Speaker Something to the effect of the solitary man with no family, no kids, his friends or anything. Much why he stayed. I the map that he said that that applies very much to you.

Speaker Yeah, I think I think he is one of those types of guys who lives in a cell, you know, but a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year. So he’s not somebody that periodically puts together, you know, an interesting roundtable discussion. I think I think David wakes up in the morning and says, I want to talk to him. And he does he there on the phone. And they gathered around.

Speaker And just for the sake of, you know, high powered conversation, certainly, I mean, he he will have a mix around his table or, you know, around the lunch setting that will range anywhere from from royalty, both that are recognizable from countries you’ve never heard up to.

Speaker Media mavens, some that you know, I think are great and others that you’d like to, you know, put toxins into their into their lobster salad.

Speaker And there’s that. And there is an open forum of ideas that is just communicated. And it’s always, always fascinating.

Speaker It’s a lot of times where you’re sitting around that table and all you do is listen. You don’t take notes, but you do listen. I have no idea. David and I met, I guess, at one of those kind of social events.

Speaker One of the famous. Kind of like Hollywood parties that Penny Marshall and Carrie Fisher used to throw for their birthday. And we should go every year and year there with the absolute glitterati as well as their dermatologist, an orthodontist, you know, old friends and family. And David was there. And I think we were probably talking because we both, you know, had the horses and the running more or less at the same. And we just started talking about movies and films. Look, I the guy’s a legend to me. I don’t know what to say to the guy, except, you know, he’d come up and say, I have pictures, one, you know, and then you end up having a conversation of what it was.

Speaker And from there it just became I just became a guy. What is that say as the legend? What was the legend that you were thinking?

Speaker Well, I know only David is sort of like initially, as is he a robber baron. You know, I just heard these legendary stories about representing people and working his way up from Sammy Glick. Kind of I was once a page at CBS Television City kind of thing. But getting to know him and getting to talk to him and then finding out more about him saying goodbye. Look, he’s he’s as accomplished and he’s as visionary as any of the great media moguls of all time. You can go back to General David Sarnoff, and he was a version of David Geffen.

Speaker You go to any one of the, you know, the Warner Brothers or the founders of MGM. They were versions of who? David Geffen, as you can go back and Murray the K. And Brian Epstein. They were versions of what? Of what David is.

Speaker David is a David is just a guy who who can’t help but think on it very long and long term and at high level. You know, a guy who thinks about the rights, you know, who’s got the rights. You know, that’s a that’s a that’s a type of business acumen that I don’t have. And it’s something that’s why sometimes just I’ll do a I will ask David. So how does this work? So, David, how do you know so much? This is I ask people I talked to be why some questions? And I was in it. I was at a dinner party at his house at one point. And, you know, nice mix of folks. And there was a sign new house was there and. And he said in the middle of that. How do you start? How do you start a new magazine? I thought I would never ask somebody of that level. How do they start something like that? They would want to know. So that’s a question. And so I know I said, well, you know, you think about what the interest was and that and this was back with magazines. We’re not folding up as much as we’re not. Not that long ago, mind you. But still. And that’s that’s David.

Speaker His his energy equals his curiosity, so to speak. And that makes him a guy just like one of the great Hard-Hitting, former glub salesmen who ended up inventing an art form called Hollywood.

Speaker Beautiful. Thank you.

Speaker My God. That’s all I know about David. That’s all I know about except the fact that, yes, he is gay.

Speaker Didn’t take me any time to get over that. You might have a problem with some of your PBS subscribers.

Speaker But you love music. Music is a big part of your life, a big part of your company. David? Of course, as you know. Made music in the 70s.

Speaker I mean, it man has a he’s got a lot of things to just say Gaffin on them.

Speaker You know, hospitals, theaters, all sorts of buildings. He had a record label. You know, that that’s that’s that’s that’s you know, that’s kind of impressive.

Speaker That is both the business and the altruism that he didn’t he didn’t differentiate between the two. But, yeah, that his record music acumen is phenomenal. You can’t you can’t sit behind him or with him at a concert. Did not have him just regale you with when he signed that artists down there and what they were doing and how he was in the. He was in the hotel room when they wrote the song. But you’re listening to right now, that is a legendary thing. That is part of the soundtrack of our lives. What was there? I was there. I was there. You know, that’s what he says.

