The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Judith Regan and Rosebud Baker

Episode Date: August 23, 2019

Judith Regan and Rosebud Baker

You're listening to The Comedy Cellar, live on Sirius XM Channel 99. We're here, as always, with Mr. Dan Natterman. Hello, Dan. How do you do? How's it going this week? All right. Is that a rhetorical? How's it going?

Yeah, that was rhetorical. Are you really, really interested? Well, if there is something really worth pausing, yeah, go ahead. Is that a rhetorical? How's it go? Yeah, that was rhetorical. Are you really, really interested? Well, if there is something really worth pausing, yeah, go ahead. Okay. And my name is Noam Dwarman. I'm the owner of The Comedy Cellar. We have an A-list guest this week.

We do? Absolutely, who is in the news this week. I just want you to know I turned everybody down but you. Did you really? Everybody. I'm not interested in talking to those people. You're the only one. First of all, that's extremely flattering. Don't be flattered. Let me introduce you. Judith Regan is a producer and publisher. She was responsible for publishing

hundreds of diverse and award-winning authors from Howard Stern to Sean Hannity and everyone in between. Her company, Regan Arts, is it a division of Fiden? No. Because I thought I read it. No, no. Everybody gets it wrong. Don't read any newspapers if you want to know anything about it. Just call me.

Aren't you impressed that I picked up on that in another column that said that wasn't the case? Yes. That's in the New York Times. That's old. That's like a 10-year-old story. They corrected that. Old stories. You know what they do? They don't do any reporting. They just pick up old stories and copy it. That's why the facts are never right. And they copy it, but then they lose little bits and pieces, like a Xerox of a Xerox.

Donald Trump is right. Fake news. It's the only thing he's right about. She's publishing a political journalist, Mark Halperin's new book, How to Beat Trump, America's Top Political Strategist on What It Will Take. And you're getting raked over the coals. Kill Judith Regan. I've been through this before because I published a lot of controversial people and a lot of

controversial subjects over the many, many years that I've been doing this. I've been in the publishing business for like four decades. Yeah. And when I published Howard Stern many, many years ago when I did private parts, I had boxes of hate mail about Howard and Robin, anti-Semitic, racist, vicious, calling for my death, really, really nasty. The mail was anti-Semitic? Or they were accusing you of being anti-Semitic? No, I mean everything. Everything under the sun.

It was like, how dare I publish him? How dare I publish Robin? How dare I do any of this? It was really hateful. In fact— But you're not jewish are you no in in private parts the book which i published we used his hate mail as art right but people were really upset i also published in the same month rush limbaugh rush limbaugh had just gone national and he had become a very big radio talk show host at Surrender, which was the first really serious, and by the way, literary book about anal sex, which I published a dozen and a half years ago. Mom. I think you're not allowed to say that. My daughter's here listening to this,

but she's of age. Anyway, I was excoriated for doing that. And in the last year or so, the New York Times shows that book, which was called The Surrender by Tony Bentley, as one of the most important top 50 erotic memoirs in history. In history. Fear of Flying? Oh, well, that wasn't on the list, I don't think. No, maybe that was on the list.

Maybe it was on the list. It's the only other one I know. Yeah, but times change, mores change, acceptability of different things changes. And right now we're in a moment where because of Mark Halpern's behavior towards women, which I don't agree with, which I find reprehensible, I've been through in the early years of my life, in my 20s, 30s, 40s, and a little bit into my 50s, I got sexually harassed. How many penises did I see?

I mean, men did outrageous things all the time. Can we just introduce Rosebud Baker, a writer, stand-up comic, just sat down. What are you doing? I'm sweating. She's going to be on the Alec Baldwin roast coming up. It's shooting in LA, I think. Oh, wow.

That's a big one. And a new stand-up series. I'm writing for it. You're writing for it. A new stand-up series presented by Bill Burr, the king of everything, Bill Burr. She's seen regularly at the Comedy Center. Okay, as you were saying. I don't even know what I was saying.

I don't have a memory. I don't remember. You have the erotic memoir and social mores change. Well, so Mark Halperin, I'm publishing his book November 1st. It's called How to Beat Trump. And there's a big brouhaha because a lot of the women that he sexually harassed or was accused of sexually harassing are outraged that I dare to publish him.

That is what the controversy is in essence. And what is your take on all this? What's your argument to defend yourself? My argument is, number one, I believe in free speech. Number two, to publish means to make public. The book that he's written, he interviewed 75 Democratic strategists, very smart people. And it's a very important book. It's scholarly in some respects.

Do we know who turned him down, by the way? No. We don't. No. I think most people said yes and talked to him. And then CNN, the CNN reporter, went on a jihad and called all of these people to try to shame them for speaking to him. I don't believe in that, right?

I believe that you should have a right. And if we measured every human being, every artist who ever lived, from Caravaggio, who stabbed people, to Norman Mailer, who stabbed his wife, to William Burroughs, who killed his wife, to Picasso, I mean, he was into teenagers. Woody Allen, go down the list, Michael Jackson, of people who have committed egregious things

against other human beings, of which there are thousands. Now, Nabokov. Nabokov, Lolita. Did he love young girls or did he just write about them? Obviously he did. And I mean, there's so many, so many artists through the years whose personal lives we may not agree with. We might find things about them that are personally offensive.

But I have a right to publish him, and I believe he has a right to do this book. And that's how I feel about it. Yeah. Well, we, we agree with you here and you know, the, the, the most disgusting, most disturbing part about it, and I'm sure you're suffering with the same frustration is that people will try to claim that you're somehow not sufficiently outraged or bothered by horrible behavior, which is not the case at all, I presume. And I actually figured you've been harassed with

the best of them. My wife was too. Any, I mean, most women, especially, you know, the time has changed. There's a new level of what is considered to be acceptable and unacceptable. When I was in my 20s, in the 70s, I mean, men, when I was a teenager, I had two older brothers. One was a student at Yale. One was a student at Brown. When I would visit them, their friends would literally physically attack me and try to have sex with me. This is nothing new to me. And it certainly happened repeatedly in the workplace over many, many, many years. I handled it in the way that I chose to handle it. And there are many, many CEOs and high-profile guys

and big famous people who have whipped their penises out in front of me and asked me to suck them and wanted me to... But this might be a good time to bring Rosebud into the conversation. Rosebud, have you had this experience? Well, you're young. You're young. Men are better behaved.

Well, they're not better behaved or anything. I guess they are now. They are now. Just because they have to be. Can I just make the best case for the other side, which is to say that when Mark Halpern was doing this stuff, it was not,

it was already considered wildly inappropriate, I believe. And he was in a position of workplace power, which is in those ways is important difference from your older brother's friends. No. Yeah. Here's my distinction.

