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CNN Live Today

Interview With Harvey Levin

Aired November 06, 2003 - 10:16   ET

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

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to go to New York now. That is where the battleground is in a courtroom. The two combatants are Rosie O'Donnell and the company that published her self-titled magazine. They are suing each over its demise and what allegedly went on in the bickering boardrooms could make a page turner in even the most tawdry of tabloids.
Harvey Levin, executive producer of "Celebrity Justice" joining us to talk more about the case and what it could mean for O'Donnell's career. Harvey, good morning. Lots of nasty things being said back and forth here.

HARVEY LEVIN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": Yes, there are nasty things. Can I give you my take on this?

KAGAN: Please do. That's why we invite you here so early in the morning.

LEVIN: I have to tell you I've been thinking about this case for a while.

It's just so obvious that these two cultures were going to collide. And I think that's what this is going to come down to for a jury. I mean you have got a woman who is known not necessarily on the air but anybody who knows about her off the air the way she conducts business, she is a tough as nails who has a vision and she wants what she wants.

And this magazine is known for being kind of erudite, coming up with slick products, there's kind of a -- you know, they have niceties in running that magazine that don't exist in Rosie's world.

And it just, to me, was so obvious things would collide. So it's real surprising to me that the magazine is saying, Gee, we were taken off-guard by Rosie. I mean Rosie is Rosie.

KAGAN: Just to try to understand the legalities here, she did walk out and the magazine, the publishing company is saying that's a breech of contract. You can't just walk out. Rosie is saying you made it impossible for me to be Rosie, so that's why I had to leave.

LEVIN: Think about it like -- if you live in an apartment and your landlord is making things so unbearable for you, by not turning heat on, by not doing things, you have a legal right to leave, not pay rent, to break the lease.

That's essentially what Rosie is saying, that it was made so unbearable that she had a legal right to break this deal because they break it before by the way they treated her. That's what she's saying.

KAGAN: And so under headings of things you can't believe, like one, it was dumb, whoever proposed this idea. But two, do you believe it's gone this far? Why these people didn't settle?

LEVIN: I think it's an issue of honor at this point. It's not just about money. This has to do with their good names.

But I keep getting back to this. If you took like -- if you took two things that are good unto themselves, if you took sorbet and rocky road, unto themselves they are really, really good. But try to mix them in the same bowl and nobody is going to be happy. And that's what happened in this case.

And the issue is, I think, did this magazine know it was coming? It's hard to believe that they didn't.

KAGAN: I'm having a moment here thinking about rocky road and sorbet.

LEVIN: It's disgusting.

KAGAN: In my world, the sugar world it's not so bad.

Let's look forward to Rosie O'Donnell. As you said, in the entertainment she is known as not the easiest person to work with yet she is very successful. So what will this mean down the line for future projects for her?

LEVIN: You know, say it about Barbra Streisand. I mean people have said that for years about her. People with visions who really kind of craft their images are very proprietary about that. She's no different from other people.

And there are plenty of other executives who, you know -- I got a staff behind me right now, ask them. If things ever get hot in this building in the heat of the moment when we work on things, they know, everybody knows that when you're in the middle of a business it's not always, Oh, how are you today? How are things?

It just doesn't work that way. So I don't think this is going to hurt Rosie O'Donnell at all. I think the bottom line here is that did this magazine know she was not going to fit into their culture. And if the answer is, Yes, they knew, too bad, so sad.

They needed to treat her the way they expected her to come in. I think that's the issue.

KAGAN: It also brings back an old conversation. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) men in business are admired. The same thing you can be considered a lead are for you put it on a woman and she is differently and a you know what. The standards are different.

I am interested in doing the expose behind the scenes at "Celebrity Justice" now.

LEVIN: Are you guys happy? We never get hot in here, do we?

KAGAN: I need to propose that to my producer.

LEVIN: Lies, lies, lies.

