Don't miss Dave's dissection of the Baldwin shooting, plus his analyses of other Hollywood murders, both on and off the set. My fave involved William Hurt made-up as Gregg Allman running for his life as a freight train sped toward him on a train trestle!
Dave goes into detail too about the deaths that occurred filming Twilight Zone: The Movie; and there is a book about the case that looks really good, Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case by Stephen Farber and Marc Green:
The outtake of Carson doing a douche ad has also been scrubbed from the internet, which is a shame; it was right up there with Orson Welles' fish sticks.
Dave- I second the motion that so many others have tossed out there- more of this hidden Hollywood! I had never heard of the Kenny Rodgers nor the George C. Scott recordings! (maybe being an east coaster I'm more familiar w/ our homeboy Alec Baldwin's nasty-ass tirade against his teenaged daughter?) At any rate- I guess these are our "royals" and we do love to hear about their bad behavior (maybe just to see them brought down to earth a bit?)
Yeah, like many artists, actors, rock stars, etc., I’m willing to accept measured levels of eccentricity, but he’s pretty over the top… but I’d still drink a beer with him, as long as he is unarmed!
I could rally for Judi: great lodgings, great food, great car, her wearing of very expensive lingerie, being in her will, those are all a turn-on for me. Orson Bean said men are youth and beauty fuckers, women are money and power fuckers--- so I guess my sexuality is rather XX-chromosomally inflected....
Dave, did you know Orson Bean at all? His politics were right-inclined.....
Bean was indeed Friends of Abe, so yes I knew him. Nice guy, but in L.A. it's always problematic to ask "where's Bean" because everyone in the vicinity will reply, "right here señor."
What you wrote reminds me of something one of my mentors once told me. Keep in mind he was about 70 at the time of this conversation. I noticed he was always offering motorcycle rides to collage girl waitresses, and I asked him if he ever dated women his age. He replied that he NEVER would do that. Then he considered it for a moment, and added, "okay, yes I would provided she was loaded!" LOL!
Really, really appreciated, Mike! And a very good idea. My problem is, I grow too comfortable with the status quo. I have two columns a week with Taki, then this Substack which has become my Twitter/YouTube surrogate (and way better than those two shit sites), and I sense, knowing my personality as I do, that I'll need to be "pushed" into doing more. Complacency is one of my character flaws.
Okay, I feel you, maybe 5% was overly aggressive. I’ll have my people contact your people, and we will hammer out the details…
However, I’m telling you, this is “The Golden Ticket”, and while I’m willing to go as low as 4.35%, pending some back end rights, I know I’m right!
Leave the holocaust shit, and Right wing political shit, behind, and answer your true calling!
That shit is played out, and in this, you offer a fresh perspective, clear insights, and a new vision of “Entertainment Insights”, that the market is starving for!
I’m a genius, you’re a genius, let’s make this work!!
When David Spade first did "The Hollywood Minute", Lorne Michaels said to him, "You've found your true voice." Myriad Mike is right, the Hollywood/Showbiz insider and revelations stuff is YOUR true voice! Wherever you go with it, I will follow (so long as the paywall isn't too high)!
Complacency is a character flaw? Holy shit, I thought that was just one of the governing dynamics of the species and that I was totally normal. When you rip off the Band-Aid, David, you really put the stank on it, buddy!
How many movie and TV studios are there? Derbyshire would offer a probability analysis of the likelihood of no mass shootings, and Sailer would point out that none of the misfits working there could actually hit anyone.
Sailer's point would be solid, but regarding probability, the fact is, out here there are HUNDREDS of studios and production facilities. More than shopping malls or Buddhist or Sikh temples or many of the other sites of mass shootings. One possible explanatory factor is that Hollywood weaklings (the low-rung ladder emotionally delicate ones) rarely own or use guns. So that could be a reason.
DEI could radically change the gun owning propensity, but I would imagine studios don’t pay much attention to that for their own rank and file hiring. While it’s hard to picture any on air talent shooting someone, aside from Baldwin of course,
That shit was fuckin' funny! I was half-expecting a empty bottle o' rum drunken rant-o-thon from the Doctor of Insultology. Obviously Ol' Dave has been using my cocktail recipes to smooth his demeanor and elevated his prose!
Here's a relevant refresher; the Dead Celebrity!
Stir with ice:
1 1⁄2 oz scotch,
3⁄4 oz sherry,
3⁄4 oz Green Chartreuse
3 ds lemon bitters,
1 ds rhubarb bitters.
Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a twisted lemon peel.
I'd imagine a disgruntled worker, a male ofc, once walked into a Hollywood studio with a gun, planning to do the deed. He was so close. But then the intense aura of the illuminaughty's buffet table of fresh, doe-eyed 6 year old child actresses distracted him. Probably many such cases. SAD!