You know, over the years it's become less acceptable. It was never acceptable to me, never acceptable. And it was never acceptable to use your power in an abusive way, whether it's sexual or not. And I can tell you, there are plenty of women who have power, who abuse their power in different ways. I'm not into abusing my power to hurt other people. I don't behave that way. I don't live my life that way. I don't approve of it. Has it happened to me? A thousand and one times I maneuvered through the minefields

of people abusing their power. Human beings are savages. They're going to do that in a thousand different ways. I don't approve of it. I think I wish that human beings would be, would have more grace and understanding of what they're doing to other people. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't publish Mark Halperin. You have a little Camille Paglia in you, right? A little bit of her attitude. Rosebud Baker, you say what as a, it's escaped no one's attention here,

I imagine that Rosebud is an attractive woman with good features. He didn't say that about me, by the way. I'm an old woman. I used to be attractive. Anyway. But as a young lady in, what is, I would imagine most people perceive as a male, and it is a male-dominated and masculine field.

Yeah. What is it like? I mean, we've asked this question to other women. I never get the answer i want what i think the worst part about it it's fabulous can i be honest the worst part about it is that question like that's honestly the worst part about it i just i don't know how to because you can't really answer that question without sounding like whiny or to you know what i mean and also i feel like i'm at I came in at a time when

things are going pretty well for women in comedy like things are really picking up for us but that's the answer I want yeah good you got it but I think that that's like that's how I feel about it's not um it doesn't feel like I get I don't feel like i'm treated differently i just don't i i maybe i'm like sometimes i'm like am i blind to this stuff am i just you're not a victim am i like yeah and i don't that's the other thing is like i've been through actual tragedies so i'm not like it doesn't really if somebody like says something to hurt my feelings, I'm not, it doesn't, it barely makes a dent. Like I can't, I think I'm just damaged enough to work in this industry and not have it. It has been interesting the way like certain like tough women from the previous era, like maybe Bridgette Bardot, I don't remember who it was, or Sophia Loren, or Angelica Houston.

They've been through all this, yet they have kind of like, yeah, you handle it. It would never stop me. I never felt like I had to. And I don't know how to react to that. I've never been assaulted. I'm not saying like, you know what I mean? There's things in this that have happened that I'm like, oh, that might bother me. You know what I mean? That would for sure mess me up a little bit if people ignored my asking for help or acknowledgement. That would for sure. So let me just tell you what I think your book is, what's important about this moment. Maybe you don't even see it as important as i see

it which is that it's we're having a full-throated embrace basically of the scarlet letter here and uh kind of i've said before like we got away from town square justice and not because the guy being punished was innocent that's not the point the point point is that we have procedures to punish people. And you have procedures, and we have hundreds of years of law on this. We have much of the Bill of Rights devoted to this. We have three levels of appeals processes, all because punishing somebody is such a serious matter. And we want to throw it all away and the punishment will be doled out by the emotional, Twitter-raged... Universe.

Universe. With no objective standards, no uniformity, no time limit. No betting. No betting of anything. One of the slams that's come against Mark Halpern now is that apparently to at least one of the women, he didn't apologize directly. Now, I don't know if that's true or not.

This is the MSNBC guy, right? Yeah. Yeah. And my reaction was, I don't know if you're allowed to say this anymore. It's like, well, maybe he doesn't agree with her claim. Like maybe that, because he did issue a very, one of the better apologies that anybody had issued. a very one of the better apologies that anybody had issued and he said some of these things are not true

so maybe that's one of the things that he doesn't like you just can't even talk that way anymore so somebody has to stand against this and it's not because we're sympathetic to what he did or what he may have done or what he admitted to some of it

and just to put the whole story out there from what I've read did. Or what he may have done. Or what he admitted to some of it. Right, he admitted to some of it. And just to put the whole story out there, from what I've read, he did this while he was at ABC and stopped on his own, sought counseling, moved to NBC, never had another complaint.

More than 10 years, or around 10 years later, this came up. So he didn't just, like other people, confess and apologize after he had been caught. He actually took care of this, got counseling, stopped, and did all this stuff. He arrested this stuff on his own, which normally would get some consideration. What is this, going to be forever? Yeah, I mean, I don't think he, you know. That's what I've read.

Yeah, I don't know all the details because I have not interviewed the women, and everyone is entitled to their story. Of course. I know what he's told me, and I felt that, yes, he had made public statements. Yes, he had reached out. He, you know, it's a complicated situation. Some people want to be contacted. Some people don't want to be contacted. You know, it's a complex situation. And, you know, he consulted his rabbi. He felt, you know, he really wanted to make amends. He really did. And I know that he feels very badly about what happened. And there is no doubt in my mind that for the

women who feel that harm should be done to him, harm has been done to him. And he, you know, he did lose his job. He did lose his livelihood. And I'm not doing doing a woe is me thing here. That is a consequence of his actions. But I do believe that people deserve second chances. They deserve to come back and work. Who are we to say that because people do things that we find offensive, they should never work again? There is such a screaming, yelling mob out there. No court would ever do that. No union would allow it. No union would allow it in the union contract. People commit murder and go to prison and come out and people fight for their rights to have employment. People need, in America, America is known for giving people second chances. I really believe in forgiving people. I fundamentally believe in

having grace about situations where people have been broken. I think in a lot of ways he's broken. I think it's important to reach out to people and to be kind in a bad situation, no matter what they've done. I did a book called Sometimes Amazing Things Happen, which I published. It's by Dr. Elizabeth Ford, who is the chief psychiatrist in charge of everyone who was incarcerated in Bellevue. And these are mainly Rikers patients who have mental health issues who come over there who have committed very often or are accused of committing egregious crimes. She's now like the head psychiatrist of New York City. And the book is really about understanding the role of the psychiatrist, which is even though, and she worked mainly with men at that period,

even though these men have committed really horrible crimes, her job is to treat them as a doctor. And her goal is to help them to rehabilitate and to get better, right? Where is the possibility of grace that people make mistakes, that they do bad things, that they can be redeemed, that they can move forward in their lives, that they can become, you know, good members of society and learn from their mistakes? Some people do, some people don't. I don't know what the story of Mark Halperin's life is going to be in the future. I do believe from the conversations that we've had

that he feels very badly about the things that he's done. He's trying to be a good father to his two-year-old son. He's trying to make amends in his own way. Is he married? Still with his, still with his, his, his partner. I do. So that's what I think. I think I believe in second chances. Listen, my son's father physically beat me, put me in the hospital,

left me for dead in the hospital after giving birth to my daughter who died and said, I'm going to the Caribbean. This is too stressful for me. If I could find it in my heart to forgive him, people can find it in their hearts to take a look at Mark Halperin and the things that these men have done, which are egregious. But you have to let go of the anger and the hatred.