Speaker You guys bond over music. I mean, when you’re on the boat.

Speaker He is. Yes and no. Yeah.

Speaker I mean, to a degree, sound not like music is always playing or anything like that. He’s not one of these guys. When you greet him, you know, he’s in a caftan with, you know, Bette Midler records playing in the background. And, you know, he’s, you know, telling you to try, but he’s not like that. You wait. You if you’re if you’re on it, you’re traveling with him, you know, in his fleet.

Speaker He’s up at six forty five in the morning and he’s read something already and he has an opinion about what he’s read already. And he’s telling you about can you believe what happened. And Dave and I just woke up. Let me have a cup of coffee and at least get to page three of the business section and we’ll get to it. But that’s that’s the type of salon that he that he that he runs. It’s one of ideas, not necessarily memories, memories or good stories that make for, you know, witty a conversation. But the the main stuff that drives him is what’s what’s happening right now, what’s happening right now? What’s what’s that mean? Tell me one story. We were taught. We were talking. It’s very funny. And you gotta you gotta appreciate this level of mogel them in order to get it in the midst of the great, you know, collapse it had gone on.

Speaker He was talking about somebody. I can’t remember who it was, but somebody who has like Buku good jillions of billions of dollars.

Speaker And he was talking about this thing that went sour and went bad. He had to sell and lost a lot of money on it. I said, well, okay. Lost a lot of money. Is that a relative term? How much better can I think he’s still doing pretty well. And David said, yeah, but nobody likes to lose a billion dollars.

Speaker That’s it. Well, I guess there’s actual wisdom in that and that.

Speaker Yeah, that is true. I guess nobody does like to lose that much money. They love to make it, but lose again. Yeah. That my dad might be a bad day, you know, and only the only guy like David can appreciate that.

Speaker I like to say that what he actually said to me yesterday.

Speaker Because I have to spend the last two days sea.

Speaker But somehow, you know, somebody tells about the NCAA, the purchase of to teaching. Every day, he said he said this is going to be about money.

Speaker American masters day to day. Pretty hard to make a film that you will not talk about money. Really?

Speaker We talk about his wardrobe. You know, the white t shirts and the sneakers.

Speaker It was very funny. I’m surprised that he actually lost money because isn’t he the one to.

Speaker Why? I don’t think he was told about him. He was hurt by somebody else. He was our you know, I’ll tell you about it, because I will say, well, what did I mean? You know, when somebody says, oh, you know, the I the IPO went out and blah, blah, blah. I mean, they talk in terms it is almost like a foreign language.

Speaker And I ask them to explain it to me sometimes as a relative scheme of things. That guy’s not hurt. Too bad. Still, nobody likes to lose a billion dollars. OK. So, you know, I like I don’t like to lose my car keys, you know. He operates in a in a in a in a different realm. But that’s you know, again, that’s that’s the immediacy of David.

Speaker Did he call you and tell you to go to the market?

Speaker David’s David’s financial advice, which started sort of as a primer, and I’m not the financial guy in my family. Yeah, that that was it was a basic understanding. It was a very say, here’s what you do. Here’s what it is. And I’m not I don’t know if he actually told us to, you know, get out, but he might say, here’s a here’s a good thing to think about. Here’s a bad thing to think about.

Speaker What do you owe? What would you rather have happen to you? You know, he’s very honest about all this. I think that this is the most impresses me about David. David is it is the type of fellow that could have an awful lot of secrets. And I don’t think he has a single one left. He has told everything. I mean, it’s one thing to have a lot of secrets told about you.

Speaker I have not heard anything about David that is more scandalous or amazing or historic or depression and something that he himself has told me stories about when he first came to Los Angeles, stories about what he would do on the on the wildest of wild nights, at the height of, you know, the 1970s and 80s, cocaine fuelled, you know, 20 minute, you know, bang set, Donna Summer and the whole bit that goes on and on and on and on.

Speaker He would hint, hint.

Speaker He explained to a that even though just about Studio 54, which was still in existence when I lived in New York, and I only reason I even knew where it was because my unemployment office was across the street. So I saw him go in the studio. I’m going up to Studio 54 today, which means at two o’clock I could go up and sign for the state of Ohio and get two hundred sixteen dollars, you know, a week. But Studio 54 was right across the street.