Not to pump up your ego, but that was a very good podcast! Entertaining, lots of info, insider analysis, etc. Probably one of the best pieces of work I've heard from you., seriously, really amazing.
Question- Is there any other, similar stuff floating around out there that I don't know about?
As an interesting aside, Gregg Allman was in the movie "Rush" with Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh (I never knew her lineage before now, i.e. Vic Morrow).
Also, an interesting segue, one of the very first "controversial" video clips that I ever saw kind of erased from the Internet was Alec Baldwin's screed, who I think was about Kenneth Starr, and he ranted about he, and his whole family should be killed. Something along the lines of "dragged out of their homes and killed", I believe.
Lastly, I stand by my vote, more inside Hollywood stuff, this was really great, and your inside the industry knowledge is fantastic, truly insightful and fascinating! I really do think you could get a second career on this kinda thing.
Really appreciated, Mike! These are the podcasts I love doing the most...I only wish I got paid for 'em, because then I'd do them full-time. But I love that I have friends like you who enjoy this stuff as much as I do. Thanks!
This is really interesting to hear, AND is exactly why I voted for "more inside Hollywood stuff" in your subject poll. It would be cool to hear you do a series on a variety of cinematic incidents; Natalie Wood, Shatner's wife, Bob Crane, etc.
Damn it! Now you're just toying with me! You can't just say something like that, and just leave it hanging out there! It's torturous! Sure, for $800 you'll write a reply to Unz, but this, you're gonna take to your grave?
You could put it in letter, and will it to somebody, so it isn't revealed until everyone involved has died? Your call.
Drunkenly drowned in a swimming pool. Sad (though us drunks usually deserve what we stupidly bring upon ourselves). There's audio of the 911 call when Shatner came home and found her dead. It was actually the first time ever I heard any sincere emotion (as opposed to stilted line readings and self-parody) come from the guy. In her honor, he founded a rehab home for drunken women, in Beverly Hills. It's actually just a few blocks from me.
Maybe all the self-parody and stilted line readings were his brilliant effort to create a future alibi if needed - and if so, maybe he is a great actor after all - assuming he did it under extreme pressure, which I ain't sayin'.
But if that hack looked sincere to a cynical person who knows good acting, such as yourself...
Thanks for the link, Dave. I was looking for something to listen to for this drive I am doing in a couple of days. I am going with Myriad Mike's glowing review and giving this one a listen.
Regarding Based Columbo, one of my favorite characters (thank you for bringing him up), let's just say I was told by management that they don't care for "dialogue pieces" in The Week. Which is unfortunate because I love writing those.
It was a running gag of Joe Piscopo's character in Johnny Dangerously. Google "Johnny Dangerously Once." And if you haven't seen the movie, it's an absolute classic - hilarious from beginning to end. Makes the Zucker brothers look like amateurs, imo.
LOL!!!! I'm telling you, that audio clip is GOLD. After it played on the news in '96, I went around saying it to everyone in every situation. Drove my girlfriend crazy.
Scott gives an inflection to "pride" that's dripping with anger. "You can take your BEAR, and you can take your PRIIIIIIDE, and go to bed with them." I've wanted to use that clip for years, but totally scrubbed.
Omg I accidentally hit cancel on a long reply! Wiped everything I wrote, damn it.
Anyway I can imagine it just from exorcist 3 alone, when you said growl I instantly pictured it. He's got like 3 modes, seething, growing & an almost animal in pain yelling but he mixes them sometimes. So I picture it like this clip, about 1 minute in when he's yelling.
Could probably get a close approximation using an AI voice tool feeding clips from that movie.
Its gonna drive me nuts because I feel like it'd fit perfectly spliced into that movie lol.
There’s a saying I haven't heard in like a decade & even when it was a common refrain it was total bullshit & that’s "everything on the internet is there forever." Even in the early aughts tons, TONS of hilarious videos that used to take hours to download from the 90s disappeared forever.
In the 2010s it happened again with a massive chunk of the previous decade going into a black hole. Its like if you weren't there to see it it's as though it never even happened.
There was a clip in the mid aughts of a black momma flipping out in a mall in atlanta who got tased by security & fell over like a tree which was funny in of itself. The best part though was the baby daddy showing up mumbling about his babies to the security guard. It was basically indecipherable & sounded like "bubba bubba my baby bruh" which my friends & I repeated to each other all the time. Anyway someone took that audio, slowed it down & played over pavarotti's sad clown opera so when hes getting really dramatic & loud the black guy is going "buuuuuubuuuuuuuh myyyyyyy baaaaaybeeee bruhhhhhhhh" perfectly in sync with pavarotti & the music lmao. Needless to say it's gone & it hurts my soul knowing there's no way to get it back. It was so perfect lol.