I don't think it's good for anybody. If not for them, then at least for you and for ourselves as a culture. Like I think about forgiveness on a level of like, yeah, maybe this person doesn't deserve my forgiveness, but I deserve to forgive them so that I don't have to live in just feeling like shit all the time. You know what I mean? And so on a communal, on a collective level, I feel like we've kind of lost that, that ability to like just go, this, you know, hatred. It's so unhealthy for everybody to live with that sensibility. I'm not one of those people that runs around hating people for very long. I have abandoned, several years ago, I abandoned the notion that free will exists. I have found, and I have found that I, not only in an abstract sense, but I found that more and more I can really live that way, and it helps me to forgive people because I just see them as we're all just, you know. I would no more be mad at somebody that wronged me than I would be mad at a hurricane, you know.

Both are forces of nature that I'm upset about, but I don't ascribe any moral culpability. That's very Zen, Daniel. You forgive Hitler? Hitler I'm not mad at because... Are you mad at Hitler? I'm just saying, how far do you want to take this?

Well, I don't know how... If somebody ever wronged me in a major way because i haven't ever really been wronged in a in a catastrophic way so i but if that happened maybe i would i i don't know if i could be that zen well i wait i said you touch on you touch on some other issues here which are which are i always think about first of all uh there's so many worse or equally bad things that people do to each other, which are not the cause of the day. So they will not move to make sure you never work again, like beating your kids.

Oh, neglecting your kids. What's worse? Now, rubbing your hard dick on somebody who works, that's pretty bad. Is it worse than abuse of a child? No, I would say it's not the trap is that we get into this like comparing comparing wounds and trauma bonding and it's just like the most bizarre but let me ask you and then and then the consistency was for instance wasn't a marianne williamson is that her name yeah she hired this guy from bernie sanders campaign who was accused of some stuff and And it was a little,

but because she's kind of an ultra-lefty and good standing, she got a pass for it. And she said, basically, she said, you know, she's flaky, but sometimes she says things which I think are pretty insightful.

I think she says really, she's very smart. Like, she screwed up that first debate, but she's very smart. And she was saying things about forgiveness and second chances, things which every liberal I ever met until 2010 would have signed on to in a heartbeat. Progressivism somehow started rejecting the notions of liberalism, like forgiveness, like due process, all this stuff, free speech, all of it.

You know what we never really talk about in terms of moral behavior is people that manipulate women or women that manipulate men. For example, you tell a woman you love her, you're going to want to spend the rest of your life with her. You have sex with her. You're going to say, now beat it.

Now what is more morally reprehrehensible that or taking out your penis no no that's that is that in my book everyone has a different book but i would no no no no you don't think that telling you listen this what he did could potentially be considered i'm not saying it's good criminal right and you're right it is criminal but it's still not worse than telling a woman you love her and then saying be it at the next day. Listen, just telling me you love me alone is enough. You've got to go to jail for that. You are incapable of receiving love?

Is that what you're saying? That's the joke. But yeah. Okay. Well, no, because I'm in that boat too. No. And look how far they're taking it. Because, all right,

if ABC wanted to hire Mark Halpern back, there's a whole set of arguments there. We don't have to talk about Mark Halpern the entire time. I know, it would come online. But publishing a book. But I also think that it's because he's not supervising women. He's not in an office.

You don't want to buy the book? Don't buy the fucking book. It's really crazy. I also think it's because it's Judith. You think it's because it's me? Yeah, I do. It's personal. Oh, wait a minute.

That's Periel, our producer. Periel Ashenbrun. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'm sorry. I think that this has been going on your entire career. Let's kill Judith.

The Let's Kill Judith show. Yeah, I mean, you're like, you've always been a really strong, powerful woman in, I mean, what was for years years maybe it's changed recently like a very male dominated world and you were always a badass in my opinion and you always caught a ton of shit like i feel like if a man was publishing this book people would be like whatever probably i mean i know i i don't know why speaking Speaking of books. I don't know.

What about OJ? You're right. Oh, OJ. Well, speaking of books, before we get to OJ, if I may, if I may. Yes, you may. Speaking of books, Judd Apatow listens to our podcast frequently. Okay. I just texted him because I'm writing a novel, and one of the characters is a well-known producer. He never responded to the text. So I just want to say, Judd, if you're listening,

I sent you a text. I don't know if I have the wrong... Not a text, an email. I don't know if I got the wrong email or not. And if you're ignoring me, that's fine. You owe me nothing. But if you happen to miss the email, I send you an email. I just want to talk to you very briefly

so that I can research the character for this novel. I love it. I would like to follow that up and say that Judd, I also emailed you and I'm waiting for you to email me. Oh, we did email Judd about doing the show, but he's in LA, so he can't do the show. Why not? He's in LA and we don't do remote. He's done the show. He's done it.

Leave the man alone. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Leave him alone about that. But I think he would be happy. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think he'd be thrilled to help me okay yeah he loves you strong no he loves you he loves you anyway uh and i'm not going to bother judith about my novel because i don't think she does i don't think she does you don't do fiction anyway i did a little book called wicked by gregory mcguire which became a very big musical i have published jess Walter, who's a very big, big novelist. Wally Lammer wrote a book called She's Come Undone.

And I know this much is true. I know this much is true. She's pitching herself. It's going to be a TV series on HBO. They're filming it right now with Mark Rucolo. I'll take it under consideration. Lots and lots of fiction. Highly acclaimed, major, major fiction.

I will take it under consideration. Major, but no one mentions that. I will take your offer under consideration. Your offer to publish. I had lunch, just by a total coincidence, with F. Lee Bailey. And he maintained to me that O.J. was innocent. Oh, there's a lot of delusional people out there. And I said, what about the Colombian necktie?

And he said, yeah, that's what happens. It was drug dealers. And then he said to me, I had a script about this whole thing, and Hollywood wouldn't produce it. I'm like, why wouldn't Hollywood produce it? He said, and he looked at me like I was an idiot. He goes, because Goldman was a Jew. Oh, my God.

That's what he said to me. Was he doing stand-up? No. And then he kind of fell asleep. So I read somewhere that it's claimed that OJ admitted to you that he confessed to you? Okay. So many, many years ago, I got a call from a lawyer who represented OJ Simpson, and he said, OJ's ready to confess. And I was like, what? Really? What's the catch? And he said, well, he'll do it in book form, but he has to call the book

if I did it because he wants deniability with his children. That night, just by sheer coincidence, I was having dinner with Tom Perkins, who was on the board of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, Danielle Steele, who had been married to Tom Perkins. And I said to Rupert, you're not going to believe this call I got today from this lawyer who claims to represent OJ Simpson. And he says he wants to confess. And here's the condition. And he said, wow, that would be incredible. I then make the deal. Everybody understood what the terms were. It was hush, hush, hush. Book was written. Barbara Walters was supposed to do the interview with him. And on a Thursday, Barbara Walters called. ABC was going to do the interview and canceled for some reason. We had it set up for that Sunday.

