermont said...

I used to listen to local Boston talk, Jerry Williams in the old days, Howie Carr more recently, but Rush is the only one I listened to for decades, though I can’t seem to care to find him nowadays. To me Imus only had the show because of his voice, and sometimes even morons are born with great radio voices.

Sebastian said...

"Maslin presents it as if maybe Benza got the better of Trump. That's what you call fake news."

Progs prefer betas. Not news.

J. Farmer said...

@Michael K:

She decided to blow him as he was driving along. He came and almost ran off the freeway. Not always a good idea.

Haha. Road head can be dangerous to the uninitiated. Curb Your Enthusiasm does a funny take on the subject in the second episode of season 7, "Vehicular Fellatio"

richlb said...

Haha. Road head can be dangerous to the uninitiated. Curb Your Enthusiasm does a funny take on the subject in the second episode of season 7, "Vehicular Fellatio"

Also tackled in National Lampoons Vacation, and sort of in The World According to Garp.

readering said...

The audio link has a problem, it suddenly repeats itself.

And Trump brilliant and hilarious? It's a reminder of why I find Althouse has an enormous blind spot when it comes to this low class narcissist. I did a quick search and it appears that in the interview the woman who was the subject of all this twisted banter was later patched in and naturally shocked that personal matters of several years earlier were being paraded on the radio. But that's not on this faulty youtube version. Maybe on the transcript from the book?

J. Farmer said...

@richlb:

Also tackled in National Lampoons Vacation...

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was not covered in Vacation. They were traveling with their children. It was covered in the Ron Howard film Parenthood, though, in a scene between Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen.

J. Farmer said...

@readering:

The audio link has a problem, it suddenly repeats itself.

Unfortunately that's what's available online. The full interview used to available, but a lot of old Stern stuff has been scrubbed from YouTube in years. Stern, under the influence of Marci Turk, has made a conscious effort to clean up his act into a more PC one, and a lot of the old stuff they put out is heavily edited.

Dave said...

Paltrow is very smart. She makes a lot of money selling rocks.

elkh1 said...

Stern will not be selling many of his new book if he did not dis Trump.

William said...

I listened to Stern back in the eighties. I'm not sure if I liked him, but I sure listened to him. He was definitely funny and went places no one else was going.....I remember how he used to say that for all the naked strippers he had on his show, he was faithful to his wife. That made him morally superior to those people who criticized him. Then he divorced his wife and married a model significantly younger than himself. Stern is a bit of a hypocrite.....I never read any of his books. I read one of the reviews of his new book. According to the review, he claims to have grown and matured and become a better person in recent years. Jane Fonda also periodically writes another memoir detailing how much she's grown. I don't read her books either.....The entertainment industry is a monoculture. If became out for Trump, all Stern's past sins would be assembled, doused with #metoo, and Stern would be incinerated in the bonfire. Stern knows how to manage his career.

Fran Waxman said...

."[Gwyneth] Paltrow’s helpful hint on how to quiet an obstreperous husband will be one of the book’s big takeaways, even though these radio interviews aren’t technically news."

Spare me the salacious details. Lorena Bobbitt had a better method.

tim in vermont said...

A blow job shows you love him, but still stuff should be discussed.

daskol said...

Road head in the World According to Garp would turn you off the idea.