What I wouldn't give to get access to the NSA archive, most people would look up shit like the JFK assassination or something but me? I'm looking for the bubba baby bruh opera video & now that george c scott clip lol, if I worked for the NSA I'd be pulling up shit like that all day.
Just for the hell of it I tried googling that george c scott clip even though I know it's pointless & the first 3 results on my google for "George c scott lawsuit recording" brought up his widow's lawsuit, the fourth result down showed the sexual harassment lawsuit. Pretty much sums up search engines today, they're beyond worthless now, at this point I should count myself lucky that it didn't give me a CNN article shilling biden as the first result. That's hyperbolic but not that far from the truth, its quite common that I'll search for totally unrelated shit & it'll bring up sites like CNN with totally unrelated subject matter.
Sorry for ranting lol.
Damn shame that recording was black holed, it must've been funny as fuck.
I miss the pics of ScarJo at home on a Sunday afternoon, she was lying on her bed in her panties studying a script--- her ex-boyfriend took the pics and put 'em up on the net, but now they're gone, at least to novice searchers like me. They were so beautiful!
Oh yeah I remember that pic, since that's more of a "universally" appreciated image & not something hyper specific to westerners you might be able to find it by digging on the Yandex search engine. It's russian based & thus slanted towards their interests but otherwise functions like a normal search engine.
At this point it's best to assume that every single thing we now have access to will be wiped. Even stuff like popular music videos from pop songs from the 90s have been disappearing, nothing is safe apparently, it's crazy.
I think Scott edited himself well--- how many men would say "and go to bed with them"? His deliberately avoiding foul language while raging makes it even more funny!
Timely for me - showing my family Voyagers! right now. As a fellow Scandi built like a brick wall, growing up that guy was the coolest. At eight years old I thought, "finally, my people have representation." Then he died in the absolute least low-time-preference Scandi way possible. Shit man, if you want to die for no reason, at least get to old age and have the young people push you over a fjord.
Dave, did you ever think about opening up a "Bed & Vodka"? A selected (and thoroughly pre-screened!) Friend of Dave could stay at your place for 3 days to a week: fly in to L.A., rent a car, stay at your place, get shown around "Dave's L.A.", the restaurants, the noteworthy sites (e.g., the bar Eric Red drove into), the houses of domination, etc. Of course the guest drives you around, pays for your meals, your time, your lodgings, etc. Pre-screening is a must, to prevent squatter-types and the like.
I've been thinking, it might be best not to let someone stay inside your house, for security reasons; it also could make things difficult with regards to licensing, taxes, etc. But you could have a Friend of Dave fly in, get set up at a hotel for a few days, then pay you to accompany him to lunches and/or dinners, give guided tours for a few hours, maybe do some nightlife things too. "Dave's L.A. Tours"! If I had the free time and the money, I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat, so there must be others out there (who HAVE the time and the money) with the same desire . Quentin Crisp used to eat out every day in NYC at others' expense, but he would always, in his words, "sing for his supper". Like you he was logocentric, and entertaining by default......
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) gave up sex when he was 40 or so (he claimed, and I rather believe him). When he was in his 80s, a black NYC cabdriver asked him, "Are you a man or a woman?" Quentin told him and the driver asked Quentin to give him a blowjob. Quentin replied something like, "I'm sorry, but I'm much too old for anything like that."
I see many similarities between you and Quentin (although you are NOT gay, you have NOT always wanted to be a woman, etc). Like him you are a great writer, storyteller, compelling sharer of your own experiences, lover of showbiz, tight with money (Quentin lived in a rooming house in NYC even though he had over a million in the bank), etc.
I haven't been to LA for at least a year, but with hotels costing $300 a night for humble accommodations, staying in a Beverly Hills Mansion should be worth at least $1000 per night, although the smell of the "dead" rat remains would need tending to...
Yes, for $500 Dave would borrow Ann Coulter's vintage Harley-Davidson, and the lucky Friend of Dave would get to sit behind him as he cruised around L.A.
I'd pass on that, but I'd sign up if Ann herself was piloting the bike!
One of my favorite SNL commercial spoofs from the 80s was "The Lung Brush" - a hilarious ad for a brush that removes tar from your lungs. You CAN find it if you know where to look, but you have to hunt, otherwise it essentially doesn't exist.
Dalrymple at Taki's wrote about smoking last week:
I must have grown up in a world that smelt like an ashtray, so great was the proportion of the population that smoked, but I did not notice it, any more than I noticed the air itself. Every curtain, every carpet, must have been saturated with such smoke, now stale, to say nothing of the fug created by cigarettes under current use. I remember the days when you could smoke on trains and airplanes. At the back of the cabin of the planes were the seats for smokers, not separated off from the rest of the fuselage, and if you were a nonsmoker such as I, you were often (so it seemed) allocated the row just in front of the first of the smokers’ seats, such that you might as well have been in the midst of them. Cigarette smoke on flights was as inescapable as crying babies now seem to be.