And I didn't want him to get cold feet and run away and say, I'm not doing it because it was like, wow, if we can get him to sit down and talk about the night of the murder, that's pretty incredible. Fox called me because they found out that Barbara had canceled and said, we want it for sweeps, but we need it next week. The interview was that Sunday. This was a Friday. I said, we don't have anyone to do the interview. And it was decided at that moment, since I was hosting a show on Fox, that I would do it. I said, it's a little weird to have the publisher doing it. Don't worry about it. I go. I go down to Florida. The whole thing was set up. Five cameras shoot. All the executives, all the top executives at Fox. I do the interview. I walk out. The interview was being cut for the special, and they were

cutting promos. As I was doing the interview, they sent it to Fox News, Roger Ailes. He gives his hosts his talking points, and one of them was kill Judith Regan. They used that interview to do a political hit on me, to smear me me and that was the beginning of the smear campaign against me which incidentally had a lot to do with the fbi subpoena i'd received about a certain bernard carrick who was the police commissioner etc etc that's a whole other story he went to jail right he did they fired me uh and 12 and a half year, the book was canceled, the project was canceled. The book was then bought, the rights were taken over by the Goldman family,

and when they read the book, they were like, this is a confession. That's because they had a judgment they were trying to collect. Against OJ. They published the book. The book was a big bestseller. 12 and a half years later,

last spring, I got a call from Fox saying, oh, we're going to run the interview, which they did last spring. Great acclaim, amazing interview. This is a confession. Did one reporter writing about Mark Halperin, the author of a soon-to-be bestseller called How to Beat Trump. Did one reporter mention that? No. They said, oh, she got fired over the OJ thing. She only does scandalous things. They did not mention any of these facts, which are important.

The book was canceled. It died. No, it didn't. It was a number one New York Times bestseller. The interview, you know, went away. No, it didn't. It aired on Fox last year to great acclaim. That's the story.

So what, I didn't see the interview. What, what, what's- Go on fox.com and look up the OJ confession. It's unbelievable. It's a confession? It's a confession. I got a note from Dr. Drew who said, who taught you how to interview like that?

I got a note from an NCIS investigator. What's that stand for? He was a guy who investigated the terrorists down in Guantanamo. And he said to me, where did you learn that technique? Because when I did the interview with him, I didn't sit and like,

I didn't sit in judgment. I just asked him questions and another question and another question. And I just remained expressionless and as i'm talking to him he's getting more and more comfortable and you'll see in the interview it's absolutely riveting he starts talking about how she had it coming and she should have listened to me and i told her this would happen and he talks about the night of the murder but where

and the blood being everywhere it's unbelievable on fox.com go to go to the fox website how come oj confession i'm sure it's on youtube because none of the reporters from the new york times to the idiot at ap to all of these idiots who write about it what they do is they pick up a story that's 14 years old and they rewrite it and they don't do any fact checking and they don't do any reporting and it's only about clicks everybody wants to get clicks nobody wants to actually tell the truth about it it seems to me that your opinion of the media if this is possible is even worse than donald trump's opinion of the media i think we share an opinion because you know when you've been the victim of it for so long and you see you know i know reality i know what happened, right? This isn't secondhand. It happened to me. And so I have a

whole different idea. The stuff that went on was just incredible. Journalists were paid to smear me. It's an unbelievable story. People claimed, oh, I'm her best friend. I've known her for years. No, actually, I met you once when I was 18. And that's the last time I saw you. You're not an expert on a 60-year-old woman. This is insanity. It's insanity, but that's the world we live in. Is there any book that you wouldn't publish? I don't know which of these latest mass shooters is still alive. Would you publish a book about one of those? I mean, look, the decision to publish somebody is my personal decision, right? And I'm sure you feel the same way about who you book, right?

Of course, there are issues of taste. There's issues of, you know, things that are personally like I just couldn't do it. But I have published a lot of people I don't agree with. I've published a lot of people that I think are reprehensible. But there are certain people that I just wouldn't publish because it's my personal choice Noam if I could you mentioned Noam's booking policy

yeah you alluded to it yeah I think I can speak to that okay Noam makes it's a point of pride with Noam

to separate his personal feelings from who he books and I've often maintained that if you hate somebody they got a better shot of being booked here because I want to show

show that you're being fair because you're trying to make of being booked here. Because I want to show them. You're trying to show them about the frank. Because you're trying to make, to overcompensate. Well, I'm trying, yeah, but I don't have, there's higher stakes when you could publish something which could potentially inspire people

to do terrible things. And I guess that would be the only thing that I would consider not publishing. I don't know if that would be, but the idea of, other than that, someone reprehensible, I don't know if that would be, but the idea of, other than that, someone reprehensible, I don't see,

I would publish that. It's interesting to people. You learn about someone. I understand why it's bad for him to be publishing a book, but we're all watching true crime documentaries. Thank you.

Or go see Mike Tyson on Broadway. Like, what are we, what is the standard? Or go see Bill Clinton. How many hitmen, you know, Sammy the Bull killed, murdered dozens of people. HarperCollins published his book, No One Said Anything.

We literally had Zac Efron play Ted Bundy. What is going on? What's the guy who wrote Goodfellas, the original book? And think of all the money being made off of historical tragedies. I don't know if this is of any relevance, but you know, I mean, we're not for Hitler.

There's billions of dollars being made. And great movies and great entertainment. And great comedies, even. No, I... Look, it's a personal choice, and that's it. Has anything... Have you ever regretted any book that you published?

No. Never? No. I mean, there are plenty of people I haven't enjoyed working with, and they're horrible, but I'm not somebody who is regretting anything. Another interesting thing about the Mark Halperin thing

was to see how people like Mika Brzezinski, and what's the matter? You don't want me to talk about Mark Halperin? Well, I'm just wondering whether- It's only in every newspaper in the country just wondering whether the average raw dog listener, because I didn't really know who Mark Halpern is. Well, it was that people who knew him all of a sudden were turning themselves into knots.

