Speaker 1: This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews podcast Warm.
Speaker 1: What you Hear Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive.
Speaker 2: William Keck began his career working for Titanheerance.
Speaker 1: This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews podcast,
Speaker 1: What You Hear Weekday after Do is on the Drive.
Speaker 2: Inquirer USA Today, Senior editor in Commonness for TV Guide,
Speaker 2: a regular contributor to People US Weekly. Uh and so
Speaker 2: you can imagine he's had a lot of experience interviewing
Speaker 2: and interacting with some of the big top celebrities. He's
Speaker 2: decided to write a volume full of many of those stories,
Speaker 2: and it's called When You Step Upon a Star Crimsworthy
Speaker 2: Confessions of a Tabloid bad Boy William Keck. I can't
Speaker 2: believe you're a bad boy.
Speaker 3: Oh I know, I'm just horrible. Aren't I a sort
Speaker 3: of spanky?
Speaker 2: And you got your share of the verbally did you not?
Speaker 3: I'm afraid I did. Yes. You may have read a
Speaker 3: few of them from some of the people who had
Speaker 3: a hard time forgiving me for my transgressions.
Speaker 2: What got you into this type of journalism? What interest
Speaker 2: did you more than say going after the hard core
Speaker 2: Woodard and Bernstein stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'll tell you I grew up as
Speaker 3: an only child in upstate New York. My dad died
Speaker 3: at an early age, and I just became a kid
Speaker 3: raised on television and the TV families that I watched,
Speaker 3: the Ewings of Dallas and the Carringtons of Dynasty, the
Speaker 3: Brady Bunch, they became my surrogate family members, and I
Speaker 3: really wanted to meet them before they were gone. So
Speaker 3: I came out to LA and the Inquirer offered me
Speaker 3: an opportunity to meet all these people. I just didn't
Speaker 3: realize it was going to be. I was going to
Speaker 3: meet them at their wedding and funerals in their hospital rooms.
Speaker 2: And he's written all about it. And when You Step
Speaker 2: upon a Star Crench were the confessions of a tabloid
Speaker 2: bad bull boy. William Kick is with it and the
Speaker 2: books now out everywhere you get books. So let's talk
Speaker 2: about some of your more awkward run ends.
Speaker 3: Yes, my goodness, Well gee, uh, you know a lot
Speaker 3: of the stars that I wanted to meet were the
Speaker 3: Golden Age stars, the vintage stars. Again, I wanted to
Speaker 3: meet them before they passed. One story you involved Telly sabalas,
Speaker 3: do you remember Telly Sabajack? And he was that's right, exactly, yeah,
Speaker 3: the bald head and the lollipop. So he he passed away,
Speaker 3: and but we found out that he never received a tombstone,
Speaker 3: So Telly was buried in an unmarked rave. And I
Speaker 3: looked into this and I found out the reason was
Speaker 3: is that the family was not speaking to each other.
Speaker 3: His new wife was not speaking his children, and so
Speaker 3: they never could come together to find a date. So
Speaker 3: I actually pretended to be somebody in a Sabalis family
Speaker 3: and I called Forrest Lawn and I asked them to
Speaker 3: call all the family members to get them together. I
Speaker 3: picked the day in time. We had photographer in the
Speaker 3: bushes and we got photos of Kelly Sabalis's plaque being installed.
Speaker 3: So Kelly has meet a bank for his brave no
Speaker 3: longer being on the market.
Speaker 2: So you really really was born out of fandom for you?
Speaker 2: Was there one particular star that you became stars struck
Speaker 2: when you did come in contact with them. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to say meat, because I don't think you met
Speaker 2: many people, did you?
Speaker 3: I did. I met a lot of security officers who
Speaker 3: walked me out of certain places. Well, this is sort
Speaker 3: of a similar story. But the person I was most
Speaker 3: anxious to meet was Lindsay Wagner. I was a big
Speaker 3: six million dollar man woman fan. My license plate on
Speaker 3: my car actually is bionic. So I said to dance
Speaker 3: interview Lindsay Wagner let me know, and they said, hey,
Speaker 3: good news, it's your lucky day. Lindsay's father died. Go
Speaker 3: to her funeral and try to get an interview about
Speaker 3: her new boy toy that she's dating. So I went
Speaker 3: to the service and Lindsay assumed I was just one
Speaker 3: of the regular mourners. I told her who I was,
Speaker 3: and we had snapped some photos of her with her
Speaker 3: young lover, and she said, well, what do you need then,
Speaker 3: and I said, well, maybe a caption and she said, well,
Speaker 3: I'll give you a caption few. So that was brutal,
Speaker 3: but you know what, she she took sympathy on me
Speaker 3: and actually gave me a nice story and we're friendly now.
