Joining me now is Brooke Shields. This past year she appeared in the Broadway production
of Grease. She has an upcoming film entitled Freeway with Kiefer Sutherland. This Sunday
she'll be guest starring in a special hour long episode of Friends immediately following
the Super Bowl and Brooke is in our Los Angeles studio. Hi Brooke.
Hi. Did you hear any of that about Howard Stern?
Yeah I did actually and that's reminiscent of when I was a child and I was sort of faced
with antagonistic interviewers and you know you always, you never wanted to believe that
they were talking ill about you or that they were trying to insult you and yet I remember
being uncomfortable many times.
When you were like what age?
I mean my first movie when I was nine so but I think the fury from Pretty Baby when I was
about 12 that's when all the press was being done and that's when.
Where you played a prostitute and you had some difficult interviews after that?
Well the frenzy of, I'm hearing myself sorry, the idea that it was a child playing a prostitute
even though it was a Louis Moll film and it was very artistically done there was this
obsession with my sexuality. I mean something that I didn't even have that intact at age
12 and yet my knowledge of prostitution was 42nd Street and here I was presenting and
living in a world that was very beautiful Sven Nyquist filmed it, Louis Moll is an artist
and so I was trying to justify and present my beliefs in the story and the idea of my
exploitation was being broadcast.
Because they were talking about your exploitation when in fact you were a character in a movie
about a child prostitute.
Exactly the thing that I think was difficult for me to understand was that when I was younger
everybody was always trying to make me look older and the provocative pictures that were
taken that I had fun doing merely because I was playing a part and dressing up and feeling
pretty and that's important for a little kid. I still went to school and I still had to
take care of the kitty litter and I still had all what would be considered a rather
conventional life but I had this sort of sideline and people obsessed over it.
But when you were getting ready to do Pretty Baby of course you probably had no idea what
a prostitute even was.
Well no my knowledge really was 42nd Street. I grew up in Manhattan and I saw the poverty
and I saw the fear and I saw the degradation of females on that level and this story was
set in the early 1900s where all the girls had a family. They lived in a wonderful home.
They were fed. They were clothed. So to me it was more of a glorification of the profession
rather than what I thought prostitution really was.
You think prostitution should be legal? I know that. I think Heidi Fleish is that. They
asked me if you want to have Heidi Fleish as a guest. I said boy you know what do you
think Brooke? I mean it's such a tough question. What do you think?
I think if it's legalized I think that it will just, it's already rampant but I think
it's, it would be way too available and demoralizing to women. I think that the more prohibited
it is although they say that things that are prohibited are more interesting to people
I think that it shouldn't be legalized. I think because then you're dealing with you
know at what age is it legal and so I'm sure it will be legal for a certain age or is it
just 18 or just 21?
And there's something about making something legal that a young woman might think well
this is okay. Why would they make it legal if it wasn't okay?
And I'll be alright and somehow there's a support system that's intrinsic to something
being legal and I think that that's just women don't need that.
So now you've done so many things and here you are on this, on Friends which follows
the Super Bowl. What's that like?
Being on Friends was an honor and it was a great deal of fun. I had just come off Broadway
and doing a mini series and so to be able to do live television like that I had never
done live situation comedy before.
You mean in front of an audience right?
Exactly, a live audience as opposed to a dead one.
And most of the audiences on the laugh tracks unfortunately are deceased people. Those laugh
tracks were made many years ago so you're hearing a lot of deceased people laughing.
So I guess they do need to make the distinction for live audience.
This is actually a live audience for Friends.
Exactly, living and breathing. And they didn't use a laugh track. We had real honest live
laughter. It's the perfect combination of stage and film because it's rehearsed from
the day. The creative process involved in situation comedy was something I'd never experienced
before. I had been on Broadway, been in plays and obviously done films but this was the
perfect combination of the two. And the creative process that you're involved in is fascinating.
From day one to the day you film it in front of the audience so much changes and I thought
that kind of creativity was, I appreciated it.
Where did you do Blue Lagoon in the movie? That's what it was called right? Blue Lagoon?
Where did you do that?
It was in Fiji.
Did you get sunburn?
I actually, strangely enough, lost all the pigment in my skin. I had too much sun so
I got like speckled spots and every morning at five o'clock in the morning I had to be
sort of dipped in this fake tan because my skin was rejecting the sun.
You know it's weird what my head goes to. I had Lonnie Anderson on the show and she writes
in her book about dancing nude with Burt Reynolds on their first date and my mind immediately
goes to mosquitoes.
Itching, hot.
How cold is it? I don't know what that says about me.
You're a realist I think.