People would normally just come down like a ton of bricks on somebody. All of a sudden, when there's a little personal relationship there, they're looking for every out they can find to forgive him, as they should, like normal people. But listen, a lot of the CNN reporter who went

after every person who was interviewed for the book, which I think is also reprehensible that he did that, you know, some of them were like, oh, well, I wish I hadn't done it. Axelrod. What a wimp. Can I just say that on the record what a wimp you certainly why is he being so spineless he did the interview and i get i did the interview

it's an important book it's an important piece of history i gave him the information and that's that he's being spineless because of the reality of the world that he's living in we all know it which where anybody can be canceled or at any time and everybody's scared I'm scared we're all scared you're scared I'm scared of many things that's not one of them

you're not afraid of being cancelled I'm not afraid of being cancelled we went through you don't know the whole story but we went through a terrible time here

when we chose to put Louis C.K. back on stage and by terrible he means publicity you couldn't buy for anything terrible

no it was it had all the all the same you were name called well no we had you couldn't buy for anything. Terrible. No, it was, it had all the, all the same. You were name called. Well, no, we had threats of violence,

death threats. People talk about my kids. We had boycotts. We had all of it and it's scary. Then when you, when you live through it and it's okay,

then you're. I've been through it so many times. It's just, it's like nothing to me. Yeah. It's nothing, but it's reprehensible

and you have to have a really thick skin. And for me yeah it's nothing but it's reprehensible and you have to have a really thick skin and for me like i believe that what's right is right and that's it yeah i'm with you that's the end of it i'm with you unless there's no waffling let's cost a lot of money well that is the thing everybody well your livelihood i you know i told the end of my game that's not well i told this story on the air before but it's true my wife God bless my wife because it's very

very stressful when you go through all this very and unfair and you don't know how it's going to play out and I said to my wife sweetheart

what if this affects our livelihood you know we have a very nice lifestyle now she said I've had less before she didn't

see that's a good person you married her but that's like those people, I'll move to Canada if Trump wins. They never thought it would actually happen. No, no, no, no, Dan, you're, I'm making a joke, but you don't know. And you don't know what it means, the alternative. If you're married and you're dealing with all this stress and your wife is then bitching about it and it could really put you over the edge. Yeah. She's supportive and loving and she has good values. She was ready to, but of course, even with her and with me at some point, yeah, we would buckle and we're not going to, you know,

just sell everything just for Louis CK. He wasn't our friend. He was just a principal for me that I didn't want to, I didn't want to get pushed around by the mob. You did the right thing. Yeah. And I admire that a lot. Thanks. I really do. The idea of, of it was our time get pushed around by the mob. You did the right thing. Yeah, thank you. And I admire that a lot. Thanks.

I really do. The idea of it was our time to push back against the mob. I didn't want to be part of that, those people who, I didn't want to be David Axelrod and be called a wimp. Yeah. And I wanted to be able to defend it. And the way you handled it was very elegant and graceful.

Wow, thank you very much. Can we- Good night, everybody. See ya. But it was scary. Can we, good night everybody. See ya. Can we, but it was scary. Go ahead, Dan.

Briefly, um, talk about, uh, uh, the comedy cellar television show. I don't know if you're familiar with it, Judith. I'm not familiar with anything.

I'm old. Okay. Well, you look great. You said you were, you said you were 66. Oh, you're sick.

You're wow. You are kidding me. No, I try, you know, I, I knew you were going to tell some stories about being yesterday. I knew you were going to tell some stories about being- Her birthday was yesterday. I knew you were going to tell some stories about being sexually harassed coming up.

Oh, the penises I've seen. And so I went online and tried to find a young Judith Regan. I got a group of young Judith Regan. Hot, right? And you were hot. Very hot. You're still hot. No, no, no.

I was hot. Back in the day. The penises, they came out wherever I went. If I were going to grade you on- Put it away. penises they came out wherever I went if I were going to grade you on a curve I would say you are top 1% of 66 year olds where you were probably in the top 15%

of 30 year olds so in a certain way you've gotten hotter in a certain way I don't know if you've had work done of any kind no Botox nothing I am... She's a dermatologist.

No dermatology. No dermatology. You and Trump, good genes. Aging. I'm blown away. Rapidly aging. I don't say that very often. Before my eyes, it's all falling south. Anyway, we have a TV show. I say we. It's Gnome Show, co-produced by Ray Allen.

That's called This Week at the Comedy Cellar. And every week we talk about news of the week in stand-up form. Okay. And we just ended our second season. I was wondering, and I know Rose, but how many times do you appear on it this season? I've appeared on it twice. I did The Table and then I did, I've done a lot of the tapings. I was on, not last week, the week before.

You're in the rough cut this week, but you know, that changes. But I saw it this morning. I think they pulled some joke from a different week. Oh, from a different week. And they put it in this week. They didn't use me at all this season. Ray Allen insists that's anti-Semitism, but I don't think it's that. I will say it's not.

I do think it's not necessarily because I didn't have any good things to say, but I think there's many factors afoot. But I've learned to... I'm over it. You're all with it. They had no choice, Dan. Because of free will? Because of free will.

You're right. By the way, I think you need to let your listeners know that we are sitting in a sauna. Okay, we turn it off because anyway, Noam,

what are your thoughts? By the way, this is called a sweat lodge. There's a 66-year-old woman and she's hot. Yeah, I can't even wear

these headphones. It's like, I mean, whoo! Well, but I love Rose, but I love your bangs. I don't know.

It'll get cool in a second. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll die with them, so I appreciate that. But I was wondering, Noam, by the Rose, but I love your bangs. I don't know. It'll get cool in a second. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll die with them, so I appreciate that. But I was wondering, Noam, by the way, just what are your thoughts

on season two and will there be a season three of This Week at the Comedy Cellar? Well, the ratings last, I don't want to waste everybody's time, but for the ratings, I mean, I guess, the ratings last week

were our best ratings ever. Wow. That's great. I got a very positive email. Trump. Trump. Trump was on it. And you know, I don't know how much to... Melania came on naked. I wish. I don't know how much to read

into that, but I hope for a third season. What can I tell you? Look, ultimately the show is good for me because I make a little bit of money, but I must say it's endlessly frustrating every week not being used, but again, I'm dealing with that.

Let me tell you, I didn't talk about my health scare on the air, did I? No, I don't think so. You had health scare? How am I getting somewhere? So, I had like a two-week health scare, which took me out of the loop on this show for a while, which maybe is part of the reason you didn't get on, but I was sure, I'm absolutely fine, but I was sure I had colon

cancer. You and Howard soared. And I was just and I, you know, what goes through your head when you think you're, I have young children. Why did you think you had colon cancer? I had abdominal pain and. You had gas. No, it wasn't gas. And then I took a blood test

and I had some high markers of things which could be cancer, but which could be nothing. And then did you have a colonoscopy? I'd had one four years ago, which is not like last year. And you know, if you research it,

I just have one a few days ago. Not bad. Do you know that every year and every two years afterwards, there's a large number of people who die of colon cancer after having recently had a colonoscopy. It's not like this. Oh, then why bother? Well, or why not have it more often?

So I was reading about this. Once a month. I was reading all the studies. I want to have it every year. And anyway, I mean, it's life-changing. I don't know if you've ever been through it. It's life-changing when you think you're going to die. Yeah.

And you're worried about your kids and who's going to raise them. I mean, it's just the whole thing. It was the worst two weeks of my life. And anyway, I'm fine, but it took me out of the loop. I did not have the head for the show and I couldn't get back into it. Did it make you more forgiving and graceful? For a very short time.

For an evening. How did you find out? If you didn't have another colonoscopy, how did you find out? I had a CAT scan. Okay, they don't need to do a colonoscopy. They did a CAT scan of your colon? They did a CAT scan of my whole GI. I feel like you're always nervous that you have some terrible disease. Well, your colon is your entire large intestine, so it wraps around.

