Smallscreen Reviews

Review: 'His Way' Jerry Weintraub's big life worth watching, HBO April 4

By April MacIntyre Apr 1, 2011, 3:44 GMT

03/22/2011 - Jerry Weintraub, Matt Damon - "His Way" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals - Paramount Pictures Studios - Hollywood, CA, USA © David Gabber / PR Photos

Macher, mogul, master negotiator Jerry Weintraub was born to sell with a smile.

The charming and wily raconteur is gifted with an unrelenting personality. He literally created a personal life not far off from the "Principle" of "Big Love's" plural marriage. Weintraub successfully managed two ersatz sister wives, and everyone is okay with it!

That takes real talent.

The HBO documentary airs Monday 9:30 p.m., April 4 (HBO).

Some people weave and create magic in their lives, and he is one of those gifted souls who managed to be liked by the right people, always in the right place at the right time.

Douglas McGrath’s documentary of Jerry Weintraub is a star-studded affair that delivers one delicious anecdote after the other. George Clooney is revealed to be a mega prankster, and Julia Roberts was just smitten. But it is Weintraub’s own recalling of the Elvis days and his rise from a "Broadway Danny Rose" type music manager to mega promoter to uber film producer is a roller coaster ride of falling upwards.

Weintraub's tales of a surly John Denver, hoodwinking Elvis Presley on an undersold matinee in Miami, Frank Sinatra's shenanigans, George Clooney and even former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush recalling his wife Jane Morgan are gold.

It was a good upbringing that cemented the work ethic that makes Weintraub's tale a teaching moment for kids. Weintraub wasn't distracted by bullshit like Twitter, Facebook, texting, TV, Starbucks and modern day ills; he was working, hard, and he made the connections one does when you are focused on building wealth.

His father Sam, a jewelry dealer, taught Jerry the value of perception versus reality, and how to market it and profit. A great tale of the “Star of Ardaban” is doled out, as we learn how a young Weintraub learned from the best.

Weintraub does his military duty then makes a go of it in Alaskan retail, then returns to New York and is placed in the mailroom at William Morris until a fantastic story I will not spoil lands him in the good graces of MCA's Lew Wasserman.

The stories of Colonel Parker are worth the price of admission, the firing by John Denver leveling Weintraub is a good tale too.

Now, the best part of this was the unbelievable bombshell (for me) of his dual wives. Actually one wife and one "out" mistress who shares holidays and dinners with him, his wife and children. Just like a Mormon polygamist family!  With a ton of dough!

Weintraub has lived with girlfriend Susie Ekins for many years while being married to Jane. They are totally down with the situation, but watching patrician New Englander Barbara Bush give the side-eye was priceless.  Barbara Bush, seated next to her husband, says, “I’ll kill George Bush if he does that.”

Plus, the films he made, some of my favorite, including "Diner," a low key film about a bunch of Baltimore guys who chew the fat and ponder life at their diner, while transitioning from teen carefree years to adulthood. He read the script and called writer (and film director) Barry Levinson in two hours from picking it up.

Then there was "The Karate Kid," "Oh, God!" and the glossy star-studded remake of "Oceans 11."

There were failures and disappointments for sure, and the documentary covers most (not all) as Weintraub reflects.

Well-stitched together, the B-roll, archived photos and film are spot on; this was fun.  "His Way" is highly recommended.

HBO arranged a phone interview with Jerry Weintraub this week, This is how it began:

Jerry Weintraub:  First of all, let me say that I apologize for being late and for having you waiting.  I’m 73 years old and I had to pee.  The bottom line is I’m going to tell you a quick story.  And it’s going to be a gift to all of you no matter what part of the country you’re in.  Can you guys handle that? 

(Collective "yes" from journalists)

Here we go.  I was – about 6 weeks ago, I had to go – or 8 or 10 weeks ago, I had to go to a premiere of a movie with a friend of mine, Bruce Willis.  He had a movie called Red with Helen Mirren. 

It was a great movie, anyway.  I never go to premieres.  And he candidly said to me, "I need you to sit next to me.  This premiere is very important."

I said, "Okay, okay."  And I went home, and I’m a big vodka drinker.  I love my vodka.  And I don’t have to drink socially.  I could drink all by myself at night. 

Just a bottle is fine.  I don’t need any help.  So, I get home and I have to go to this thing and be there at 7:10 to go on the red carpet and do all that nonsense. 

And I get a vodka.  And I have one vodka, two vodkas, three vodkas, four vodkas.  I get in the car with a vodka. 

And I put it in between the two seats.  My driver is driving me.  And the first thing I have to do is drop my cellphone into the vodka.  That’s not a good thing to do.  They don’t work if they get wet.