Speaker And I said, how did how do those guys how do those guys keep their business? And he said, oh, they didn’t have a liquor license. I did not have a liquor license. Oh, they just renewed it every night, as it were, with a catering kind of catering permit for the city, as I said. Well, you know, that’s that’s kind of the work of genius’s.

Speaker As that’s what you do, what do you what do you want to have a party in your have a liquor license? There’s ways in order to circumvent anything. He has no. He’s got nothing but class and but absolutely no, no shame.

Speaker He says you’re as sick as your secrets. Yeah, but that didn’t that didn’t come.

Speaker I mean, he worked really hard. David. David. There’s Curb the before. He thought he was going to die from cancer after.

Speaker Well, it’s funny you say that because I was there. That’s because he lived. You know, David lived a lot of people, didn’t you? And, you know, and and when you live, you learn that there’s there’s one there might be a reason why you have and then you might learned about some of the things that can kill you for a long time.

Speaker Even said that he doesn’t go to New York, he says, because it’s it’s it’s not only is it unpleasant memories, but it just wasn’t healthy for him, you know? And that’s the lesson of a man who has lived not just longer than he should of literally instead of what he should have should should have happened to. So by that man, he’s he’s got he’s like an old sage. I don’t know if he’d want to climb a tall mountain in order to get to the top and find a hermit in a cave in order to ask what is the secret of life and have that run. It turned out to be David.

Speaker That might be a shock, but you’d get some wisdom. He would tell you. He would tell you what to do or what not to do.

Speaker It’s good advice for everybody. No advice.

Speaker But he’s also a he. It’s it’s practiced. I mean, he follows his own advice. I don’t think he tells anybody to do something that that he wouldn’t do. He’s given me like very, very practical advice on on the business because it’s business. The fact that I haven’t done because I don’t quite operate at that at that same level. But he says he just has a time. It’s business, his business. And so I appreciate it. And I know he’s taken that advice. Do you think he’s a soul searching? I think he found it. Know, I think I think David was searching for her.

Speaker So I think he came upon him. I think he stumbled along. I look at it. It’s probably ridiculously unfair for me to say. But I think David didn’t realize he he was missing his soul until he found it. I don’t think he looked in the mirror one day and said, I. I am an empty shell. I don’t think he said that. I think he would look everyday. He looked in the mirror. I’m having a blast. I’m on top of the game. I’m having a wonderful time. The enemies I hate. They’re having a bad day. The people I love. They’re having a good day. I love life. And then one day, I think he saw his soul walking across the street or he found it looking into the clouds. Or when they said, hey, that’s me up there. And he said, oh, I have to do something in order to get that. And I think.

Speaker I think he did it. And I think if the secret of happiness is telling the truth. He wrote those golden tablets because he he the soul that he found is is one that is based on this is who I am. This is what I’ve done. I have no shame. I have certainly regrets. But I don’t think either way I probably would. But it didn’t. What could you do? It’s there’s there’s a brand of like, almost relaxed wisdom there that I look. I hope to attain even a day, you know, down here amongst the Groundlings. Compared to what? Compared to Dave and and his and his crew.

Speaker I don’t know. I don’t know the guy. I mean, it’s much better to never side with him. I’ve never done business with David. You know, the most I can do is, you know, I you know, I almost saw cats once. That’s as close as I got to doing.

Speaker You’ve been in business with them is they feared.

Speaker No. No, I don’t think he is. There he is, he is he does he does he pull weight? Yeah. Do people gear themselves up to going out with him? You know, when David started when they started with when the three Jews started to put that, I didn’t think would Steven and Jeffrey and David started DreamWorks. I said, let me do that with Steven Jeffrey.

Speaker OK.

Speaker None of them. Not a single one. Well, no, I’d better be, yeah. Steven didn’t finish Long Beach until a couple of years ago, and I believe it was an honorary degree.

Speaker No, actually. He went back. I think they might. You know, it’s OK. These six units, you don’t have to. You have to take Medal’s shoppers Spanish. Here, here, here.

