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David Letterman Interviewing Farrah Fawcett

LETTERMAN: Our first guest has had huge success in television and film, and now she graces the cover of the new Playboy magazine and stars in her very own pay-per-view special on June 11th entitled "Farrah Fawcett, All Of Me." Here she is, the one and only Farrah Fawcett.

(Audience cheers and Dave welcomes Farrah and kisses her hand)

LETTERMAN: How ya doing? Welcome to the show. Very nice of you to be here.

FAWCETT: Well, I'm so happy to be here.

LETTERMAN: Now, you've never been on this program before. You were never on this program before. You were never on the other program we did at the other network. Is there any reason?

FAWCETT: You don't remember?

LETTERMAN: Remember?

FAWCETT: Just kidding.  No, no. Let me think. Why?

LETTERMAN: Why what?

FAWCETT: Haven't I been?

LETTERMAN: I don't know. That's what I had just asked you.

FAWCETT: Oh. Well --

LETTERMAN: How are you doing? Are you all right?

FAWCETT: Don't I seem all right?

LETTERMAN: You seem fine. I know you were kind of harried getting over here. Was there a problem? Was there traffic? Were you stuck somewhere?

FAWCETT: There were people, lots of people.

LETTERMAN: Well, that's New York.

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: People who like, love me, so sweet and blocking for me.

LETTERMAN: Now, what is that like when you go out, when you travel around the country and people say, "Oh, my god, there she is," because you're undeniably an icon, of course, and people go out and they say, "Oh, look, there's Farrah Fawcett."

FAWCETT: Well, different cities have different reactions. I love New York.  New York loves me. It's so sweet. 

(Audience cheers)

LETTERMAN: So it must be very gratifying, make you feel very friendly when you're out among the people. Do they come up to you and want to talk to you?

FAWCETT: Yes, in New York.

LETTERMAN: What kind of things do they say to you when they see you?

FAWCETT: "Yo, looking good. Yeah, yo, Farrah. So beautiful." You know, that's New York where they just say everything.

SHAFFER: It's so wonderful.

FAWCETT: It is.

SHAFFER: The energy in the street.

LETTERMAN: "Yo, looking good," is what they say?

FAWCETT: Yeah. "I like the way you walk."

LETTERMAN: They say that too?

FAWCETT: They say that. I was here once for the Saint Patrick's Day Parade.

LETTERMAN: Oh, sure.

FAWCETT: And I thought, I'll have on a little cap, you know, your little caps.

LETTERMAN: Little caps, yeah.

FAWCETT: And mine was backwards, and I thought, "I'll just see." All of a sudden, you know, they're completely drunk, blotto. They start chasing me down the street, literally chasing me.

LETTERMAN: The Irish people? Is that who it is?

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: I think so; I think so, maybe a little too much… 

(Farrah makes a drinking motion)

LETTERMAN: Yeah, I know.

FAWCETT: And I was going, "Oh, no, not right now." Oh, gosh, you're stepping on my -- oh, gosh, don't grab me. Ahh, don't grab me."

LETTERMAN: It's dangerous, it's very dangerous.

FAWCETT: So I was running.

LETTERMAN: Sometimes adoration can be overdone.

FAWCETT: Overdone, you know, in Central Park – of course you do. I'm sorry. 

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: That's all right.

FAWCETT: You've been here long.  So you can go, and there's a -- there's a -- oh, God, I'm so sorry.

LETTERMAN: That's all right. Central Park --

FAWCETT: There's a road --

LETTERMAN: A road, a road in the park

FAWCETT: A cut-through, and there are places where the wall, the --

LETTERMAN: Right, the wall.

FAWCETT: What is that, the thing?

LETTERMAN: The thing. Charades. Suddenly Farrah and I are playing charades. 

(Audience laughs)

SHAFFER: Sounds like.

LETTERMAN: Two words.  Sounds like --

SHAFFER: Sounds like time.

LETTERMAN: Central Park, road, wall --

SHAFFER: Wall, cut-through, sounds like --

FAWCETT: No, no. Is this low enough? 

(Farrah puts her hand on Dave's knee)

LETTERMAN: Yeah, help yourself, and tell your friends.

(Audience laughs) 

I don't know what that means.

FAWCETT: No, my friends told me, yeah.

LETTERMAN: All right, now we're in Central Park.

FAWCETT: And I want to go up the -- the embankment.

LETTERMAN: You want to go up the embankment.

FAWCETT: Is that right? Yeah, yeah. 

(Audience lauhgs)

LETTERMAN: The famous Central Park Embankment.

FAWCETT: And some places it's very high.

LETTERMAN: Sure. Some places it's not so high, some places medium. 

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: So I found a place that was in between medium high.

(Audience laughs)

And actually scaled it.

LETTERMAN: Oh, you climbed up the embankment?