I just have this pragmatic, I'm more interested in temperature in mosquitoes because you can
dance nude indoors as well.
You can but you don't get sand in your bathing suit or in other places.
We're coming up to a break. There's a lot of stuff I want to ask you about. I don't
want to get into the relationship between you and your mother at this moment because
we just have 30 seconds and that's a lifetime story. I know that your mother is no longer
your manager right now. Is that right?
That's correct. She's still my mother and not my manager.
She's your mother.
She's my mother.
She's not your mother slash manager.
Which may be, you know, but we're going to go to a break. We're going to come back.
I want to talk to you about your relationship with your mother who was so instrumental.
I think when I first met you, you might have been about a teenager and of course your mother
was with you as well. She should be because you know my mother is most of the time with
me as well and I'm out of my teens. We'll be right back with Brooke Shields and Robert
Klein coming up.
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Clearly Brooke, when you became a model at 11 months, it wasn't your idea. So your mother
was your manager for how much? Until what, how long was she your manager?
Honestly, until about a year ago.
A year ago.
She, you know my mom has been right there by my side through all of it and I had time
to really think about what I wanted to change about a year, about two years ago actually
and I just decided I needed to be making, if there were mistakes to be made, I needed
to be making them. I had foot surgery so I was sort of laid out for a while and I really
was taking everything into account. You know and after college, I spent four glorious years
at university and had time to cultivate things that I wanted to in my mind and enjoy myself
academically. And then I kind of came back out and didn't really know what I wanted to
do and I just knew that I needed to be more in control of my days and my destiny for lack
of a better way of putting it. And I just approached her with it and I said, you know
this is what I need to do right now for my own confidence because my level of confidence
was slipping because I was relying so much on my significant parent.
But when your mother no longer became your manager, of course somebody else did right?
I did. I had not wanted to. Yes, well I went back with an agency. I was afraid to really
be completely on my own. Well you shouldn't be. No you shouldn't be. No, so I did. I got
another manager and I went back with William Juarez, my agency and I just sort of got into
the game of all of it more and it was frightening because I'm used to having someone as a buffer
and so now the insecurities that I feel and what I see on a daily basis, I'm realizing
the extent that she went to to protect me from it and blindfold me from it really, which
is what's healthy when you're younger. I think it's dangerous continued. And the relationship,
I'm sure that was difficult but right now it's your mother. It is hard because you know
what do you talk to about with your mother when you're used to talking about business
all the time and so we're trying to find what works as mother daughter and what doesn't
and that's just, we're reintroducing ourselves to each other and it's not easy. I admire
you. I mean it's a very difficult thing to do. It's very difficult to say anything to
anyone about anything let alone, mom I don't want you to be my manager anymore. I mean
it is. And it's also, it's hard to trust yourself when you've always had somebody to run something
by and all the person would have to do is say yes it's okay, you're okay. And now I
have to be the one to say I'm okay and that's not, it's not very easy. How long have you
been with Andre Agassi? We've been together two years. And does he, obviously a great
tennis player, does he, he's not a performer in any way. I mean he doesn't, he's not active
in show business in any way other than being a tennis player right? He's the antithesis
of that. He loathes it. He doesn't, he has a hard time just watching things that I do.
Really? I think there's a different arena that he performs in. I mean to a certain extent
he is a performer. Now he travels a lot right? Yes. And you go with him sometimes but not
always. Sometimes but not always. It's important for me to support him but it's also important
for me to maintain my own identity and it's the, it's the sort of an easy equation for
people to want to glom on to the fact that I'm a groupie or that I'm traveling with
him everywhere. And it's, it's been hard to maintain our separation on that level but
the more work that I do the more differentiated we're, we're becoming. But it's very important
for me to be in the stands and watch him and support him as it is for, I ask of him the
same thing. It's important for me to know that he's in support of me and he's watching
me. Let's take a phone call. Fran from New York, do you have a question for Brooke Shields?
Yes. How did you meet Andre? We, a mutual friend of ours had been trying to get, introduce
us for about a year and then we met through writing to each other. We wrote to each other
for about three months. I was away on location and we sort of corresponded by facts and it
was a facts romance, very 90s. How old were you when you first did the Calvin Klein ads?
Oh gosh, I was about 15. And you know the recent uproar about the recent Calvin Klein
ads. Well, I mean, I was, I was a minor when I was doing the Calvin Klein ads. I think
what was provocative about it was slightly, slightly different. There's more of an androgyny,
sexual, sort of blatant sexual tone now. But, you know, I think if the, we had, there was
an uproar over ours too when I was younger. Was that, was nothing comes between me and
my Calvins? Was that your line? Is that what you were saying? It was, you want to know
what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing. And it was this, you know, I mean at that
time I was, you know, I didn't ever, I didn't think of the extent that they took it to sexually.
