Now I've Heard Everything

She's been a top New York City real estate broker for many years, but you may know Barbara Corcoran best for her role that's one of the investors pitched by entrepreneurs each week on the TV series Shark Tank.

What you may not know is that Barbara Corcoran is one of 10 children, and that her very strong mother inspired her to become a business success.

I met Barbara Corcoran in 2003, when she wrote a book about the wisdom her mother had passed along to her.

if you were in high school or college in the 1970's, as I was, you undoubtedly are familiar with the comedy of Cheech and Chong. 

Cheech Marin went on to act in dozens and dozens of TV shows and movies, as well as doing voices for several animated films. 

But what you may not know is that Marilyn is also an astute art collector.

That's how I met him, in 2002, when he published a book of his collection of Chicano art. 

If you were in network TV news 50 or 60 years ago, the place to be was the CBS News Washington DC bureau.

CBS was long considered the gold standard of television news - after all, Edward R, Murrow helped shape and define it.

Among the roster of journalism heavyweights in the bureau was Roger Mudd. He had a front-row seat to that historic 20-year period from 1960 to 1980, which he wrote about in a 2008 memoir. That's when I met him. 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

As I was mulling over all of the Irish or Irish-Amerian people I've interviewed through the years, one name kept coming to the forefront: Frank McCourt.

McCourt burst onto the literary scene in 1996, wth his memoir of his early childhood, a powerful book called Angela's Ashes. It also became an award-winning movie.

He followed that up with volume two of his memoirs, a book called 'Tts/. Then, in 2005, the third volume, a book called Teacher Man. And that's when I met him.

ia Farrow may have been born to be a star.

Her parents were both major Hollywood figures, and she grew up amongst big stars. By the time she was a teenager Mia Farrow was a star on the ABC TV primetime soap opera Peyton Place.

Then came movie roles, as well as a brief marriage to Frank Sinatra. In 1968, Farrow starred in "Rosemary's Baby," the movie which propelled her to major stardom. And another brief marriage, to Andre Previn.

Then, in 1980, she began a relationship with Woody Allen. It ended in 1992 with a very messy, complicated, and very public court battle over custody of their children. Allegations of sexual abuse were thrown about.

In January 1966 a new TV series premiered, unlike any we had seen before.  Even though it only ran on the ABC network for three seasons, it changed television history. And it made the show's star a folk hero. That show, of course, was Batman.

Adam West played millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, whoalong with his sidekick Dick Grayson, aka Robin, fought evil criminals in Gotham City.

Every week, the Dynamic Duo faced off with another super villain -- Riddler, Joker, Penguin, Catwoman.

But the show also typecast Adam West, and it took him many years to extricate himself.

I met him in 1994, when he wrote A Memoir of his Batman years.

Larry Flynt is best known for Hustler magazine, which he founded in the mid-1970s, and for the videos and cable TV channels the grew out of the Hustler brand.

But it turns out Larry Flynt was also an amateur student of history.

Ten years ago, fFlynt and a professional historian co-authored a book called "One Nation Under Ssex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies, and Their Lovers Change the Course of American History. 

She was Donald Trump's first wife, from 1977 to 1992. Ivana Trump is the mother of Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric Trump.

Ivana Trump has also been a professional athlete, a designer,and a novelist. And that's how I met her in 1993, the year after she and The Donald divorced.  She had just published the second in what was to be a series of novels, about a beautiful Czech immigrant named Katrinka.

While we do not even mention the name Donald Trump in this interview, if you know their backstory, you can kind of read between the lines.

Economist and Texas Republican politician Dick Armey was first elected to Congress in 1984. By 1995, he has risen to the post of Majority Leader, as the Republican Revolution swept Washington. 

He remained in that post until his election defeat in 2002.

The following year, Armey wrote a little book of wit and wisdom called Armey's Axioms.

Long before she was a successful solo act, Cher was half of Sonny and Cher.

Perhaps no married couple in music was popular in the mid-'60s as Sonny and Cher.  Sonny Bono wrote hit songs like I've Got You, Babe and The Beat Goes On,  

Eventually, they even had their own television variety show.

Sonny and Cher went their separate ways in the early '70s. Sonny became interested in politics, and bwas elected mayor of Palm Springs, California in 1988. And he was elected to Congress in 1992.