I remember those days well, and nothing sets off my sense of nostalgia than entering a house or a restaurant (in those few states that still have smoking sections) where there's that thick fug of smoke, and hot coffee brewing - I smell that mix and I'm back at my grandparents' house hearing my Irish grandfather tell tales.
My dad was a heavy smoker, and the worst flight I ever had was when he took the family to Hawaii. Smoking section was the tail of the 747 flying direct from Honolulu to Chicago, the furthest point from the more stable wing seats. We hit rough weather. 12 hours and I was airsick the entire time.
I well remember those days, when the smell of cigarettes was everywhere. My dad was delighted to find a "non-smoker" airline. Third-party smoke never bothered me as a kid but it made me ill when I actually smoked one.
In the absence of deranged, mass shooters on TV and film studio's. I guess we will have to be happy with Alec Baldwins work.
He did bang up job!
Don't miss Dave's dissection of the Baldwin shooting, plus his analyses of other Hollywood murders, both on and off the set. My fave involved William Hurt made-up as Gregg Allman running for his life as a freight train sped toward him on a train trestle!
https://irida.tv/entertainment/dissecting-the-alec-baldwin-shooting-hollywood-history-with-filmmaker-writer-david-cole/
Dave goes into detail too about the deaths that occurred filming Twilight Zone: The Movie; and there is a book about the case that looks really good, Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case by Stephen Farber and Marc Green:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/087795948X/?coliid=I3181IK3WFY2G
This article by John Cribbs is good too, "SECOND AX: the resurrections of 3 disgraced horror mongers", about John Landis, Eric Red and Victor Salva:
https://thepinksmoke.com/secondax.htm
His 1994 version of The Getaway with Kim Basinger, I've yet to see that, want to though....
The outtake of Carson doing a douche ad has also been scrubbed from the internet, which is a shame; it was right up there with Orson Welles' fish sticks.
"Crumb crisp coating."
We used to eat those crappy fish sticks when I was a kid-- also Pop Tarts, lotsa Burger King.....
Bronson's Japanese commercial for Mandom cologne is a classic too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmQTmFizuFY
Dave- I second the motion that so many others have tossed out there- more of this hidden Hollywood! I had never heard of the Kenny Rodgers nor the George C. Scott recordings! (maybe being an east coaster I'm more familiar w/ our homeboy Alec Baldwin's nasty-ass tirade against his teenaged daughter?) At any rate- I guess these are our "royals" and we do love to hear about their bad behavior (maybe just to see them brought down to earth a bit?)
Well-said! And thank you!
Yeah, same here!
I have to assume that George C. Scott’s was epic! (He was brilliant in “Patton”, and not half bad in “Fire Starter”)
Also, despite my political differences with Alec Baldwin, his speech in “Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross”, is still fucking awesome as Hell!
“Coffee is for closers!”
That's the unfortunate thing about Baldwin. He's actually quite a good actor, capable of drama and comedy. Sad that he's such a verminous human.
Yeah, like many artists, actors, rock stars, etc., I’m willing to accept measured levels of eccentricity, but he’s pretty over the top… but I’d still drink a beer with him, as long as he is unarmed!
LOL!
My Beer with Alex! Up there with My Dinner with Andre and My Breakfast with Blassie! If you've never seen the latter, scope it out, it's a gem!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWCJM8wvcg8
What's Baldwin's career-best movie perf.? I would guess his turn in Glengarry Glen Ross....
"Coffee is for closers!" Great speech indeed.
And George C. Scott was great in Hardcore (1979) searching for his daughter in the porn industry.
https://theultimaterabbit.com/2022/05/13/no-i-havent-seen-it-until-now-hardcore-1979/
Tarantino writes at length about the film in his book Cinema Speculation....
Yes, they are our "royals", absolutely!
Your threesome video keeps getting removed, but Judi Dench keeps uploading it
LOL!!!!
The thought of Judi Dench doing anybody gives me the heebie-jeebies! LOL!
I could rally for Judi: great lodgings, great food, great car, her wearing of very expensive lingerie, being in her will, those are all a turn-on for me. Orson Bean said men are youth and beauty fuckers, women are money and power fuckers--- so I guess my sexuality is rather XX-chromosomally inflected....
Dave, did you know Orson Bean at all? His politics were right-inclined.....
Bean was indeed Friends of Abe, so yes I knew him. Nice guy, but in L.A. it's always problematic to ask "where's Bean" because everyone in the vicinity will reply, "right here señor."