I had, at 15. Did you see those recent ads that were out, out that there was a lot of
protest about? I actually haven't seen them. I've seen them, the bus, the print ads. I
don't know if it does, were they what the controversy was about? Yeah, the bus. And
I think the first question was how old are these, these kids? Are they under 21? Well,
of course I don't remember. I mean, I know you were, you were, as you said, we're 15.
So you can't really compare your ads with, with these ads because you're not as familiar
with the present ad, the later ads, right? Right. I'm not. What I do know about them
is just from what I've seen on the, on the buses in New York. But I think it's just a
controversy. People are looking for more controversy to, to focus on. I don't, I mean, if you want
to talk purely about age, then that's going to open up an entire other issue. I mean,
I've always been a minor, you know, when I was mostly doing the print that I did.
I think you're talking about the sexual exploitation. Really what I was talking about, about Howard
Stern, about looking at a nine year old child on television who's thrilled that her dad's
football team is winning and speculating about her sexually. I think, and looking at these
children are supposed to be selling clothes and or however old they are, they look like
teenagers and, and they're erotic ads. I think that's what the complaint is about.
Well, I think the complaint too is also about how verbal it, how, how easy it is to be so
verbal about all of it. I mean, it's almost as if they're rip. I mean, to comment on a
nine year old that you see is wrong because you, you're ripping her, that innocence away
from her and she hasn't asked for that at all. I mean, I think that that's, that's a
completely different issue. I mean, it's, it's a shame that
This child wasn't a model. She wasn't a Calvin Klein. She was just on television with her
family. I mean, and it was beautiful to see it.
And that's the problem. I think it's become so accepted to be able to destroy that innocence,
to sort of just attack it with no reason whatsoever. And the problem is I think with, with advertising,
anything goes and now it's just become, can you top this and what can we do for more shock
value? Well, that's why I, you know, I think, you
know, we say, we, you know, we don't want to have censorship. I think we do want to
have censorship. We have censorship. We, we don't just do anything. And I think we, people
say you can't legislate morality, but we, we do legislate morality. We do say what you
can do and what you can't do and what's legal and what's not legal. And I, for one, there
are four, it's necessary in a civilized society to have a certain amount of censorship. Otherwise
people just run rampant for money and there will always be people out there that will
respond to it. And there's always something that people
want to try to top. I think we do need sensors, censorship on that level because what you're,
we can't ask for that freedom and then complain about how we feel about it. You know, we can,
we can't say that we want that type of, of, um, well, they have, I'm sorry, Brooke, we
come to the end of it, but we've got, he's got the freedom to say it. We've got the freedom
to say it's a lot of junk and it should be censored, but thanks, Brooke. Sorry to be
abrupt, but we've got these computer breaks. Pleasure to see you.
Thank you. Good luck.
I'm a fan of yours. Thanks, Brooke.
I've always been. We'll be, we'll be right back with Robert
Klein and later Terry Gar. This program is brought to you from Mo'Needs
anywhere in the U S and the world. Robert Klein has had a successful career in television,
film and Broadway. He just completed his sixth HBO comedy special and can currently be seen
on NBC in the series sisters. Are you a football fan?
Sure. Were you watching the stealer game, uh, last
week when the, uh, the daughters, the wife and daughters of the bill cowards, they were
taking shots of them in the booth. And I was talking about this earlier in the show, which,
which I know you didn't, uh, get a chance to see, uh, evidently, uh, like we got a call,
uh, from the, uh, Pittsburgh post, post-cassette yesterday calling me cause I'm originally from
Pittsburgh. Evidently Howard Stern went on the air and, and talked about his, uh, you
know, I don't know what the exact words were, but there's a nine year old child in the,
up there among the coward family, a little daughter, and he was speculating how, um,
either now or in years to come, she would be quite a, and use the most vulgar language
you, you, you could use upsetting a lot of people in Pittsburgh. Here was a moment of
real triumph for the Steelers and this family and the coaches family and they're on television
and this, uh, you know, piece of, uh, you know, vermin gets on the air and, and, and
kind of spoils it and bespoils it and not knowing anything, you may be a regular, you
may regularly appear on Howard Stern, but I just wanted to get your take on what do
you think about something like that?