Speaker Here would be the three of them had distinctly different takes on the business or why it was their. Jeffrey was a hard charger. You want to make his mark, you wanted to build a studio. He wanted to get it done. He’s still like that. He’s still they approaches every gig that way. Steven wanted to make movies. You know, I can dream like this and I can do like that.

Speaker I’m gonna to be able to like maybe it’ll work out. No smart business, there’s good there, there’s good reason to do it. If you were if they were trying to get you to do a thing for DreamWorks, Jeffrey would come a here’s why you don’t do it.

Speaker It’s gonna be great. I don’t know. Make we’re gonna make it. You’re gonna do it. Come on. I want to. I want you. I want to watch you.

Speaker She wants it. I think you’re great. I think you should come work with us so I can. Wonderful. And David would say, look, if you want to come, come with me.

Speaker And that that’s that’s that’s who he is now. Are you afraid of that?

Speaker His business acumen is not to be denied is his ability to negotiate a deal is formidable. If I was going up against David in a deal, said, David, just write the deal. You know, I just figure I’ll write it down here. I’ll sign with Grease Pencil. I’ll sign it now. And you write it later on. I wouldn’t go up against him in a in anything other than a totally win win situation. But I think that’s the way he approaches it. You know, it always has to be win win. And he knows that. And if you’re in, here’s what the deal is. If you’re negotiating with David, you’ve already won. You have. Because something’s going to come out of it.

Speaker What is it that’s Katzenberg said of David’s epithet?

Speaker He he always, always was he winning not. Failure is impossible.

Speaker Well, yes, speaking I would.

Speaker I could see that because what’s winning winning is defined as it right now or winning is defined later on. Winning is about, you know, having having having fun or. It’s about. It’s about walking away from something that’s that’s that’s not worth it. I believe. I don’t know. I’m not privy to any. I’m sure. David, just please forget it. You know, and sometimes the guys that often get that guy wins, wins by not having to waste the time or go through the effort or I think even possibly lose a bit of your humanity or your gravitas. And I think David has that sensibility very, very, very much in hand. Well, he was a poor kid from from Brooklyn right here. Quick roll the photographs. He was a poor kid growing in Brooklyn on the hard streets with the L in the subways going by Ebbets Field in Coney Island. And he had a crazy mom. Am I wrong? You’ve done the research. Nutty mom, brother.

Speaker Kind of. Kind of. You know, you know, a brother, you know. And David was sickly dyslexic. All right. Dyslexic. And he just kind of like an absolute child of who he was at the time. He was also gay. He loved show business. Next thing you know, he’s in the mailroom at William Morris cut to hit the footage at the Academy Awards. I mean, that’s that’s that’s that’s how it happens with a guy like David.

Speaker Incredibly smart, incredibly driven. And I don’t think for a moment he ever thought, this isn’t where I want to be at every level of it. I’m sure that David thought this is the greatest job.

Speaker I’m looking after I’m looking after Sid Luft kids. I have learned a lot and Judy is going to come back and he said, come on, kids, let’s go get some more snow cones from craft service. He loved every moment of whatever that gig was in his little CBS, you know, page outfit. He loved, you know. You know, talking to the guys, getting into the studios. He loved, you know, delivering briefcases, just, you know, to somebody in Toronto or elsewhere, briefcases filled with important papers and documents. And I think that’s that’s that’s why where he is right now is the thing is, you know, I wouldn’t rather he’d rather not be anywhere else. He told you a great deal about his life that, you know, well, you kind of like play a game, you know, at dinner. At lunch. What was your first job? You know, you got to guess what everybody’s first job was. And when the piece of paper comes out looking after a long aloft as Judy was in makeup, they gave it. I bet you that was. Yes, I was. I was a CBS page at the time.

Speaker You know, it’s like that. So you could kind of you kind. He he lives up to all of the do all of the Sammy Glick. What makes Sammy run kind of, you know, legends.

Speaker What do you think that David would think was his proudest?