Now, we’re driving down Sunset and this is where the pee story comes in.  And I got to pee.  And if you're 73 and you’ve got to pee, you got to pee.  There is not like a big conversation about it. 

But since that – and I was late for the red carpet.  Then, my driver said, "Mr. Weintraub, we got to go.  We got to go.  We got to be on the red carpet.  I promised that I’ll have you there."

I said "Okay, okay.  I got to – I just go in this Mobile station."  So, he pulled in this Mobile station and I go at the station and the guy – I asked the guy who had a – he was previously from the Middle East and he had to tag on his shirt and I couldn’t read his name.  And I said to him, "May I use the men’s room?" 

And he said to me, "Are you buying gas?"  And I said, "No, I just wanted to use the men’s room."  He said, "Okay, okay, go ahead."

So, I go in the men’s room.  I come out and I said, "Well, what’s your name?"  He said, "My name is (Akmed)." 

I said, "Well, (Akmed), I really appreciate letting me use the men’s room.  I want to give you something, wait one minute."  I ran out to the car, I asked (Suzie) for a book.   She gives me a book.  I take it in, I hand him the book, and I sign it.  He’s, "Oh my god, you’re him, you’re him.  I read about you, oh, with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley and all the Ocean’s movies.  You’re fantastic.  You’re a big star.  My god, my god."

And so (Akmed) is so excited. 

I said, "Great, I’m happy, (Akmed)."  He said, "Listen to me, I want to give you a present."  I said, "What?" 

He said "Anytime you’re in this neighborhood and you have to pee, come right in, use the bathroom, you don’t have to buy gas."  He’s just – I said, "Okay, (Akmed), thank you, it’s very sweet."  And I start leaving and he said, "Wait a minute Mr. Weintraub, I have one more present for you." 

I said, "What?"  He said "Any of your friends that need to pee that pass this station can come in and go to the bathroom as long as they use your name."  I said, "Thank you, (Akmed), I appreciate it every much.  I’ll see you later." 

(Journalists) So, where is this gas station?  

Jerry Weintraub:  It’s on Alta Cienega and Sunset.  It’s with a sign for his way above it – right above the station, crazily enough, it’s one of the billboards that HBO put up.  And it’s right over (Akmed’s) station. 

And now, he’s really happy.  (It's a sign) now.  And I said, Bruce Willis, if you have to pee, I said as long as you have to pee, and to everybody who needed to pee.  So, a very famous bathroom (is there). 

When asked why movies didn't feel like they did when he was making them, Jerry says, "Because the kids want to see these big movies and are not as interested in character and story as they were when I first started making films.  And they are more interested in the special effects because technology has taken all over the film business.  And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  But, for me, personally, I’m not in that world every day.  So, my world is character pieces.  That’s what I care about. "

As for the actors that got away from him, that he wanted to work with? "There are two stars that I haven’t tried to get them.  But then, I would love to work with.  And that’s [Leonardo] DiCaprio and Johnny Depp. I haven’t worked with either one of them.  And I love them both.  I think they are both brilliant," says Jerry Weintraub.

Weintraub then doled out a classic Clooney story on the conference call. 

"I had a gold silk shirt and George never liked it because George dresses in a black Armani suit and the white shirt all of that.  And I wear different kinds of outfits.  And I have this gold silk shirt, a very, very expensive shirt. 

And he hated it.  Every time I wore it, he used to say, that’s so loud.  Why don’t you take that off? 

So, I said, oh, don’t bother me.  You know, you dress you and I’ll dress me.  And everybody will be happy. 

He stole it out of my room ...And he took it and he painted up a –...I don’t care, a penis on the back of the shirt.  And then, he had everybody sign it, every – like every big star. 

I still have the shirt.  And he had from Matt and Brad and Wayne Gretzky and he got every actor all over the shirt.  And he sent it to me for my birthday in a big box with a ribbon around. 

When I opened the box, the shirt was in it.  It just totally just destroyed me with this – with this picture over there and there is a lot of names.  I mean, it’s worth a fortune now. 

Anyway, I got in my golf cart.  His office was down the street from mine at Warner Bros at that time.  And I drove over to his office with a golf club. 

And I went in and I totally destroyed his office.  I broke every lamp.  I broke everything in the place. 

I burned all his scripts.  I threw his bicycle out the windows.  And people that are working for him were shaking and he was lazed on the floor on the phone with Soderbergh. 

And he’s like, he’s going to kill me, he’s crazy, he’s going to kill me.  I was never going to kill him.  But actually, the head of the golf club did fly off. 

It could have killed him with this.  So I got him back."

April MacIntyre is Monsters and Critics' smallscreen and people/celebrity editor. You can contact her on Twitter