I have that too, though. I'm constantly worried that I'm dying. He's always saying that he has Alzheimer's or some crazy thing. I don't remember that. Alzheimer's. Well, one at a time. I remember saying that. I'm not going to ask your age.

It's not polite, but you're in your early 30s, late 20s. I'm not going to ask your age. You're not going to ask my age, but you're going to guess it, which is going to lead to, that's going to be worse. But that's not bad for 130 pounds. But first of all, if I had to guess your age, because I know how experienced a comic you are and you're working regularly at the cellar, so you probably have 10 years of comedy under your belt.

No. No, I've been in comedy for five years. Oh, so you might still be in your 20s. What's the question? She looks like she's in her 20s. I just assume because of the comedy experience. I'm in my 20s. I'm in my 20s. We'll say that.

I'm giving her the Larry David look. I was a hypochondriac in my 20s, but I was unusual. I thought I was having, at 15, I thought I was having heart problems. But that's unusual. I was a prodigy. But for you to be in your 20s having health concerns, I think that says something about your psychology. Yeah, for sure.

For sure. Or your habits. Yeah, it's habits psychology um i'm not in my 20s by the way but i but yeah i do i i think i got it from my mom because every time i would get like a like if she saw a mole on my arm or something she'd be like what's that we got to go to the dermatologist you probably have cancer your dad gets cancer all the time like my what's that? We gotta go to the dermatologist. You probably have cancer. Your dad gets cancer all the time. My dad would get skin cancer like it was the flu. You spend a lot of time in the sun? We're all Irish.

So it's just like, we really do... You're born with skin cancer. Yeah, we're literally born with it. Do you know that they say that one bad sunburn, even in your childhood, significantly increases your risk of skin cancer? You need to stop reading these things. I know a lot. That's why I'm so glad. Read how to beat Trump.

I'm so glad. I never sat in the sun. I was always too impatient to do that. And I think it helped me. And my sisters all lay out in the sun, and I look at their skin, and I'm just like, good Lord, you're going to get it. Your skin is so good. Did you stay out of the sun?

No, I was in the sun. I just, a bad habit. I just did terrible things. It's not fair. It's just genetics. You just, it's like. I'm half Irish. And you have longevity and you're two parents over 90.

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of longevity. Does that give you a comfort to know that your parents. No, because I don't want to. Let me tell you something. When you're in your 90s and in your hundreds, my grandmother lived into her 100s. Just not that much fun.

It's just a lot of pain and suffering. Yeah, who wants to live to be in her 100s? And whining and complaining for your children. That's Judaism now no matter what, though. We start that. It doesn't matter how old you are. In your teens. I think everybody turns Jewish once they turn 90.

You know what I mean? Like, I think it gets... No, my mother's been complaining since, you know, I was born. I was sure your mother was Jewish when you told me that story. My mother's grandmother was Jewish, but she was raised as a Catholic. It's a long story. You can't get away from it. You do have a Jew equality to you.

A Jewish is a Jew? It's a compliment. It's a compliment. I have a Hebrew name. Yeah, well, that was just like a... I was sure you were Jewish. You know, it's funny. When I go to the... When I've traveled in the Middle East,

people always think I'm Jewish because my name is Judith. I'm from New York, and I have an affect, the affect of a New Yorker. And I was, before the war, I actually went to Syria, and I was visiting artists and art dealers there,

and we were having a dinner, and there were really lovely people, and they were like, you know, we love the Jewish people. We love the Jews. And we were having a dinner and there were really lovely people. And they were like, you know, we love the Jewish people. We love the Jews. And I'm like, me too. Everyone, everywhere I go in the world just assumes I'm Jewish.

By the way, what did you think about Trump? What did he say about the saying? You're disloyal. If you're a Jew, if you don't support him, you're disloyal to him. I mean, it's such an outrageous, another psychotic comment. Does Halpern, is he going to come down hard on Trump?

Yeah. I mean, I think he gives credit where credit is due and says he's a very good politician in a lot of ways, but obviously believes he needs to be beaten and he's dangerous. Because I thought he was sorely missed on Morning Joe all year. Because he's a really bright guy and he really understands politics

in a way that a lot of people don't. I thought he would have pushed back a lot against what became basically groupthink on that show and just kind of, I started calling it Morning Grudge. Yeah, he was really smart. He was very smart. I used to, I didn't. He wouldn't have fallen for the Russia thing

so easily like they did. They were calling everybody really smart. He's very smart. He wouldn't have fallen for the Russia thing so easily like they did. They were calling everybody Russian agents. He's very measured, and the book is very multi-layered. Who's the guy that was also that worked with him on the circus?

Heilman. Oh, the guy that co-wrote Game Change with him. Is he still on MSNBC? He was on saying that Devin Nunes Game Change with him. Yeah, is he still on MSNBC? Because I stopped watching. He was on the circus. He was on saying that Devin Nunes was a Russian agent. Like, they've lost their minds. I know.

And also, they were going to write a book together and get canceled, and he has really great information for that book. It's a really important piece of history that should be written. I heard since then that Halpern was by far the senior partner in that duo. That's what somebody told me,

and you may not be able to comment on that, but that's what I heard. Anyway. He's a very bright guy. I've had a lot of people call me and congratulate me and tell me that I'm doing the right thing, including this amazing man up in Canada who is a screenwriter.

He wrote a screenplay called In Darkness, which was nominated for an Academy Award Best Foreign Film in Poland. And it's an amazing movie about redemption. It's about a Polish Catholic guy who's kind of a petty criminal, and he saves this Jewish family and hides them in the sewers for two years. And he starts off in the beginning, he does it for money, and he's kind of greedy, and you don't like the guy. But then over time, he gets attached, and he ends up, when they run out of money, he keeps them there, he feeds them,

he brings them clothes, and he keeps them safe and saves their lives. And it's an important movie about redemption. It's a true story. And he read the whole thing about Mark Halperin, and he sent me a note and said, although although like you, I may disagree with his actions, you're making the right decision by publishing him. And I'm very pleased that you're doing that. And I will buy his book. So there are a lot of people who are very thoughtful, intelligent,

measured, sensitive, kind people who understand how important it is not to just annihilate people and eliminate important stories when they need to be told. Speaking of redemption, can we touch a little bit upon Rosebud's journey, if we may? I believe and I read that you were a recovering addict. Yeah, yeah. What kind of addict? Alcoholic.

Alcoholic? Yeah, but pretty much whatever was around I haven't drank or done anything in probably 12 years in September

wow since you were 10 since I was 10 I got sober when I was 9 years old I had a full blown meth habit by the time I was 8

and no I just is it in your family alcoholism? yeah she said she was Irish yeah whoa oh my god you're fired I just. Is it in your family, alcoholism? Yeah. She said she was Irish.