What you wrote reminds me of something one of my mentors once told me. Keep in mind he was about 70 at the time of this conversation. I noticed he was always offering motorcycle rides to collage girl waitresses, and I asked him if he ever dated women his age. He replied that he NEVER would do that. Then he considered it for a moment, and added, "okay, yes I would provided she was loaded!" LOL!
Seriously Dave!
Start a Rumble channel and dive headfirst into Hollywood/Showbiz insider and revelations!
Nerdrotic has over a million followers, same for The Critical Drinker!
Fuck YouTube! You’d kill it!
Obviously, I’d expect 5% as the “idea man”, but I’m flexible!
I’m not joking! Go for it!!
You have very unique insights, and that’s fucking gold!
Really, really appreciated, Mike! And a very good idea. My problem is, I grow too comfortable with the status quo. I have two columns a week with Taki, then this Substack which has become my Twitter/YouTube surrogate (and way better than those two shit sites), and I sense, knowing my personality as I do, that I'll need to be "pushed" into doing more. Complacency is one of my character flaws.
Okay, I feel you, maybe 5% was overly aggressive. I’ll have my people contact your people, and we will hammer out the details…
However, I’m telling you, this is “The Golden Ticket”, and while I’m willing to go as low as 4.35%, pending some back end rights, I know I’m right!
Leave the holocaust shit, and Right wing political shit, behind, and answer your true calling!
That shit is played out, and in this, you offer a fresh perspective, clear insights, and a new vision of “Entertainment Insights”, that the market is starving for!
I’m a genius, you’re a genius, let’s make this work!!
LOL!!!! It's tempting.....
When David Spade first did "The Hollywood Minute", Lorne Michaels said to him, "You've found your true voice." Myriad Mike is right, the Hollywood/Showbiz insider and revelations stuff is YOUR true voice! Wherever you go with it, I will follow (so long as the paywall isn't too high)!
Complacency is a character flaw? Holy shit, I thought that was just one of the governing dynamics of the species and that I was totally normal. When you rip off the Band-Aid, David, you really put the stank on it, buddy!
LOL!
How many movie and TV studios are there? Derbyshire would offer a probability analysis of the likelihood of no mass shootings, and Sailer would point out that none of the misfits working there could actually hit anyone.
Sailer's point would be solid, but regarding probability, the fact is, out here there are HUNDREDS of studios and production facilities. More than shopping malls or Buddhist or Sikh temples or many of the other sites of mass shootings. One possible explanatory factor is that Hollywood weaklings (the low-rung ladder emotionally delicate ones) rarely own or use guns. So that could be a reason.
DEI could radically change the gun owning propensity, but I would imagine studios don’t pay much attention to that for their own rank and file hiring. While it’s hard to picture any on air talent shooting someone, aside from Baldwin of course,
DEI would increase gun POSSESSION, but decrease gun OWNERSHIP
Yeah--- you might have white privilege if....
The guns in your house are legally registered
You get two teeth cleanings a year
You only ride a dirt bike in the dirt
Whenever you walk by a black person you mentally prep to stop an incoming punch
That shit was fuckin' funny! I was half-expecting a empty bottle o' rum drunken rant-o-thon from the Doctor of Insultology. Obviously Ol' Dave has been using my cocktail recipes to smooth his demeanor and elevated his prose!
Here's a relevant refresher; the Dead Celebrity!
Stir with ice:
1 1⁄2 oz scotch,
3⁄4 oz sherry,
3⁄4 oz Green Chartreuse
3 ds lemon bitters,
1 ds rhubarb bitters.
Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a twisted lemon peel.
You are a genius of mixology!
Stan Kelly (a/k/a Ward Sutton) weighs in on those who are ruining your art form:
https://www.theonion.com/teetotalitarianism-1851472933
Je bent een groot wrooter, Doovid!
Sorry.
You are a great writer, David!
My Dutch robot genetics are kicking in.
Enjoy ze beers!
LOL!!!! Thank you!
I'd imagine a disgruntled worker, a male ofc, once walked into a Hollywood studio with a gun, planning to do the deed. He was so close. But then the intense aura of the illuminaughty's buffet table of fresh, doe-eyed 6 year old child actresses distracted him. Probably many such cases. SAD!
Sounds like the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in D.C.!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory
Forget the pizzeria, the REAL party was on Epstein's jet!
Apparently some pretty weird shit has happened on set though-
https://www.looper.com/158952/major-crimes-that-happened-on-set/
I did a podcast about these things several years ago.
https://irida.tv/entertainment/dissecting-the-alec-baldwin-shooting-hollywood-history-with-filmmaker-writer-david-cole/
Not to pump up your ego, but that was a very good podcast! Entertaining, lots of info, insider analysis, etc. Probably one of the best pieces of work I've heard from you., seriously, really amazing.
