Jerry Weintraub on Side

Interview Mr Entertainment xx ‘It’s much better to be my friend than myL enemy’ Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra thought he walked on water. Hollywood’s biggest stars are still in thrall to the legendary producer. Ariel Leve finds out why it pays to keep Jerry Weintraub on side. Photographs by Norman Jean Roy a xx f you’ve never heard of Jerry Weintraub, storyteller and there are loads of intimate stories you will most certainly know his friends. about the biggest names in show business, there I He has presidents on his speed dial and is an emotional narrative that drives the story — has produced the biggest stars in the world from a chance to see what it’s like behind the curtain Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to Led Zeppelin, with the wizard. Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Oh, and his wife There are humorous moments too. When Led and girlfriend are friends. Zeppelin played at Madison Square Garden, The phone rings. The caller ID shows an LA Weintraub collected a hand-stitched, double- area code where it’s 6am. “It’s Jerry,” the gravelly breasted suit he had made for himself in London. Brooklyn-accented voice says. “Jerry Weintraub.” He hung it in the dressing room with a note Even announcing his name, it sounds like the pinned to it that said: “Hands off!” He then takes start of a story you will want to pay attention to. his place to watch the show. As the band come “I’ve had two million emails about this onstage, he notices John Bonham, the drummer, interview already and I said, ‘Lemme cut through is wearing his jacket. Bonham sits behind the the crap — just give me her number.’ ” There is an drums, rips off the sleeves and shouts: “How do I immediate familiarity, as though we’re resuming look, Jerry Weintraub?” a conversation, not beginning one. “I want this to One of his most trenchant features is that he happen,” he says. never gives up. He believes there’s no problem When Jerry Weintraub wants something to he can’t solve. When Zeppelin needed to be the happen, it happens. For more than five decades loudest band, he had huge fake speakers put on he has been a larger-than-life manager, stage. When Elvis needed to sing to a sold-out promoter, producer and legendary impresario audience, he had 5,000 seats taken out of an arena. for a Forbes list of the great and the powerful. Weintraub has something else that sets him His memoir, When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know apart. Influence. There are people who have had WHEN CLOONEY, PITT AND DAMON GOT THEIR PRINTS ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME THEY INSISTED THAT WEINTRAUB HAD PRINTS DONE TOO I’m Dead, is out now and there’s a reason it and lost it, but his power has endured. He the subtitle is: Useful Stories from a doesn’t self-destruct and he doesn’t worry if Persuasive Man. Two weeks later, it all comes crashing down. Even his I’m on my way to a private island weaknesses — drugs, drinking, women — in the Bahamas. which he admits to, haven’t derailed him. In 2009, he was dying. This year, he Two flights and a 30-minute boat ride is on top and more robust then pass before I land on Guana Cay at ever. He produced the sunset. This island is the site of original Karate Kid as well Baker’s Bay, a luxurious private- as co-producing the current members’ golf resort that Weintraub remake with Will and Jada co-owns. You have to have many, Pinkett Smith; the film stars their many millions to join. 12-year-old son, Jaden. Even Men with walkie-talkies escort though initially Weintraub didn’t me to a golf cart and, 10 minutes go for the idea when the Smiths later, I’m driven onto a pristine golf first approached him (“I didn’t want nirvana. We drive around looking to risk ruining my legacy,” he says, for “Jerry and Susie”. Suddenly another with characteristic candour), they golfcart is spotted driving towards us. won him over. It was, he says, one of Weintraub has one hand on the steering the best experiences he’s had wheel and a vodka cocktail in the other. making a movie and he’s thrilled “Welcome!” he calls out. In person, he with the result. has both an imposing and approachable The film grossed $56m in its presence. And despite his 72 years there is discomfort one usually feels around people