KAGAN: Exactly. Harvey, great to have you along.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 6, 2003 - 10:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to go to New York now. That is where the battleground is in a courtroom. The two combatants are Rosie O'Donnell and the company that published her self-titled magazine. They are suing each over its demise and what allegedly went on in the bickering boardrooms could make a page turner in even the most tawdry of tabloids.
Harvey Levin, executive producer of "Celebrity Justice" joining us to talk more about the case and what it could mean for O'Donnell's career. Harvey, good morning. Lots of nasty things being said back and forth here.

HARVEY LEVIN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": Yes, there are nasty things. Can I give you my take on this?

KAGAN: Please do. That's why we invite you here so early in the morning.

LEVIN: I have to tell you I've been thinking about this case for a while.

It's just so obvious that these two cultures were going to collide. And I think that's what this is going to come down to for a jury. I mean you have got a woman who is known not necessarily on the air but anybody who knows about her off the air the way she conducts business, she is a tough as nails who has a vision and she wants what she wants.

And this magazine is known for being kind of erudite, coming up with slick products, there's kind of a -- you know, they have niceties in running that magazine that don't exist in Rosie's world.

And it just, to me, was so obvious things would collide. So it's real surprising to me that the magazine is saying, Gee, we were taken off-guard by Rosie. I mean Rosie is Rosie.

KAGAN: Just to try to understand the legalities here, she did walk out and the magazine, the publishing company is saying that's a breech of contract. You can't just walk out. Rosie is saying you made it impossible for me to be Rosie, so that's why I had to leave.

LEVIN: Think about it like -- if you live in an apartment and your landlord is making things so unbearable for you, by not turning heat on, by not doing things, you have a legal right to leave, not pay rent, to break the lease.

That's essentially what Rosie is saying, that it was made so unbearable that she had a legal right to break this deal because they break it before by the way they treated her. That's what she's saying.

KAGAN: And so under headings of things you can't believe, like one, it was dumb, whoever proposed this idea. But two, do you believe it's gone this far? Why these people didn't settle?

LEVIN: I think it's an issue of honor at this point. It's not just about money. This has to do with their good names.

But I keep getting back to this. If you took like -- if you took two things that are good unto themselves, if you took sorbet and rocky road, unto themselves they are really, really good. But try to mix them in the same bowl and nobody is going to be happy. And that's what happened in this case.

And the issue is, I think, did this magazine know it was coming? It's hard to believe that they didn't.

KAGAN: I'm having a moment here thinking about rocky road and sorbet.

LEVIN: It's disgusting.

KAGAN: In my world, the sugar world it's not so bad.

Let's look forward to Rosie O'Donnell. As you said, in the entertainment she is known as not the easiest person to work with yet she is very successful. So what will this mean down the line for future projects for her?

LEVIN: You know, say it about Barbra Streisand. I mean people have said that for years about her. People with visions who really kind of craft their images are very proprietary about that. She's no different from other people.

And there are plenty of other executives who, you know -- I got a staff behind me right now, ask them. If things ever get hot in this building in the heat of the moment when we work on things, they know, everybody knows that when you're in the middle of a business it's not always, Oh, how are you today? How are things?

It just doesn't work that way. So I don't think this is going to hurt Rosie O'Donnell at all. I think the bottom line here is that did this magazine know she was not going to fit into their culture. And if the answer is, Yes, they knew, too bad, so sad.

They needed to treat her the way they expected her to come in. I think that's the issue.

KAGAN: It also brings back an old conversation. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) men in business are admired. The same thing you can be considered a lead are for you put it on a woman and she is differently and a you know what. The standards are different.

I am interested in doing the expose behind the scenes at "Celebrity Justice" now.

LEVIN: Are you guys happy? We never get hot in here, do we?

KAGAN: I need to propose that to my producer.

LEVIN: Lies, lies, lies.

KAGAN: Exactly. Harvey, great to have you along.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com