|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Naked with Sharon Stone: A writer's lifeBill Zehme rubs shoulders with celebs in 'Intimate Strangers'
By Todd Leopold
(CNN) -- Here are some things you should know about celebrity chronicler Bill Zehme: • His name is pronounced "Zeh-mee," which almost sounds like "zany." • He is very tall -- 6 feet 5 1/2 inches, according to one report. This is most likely taller than your average writer. • He considers Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson and Hugh Hefner a "holy trinity of cool." • He once shared a massage session with Sharon Stone. That last was for work, of course. Zehme, 44, is a writer -- he's worked for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and the last several years for Esquire -- whose specialty is writing feature stories on celebrities. These articles, many of which have been collected in the new book "Intimate Strangers" (Delta), often run thousands of words and regularly become magazine cover stories.
He finds this attention to celebrity amusing. "I've always said [this] is the lowest form of journalism, and I see my job is to be entertaining," Zehme says in a phone interview from his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. "And I guess it's my curse, because I did it in a different way, they kept making me do it again in a different way. ... [This book] is my tonic for a celebrity-crazed culture." Finding rhythms"Intimate Strangers" is a good introduction to Celebrities According to Zehme. He writes with a style that owes a bit to New Journalism titans Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese, but leavened with Zehme's distinctive humor. He works hard at the words, trying to come up with a rhythm that matches his subjects (Andy Kaufman, the subject of a Zehme book, "was like a Ferris wheel and roller coaster.") He's almost never intimidated by the aura of these bigger-than-life humans (though not being in awe of Sinatra, he admits, was a struggle) and he usually finds clever ways of showcasing the person behind the image.
For example, when profiling the notoriously private and shrewd Warren Beatty, Zehme timed the pauses between Beatty's answers -- and put the number of seconds for each one in the interview. He interviewed the rambunctious Howard Stern in the company of Stern's then-wife, Alison. He wrote about the sometimes-bemused, sometimes-perplexed Arnold Schwarzenegger as an uber-man, which at the time -- 1991, during the height of "Terminator 2" frenzy -- Schwarzenegger perhaps thought he was. Most notably, Zehme has written about David Letterman and Jay Leno, who have played out their hot-and-cold-running battles for 20 years in Zehme's work. A sizable portion of "Intimate Strangers" includes these pieces, though -- unfortunately -- the book went to press before it could include Zehme's 2002 interview with late-night patriarch Carson himself. "I guess it's kind of unique, in that I've been probing their psyches like Boswell for all that time. And those are dangerous psyches," he quips. The talk-show hosts aren't what they seem on screen, Zehme continues. Both men are talented comedians and likable guys, but Leno, who "comports himself as the mayor of America," is "cunning ... he's the ultimate politician." Letterman "comes across as the recluse of Sleepy Hollow" but "is always interested in talking about all kinds of stuff." Letterman and Leno's pas de deux has had its ironic twists and turns, noted in detail in "Intimate Strangers." Leno first became well known through his regular "What's your beef, Jay?" guest appearances on Letterman's show, and then outflanked Dave to become Carson's successor. Letterman's confidence as a comedian was bolstered by his early friendship with Leno, but watching Leno's NBC show surpass his CBS program in the ratings made Letterman manic and bitter for a time. As for their current relationship, "the cold war persists," says Zehme. "It's almost like a biblical story," he adds. Less writing, more TVZehme now has a show of his own, "Second City Presents," on Bravo, in which he's interviewed comedians such as Martin Short and Tracey Ullman. The first run of programs went well, and he suspects the show will be renewed -- "as long as Leno doesn't have a say in it," he says impishly, now that NBC has bought the cable network. Though he gets through the show tapings quickly, he says he's probably done less writing in the past year than at any time since he started his career in 1980.
It's not for lack of trying, though Zehme can be choosy about his subjects. He and Hefner were going to team up on a biography, but the Playboy founder didn't like the candidness of Zehme's planned direction. Also, celebrity profiles just aren't as much fun as they used to be, he says. Zehme used to get weeks, sometimes months, to dip in and out of his subjects' lives. Now he may get a few days tops, and the celebrity's handlers are so nervous about the prospect that much is placed off-limits. The changes have affected the whole business, Zehme says. Magazines such as Playboy and Rolling Stone have changed their style, determined to chase after younger readers with more pictures and lighter, less erudite fare. Playboy, he says, "has all but eviscerated itself," and as for Rolling Stone, "for me, it's like rending the garment of a family member," he laments. Zehme's not sure what he'll do now. Landing the Carson interview completed the Sinatra-Hefner-Carson trifecta he'd pursued for years; when asked "Who's next?" he responds, not unkindly, "Who's left?" He'd like another shot at Beatty, and he's always wanted to do a story on Jack Nicholson. There may be a book based on Carson, similar in tone to his Sinatra opus "The Way You Wear Your Hat." "I've got a few things up my sleeve," he says. Well, there's always the show. "The only thing about the writing process, is I kill myself when I'm writing," he says. "It's good to get me out of the house."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[This book] is my tonic for a celebrity-crazed culture.
