Jann Wenner, co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, shares some juicy anecdotes about some of the celebrities he’s met during his storied career in his forthcoming memoir, “Like a Rolling Stone,” out September 13.
Here are some of the best:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Wenner recalls a star dinner hosted by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson with guests Bruce and Patti Springsteen and Arnold Schwarzenegger and his then-wife Maria Shriver.
Over the meal, the “Born to Run” musician told a long story that ended with the moral that “once you’re married, there’s another person you need to consider and share your life with.” [as] your equal.”
The table sat in silence at the end of the sermon—until the “Terminator” star broke the mood with a perfectly timed crack: Schwarzenegger got up, turned to his wife, and roared, “Time to go, Maria! Heel!”
Angelina Jolie
In addition to Rolling Stone, Wenner owned Us Weekly for some time. He writes how a photographer Us worked with received a tip in 2005 that Angelina Jolie was staying at a resort on the coast of Africa with Brad Pitt – who was then married to Jennifer Aniston.
The new couple, who had worked together on the movie ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” had generated a lot of rumors that they were an off-screen couple as well, but nothing had been confirmed.
But the photographer was not only told where the couple was staying, but was also given details about the time of their daily walk, along with a suggestion of where they could be photographed “in secret.”
“We have the picture, we have the proof,” writes Wenner, “we had the worldwide first, Brangelina’s debut.
“The tipster was Angelina.”
Paul Simon
As a co-founder of Rolling Stone, Wenner got the chance to be a fanboy with his favorite artists.
However, they did not always love him.
Writing about attending Paul Simon’s farewell concert at Madison Square Garden in 2018, Wenner was blown away by, “the show went straight on my all-time greatest list.”
The next day, he sent a heartfelt letter to the “Graceland” singer, explaining what Simon’s music meant to him personally and to a generation.
“He emailed me back: ‘Thank you. Paul.’ A cold man to the end,” recalls Wenner.
Still, he writes, “I wasn’t going to let this obnoxious and ungenerous person spoil his music for me.”
Tom Cruise
Wenner says he was friends with Tom Cruise for a while, but admits the “Top Gun” star is a number.
He writes about a Rolling Stone profile, which allowed a reporter to meet Cruise’s mother and sister and tour a Scientology Center with the actor, who is an avid follower of the religion.
“It seemed like he opened up, but in the end he didn’t say anything; he deflects thoroughly,” Wenner writes. “You walk away thinking you know the man, but all you know is that there is a confident and extremely polite man here. He didn’t even want to reveal whether he was for or against [President] Shrub.
‘What the hell is he guarding? Why is he in a top secret cult? He is a great talent. He’s Super Tom. All his secrecy gave rise to the suspicion that he was gay. I never got a ping on my gaydar,” writes Wenner, who is gay, “but homosexuals persisted in what Bette [Midler] one night called ‘swishful thinking’.”
David Geffen
Billionaire David Geffen was a major force in the music business in the 1970s, 80s and 90s and founded Asylum Records and his own label Geffen, among others. So it made sense for Wenner to turn to him for business advice.
It didn’t go well.
“David had a way of making you feel bad for not being as rich as he was, that you were the bum who knew no better than to sell your business at the peak,” Wenner writes.
Bette Midler
After undergoing heart surgery, Wenner discovered a common side effect where the body builds up fluid. In men, the excess fluid sometimes collects in the scrotum.
“Mine was now the size of a cauliflower crown—no grapefruit, not two papayas. A f–king cauliflower! It was scary to see it stuck to your body,” Wenner writes with humor. “The nurses made a small platform for it so I could lie down comfortably.”
He understood that most people wouldn’t like seeing his massively enlarged testicles, but knew that two of his regular hospital visitors would get a kick out of it: his close friends Bette Middler and her husband, artist Martin von Haselberg.
“I’ve made it out dramatically,” Wenner writes. “And after a few minutes of gasping and mocking, lewd jokes and bursts of laughter, Martin took pictures for the scrapbooks. I wanted Bette to be my nurse.”
Bob Dylan
Wenner, who has known Bob Dylan for decades and interviewed him for Rolling Stone, says he learned never to shake hands with the iconic musician.
“When you did, he left his hand motionless in your palm as if you were holding a dead fish,” Wenner writes. “It was nerve-wracking and would make you all the more uncomfortable being with him.”