Speaker Well, I don’t know, because it’s because data did all these things and sort of like defined the whatever the art form was or the business or the. What’s the word I’m looking for? You know, music. Music became this massive thing. It was a huge big jar. It was a culture. You know what? He defined these cultures. The music, culture and showbiz culture. The motion picture culture. Even if he wanted to call it like the gay mogul culture, you know, he defined it. He built it. They all at one point another pass away. Because all of this stuff is, you know, it’s gossamer. It fades, you know, in the sun. So there are plenty of things that you can always be brag about, you can always say, and thus we made that and it was a number one record or so. So I signed them and they went on to become this. And then I sold that business and turned it into silence. I think that that’s always part of like a very impressive castle, but it’s made of sand. Eventually it goes away. I think that David is probably most proud of now. If I was going to put words in his mouth that he’s alive, that he’s funny, but he’s got a lot of friends, that he lives up to the social responsibilities, that goes along with being a man in his position. I would be proud of that if if I was him.

Speaker Let’s just talk a little bit about DreamWorks, I know you probably bet with you. You were there at the dawn of it, primarily because of their close friendship with Steve. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker Well, I know I do. Jeffrey, when it was it. I knew all those guys, but it was always in.

Speaker I’m sort of like an employee employer kind of circumstance. Steven I know because we had kids. David I didn’t know because you know what, David’s gay. And he doesn’t have any kids. So we never ran into each other, you know, at the preschool with David. David was never there because he’s gay with no kids. I saw him at parties.

Speaker Some.

Speaker But how? I mean, how audacious with these words?

Speaker Oh, it was. It came out of nowhere.

Speaker It came about, you know what it came about because Steven and Jeffrey couldn’t find a good hero sandwich. They wanted to have a really good submarine sandwich one day and they heard about a good place in the valley. And it wasn’t that great, a submarine sandwich. And they said, let’s make a really good submarine sandwich restaurant cut to a place in Central City called Die, for which they ran together, the most ornate submarine sandwich place you’ve ever seen, more submarine sandwiches than there are submarines in the world, more different types. Class A nuclear two man, one man, the submarine sandwiches with stuff on it that should shouldn’t even be put on a sandwich. Must lettuce. And then garlic fries with squeegees and the most complex restaurant you’ve ever seen with trains and submarines and port fake portholes and stuff like that. And all you could do when you came out of the place was they got a pretty good sandwich.

Speaker That’s because they are so. And then out of that, that came and went and they tried to do it for a while. And guess what?

Speaker You know, not exactly. I guess it was at the market. You know, they were ahead of the curve on the submarine sandwich phenomenon that has since taken the country over by storm. I hope they’re laughing if they if they hear any of this.

Speaker And then and then that that then, you know, the thing happened with with with Jeffrey and his former employee, and he literally got together with his pals and say, hey.

Speaker Let’s start a studio and they all said, sounds like fun to me. And it came up out of nowhere. I was like, hey, there’s a new studio in town. It’s going to be called DreamWorks. Really? Is there? Well, that’s good. So now will be a big seven, right? Instead of a big six. So I can’t I don’t know how many studios were there at the time. And next thing you know, these guys are up there like, you know, like communists on Lenin’s tomb, you know, in a day with a microphone in front of them. And there’s the S and there’s the K o and there’s the J. David Geffen is that he’s the guy and they’re all talking about it. Do they’re the smartest dudes in the room. And they were going to make all all the movies and they ended up doing it. And there it exists for a while and it still is there. So lo and behold, they actually did it and did it. Did it.

Speaker It probably certainly took the industry by storm there for a while and made the cover of nationwide newsmagazines and got started tongues wagging. And I made what I think three move three or four movies for it for DreamWorks and. She’s one man doing another one.

Speaker Did you ever have any doubts that he would succeed?

Speaker No. Not with those guys, you know. I don’t understand the financing thing that goes along with it. I know that they wanted to be able to build that studio. There’s the actual physical plant itself. You know, that that didn’t happen, that it’s now turned into, like, you know, condominiums over in Marina del Ray. But no, I never. I always sell those. Those guys are really smart. They’re smart individuals. They could have probably gone off and just started one themselves. But the three of them put it together. No. Those guys, we’re gonna make some. They’re gonna make a lot of movies and a lot of them are going to be really good.

Speaker Do you remember describing once a 22 minute meeting?

Speaker I have a 22 minute meeting with Go. We never had a meeting that lasted.

Speaker Oh, no, I didn’t get it.

Speaker Wonderful, wonderful description of it.