Question- Is there any other, similar stuff floating around out there that I don't know about?
As an interesting aside, Gregg Allman was in the movie "Rush" with Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh (I never knew her lineage before now, i.e. Vic Morrow).
Also, an interesting segue, one of the very first "controversial" video clips that I ever saw kind of erased from the Internet was Alec Baldwin's screed, who I think was about Kenneth Starr, and he ranted about he, and his whole family should be killed. Something along the lines of "dragged out of their homes and killed", I believe.
Lastly, I stand by my vote, more inside Hollywood stuff, this was really great, and your inside the industry knowledge is fantastic, truly insightful and fascinating! I really do think you could get a second career on this kinda thing.
Cheers! and thanks for that link!
Really appreciated, Mike! These are the podcasts I love doing the most...I only wish I got paid for 'em, because then I'd do them full-time. But I love that I have friends like you who enjoy this stuff as much as I do. Thanks!
By the way, I’ve always loved the original “The Hitcher”, but I’ll never see it the same way again.
Neither will I!
The Hitcher from 1986 with C. Thomas Howell and Rutger Hauer?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091209/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520hitcher
Yes, Dave told a fascinating story about the director in that podcast he linked.
This is really interesting to hear, AND is exactly why I voted for "more inside Hollywood stuff" in your subject poll. It would be cool to hear you do a series on a variety of cinematic incidents; Natalie Wood, Shatner's wife, Bob Crane, etc.
Sadly, I DO know some stuff about Natalie Wood's death...but no way I could ever talk about it without violating a confidence.
Damn it! Now you're just toying with me! You can't just say something like that, and just leave it hanging out there! It's torturous! Sure, for $800 you'll write a reply to Unz, but this, you're gonna take to your grave?
You could put it in letter, and will it to somebody, so it isn't revealed until everyone involved has died? Your call.
Cheers!
I'd LOVE to talk about it...but people have to know that ol' Dave can occasionally keep a secret.
Yeah, Dave, don't violate the confidence. Anyway, we all know C. Walken must have played a part.....
Shep said you'd be here at 7:30. What gives, man?
It was a mix-up!
WTF happened to Shatner's wife?
Drunkenly drowned in a swimming pool. Sad (though us drunks usually deserve what we stupidly bring upon ourselves). There's audio of the 911 call when Shatner came home and found her dead. It was actually the first time ever I heard any sincere emotion (as opposed to stilted line readings and self-parody) come from the guy. In her honor, he founded a rehab home for drunken women, in Beverly Hills. It's actually just a few blocks from me.
Maybe all the self-parody and stilted line readings were his brilliant effort to create a future alibi if needed - and if so, maybe he is a great actor after all - assuming he did it under extreme pressure, which I ain't sayin'.
But if that hack looked sincere to a cynical person who knows good acting, such as yourself...
I'm just askin' qwestions...
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-11-me-64692-story.html
Thanks for the link, Dave. I was looking for something to listen to for this drive I am doing in a couple of days. I am going with Myriad Mike's glowing review and giving this one a listen.
I hope you enjoy it!
That was probably my favorite podcast you've ever done and I would love more Hollywood insider content.
Great column as usual but I am wondering: When will Based Columbo make his triumphant return?
Thank you, Mike!
Regarding Based Columbo, one of my favorite characters (thank you for bringing him up), let's just say I was told by management that they don't care for "dialogue pieces" in The Week. Which is unfortunate because I love writing those.
Bring him back as a Substack exclusive!
NOT a bad idea, Mike! I might just do that.
Based Columbo, is that where you take on the persona of Lt. Frank Columbo?
Columbo is a sharp muthafucka...
Dave, how many of these did you do? I retrieved about a half-dozen!
https://irida.tv/find/david+cole
Honestly, I don't recall! Nima is one of my best friends, so a lot of times he'd just call me on the fly and I'd hop on the show!
I love the Herzog/Kinski dynamic! Over the top!!!
Those two were the best of fiends
"You shouldn't pretend to interview me Kenny. My father pretended to interview me ... once. Once."
I don't know what this refers to, but I love it anyway!
It was a running gag of Joe Piscopo's character in Johnny Dangerously. Google "Johnny Dangerously Once." And if you haven't seen the movie, it's an absolute classic - hilarious from beginning to end. Makes the Zucker brothers look like amateurs, imo.
YOU FARGIN BASTICH!
Shure, and I'm-a da pope!
Oh gosh, I forgot about that movie. Not seen it in years!
Thanks, I'll check it out! These comments are like a college course!
You will not regret it.
"You can take your BEAR, and you can take your PRIDE, and go to bed with them.”
