The Originals

Moby, the biggest selling electronica artist in history, ponders the question: why did so many people hate my guts? Born Richard Melville Hall (so nicknamed because Moby Dick author Herman Melville’s an ancestor) he grew up on food stamps in fancy Darien, CT, became an NYC DJ and released the huge-in-Europe dance single “Go” in 1991. Fame and fortune (and many threesomes) followed the release of 1999’s Play, but happiness eluded him. His surreal new documentary Moby Doc documents his brutal childhood, his rise and fall from pop stardom, and the drugs and booze that nearly did him in. Host Andrew Goldman goes deep on sex, coke, sex-on-coke, artistic purity and what he learned from that Natalie Portman kerfuffle. Plus! That time he put his penis on Donald Trump.

You may or may not recognize his name, but you definitely know the pictures of, as he likes to call himself, “Paparazzo Extraordinaire” Ron Galella. There was that famous shot of “Fat Liz” [Taylor] at Studio 54, David Bowie and John Lennon at a Grammy afterparty, and Robert Redford rocking mirrored shades. He’s however best known for his decades long pursuit of Jackie O, which resulted in his most famous photo, shot in 1971, “Windblown Jackie.” In this sometimes funny, but often dark encounter with the iconic lensman, we get to hear Galella’s side of the story. Did Jackie O, as Galella professes, actually enjoy the attention? Andrew tracks down a longtime member Jackie O’s Secret Service detail to factcheck Galella’s claims. Catch Andrew talking about this and others episodes on Feb 11, 2021’s episode of the always hilarious pop culture current events podcast, Nope.

Remember 2014’s McConaissance? Thanks to a newly-unearthed and beautifully brutal Trump interview and her cameo in The Undoing, 2020 marks the beginning of Connie Chung’s Conniessance. The 74 year-old news legend brings a Gatorade cooler full of tea to spill on and about, among others, grumpy, frumpy scene partner Hugh Grant, former TV pal David Letterman, onetime CBS Evening News co-anchor Dan Rather as well as Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer, who treated her to a Jeff Gillooly/Nancy Kerrigan style welcome when she joined ABC News. Plus: Covid-era homicidal feelings about hubby Maury Povich. Oh, and here’s where you can watch Andrew Goldman’s unhinged 2015 doc about getting fired from The New York Times, The Desk.     https://player.vimeo.com/video/123948379

Goddamned national treasure Michael J. Fox brings his special brand of optimism to the show. Topics: his new book, No Time Like the Future, why Coors light, and not Parkinson’s threatened his marriage, how sick to death of he is of hearing the words, ‘be careful.’ Plus! Why, even though Rush Limbaugh was a huge a-hole to him, he won’t be dancing on his grave. Fox hates most of the trappings of being an inspiration—the standing ovations, the gauzy tributes set to piano. Too bad Mike! Andrew’s moved enough to confess some dark stuff—and make Fox the first guest to earn “a very special episode” of the pod.

Steve Madden, the creative honcho of the eponymous shoe giant, details his tireless quest to vanquish all of his rivals and lay claim to every female foot on planet earth. Andrew digs heels in his heels to explore Madden’s incredible rise and fall and rise again tale, from his Long Island childhood as mom’s least favorite, to his lude-icrous drug years, to his adventures alongside “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort. Plus! Professor Madden and The Cobbler author on how to survive solitary confinement in federal prison.

Woody? Nope. Larry David? Not even close. In this episode, Barry Sonnenfeld makes his compelling case for owning the title of show business’s most neurotic man. Before directing Men In Blackand The Addams Family movies, Sonnenfeld was one of Hollywood’s most in demand cinematographers, shooting Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Misery, and Big. The Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother author has worked with virtually everyone and lives up to his reputation as the funniest, most brutally honest raconteur Hollywood ever produced. Just a few of his targets: James Caan, Robin Williams, Kevin Kline, Brian Grazer, Tim Allen, Penny Marshall, Jon Peters and Scott Rudin. Plus, the very good reasons he wanted his mom dead. Host Andrew Goldman’s declares it his favorite episode yet.

Emmy-winning actor, producer, director Danny DeVito gets behind The Originals bar and serves up drink recipes, quarantine-friendly lymph system workouts, and tips for not murdering co-star Jim Carrey. From his early days as "Mr. Dan," Jersey’s own perm king, to his 9/11 foretelling first film role, to braving Andy Kaufman, all the way up to his current turn as a gorilla’s favorite canine in Disney+’s The One And Only Ivan, DeVito provides a personal, hilarious guided tour for one of the longest success streaks in show business history. Plus, a rundown of all the repugnant things he refused to do on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Think you know Joan Collins? If your knowledge begins and ends with her triumphant run as Alexis Carrington on Dynasty in the Eighties, darling, you would be so very wrong. Dame Joan happens to have had a SEVEN decade career on film and TV and the kind of personal life that seems ripped from the novels of her late sister, Jackie. She married her rapist, got engaged to Warren Beatty, fought off a throng of horndog studio executives, was picketed by her Swedish pop star husband, and finally settled down with a very nice fella 32 years her junior. WARNING: this episode features a very uncomfortable host suffering from a severe case of the flop sweats.

Bruce Vilanch, the writer who has delivered more lines to stars than a Hollywood coke dealer, brings Andrew along on whirlwind tour of his 45 plus years as a writer for hire and West Coast gay icon. From his days writing for famously weird variety shows like The Brady Bunch Variety Hour to his stint as longtime Oscar writer, Vilanch tells all—hear tales of the meanest anti-semite drunk in Hollywood history, all the big celebrity d**ks he’s seen as well as one or two of the biggest celebrity d**ks he’s worked for.

Fran Drescher, iconic star and co-creator of The Nanny lays it all out for Andrew. The cancer. The gay ex-husband. The other ex-husband who may or may not have invented e-mail. The shocking rape. In this episode, her honking-ness, The Queen of Queens, shares her candid thoughts about the fall of Les Moonves, a surprising critique of her current NBC show Indebted--and explains what she sees wrong with American "sick care."