Speaker What did I do? Where did I do this? Fat and hilarious. Oh, yeah. What were we’re all we’re all four of them there. Yeah. Oh, I think I sorta just did it. You know, it’s like in sit down, you know, meeting at DreamWorks. Yeah. Are you from a meeting at DreamWorks or last. Twenty two minutes you’d sit down and Jeffrey would open it. First of all I’d pop a Diet Coke keyport and he’d tell you all the reasons why this deal was gonna be bigger than that ever and why he loves everything that I’ve done. But quite frankly, he’s never had the eighteen behind him is going to have the 18 this time because this movie Zachares, I’ve got five great moments and it is gonna 15 really great moments. And the truth is, you only need five really great movies to make a great motion picture with fifteen. They’re going to have enough in there that people could be holding their breath. That’s how good it’s gonna be.

Speaker And they can they can do it without you. We can do it without you. Well, we don’t want to do what we want to do with you. You have to make this movie with us and we’re going to be a team. We will be creative partners.

Speaker And that would be about the first eight minutes of the of the other meeting.

Speaker The next eleven minutes of the meeting that would take us up to 19 would be Steve. And talk about all the other movies you’ve done and the movies that it reminded you of and the moment that you thought were really great. And I think that he saw you with what he first came out and the movie, you know, he was working on Close Encounters and he saw you in this thing and always remembered about you. And when he was making this other movie, you wanted you to have it. But the reason he couldn’t have it in that movie was because somebody else had promised it to somebody else. But, you know, one of the things that you did in this movie that he is always still thinking about, he’d like to try to get in this next movie that you’re going to do is that moment when you tie your shoe a certain way with a muck in the tree behind you when you’re eating this thing. He’s never been able to replicate that. He doesn’t know how you did. And for 11 minutes, you are told you are the greatest, greatest, greatest artist on skates since Sonja Henie.

Speaker He makes a joke about how he always had a crush on Sony Henning. And you’re his new Sony. The last three minutes, as David said, if you want to do it, do it, you know, want to do it.

Speaker Don’t. My work out great. But, you know, you’re busy. We’re busy. Be smart if you did it. Thought you might have other things you want to do instead.

Speaker But you should do it. But if you don’t want to do it. If you want to walk with us, walk. They don’t want to walk with us, walk away. So works with big boys. Would they, boys?

Speaker That’s good. Twenty two minutes later, you stumble out in the parking lot. Not sure of what just happened to you. That’s a meeting with Drew.

Speaker Besides, did sex say Saving Private Ryan added. Catch me if you can get me. We did, we did cast away.

Speaker That was a that was a dual edged production. And we did the terminal.

Speaker Does it make sense? Yeah, that’s about it. I think those four. Some fun, fun films should make a film that you.

Speaker I think it’s been done. It’s called My Three Sons or so I. It’s like this. It’s called Wagon Train. How do I stop this?

Speaker And why end up here talking a little bit? Well, a little bit that politics. I mean, you and David both say, well, he’s more than me.

Speaker I, I don’t think anybody wants to hear what an actor has to say about politics.

Speaker But do you think that he was very influential in the Obama?

Speaker Well, I don’t know if anybody, anybody outside, I know if anybody outside the politicians themselves are truly influential. He has a lot of money, you know. But he did that for for for past candidates before, spoke out loud in their support, did the same thing with with us with others in the past. But he’s a guy who doesn’t mince his words.

Speaker You know, I think there was actually and he might have been the first one to very early going in the primary process to shy away from the front runners there, whatever they were, and and and and go with Obama.

Speaker And that’s sort of like gave permission for a lot of people. I think David is not unlike he understands you might be getting a little bit of a papal bull when he speaks. You can make whatever jokes you want to add about David delivering a papal bull. But I think that he knows that that to certain in certain arenas be, you know, the Huffington Post or The New York Times or The Washington Post or whatever, the sort of the mainstream, constant, constant ticker of a press goes that there is a moment where his words are going to mean quite a lot. You know, if he if he waits for a while, it’ll be he’ll just be part of the cacophony. But he I think he weighs very specifically whether or not he wants to be the guy who says something first. And I think if he decides to be the guy who says something first, it has the potential to be a bit of a groundbreaker. And politically, you know, he’s I don’t think you’ll ever be surprised by what his politics are. But I think you might be surprised at how far he’s willing to go. It won’t be a backor. Look there. You can fake self-assured this.