It sounds like an excess when it involves a child. I mean, I'm a big fan of Howard Stern
the person. I think he's a very nice man. I've done his radio show a few times. Um,
uh, I had never seen him and then every cab driver of any age, you see what Howard Stern
said today. I mean, you know, that became, um, it's one of those excesses like, you know,
cerebral palsy jokes that he's, um, it's his act and it's mean-spirited at times, very
mean-spirited and I don't know to say that about a little girl like that is typical of,
um, his excess and his excess and his popularity are unfortunately becoming typical of, uh,
the current status of our society and its tastes.
You, you've managed a successful comedy career for, you know, really about 30 years now,
uh, without doing anything of that nature. That's not to say if you did it, you have
to die or anything, but I'm just, what I'm really getting at Bob is, is, you know, I
check my own reactions because I feel like a little bit here and a little bit there and
a little more from him than other people that it all adds up to kind of a more mean-spirited
degrading the level of the actual civilization and culture. Do you think I'm being too, you
think it's that important or not?
It is important. Whether the situation is that dire, I don't know. There's an irony
in that, um, Lenny Bruce was sacrificed on the block. If you go back and listen to it,
I delivered some preamble to a rough cut documentary of his during the New York Comedy Festival
last June. I had a brush up on my Lenny Bruce. He's better than I remember and, you know,
um, the things that he got busted for, using profanity in, in, uh, in a very intelligent
and a useful way. It's not profanity per se. Uh, E. L. Doctorow, who I think is maybe our
best writer I know, he, he, he would use profanity. It's how it's used. I remember having done
a show at Georgetown University, there were a number of friars decked out there, literally
with the brown fryer tuck get up the Franciscan robes. And, uh, and they loved the show. Now
I had used profanity four or five times, but I used it in an apt way. When it becomes entirely
profanity or entirely vulgarity without a purpose, it's sad. And, and furthermore, um,
one doesn't have to be a prude to observe convention. I mean, I, I, I don't feel comfortable
on deaf comedy jam. Uh, you know, HBO are my Patrons. I grew up with this company. Well,
they have something for everybody. They have Robert Klein and they have deaf comedy jam.
And some of these kids are talented, but here, you know, opening up with some incredibly
intimate bodily function line, which also has a better, you know, at the 12 year old
wit on people who should be better. That's sad. Also mean spiritedness. Uh, but I, I
complained about that as an early Saturday night live host example. Uh, and that was
when the show was really good and had very good people. But Chevy chase used to do a
very funny bit where they catch him being the overseas correspondent going and then
the thing in the camera, you know, comes in on him. So for the joke, it is not important
what the news event is. He's reading. That's just, uh, fall to roll. You just keep on going
to 15 seconds. Okay. He chose a, an earthquake in Sicily, which had just killed 12,000 people
as the report and the stand and didn't care anything about it. That's the kind of insensitivity,
right? That's what I'm, that's what I'm objecting to. We'll go to a break. Be right back with
Robert Klein. This
your son Alexander is now, uh, how old 12, he was just 12 and then there are reports
that he's now fooling around in school as you did as your father did before you. Yes,
the three generations declines of, uh, of males whose, whose parents had to go to the
principal for fooling around. Um, I made good on my folding around. It was a great stomp,
a great training ground. My father actually was a great natural comedian. He sold peace
goods. He was a textile salesman, but he was hilarious. And, um, uh, one time he did the
today show with me. Oh, well, he was off camera, but then Jean shallot did a pit, a bit about
celebrities parents. So, uh, he said, well, I wanted him to be a doctor. I figured by
the time he becomes one, I'll be old enough to need one. I mean, he had, you know, at
least then he came an actor. Now when I get sick, he gives me two tickets to a show. He
was great. He was a great, great, uh, storyteller. My son is talented. Um, you know, I'm doing
a thousand clowns on Broadway this spring at the roundabout and they've actually made
inquiries about Ali because they need a smart kid. Now, if you recall the original kid in
that with Jason Robles, Barry Gordon, and he's now the head of screen actors guild.
I mean, he's, he ain't cute anymore. He's a, he's a nice man, a good act. They asked
about his kid. They were hoping for genetics. They're asking about anybody's kid. You know,
a 12 year old is all right. I mean, you could, I have very mixed feelings about child actors,
especially young ones. Um, I just did a guest shot, a Brett Butler show, uh, uh, uh, and
there's a three year old on that or something. It's just, you know, you know, they have liver
worst off camera. It's just, I remember, you know, on a family ties, I did a guest shot
and Michael Fox told me this kid used to be dynamite. He wrecked, he'd know his lines
in a second when he was four, you know, they have nothing else in their minds. My old manager,
Jack Rollins daughter, when she was little, she could beat you in concentration. Hey,
she has nothing, nothing in her mind. No divorce, no insurance, no, what part am I going to
get next? She can remember, but now he doesn't want to be there. They go, come on on stage.