Yeah. Whoa. Oh, my God. You're fired. Yeah. Thank God we can still make fun of white people. I know. I know.

On both sides. It's on my mom's side. I've got my grandmother died of alcoholism. I mean, she got drunk. She passed out with a cigarette, a lit cigarette. Burned her whole house down. Is he a book in this? This is such a funny show. I love this show. Of course, many comedians have

this kind of background. Oh, hello. I'm half Irish. And then my dad's side, they were you know, my uncle met his wife in rehab. Everybody's fucked up, and so I knew a lot about alcoholism. My own mother got sober, so I knew about it. And then—

What is it? You know, it's something so foreign to me because I have a drink. Enjoy it. I put it down. The Goyim are different, Dan. I hate people. They're not like you and me. It's like you can put a drink down so you don't even have to finish it. No.

You can just have it. I put it down. I enjoy it. When people don't finish their drinks, I want to throw their drink off the table. It drives me crazy. And it's been 12 years. And if I have more than even three in an evening, my next day is completely shot. Well, yeah, that's, I think, for anybody.

So is this a physical addiction? You drank, you had your first drink, and now you're like... Yeah, I tried to control it from the first time I did it. The first time I did it, I was like, I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is what I'm meant to do. To drink.

Yes. It's a brain thing. There's an addictive response in the brain. This is what I'm meant to do. To drink. Yes. It's a brain thing. There's an addictive response in the brain. This is what I'm built for. You're off to the races. Some people have it with sugar. It's just something I could never understand because I don't have it. Frito-Lay potato chips. They studied

salt, sugar, and fat and the perfect combination of those things. Billions of dollars were spent to trigger an addictive response in the same part of the brain that alcohol triggers in some people. And, you know, thankfully, I don't have that addictive response, but there were lots of relatives of mine that did. Yeah. And it's not, you know, I ended up adopting my niece's two children because she's an alcoholic and a drug addict and, you know, was neglecting the kids and they got taken away by child protection and

then they got molested i mean it's a whole horrible story and you know my job is to educate them because they had parents who were addicts yeah and you know how dangerous it is and how tragic it is right really really a tragedy for people who can't control it it's really yeah my wife has a touch she'd never been out i'm sorry thank you she'd never alcoholic, but she will tell me that if she has one drink, I'm like, well, when is it enough? She was like,

it's never enough. Like she, like it's always an act of will for her to stop having another drink. Right. Until she's just sloppy drunk. And so, but she does manage to, to have the willpower.

Yeah. Whereas I, if I've had two drinks, I'm like, no, no, I don't want another drink. Like,

what are you crazy? I'm already, you know, but that's, as you say, I think you're just born with that. The way, the way every drug affects people differently. Yeah. And it's been so long now that I'm like, oh yeah, I could try it again, but I'm like, no, it's not even worth it. I don't need to be talked down. Stop. I'm like, I just don't, I'm just like, yeah, oh, I could probably do that. And then I'm like, I don't, it's not worth it to me to even try that, because it's like. You can't do it. I've known so many people. I've never seen,

you cannot have just one. Not quit smoking, not quit drinking. Yeah, that's how I am with cigarettes. Yeah. And I'm like that with vaping now, which is, everybody hates vaping. I mean, I hate it. Not even going back to an ex. You can't do it just once.

Boy, you know, you're right back in the routine. I think vaping is harder to stop than cigarettes. Yeah, it is because I can do it whenever I want. Exactly. I've literally woken myself up reaching for my vaping. And you don't take it out of your mouth. Like I started vaping. I've been like an on again reaching for my vape. And you don't take it out of your mouth. Like I started vaping. I've been like an on again, off again smoker forever.

And I'm like a crazy cigarette addict. I haven't smoked in a long time. So hard. But then I started vaping and I was like, oh, this is fine, right? Yeah. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare.

I'm just doing it all the time. Yeah. Well, oftentimes alcoholics, when they stop drinking alcohol, they replace it with caffeine. Yeah. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. I'm just doing it all the time. Yeah. Well, oftentimes alcoholics, when they stop drinking alcohol, they replace it with caffeine. Yeah. Or cigarettes. Sex. Sex, caffeine, cigarettes. Food.

Shopping. Shopping. In your case. Working. Candy. Working. So this is two different things going on then. Yeah.

Then you're also talking about an addictive psychology, which is looking for something. For outside things to make you feel better on the inside. To satisfy kind of a general urge for something. But I've been sober for long enough now where it's like, I've done that. I did that probably intensely for like seven years. And then finally, my experience being sober is it's kind of like a meditative way of living because you're just running into a wall over and over again until you finally just go until you just get so exhausted that you're like, I'll just accept where I'm at and that's all I can do.

Fine. Right. And that's like, that's how I live my life. So that's something, that's something I don't see. My wife doesn't have that. My wife is not looking to replace alcohol with something else.

Yeah. She's just vulnerable to alcohol. Rosemarie, when you're at your wits end in life, when life is being a little harsh on you, what do you turn to? I just cry. It's like that's it. That's all I could do.

I just have to have the open heart of a toddler or else I'm going to fucking drink. That's like what it is. And there's nothing I can do about it. What do you do? Well, there's a number of things. First of all, napping. I mean, I have that luxury.

As somebody who doesn't work nine to five. Also like a toddler. Sleeping. Yeah, just isolation. Just pooping yeah just being you know just shutting out the world if it's if the world becomes too much i shut it out you know yeah um and then there's always xanax if it's well if but only in in the most extremely anxiety provoking situation you know what i will take a melatonin. I took a melatonin the first time I did the taping here

because I was like, I had just passed. What is melatonin? What does it do? It's a hormone. It's a natural hormone, but it makes you tired. And I was so nervous for the taping and having just passed here and wanting to do well at the club. And I was just like, I got to do something.

It's just to calm myself down. Did you go to sleep? No, I couldn't. She fell asleep in mid- It barely did anything. Have you ever taken any of these Xanax, Prozac? No, I don't do any of them. Does anybody meditate?

No. I meditate. Yeah, I started meditating. That, I feel like- I hate it. Does it cut down on the smoking? I hate it too. It's so boring.

Yeah, I mean, no, it's a huge, I mean, I feel like it's changed my life. We got to wrap it up. By the way, you're a publisher. Did you know, I'll ask you, Dan, is art form one word or two? Well, if I had to, I would probably spell it as two words. I don't know. You would, huh?

I'm not sure. Well, I assumed it was one word or at least hyphenated. It's two words. Art form? Yeah. Art form. Like that's the best, that's, you know, it's a beautiful art word or at least hyphenated. It's two words. Art form? Yeah. Art form. Like that's the best, you know, it's a beautiful art form. I think that's crazy.

Well, change it. It should. Well, you know, I take. You can do that. I have taken to, I object to this thing in language. I have taken to hyphenating any two words that I think. That you want to have together. That it should be taken in as a chunk. I don't, it doesn't make sense to me.