Speaker Or you can have it, David has it, if he’s not liking it.

Speaker He isn’t a person in order to weigh whether or not he should take on an issue or cause or or even a contract point. It just is. So if he’s going for it, he is for bent on it. It’s full steam ahead. There’s no gamesmanship. I don’t think there’s any gamesmanship with the guy. I don’t think he does anything simply to gain purchase or to win or to throw somebody else off off the mark. I think he does. He goes after it because he thinks it’s right. And there’s been there’s no reason to stop. I would much rather have that on my side than be the other person who is trying to do galvanize, you know, to throw rushed onto the tracks of David’s express train.

Speaker Captain of the industry with the soul of the artist he is. I think he is deeply moved and deeply connected to the things that he. That he has his name on. Now, that that can be an obtuse thing.

Speaker It comes down to and I’m not sure every record artist for Geffen Records with somebody that he absolutely loved. But the ones that he did love the the output of of the movies and the shows and. And the artist side of his empire, his fans have everything they put out. He he beholds them would wonder. He looks at what they what they put out. And he said, I can’t. I could never do that. I read he’d. He was a worshipper at the feet of a filmmakers and songwriters. And and and all sorts of artists. Even the type of artist that he hangs on his wall. He doesn’t buy them just because that’s worth a lot of money. It’ll go up. He looks at it for specifically because. Well, it’s very beautiful. You know, the side point is this is it is going up but isn’t. Oh, it’s very. No, it’s very beautiful. And so there are types of guys that go off in and make a lot of money and, you know, pinch it out here and there. And you might never know what they do with it. David, there’s a hospital with his name on it. You know how much it costs to get your name on a hospital? It’s not a negotiating point. He just forks over the money and they said, we’d like to call this the David Geffen. It sounds good. Same thing with theaters and all sorts of foundations, all sorts of buildings, all sorts of ideas. Have the David Geffen name on them. And that’s because he he he believes that you can’t you. I don’t think you can be as altruistic as he does without having a bit of the artist’s sense of humility that at the end of it says, I’m a lucky man because I only do a couple of things really well.

Speaker It just turns out that there are there things that are in there important in the in the larger scheme. Tell the world what?

Speaker I want to ask you can ask anybody else this, that. I love Rita and David are good friends.

Speaker David has particularly strong relationships with women. And it started, you know, started with Laura Nyro. And went on the Joni and Cher, Cher.

Speaker But he has this know. But not necessarily love.

Speaker No. That’s what he said. Does I love you? No. No, we’re not in the way you do. But no, no. I loved her.

Speaker You said that. What do you have any insight to why David has these particularly wonderful relationship with what?

Speaker Well, I’ll tell you why.

Speaker Because he is David Geffen. Does not fear strong women. Just the opposite. He admires them and he has something in common with them.

Speaker There is no doubt he enjoys their company, etc cetera. He he shares their ideas and the visit and are actively involved and actively curious as to what they think. But David, perhaps because he’s a gay man with no kids, perhaps because he’s got the soul of an artisan, an awful lot of humility.

Speaker He is not afraid of strong women who have actually achieve great things. Other people are other people would know what to say to how to hang out with them. Look, you can go to that salon that he’s so good at throwing. And I’m telling you, it’s 50 50. There’s very few people who are just there, as you know, a a an appendage to or a girlfriend of those. Sometimes, you know, sometimes there’s some husbands off of the boyfriend of the of the woman. But no, it’s it’s there is no it’s not even a question of any brand of gender preference there. It’s just that he likes smart people. And just so happens that he goes we might go out of his way in order to befriend really smart women. You can see I’ve been to the countless dinners where actually I’ve been there. The men have been outnumbered by the by the women, you know. And it’s like, be careful who you sit next to. Careful what you say.

Speaker So that’ll be Nora, Nora and Arianna. You’ve got the.

Speaker Barbara Walters, you’ve got to watch your face. Maureen, you’ve got Maureen, you’ve got a.