Someone should splice that in at the end of exorcist 3 when he's yelling at brad dourif lol.
LOL!!!! I'm telling you, that audio clip is GOLD. After it played on the news in '96, I went around saying it to everyone in every situation. Drove my girlfriend crazy.
Scott gives an inflection to "pride" that's dripping with anger. "You can take your BEAR, and you can take your PRIIIIIIDE, and go to bed with them." I've wanted to use that clip for years, but totally scrubbed.
Omg I accidentally hit cancel on a long reply! Wiped everything I wrote, damn it.
Anyway I can imagine it just from exorcist 3 alone, when you said growl I instantly pictured it. He's got like 3 modes, seething, growing & an almost animal in pain yelling but he mixes them sometimes. So I picture it like this clip, about 1 minute in when he's yelling.
https://youtu.be/BY1OeGJuxRk?si=J819fODtxhQbauq6
Could probably get a close approximation using an AI voice tool feeding clips from that movie.
Its gonna drive me nuts because I feel like it'd fit perfectly spliced into that movie lol.
There’s a saying I haven't heard in like a decade & even when it was a common refrain it was total bullshit & that’s "everything on the internet is there forever." Even in the early aughts tons, TONS of hilarious videos that used to take hours to download from the 90s disappeared forever.
In the 2010s it happened again with a massive chunk of the previous decade going into a black hole. Its like if you weren't there to see it it's as though it never even happened.
There was a clip in the mid aughts of a black momma flipping out in a mall in atlanta who got tased by security & fell over like a tree which was funny in of itself. The best part though was the baby daddy showing up mumbling about his babies to the security guard. It was basically indecipherable & sounded like "bubba bubba my baby bruh" which my friends & I repeated to each other all the time. Anyway someone took that audio, slowed it down & played over pavarotti's sad clown opera so when hes getting really dramatic & loud the black guy is going "buuuuuubuuuuuuuh myyyyyyy baaaaaybeeee bruhhhhhhhh" perfectly in sync with pavarotti & the music lmao. Needless to say it's gone & it hurts my soul knowing there's no way to get it back. It was so perfect lol.
What I wouldn't give to get access to the NSA archive, most people would look up shit like the JFK assassination or something but me? I'm looking for the bubba baby bruh opera video & now that george c scott clip lol, if I worked for the NSA I'd be pulling up shit like that all day.
Just for the hell of it I tried googling that george c scott clip even though I know it's pointless & the first 3 results on my google for "George c scott lawsuit recording" brought up his widow's lawsuit, the fourth result down showed the sexual harassment lawsuit. Pretty much sums up search engines today, they're beyond worthless now, at this point I should count myself lucky that it didn't give me a CNN article shilling biden as the first result. That's hyperbolic but not that far from the truth, its quite common that I'll search for totally unrelated shit & it'll bring up sites like CNN with totally unrelated subject matter.
Sorry for ranting lol.
Damn shame that recording was black holed, it must've been funny as fuck.
I miss the pics of ScarJo at home on a Sunday afternoon, she was lying on her bed in her panties studying a script--- her ex-boyfriend took the pics and put 'em up on the net, but now they're gone, at least to novice searchers like me. They were so beautiful!
Oh yeah I remember that pic, since that's more of a "universally" appreciated image & not something hyper specific to westerners you might be able to find it by digging on the Yandex search engine. It's russian based & thus slanted towards their interests but otherwise functions like a normal search engine.
Thanks--- I can't believe they vanished from the conventional net. I thought once a pic was put up it was there forever.....
At this point it's best to assume that every single thing we now have access to will be wiped. Even stuff like popular music videos from pop songs from the 90s have been disappearing, nothing is safe apparently, it's crazy.
I think Scott edited himself well--- how many men would say "and go to bed with them"? His deliberately avoiding foul language while raging makes it even more funny!
Always the gentleman...even when rage-calling a woman 60 years his junior.
"And when you DO go to bed with them, wear your wool CAP so you don't catch the CHILL you so richly deserve!"
LOL!!!!
One event that I will always have doubts about is the killing of Bruce Lee’s son Brandon, during the filming of The Crow!
It’s just too fucking bizarre.
Its a crying shame that Jon-Erik Hexum’s killer never faced justice
There was a second blank gunman.
I’m still holding out for a hero
Timely for me - showing my family Voyagers! right now. As a fellow Scandi built like a brick wall, growing up that guy was the coolest. At eight years old I thought, "finally, my people have representation." Then he died in the absolute least low-time-preference Scandi way possible. Shit man, if you want to die for no reason, at least get to old age and have the young people push you over a fjord.
LOL!!!!