I can't wrap my brain around the idea of a space between one thing. That's allowed now. It makes way more sense. That it should be taken in as a chunk. It doesn't make sense to me. I can't wrap my brain around the idea of a space between one thing. It makes way more sense. Do it. Go for it now. In this age of emojis, why can't I hyphenate? You can actually just put them together. There's probably going to be some group out there that's going to get upset

about your hyphenating. I think that's one thing millennials have done. They've changed language a little bit. They really have. I think that's one thing millennials have done. They've changed language a little bit. They really have. The way that they've like, will send things like, if you put a period at the end of a sentence, it's like,

why are you mad at me? Yeah. Well, texting has changed. Texting has its own language. Texting, social media, all of it. It's changed grammar a lot. Yeah.

But if you put a period at the end of a sentence, I'm like, oh, he's pissed. Well, emojis are also another way of communicating that are quite valuable, you know. I mean, which at first I thought emojis, this is stupid. Yeah. And now I come to rely on them to express. They're going to replace language.

Yeah. I don't know if you can replace language with emojis. I don't know. I think we're going to become more and more visual and less and less focused on words but how do we do that in a personal conversation you can do that by texting but you can't do that in a personal conversation I don't know the population is getting more insane by the minute

unless we just all show each other we just have our phones on us and instead of a conversation we're just showing each other memes. On your, do you tweet? Which could happen, I suppose. Occasionally. Do you, on your Twitter profile, do you identify he, she, or the pronouns that you want to be known by? Okay, okay, listen, I'm 66 years old.

I'm a woman. I'm a she. Hello? Yes, that's what I am. I can't think of myself in any other way. Elizabeth Warren is identifying her, like, some of the- She is? Yeah, she identifies

on her Twitter like that she's a she or whatever it is. Why are you rolling your eyes? Is she a nit? That's so stupid. It's like, yeah, we see that. Like, it's not like

nobody thinks you're gender neutral, Elizabeth. What is going on? What about you? I'm a he. I'm all he, baby. You're all he. I'm like, what are you doing?

It's like... It's cuckoo land. It's crazy. We got to wrap it up. Just before we go, do you have any good Fox News stories? Any good Roger Ailes stories? I have so many Roger Ailes stories.

I was a big... I mean, people roll their eyes, but I was never embarrassed about it. I was a big Fox News watcher for years. And as soon as Roger Ailes died, I thought I saw it slipping, and now I find it totally unwatchable. Yeah.

So I think there was some magic sweet spot that he had a sense to maintain. He was a genius. He was a really, really brilliant guy. He really understood television. He understood communications. He understood propaganda. He understood talent.

You know, he was not a man without enormous talents. He was just a really creepy, complicated, dark guy. Is that movie out about him yet? Yeah. Well, the series is, the Showtime series. Have you watched it? No. You haven't watched it?

I lived it. I don't need to watch it. And that book was awful. I hated the book. Well, great men are seldom good men, as the saying goes. That is very often true. Behind every great fortune is a great crime. Well, I've heard that said as well.

Although I'm not so sure that there was a great crime behind Facebook. I don't know. Facebook was the crime. Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah. Okay. Save that for another day. I think that Roger ailes i i got the feeling that through it all he kind of enjoyed a good debate like he he did and and they don't have good debates on yeah well he also engineered them and gave them the questions to ask the hosts you know he did a lot of the producing himself. So he was very, very hands-on and involved in those debates

by forming, you know, the questions that should be asked. He was a brilliant guy. I'll give him that. He wasn't very nice to me. He wasn't nice. But he kept you on the air for 10 years. I got him that job. You got him the job?

Yes. How's that? I did. I introduced him to Rupert Murdoch over lunch, and he hired him. Why did you know him prior to that? I knew him through Rush Limbaugh. He was Rush Limbaugh's producer.

Oh, he produced the Rush Limbaugh show on TV, right? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And he was running People Are Talking, which was a network. He was running that network at the time. And, you know, Roger was the kind of guy who could get it done. He would break a lot of rules, and he would act like a pig, but he got it done. Yeah. I liked him

even though I disliked him he apparently did at like Shepard Smith if I recall right he almost began to cry when he talked about Roger Ailes he was a great character he did bad things to me but he was a great character which gets me back to forgiveness

grace, moving on and giving credit where credit is due. All right, that's a good way to end, just like we began. I say the great characters are often very difficult people, so you can't have everything. All right. Judith Regan,

I don't know how we got you on the show. This fabulous woman called me. She's terrific, right? She is. She is A+. I don't want to talk to anyone else. I only want to talk to you. Well, I consider you a fellow fighter against the mob. The mob mentality. Against the mob.

So I really appreciate you coming on. Well, thank you for the stands that you've taken and the work you've done. I'm a big fan of your decisions and the work that you do. So thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Nice to meet you. All of you. Nice to meet you. All of you.

Nice to meet you as well. Rosebud, Dan, Perrielle. You want to say something before we go? Well, first of all, I feel there's more to Rosebud than we... She can come on again next week if she wants. I'll come on again another time. Also, in case anyone's wondering,

I'm hoping to finish the book. I'm working very slowly. I'm hoping in some time in mid to late 2020, or never. It'll either be 2020 or never. I'll either give up or it'll be done. I'm reading Crime and Punishment

right now, Dan. That's a long one. Yeah, but I mean, if you just read that, I think you would know. I just, the talent. You never have to write a book again. I just can't believe

anybody came up with it. First of all, it's vast, yet it's very specific. And that's a translation. It's just unbelievable that somebody could conceive all this. It's just unbelievable to me. This is like Beethoven for literature. You should not be writing a book.

Well, that's one of the great novels in history. I'm not that ambitious. I'm just trying to write something. He's just trying to get Judd to write a bad one. I'm just trying to get a text from Judd. There is such a thing as bad novels, and some of them get published, and some of them sell well. Did you turn down Confederacy of Dunces?

No. Oh, all right. Number one. Number two, yeah, that's about all I have to say. And if nobody wants to publish it, I'll self-publish it, which is, you know, whatever. Finish it first. Amazon has a thing where they'll hook you up, by the way.

Self-publishing is not as hard as it used to be. Anyway, sorry. We were doing so well when we were going to end. Yeah, we're going to end. Thank you very much. Podcast at ComedyCellar.com. Podcast at ComedyCellar.com. Podcast at ComedyCellar.com. And wait, and follow us on Instagram at LiveFromTheTable.

What is there to follow us on Instagram? Because I post information. You're the only one who's not on there. And also feedback for, you know, podcast at ComedyCellar.com. I prefer it in an email, especially when it's bad, when it's public, you know, the whole world has to read it. Anyway. Right, podcast.comedysally.com. Yeah, I said that right.

You weren't listening. Okay, good night, everybody.