‘Object’ of television desire
HARVEY Levin the wiseass wiseguy creator of “TMZ” just created another program. It’s called “OBJECTified.” An hour Sundays. Fox News Channel. Starts next month.
“OBJECTified” means interviewing world VIPs about some object, token, toy, memento or tchotchke, some important-tothem keepsake retained over the years because, when brought forth and objectified, it evokes some meaningful — often forgotten — point in their lives. First show guest will be Judge
Judy. She tells how, years back, she wanted black Robert Clergerie shoes. They cost $500. Only browns and blues were on sale for $100. A Bronx family court judge salary divided by kids in college didn’t allow $500 shoes. Result? She never got them.
Years pass. Now No. 1 on TV, she says, “That day in Beverly Hills when I paid $500 for black Clergeries, I knew I’d really made it.”
Judy, who just sold her entire archive of 20-plus years of shows for $200 million, now could buy most of Beverly Hills.
So, on this new show, I asked does Harvey Levin slurp soda straws sporting his usual TMZ T-shirt?
“No,” she said. “He’s very properly dressed.
“The format’s special. Television today no longer allows a thoughtful hour. Years ago Larry King’s questions permitted a big interview. A guest could really speak. Today that’s gone. It’s all sound bites. Harvey’s well-prepared and asks thoughtful questions. He wants the audience to get to know the person he’s interviewing.” So I called Harvey. Good luck getting him. I obviously wasn’t one of the persons he wanted to get to know.
Royal plans
SHOVE your Rockaway condo, here’s the Saudi king’s Labor Day plans. Tangier beach palace. Staff of 200 plus a Mercedes fleet should they run out of milk. His crown prince kid does Casablanca Regency’s royal suite rather than crowd dad. Their crony, Mohammed VI, king of Morocco, roughs it at his own palace in whereverthehell Tétouan is, which is near his Royal Golf club . . . AND downtime for a B’way star like Julie White, who plays Nora in B’way’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2”: “My country house is on a lake. Nonworking time it’s movies or wine night with friends. Or I love to cook, then watch ‘ Game of Thrones’ ” . . . SONGWRITER Mike Greenly, whose “My Fire” was a No. 1 dance record, wrote a poem for Deepak Chopra. He read it to Deepak Chopra. My information is Deepak Chopra loved it . . . YULE-TIME brings “The Shape of Water.” Guillermo del Toro co-wrote the screenplay, directed and produced. Set in 1960s Cold War America, it stars Octavia Spencer.
Brave, funny, gone
COMEDIAN Dick Gregory’s gone. September ’82 I first reported him fasting to spotlight hunger in Africa and swearing no food until his 50th birthday in October. Well, that passed. And 35 years have passed. And Dick Gregory’s now passed. And our planet is still fighting over grievances. A Seventh Avenue grocer has sign: “English Not Spoken Here.” Only on Seventh Avenue, kids, only on Seventh Avenue.