Now I've Heard Everything

We continue Oscar Week on Now I’ve Heard Everything, on a very sad note.

The legendary Kirk Douglas died yesterday, February 5, at age 103.

I actually had the privilege of interviewing him twice, the first time in 1992 when he wrote a novel about an aging buillfighter and his rebellious son “Miguel.”

Michael?

Listen as Kirk Douglas admits the truth about his work of fiction.

Continuing Oscar Week here on Now I’ve Heard Everything, a 1990 interview with a legendary Hollywood producer.

John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA

David Brown was a fixture in Hollywood starting in the early 1950s.

He made his mark starting in the 1970s, producing films like Jaws, The Eiger Sanction, The Sting, Driving Miss Daisy, and dozens of others.

In 1990, Brown won the Irving R. Thalberg Memortial Award for a lifetime of achievement in filmmaking.

He died in 2010 at age 93.

We kick off Oscar Week here on Now I’ve Heard E verything with an interview from 2013.

Long before the world knew her as “Shirley Partridge,” Shirley Jones was an accomplished singer and actress.

In 1960 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a prostitute in the film “Elmer Gantry.”

Much of her 2013 memoir was about her private life, including details of her love life with her two great loves, actor Jack Cassidy and actor-comedian Marty Ingels.

Shirley Jones will be 86 years old in March.

Marty Ingels died in 2015. Jones’s stepson David Cassidy died in 2017.

If you’re of a certain age, Art Linkletter was probably a big part of your life.

He hosted a daytime TV program, “House Party,” for 26 years, and “People Are Funny” for 19. A popular feature of House Party was “Kids Sayu the Darndest Things.”

After his retirement from broadcasting, Art Linkletter became a vocal advocate for older Americans.

I met and interviewed him in 1988, when he was promoting his book “ld Age is Not For Sissies.”

For many years Jim Lehrer was the co-anchor of the PBS MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. He was very popular, won many awards.

But he was also a very accomplished novelist, who wrote a series of bestselling books in the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s.

Over the years I interviewed Jim almost a dozen times. I always found him to be a sweet and gentle man, always a kind word for everybody, great stories to tell — especially in 1992, when I interviewed him for a memoir called “A Bus Of My Own.”

In that book, he recalls a chilling story that took place in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

The former president and CEO of Maker’s Mark bourbon whisky told, in this 2001 interview, how his family started the distillery and how he took it to international prominence.

Along the way: a ceremonial recipe-burning that almost turned into a disaster, a long and frustrating search for the right recipe, and one of the biggest marketing challenges any company has ever faced.

The old wisdom says, clothes make the man. Or the woman. But choosing the right clothes is as challenging as ever, as we try to navigate every situation from first dates and job interviews to “casual Fridays.”

(l-r) Kate Moloney, Bill’s daughter Krissie, Tim Gunn

In 2007 Tim Gunn, Bravo television style guru and mentor to contestants on “Project Runway,” partnered with Kate Moloney, Assistant Chair of fashion design at Parsons, The New School for Design.

Their book was called “A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style.”

Alan Dershowitz with Bill Thomp,son in 2004.

Famed defense attorney and retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz was, perhaps most famously, a member of the O.J. Simpson “Dream Team.”

But he has also represented the likes of Mike Tyson, Michael Milken, and now, President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial.

In 1994, Dershowitz wrote a novel, a work of fiction, to tell what it’s really like to defend a client — especially one who may actually be guilty.

This is a 1992 interview I did with the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Coretta Scott King © copyright 2010 Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA

The occasion was publication of a new book, a collection of her late husband’s speeches and writings.

You’ll notice how little of me there is in this interview. I had no interest in interrupting Mrs. King just to inject one of my “brilliant” questions.

It’s also a phone interview, which I rarely did (almost alll of my interviews were in-person).

She was the star of the Alfred Hitchcock classic “The Birds,:” as well as his suspense masterpiece “Marnie.”

Tippi Hedren has also long been an advocate for wildlife, and is owner of a large private refuge in California called the Shambala Preserve. It is filled with lions, tigers, elephants, and assorted other wildlife.

Her 1985 book was “The Cats of Shambala.” That was when I met and interviewed her.