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CNN Live Today

Interview with Jerry Oppenheimer

Aired August 08, 2002 - 10:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: "Seinfeld" was one of the most watched television shows and has been in history, and Jerry Seinfeld laughed his way all the way to the bank. Well, now there's a new book out about the comedian, and he may not find this book very funny.
This unauthorized biography is called "Seinfeld: the Making of an American Icon," and the book's author, Jerry Oppenheimer, joins us now from New York to talk about his new release -- good morning, how are you?

JERRY OPPENHEIMER, AUTHOR, "SEINFELD": Good morning. Thank you for having me.

HARRIS: I got -- every single review I have read about this book and the things that were put out before its release, because it has just been released this week has all said that Jerry Seinfeld would not like this book. Did you set out to do some sort of a takedown piece on him or what?

OPPENHEIMER: Not at all. My goal here was to do a definitive biography on Jerry. As you said earlier, he is the most beloved comic of the '90s, but I wanted to find out the story behind the laughter, and it truly is no laughing matter. Jerry's story is one of -- on one side, a true story of a kid from Long Island, from an essentially blue-collar family, who really made it. A true Horatio Alger story, but at the same time, he is a very complex and enigmatic guy, and I spent two years interviewing scores and scores of his friends and colleagues to get a picture of him.

HARRIS: Well, let me ask you some questions about some of these people that you interviewed. We're looking at some pictures that did come from the book, and some of these pictures, I believe, have never been published before.

OPPENHEIMER: Yes.

HARRIS: Tell us about some of these friends of his in his life. Now, I understand that there is a connection between the Elaine character and the Costanza character to his real life. How about the rest of the characters?

OPPENHEIMER: Yes, well, a number of the woman who Jerry was involved with over the years, beginning with his first college girlfriend, Karen Trager (ph) was part of a group, a small group of friends, male friends. She was the only woman in the group, and she really feels today that she was the basis for the Elaine Benes character. And through the years, a number of women Jerry was involved with, and these were all very noncommittal relationships -- in fact, he never really lived with any of these girlfriends until he actually got married, and that involved a major scandal -- all believe that in some way, pieces of their lives were taken and turned into the Elaine Benes character. And interestingly enough, a number of these women do say that Elaine Benes was the perfect model for a woman for Jerry, because there was no commitment, she was a buddy, she hung out in the apartment.

HARRIS: Well, there was one person in his life who was more than a buddy, Shoshana. You know what I am about to mention on this one. What's the story on this one, that Shoshana was the 17-year-old that he was dating. What was up with that?

OPPENHEIMER: It is a pretty amazing story. Jerry, at that point, was already doing his show. It was successful. He was a 39- year-old man. She was a 17-year-old high school teenager at that point, just about to turn 18, and they had a relationship that was on and off for three or four years, but one of the interesting sidelights to that story that had never become public until I did my research was there were a lot of rumors within the entertainment industry and among Jerry's private circle of friends that, you know, he never really had -- he wasn't a womanizer, so to speak. So here was now with this beautiful young thing, and the -- the information I developed was that part of that relationship, really, was a way to give Jerry a macho image. So there was an underlying desire for him to be with a so- called "hottie" as she would be called.

HARRIS: To kill the rumors about him being gay.

OPPENHEIMER: To kill the rumors that were around that he might be gay or bisexual.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about that if we can, quickly, because one of the other things that struck me after leafing through the book was -- again, about relationships, relationships that he had with African-American men, a couple of really famous comics, Mario Joyner and George Wallace, very close to him in his life. Was there something funny about what was going on with them as well?

OPPENHEIMER: I wouldn't say there was something funny. He -- when Jerry went to college, his first college roommate was a black guy from the projects in Brooklyn. And then his second roommate, once Jerry got an apartment, was the man we're now seeing on camera, George Wallace the comedian, and later on, there was another black comic, Mario Joyner.

Jerry has a very liberal, open-minded attitude towards people. But these relationships which seemed to be so close, had sparked these rumor that Jerry feared would spread to the public, "Not that there's anything wrong with that" is the famous line.

And there is no evidence of anything beyond the fact that -- the fact that he had these close relationships caused talk in the industry and among his friends.

HARRIS: One of the things that was clear that his relationships with those people did influence what happened on that show. I loved the fact that were lots of ethnic influences in that show. But I have to ask you finally, we only have a couple of seconds here. Got to ask you about the situation with his current wife, whom he has alleged to have stolen from another man.

OPPENHEIMER: Well, like the Shoshana Lonstein thing, I think Jerry is bulletproof because he is so beloved. And a month after his show ended, after nine successful years, he was back in New York City, he was at a gym in the city, and he met this woman named Jessica Sklar who just was about to get married, and did get married to the scion of a very powerful Broadway theater family. And within weeks of that marriage, she cut short her honeymoon, was back in New York and was with Jerry Seinfeld. And it is just an amazing story that he came out of that scandal unscathed. America loves Jerry Seinfeld. He is bulletproof. But my goal was to tell the real story of him, and I think the book is a definitive biography of Jerry's life.

HARRIS: And there is a chance that America will still love him after reading this book.

OPPENHEIMER: Oh, yes. No doubt about it. I do. I watch him every night.

HARRIS: Yes. I got that same impression after reading through the bits I got a chance to read as well. Jerry Oppenheimer, thank you very much. Good luck with the book.

OPPENHEIMER: Thank you.

HARRIS: We will see how it turns out.

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