Speaker She. Oh, well, you can’t. Carrie Fisher as well. Yeah, I think there’s a there’s a substantial of women who have actually built empires in a lot of ways that are that are that he doesn’t view them as women. He just views them as empire builders. And therefore, they have interesting things to say. And they’ll have good questions, good answers to his questions.

Speaker Who are you most? You don’t have to answer this, we don’t want you. Who are you most often on the boat with you?

Speaker No, I’m not. Please. I would never the.

Speaker I always try to catch doing. Oh, I gotcha. On my clothes. I can’t.

Speaker Are you gonna have footage of this. This massive. Really. Yeah. Oh dear. Oh dear.

Speaker You know, I can speak about this is one filmmaker to another. I don’t quite know how to deal with this part in a movie without because I don’t want to sort of cross the line into lifestyles of the rich.

Speaker Careful. I really don’t want. Well, how you gonna do that? Sleep. Sleep on the deck. I just don’t quite know how to deal with it in the tender.

Speaker What are you gonna do? You’re gonna be you’re gonna be in a state room.

Speaker Everything’s gonna be folded up and put away for you. You’re on your toes. You’re down. You’re doing it. Job. Now you’re doing. I keep seeing David on his boat because he’s so happy.

Speaker There is, in fact, that it’s that he’s invited. It says he’s comfortable with it.

Speaker But how to how to deal with this incredible wealth in these houses. Art collection. You know, the second largest privately owned boat in the world. Is it true?

Speaker What’s what’s number one chic. OK. Number three is Paul Allen.

Speaker Dave’s above, David’s above Paul Island.

Speaker Oh, yes, especially. I guess that means something to somebody 413 versus 463.

Speaker Okay. Yeah. What they did. Well, you’re on this.

Speaker They are the first thing anybody say is, holy smokes, you know, worth the catapult to send the jets into the air. It’s a you know, it’s a substantial thing. But the reason that you’re excited this is the reason I’m excited to be on the boat and the reason why we all sort of like rush up to breakfast, lunch and dinner is to hear what’s going on. It’s actually this flotilla of ideas more than it is of, you know, of of a luxury goods. Look, I’ve been on you know, I’ve been a nice places and sometimes they’re dull and I’ve been to nice dinners. And sometimes you’re looking at your watch. And I’ve been with powerful players. And a lot of times there, you know, it’s kind of boring and. And the conversation is not nearly as interesting as one would hope. This has never been the case, either David’s house or in David’s Navy. It has always been a thing. What are they talking about upstairs now? And all you have to do is wait.

Speaker Give me the first one upstairs. Have a cup of coffee. Wait. Because as soon as two people, two other people arrive at that table, you’re you’re talking about something that’s going on and and and and you’re learning.

Speaker And it’s ranges from current events to art and literature to to hootenannies, style singalongs.

Speaker You bet. Bad charades games? No, not nothing. And I’m terrible at this. I don’t know how to do his sentence. You just it’s it’s also just, you know, what movie should we watch tonight? You know. You know, and these guys got one of those. He’s very excited about his kaleidoscopes system, you know, which is a load like you loaded up with DVD in it.

Speaker And you think it’s not literally it’s like stump the computer. Do you have the red shoes? Yes, there is the red shoes. Do you have the Battleship Potemkin in French? Yes, we do. We have the Battleship Potemkin. Do you have g.G or My Fair Lady? Yes, we do. Do an interview with a vampire.

Speaker Oh, please. Yes, it’s all in there. You know, it’s like it just. It’s like this never stops being funny.

Speaker Well, I didn’t know you were to talk about this stuff. Like I said. Oh, no, I’m not going to talk about it. How do you not talk about being a moment? God, most obvious thing in the world.

Speaker I would rather not admit that I was ever on the boat.

Speaker Yeah, but I mean, he wants very much to protect the privacy of the other people on the boat.

Speaker Well, it’s all off the record. Yeah. You know, this there’s nothing that happens on there that is then then turns into something later on, which is which is what is so real.

Speaker And I, I’ve met I’ve met people who have been doing what they’ve doing for the last 40 years. And I’ve met I’ve met people who been, you know, have entered into the zeitgeist as recently as last year. And there’s no there’s no pecking order. There’s no social strata that goes along. It’s you’re on.

Speaker Listen, you’re on board. Let’s talk. That’s all it is.