who opening weekend in the US and a confident sex appeal. are in another stratosphere of wealth. Perhaps reached No1 at the box office. Along Susie Ekins, his red-headed girlfriend this has to do with Weintraub’s working-class the way he became “Uncle Jerry” to and constant companion, is petite and roots. His father, Sam, was a travelling jewellery Will Smith and his family. “History warm. They have been together for salesman, his mother, Rose, a stay-at-home always repeats itself. The trick is to be nearly two decades. He refers to her as mum. As a young boy he would bunk school to alive when it happens.” “Mrs Weintraub”. go to the movies. He imagined his life and made At 72, he is more alive then most Weintraub owns four homes and is so it happen. It’s not just that he didn’t take no for people half his age. His book is on its well off he can’t remember the last time an answer, he didn’t hear the word at all. seventh print run in a genre that he flew on a commercial jet. “I don’t He writes in his book: “When you dig through PREVIOUS PAGES: NORMAN JEAN ROY/TRUNK ARCHIVE. LEFT:THESE GETTY. PAGES,TOP: BOTTOM CORBIS.LEFT, AND BOTTOM BOTTOM CENTRECENTRE RIGHT: COLUMBIA TRISTAR. FAR RIGHT, INSET: CORBIS usually falls flat. Why? Because aside know,” he laughs. “Back when I was a all the craziness of my life, you’ll see that I’m just 48 from the fact that he’s a notoriously great kid maybe.”And yet there is none of the a guy from the Bronx who knows how to attract a Interview grown-up daughters. He also has a son from his first marriage. Jane, who is his second wife, is also “Mrs Weintraub”. “We’ll go over all of that tomorrow!” Jerry declares. Then he pops a piece of stone crab in his mouth and he is off, dancing into the night. The following morning we meet for breakfast at 8.30am sharp on a patio that overlooks the beach. He’s been up for hours and if he has a hangover, he hides it well. He wakes up every day at 4am and is in the gym at 4.30 or 5. He watches news shows on TV while he’s on the treadmill. There are things he checks daily: movie grosses, the stock market and his new “addiction”, the Amazon ranking for his book. By 8.30am he’s on “the phones”. He has a call sheet that his office sends him every night and he tries to return everyone’s phone calls. “I like people to return mine.” It’s not that he’s a luddite — an iPad and iPhone sit on the table — but he finds email impersonal. “You don’t ever get the flavour of relationships over email. I can’t express myself. There’s no back and forth. I’m always saying the Above, from left: Pitt, wrong things.” Clooney, Weintraub and Building Damon at the Hollywood relationships and Walk of Fame, 2007. sustaining those relationships is what he is known for. He has something Right, inset: Weintraub’s more important than money: a network. size-10 feet in He mentions having had cancer in his book Tinseltown concrete but gives it only a sentence or two. What follows is a story about the only time in his life he had a Right: Jackie Chan and feeling it wouldn’t work out. It’s not in the book. Jaden Smith take In 2009, he had back surgery and contracted a The Karate Kid remake serious bacterial infection. He turned his to new heights bedroom at home in Palm Desert into a hospital because he wanted to be in his own house. Left: with Julia Roberts “No one knew what it was. I’ve heard 18 at the Ocean’s Eleven different stories — it was staph, it wasn’t staph premiere, 2001 — whatever it was, it was killing me. Literally eating up my body.” Far left: Cindy Crawford He was told he wouldn’t make it. takes pointers from “I had a least five or six doctors taking care of Weintraub’s book in May me. I had an IV in me for 16 weeks. A drip to keep me alive.” crowd. I get people to notice the sapphire so it’s mingle with affluent guests amid plates of lobster This experience was something he couldn’t not lying in a cellar where it might be found in a and crab on ice. Filet mignon and mahi-mahi are control. “I’d always been afraid of death. In 2008 hundred years, long after the man who mined it on the grill. Weintraub shakes hands and poses and 2009, I lost a lot of friends. I visited them just has died. That is my talent.” for photos, all the while insisting: “Call me Jerry.” as they were dying.

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