Nov 21, 2019
Dreams do come true and we were finally able to finish our interview with Lainie Kazan. You Might Know Her From My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Beaches, My Favorite Year, Lust in the Dust, Funny Girl, The Nanny, and her five decade recording career. Lainie remembered getting her start as Barbra Streisand’s understudy in Funny Girl, being embraced by the LGBTQ+ community, & her transition from chanteuse to film vixen to ethnic mom. A wonderful conversation with a fucking a living legend. Folks, it’s Lainie Kazan!
Follow us on social media:
@damianbellino || @rodemanne
Discussed this week:
Lainie’s IMDB
Funny Girl era Lainie Kazan (originated by Barbra Streisand)
Funny Girl revival canceled || Lea Michele + Funny Girl
Funny Girl Producer, Ray Stark
“Lekos“
Lainie does Playboy
Lust in the Dust (1984) w/ Tab Hunter & Divine; dir: Paul Bartel
Costume designer, Dona Granata
Coppola One from the Heart (1981) playing a “broken down valise of a woman”
Nightclubs with Hugh Hefner, Lainie’s Room East and Lainie’s Room West
My Favorite Year (1982); dir: Richard Benjamin
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Cesar Romero was reportedly hung like a horse
Movies with Adam Sandler (8 Crazy Nights, Don’t Mess with the Zohan)
Gigli (2003)
Ben & Jen (Lopez)
On Jennifer Lopez: “She’s very plain looking until the camera gets ahold of her”
Coaching Mayim Bialik in Beaches
Producer, Bonnie Bruckheimer, Lainie’s bff
On Hollywood: “It’s a community...nobody likes anybody”
Peter O’Toole in My Favorite Year
Fran Drescher in The Nanny had best craft services
Pinnochio (part of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre) “Okie a doke Pinocch”
Director, Peter Medeck
Lainie singing “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”