Speaker 3: She actually wrote a very lovely thing for my book,
Speaker 3: talking about the power forgiveness and it's never too late
Speaker 3: to change your ways. So thank you, Lindsay.
Speaker 2: Lovely woman, A babe inside and out.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, A bionic babe.
Speaker 2: What was the more classic you know, from old classic
Speaker 2: Hollywood star that you encountered.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Well, gee, you know, Elizabeth Taylor is
Speaker 3: in one that I was involved in a high speed
Speaker 3: shape with actually both a little the tailor and Britney Spears.
Speaker 3: They weren't together in the same car. That would have
Speaker 3: been an amazing show.
Speaker 2: That would have been.
Speaker 3: Two different car chases, but in one, uh, we followed
Speaker 3: Brittany for several miles on the freeway with Elizabeth, I
Speaker 3: let her go. I really was. I was feeling like
Speaker 3: a real jerk for following this legend uh on these
Speaker 3: twists and turns in bel Air. So I'm like, you
Speaker 3: know what, let's let let's let Dame Elizabeth have a
Speaker 3: free pass today.
Speaker 2: At what point in her career was this was she
Speaker 2: was this a pre Larry Fartinsky or post.
Speaker 3: Oh it was it was posts Oka. Yeah, so she was,
Speaker 3: he was up there and she was she was actually
Speaker 3: going to the hospital to get a procedure done. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, what kind of jerk am I casing a
Speaker 3: woman to the hospital. So every once in a while,
Speaker 3: my you know, little Jimmy cricket would step forward and
Speaker 3: do the right thing. So thank you, mister Cricket.
Speaker 2: And he writes about it and when you step upon
Speaker 2: a star cringeworthy Confects of a tabloid bad boy, William Kent.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting read about all kinds of different celebrities
Speaker 2: and private lives. And I imagine you're on some you're
Speaker 2: on some some I don't want to say hit lists,
Speaker 2: but do not enter lists.
Speaker 3: You know, this was a while ago, so I actually,
Speaker 3: I said three years and that's it. So I quit
Speaker 3: the Inquirer, and then I ended up becoming a legit journalist,
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, for USA Today and people in ew
Speaker 3: Entertainment Weekly, So that really is what most people remember.
Speaker 3: What my problem was is that even though I quit
Speaker 3: the Inquirer, I found that the Inquirer didn't necessarily quit me.
Speaker 3: So a lot of the tricks of the trade that
Speaker 3: I had learned at the tabloids followed me in my
Speaker 3: interviews with some of the A listeners that I had
Speaker 3: a chance to speak with.
Speaker 2: I find that when I talked to celebrities, because I
Speaker 2: interview my share of them on this program, I usually
Speaker 2: find that they really want to talk like a regular person.
Speaker 2: Most of the time. Even though they're probably if they're
Speaker 2: on a press junket and they're being asked the same
Speaker 2: questions over and over and over again. I try to
Speaker 2: go at it with a all right, I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: go with any of the pre asked questions. I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna just start talking to him about what what he
Speaker 2: got planned for lunch, you know that kind of thing,
Speaker 2: and that seems to just break the ice and they
Speaker 2: open right up.
Speaker 3: You're absolutely right. All day long, they hear, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I love you, I loved you with this movie and TV,
Speaker 3: and it just it goes in one ear and out
Speaker 3: the other. They're just labeled fan, they're not labeled a person.
Speaker 3: If you just treat them as if they're a regular person,
Speaker 3: that usually does the trick. I know, will Bill Shatner,
Speaker 3: William Shatner, he just listen. Obviously, he's he has a
Speaker 3: certain respect for his fans because it's made him a millionaire.
Speaker 3: But if you really want to get on his good side,
Speaker 3: just sort of like talk to him like like in
Speaker 3: a in a locker room. Yeah, and he'll he'll have
Speaker 3: taken a back startle, but you'll you'll have a nice
Speaker 3: conversation with them.
Speaker 2: The most people after them. Yeah, they are the most.
Speaker 2: The most I ever say, is I enjoy your work
Speaker 2: because to them it is work. To us, it's entertainment,
Speaker 2: but it's work to them.
Speaker 3: Yes, And I say, I enjoy looking in your windows.
Speaker 2: And he's looked in plenty and he'll tell you all
Speaker 2: about it in his new book, When You Step Upon
Speaker 2: a Star cringe Worthy Confessions of a Tabloid bad Boy
Speaker 2: William Keck. This will be an amazing and amusing summer read.
Speaker 2: And I thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Lee, thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
Speaker 1: the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The
Speaker 1: Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven. And iHeartMedia
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