And the kid is with his kindergarten tutor. And, and, and, you know, and that slavery
that's you look up the 13th amendment. That's so, um, I have mixed feelings about that.
Uh, Harry Shearer, when he was a little boy in Hollywood, uh, he, uh, he was on Jack Benny
show occasionally as one of the Beverly Hills, uh, kids and, um, if Harry Shearer could have
been cute when he was again, but he said his parents had a, uh, a rule, no series, but
once in a while it was fun. It was hilarious. He's wonderful. And I would encourage him,
uh, when the time comes, he has to get his education. He's a decent student. Um, uh,
he's a smart boy, but, uh, I, it's a wonderful business. You know, I, I always, I think show
business is much maligned. Uh, you wouldn't want to eat with an actor or give them a credit
card. You know, they kind of discredited, uh, best summed up in, in, uh, WC fields,
wonderful film called old fashioned way touring with a repertory company that does the drunkard,
the American morality play actor, uh, show business is more ethical than most. It seems
to me it's more a meritocracy. Um, you know, who you sleep with and all that is pretty
overrated stuff. I never ran it. I never saw that. I never saw, I had to sleep with a few
women. There's a few women. Yeah. Uh, that's way over. You actually, the proof is in the
pudding. If the public likes you, you know, suddenly a Roseanne becomes a powerhouse or
young Brett Butler, who I knew when it's a very smart, big deal. And then she credits
you a lot with getting her going to, I gave a good advice. She was a, uh, an intelligent
woman. She had had a tough time with a bad marriage and struggled with drinking and so
forth. And, uh, I said, get out of Atlanta first. And if you want to be in show business,
that's not where it is. It's got to New York to start as a comedian. And also she was doing
wonderful, um, tasteful stuff. Women stuff in front of, you know, men, lunch and all
like that. Um, she had a nice intelligent approach. And of course, Mars, uh, the car
see a Werner took it and made it into a show, which is, um, uh, very intelligent move because
it's a big hit. So everything looks great on it. And, uh, but, um, I have no idea with
they guess with their eyes closed, what works because so many wonderful things have been
canceled and so many things that are unwatchable. You know, I have very interesting television.
My television went on and I was nine years old, 1951, and it's probably been on ever
since in a strange way. It's a pal in a hotel suite or whatever, but I don't know the prime
time I can watch. I do want you're in prime time and doing sisters, which I think is going
to get away. We'll come back to Robert. I'm going to make sure we get this cause we said
we're going to, uh, let's see. I look back at a visit with a Terry garden and we'll come
back and chat with Robert Klein. Did we date? That's a very good question, Chuck, because
we, we did spend time alone. Is that, that's true, right? We spent time alone in a restaurants
and we spent time alone in your apartment and in your apartment at the woodside, uh,
whatever it was called manner. It wasn't, it was an apartment that you like a hotel
apartment on the west side in New York. Yes, darling. I remember we went up there. This
is what I remember. We watched the, uh, Carter elections, the night Carter was elected and
you were, you were like saying, I'm in love with this guy. I am in love with this guy.
I remember that so very well. And I still am. Well, when you were up there, why, when,
when, when we were up there, uh, and that was just a two room spot on the upper west
side and you were up there. Cause hardly anybody ever was up there. That really sounds like
a date. I know. I mean, I think, I think, I think if you want to define for the audience,
what is a day? Cause we definitely were alone together at different places. Would you, would
a date if you do, I mean, I don't think we ever kissed or did we, did we kiss? Chuck,
I don't kiss until not even to the guy you kissed. I honestly don't remember if we did
kiss and I was just, you know, when you're at the talk show, these questions come up.
Do you realize what an insult that is to her? You know, I hadn't thought of that. That's
why that's probably the Chuck. That's probably got that Chuck. Tomorrow night's guests will
be Alec Baldwin and sportscaster Pat O'Brien and look back at a visit with Dabney Coleman.
Well, it's on tape. I love Pat O'Brien and those James Cagney films. Oh, he was great.
You know, he just stood up for himself and congratulations to Alec Baldwin as a new baby.
New baby. And I, and I want to thank this gentleman here. This is Robert Klein and uh,
Brooke Shields and uh, I want to thank uh, Terry Gar for letting us look back at her.
Uh, and uh, I don't know if we kissed or not, but let's assume we didn't cause I'm sure.
Well, I don't know if we kissed anyway. Good night everybody. Thanks for watching. Good
night, mom. I love you. Good night everybody.