Dave, did you ever think about opening up a "Bed & Vodka"? A selected (and thoroughly pre-screened!) Friend of Dave could stay at your place for 3 days to a week: fly in to L.A., rent a car, stay at your place, get shown around "Dave's L.A.", the restaurants, the noteworthy sites (e.g., the bar Eric Red drove into), the houses of domination, etc. Of course the guest drives you around, pays for your meals, your time, your lodgings, etc. Pre-screening is a must, to prevent squatter-types and the like.
Okay, now THERE'S a good idea! "Must be willing to have no kitchen sink."
I'm liking that idea more and more!
I've been thinking, it might be best not to let someone stay inside your house, for security reasons; it also could make things difficult with regards to licensing, taxes, etc. But you could have a Friend of Dave fly in, get set up at a hotel for a few days, then pay you to accompany him to lunches and/or dinners, give guided tours for a few hours, maybe do some nightlife things too. "Dave's L.A. Tours"! If I had the free time and the money, I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat, so there must be others out there (who HAVE the time and the money) with the same desire . Quentin Crisp used to eat out every day in NYC at others' expense, but he would always, in his words, "sing for his supper". Like you he was logocentric, and entertaining by default......
Well, he would TRY to sing, but something would always be down his throat.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) gave up sex when he was 40 or so (he claimed, and I rather believe him). When he was in his 80s, a black NYC cabdriver asked him, "Are you a man or a woman?" Quentin told him and the driver asked Quentin to give him a blowjob. Quentin replied something like, "I'm sorry, but I'm much too old for anything like that."
I see many similarities between you and Quentin (although you are NOT gay, you have NOT always wanted to be a woman, etc). Like him you are a great writer, storyteller, compelling sharer of your own experiences, lover of showbiz, tight with money (Quentin lived in a rooming house in NYC even though he had over a million in the bank), etc.
https://www.thefader.com/2010/11/24/a-look-at-the-messy-home-life-of-a-dandy-quentin-crisp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bffRaCpkz1s
I haven't been to LA for at least a year, but with hotels costing $300 a night for humble accommodations, staying in a Beverly Hills Mansion should be worth at least $1000 per night, although the smell of the "dead" rat remains would need tending to...
For an extra $500.00, you'd get the perfume-smelling shirt ride...
Yes, for $500 Dave would borrow Ann Coulter's vintage Harley-Davidson, and the lucky Friend of Dave would get to sit behind him as he cruised around L.A.
I'd pass on that, but I'd sign up if Ann herself was piloting the bike!
Since Ol' Dave doesn't even drive a car, letting him drive a vintage Harley could be expensive and painful.
LOL!!!!!!
Ronny Biggs, of "The Great Train Robbery" did the same thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Biggs#:~:text=Though%20in%20Brazil%20he%20was,involvement%20in%20the%20robbery%2C%20which%2C
He could also sell mugs that said, "Hey, you stupid muthafucka, I ain't no Holocaust deniah"
One of my favorite SNL commercial spoofs from the 80s was "The Lung Brush" - a hilarious ad for a brush that removes tar from your lungs. You CAN find it if you know where to look, but you have to hunt, otherwise it essentially doesn't exist.
I'd never seen that one before, thanks for mentioning it!
https://www.tiktok.com/@steveguy58/video/7286086516344999198?lang=en
Dalrymple at Taki's wrote about smoking last week:
I must have grown up in a world that smelt like an ashtray, so great was the proportion of the population that smoked, but I did not notice it, any more than I noticed the air itself. Every curtain, every carpet, must have been saturated with such smoke, now stale, to say nothing of the fug created by cigarettes under current use. I remember the days when you could smoke on trains and airplanes. At the back of the cabin of the planes were the seats for smokers, not separated off from the rest of the fuselage, and if you were a nonsmoker such as I, you were often (so it seemed) allocated the row just in front of the first of the smokers’ seats, such that you might as well have been in the midst of them. Cigarette smoke on flights was as inescapable as crying babies now seem to be.
I remember those days well, and nothing sets off my sense of nostalgia than entering a house or a restaurant (in those few states that still have smoking sections) where there's that thick fug of smoke, and hot coffee brewing - I smell that mix and I'm back at my grandparents' house hearing my Irish grandfather tell tales.
My dad was a heavy smoker, and the worst flight I ever had was when he took the family to Hawaii. Smoking section was the tail of the 747 flying direct from Honolulu to Chicago, the furthest point from the more stable wing seats. We hit rough weather. 12 hours and I was airsick the entire time.
I well remember those days, when the smell of cigarettes was everywhere. My dad was delighted to find a "non-smoker" airline. Third-party smoke never bothered me as a kid but it made me ill when I actually smoked one.
Well, now Warner Bros. is gonna get shot up and who’ll get blamed for it? Dave, you bring your own problems on yourself.
I have worried about that!