Jerry Weintraub

And I got to spend time with him, first met him when I was a waiter.

And they told me at a party at Jerry Weintraub's house, H.W. Bush's birthday party, right? Anyway, when we were there, they said, you know, have you talked to any of these people? I was a waiter and he's, you know, we'll fire you on the spot.

So I went over to Mr. Stewart and asked him if he'd like something to drink.

He said, take a scotch and soda.

whatever time you went? I didn't realize you could just swipe that card.

I would feel like Jerry Weintraub if all I had to do was just swipe a card.

I want to know what else that card accomplishes.

That's got to be amazing.

He was the Nordic hitman.

You had Jerry Weintraub as Sub Caps.

Yeah, okay.

Big cast.

So when

my producer asked you who's the person who believed in you and you chose him, what feel-good feelings came flooding back as to why him? You've had a wild story.

Yeah.

Why John of all the people?

who

the hell is this guy? I completely didn't see most of it coming.

Sensitive, thoughtful, like not just intelligent, but like my producer's like, he's wicked smart.

And so I, I think it, I think it is, it's cool to be both, but also.

So yeah, you, you bring people into some pretty challenging situations and they need to, you know, have the minerals as, as we say in monsters of God, you better have the cojones sometimes to do this stuff.

Coming up after the break, veteran marketing executive Gerry Rich recalls a very unpleasant encounter with the late producer Jerry Weintraub.

And I can relate.

You're listening to The Business from KCRW.

This is The Business and I'm Kim Masters.

We've got some leftovers from our dishy conversation with veteran marketing executive Gerry Rich, who spent decades selling Hollywood's biggest movies.

His memoir, Chasing Hollywood, is packed with war stories about working with some of the industry's most colorful and sometimes most intimidating characters, such as the late producer Jerry Weintraub, who wasn't known for his gentle touch.

One of the guys you write about that I was talking about bad people.

His ability to use people he disagreed with, people who had divergent interests from him, but his ability to bring people together and manage that, just absolutely incredible.

And then let's wrap up with some memoirs of Great leaders, Jerry Weintraub, producer, tour manager, et cetera, for Elvis, Sinatra, producer of Nashville, Karate Kid movies, Diner, Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12.

Fascinating guy.

This is actually written with Rich Cohen, who's one of my favorite writers, who did this book.

I've been a winner and I've been a loser, but I've been a loser a whole lot more than I've been a winner when it comes to the awards.

That sounds like a Jerry Weintraub quote.

It seems like a Jerry Weintraub quote.

Yeah.

Anyway,