FAWCETT: Scaled it, yes, as they were like, really pulling my legs and shoes and things.

LETTERMAN: Really. People that -- you were trying to get away from people in the Park.

FAWCETT: Yes, yes, and I must say that I was the only one able to get up there.

LETTERMAN: Well good for you. You're lucky to be alive.

FAWCETT: Is that sort of near the Zoo?

LETTERMAN: There's a Zoo in Central Park. The Central Park Zoo is right there in --

FAWCETT: I think that's where I ended. You're making fun of me.

(Dave shrugs his shoulders in a who-me-I'm-innocent gesture)
(Audience hoots and applauds)

That's where I ended up.

LETTERMAN: Now, let's talk about -- I was telling people before you got here that you and I are pretty much the same age. How did you celebrate your 50th birthday?

FAWCETT: Oh, so -- it hasn't happened, you know, like that.  

(Loud chuckler interrupts Farrah)

Somebody over there thinks this is hysterical.

(Audience laughs and Farrah gives a Basic Instinct shot)

FAWCETT: When I explain -- I was -- okay, this is serious. This is, I mean, this is really true. The embankment was true. I was in the middle of serious production.

(Loud chuckler interrupts Farrah)

FARRAH: Shit. What is with him? What is it?

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: Production for your pay-per-view television special.

FARRAH: Yes, and have it -- um, trying to -- I have control -- I had control. 

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: Gentlemen, I'll clear the courtroom. Please, let the witness finish. 

(Audience laughs and applauds)

FAWCETT: I think it's much more interesting what they think happened.

LETTERMAN: So anyway, it's your 50th birthday; you want to do something nice; you want to call attention to it.

FAWCETT:  Not -- well, I don't like -- well, Farrah Fawcett 50. It's like part of my name.  Farrah Fawcett, 44, part of my name. Do they say "David Letterman 50"?

LETTERMAN: No. They don't even say David Letterman.

FAWCETT: They do too.

LETTERMAN: Oh, do they really, in the park?

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: No, well, the Zoo, I saw it in the Zoo.

(David puts his hand across his knee close to Farrah and it totally spaces her out)

FAWCETT: So, uh, so, OK, it's a long story.

(Audience cheers and applauds)

LETTERMAN: All right. Let's come back to that. Let's come back to that.

FAWCETT: You don't want me to finish?

LETTERMAN: No. We'll come back to that.

FAWCETT: They want to know. It's very fast. My birthday is February 2nd. My mother's is January the 30th. My son was born on January 30th. That means that my mother's mother and I had to conceive on the same day.

LETTERMAN: Wow, wow, that is -- that's unusual, yeah.

(Audience laughs and applauds)

FAWCETT: Yeah. He's going oh -- no, now, there's a story.

LETTERMAN: I wonder if that happens. I wonder in families if that happens that much. It probably doesn't happen much, do you think?

FAWCETT: I don't think so, not at all. Okay, so now I'm sitting there, and I'm looking at -- I'm trying to explain to these people who are looking at me with blank stares about how since I was at the University of Texas, I wanted to do a body -- I wanted to paint with my body.

LETTERMAN: You were an art major in college.

FAWCETT: Uh-huh.

LETTERMAN: And you wanted to do like painting with --

FAWCETT: I wanted to paint with my body, in other words --

LETTERMAN: An abstract sort of thing.

FAWCETT: And yet not. 

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: And, well, I can't -- it's probably difficult to do portrait work that way, right? 

(Audience hoots)

FAWCETT: Well, I have to tell you I did the most incredible gluteus maximus.

LETTERMAN: Your butt, you're talking about your ass, right? 

(Audience hoots and applauds)

FAWCETT: I guess I am. No, it's so good. It's one of the best things I've ever done.

LETTERMAN: Who owns the artwork now? Is it something you have now in your private collection or did somebody buy that piece of art?

FAWCETT: No, it's mine.

LETTERMAN: That's good.

FAWCETT: It's mine, but it has, you know, it's very expressive. It's round, and then it has like movement, you know, movement so it's like energy. So what I wanted to do was paint -- not put paint on my body, but use my body parts to paint with.

LETTERMAN: Right, exactly.

FAWCETT: So if you lean up against it, you know, and then there's this and then there's this.

(Another Basic Instinct shot from Farrah)

LETTERMAN: And you're completely nude when you do this.

FAWCETT: No.

LETTERMAN: No, no, of course not. 

(Audience laughs)

That would be silly, that would be silly, and I think illegal, illegal, and what about turpentine?  If you're naked and you get turpentine, well, turn out the lights and call the cops, because –

(Audience laughs)

SHAFFER: Ouch.

LETTERMAN: Ouch is right. Take a ride in a convertible and call me in the morning.

SHAFFER: Get a cab. Good night.

FAWCETT: I have on paint, I have on paint, so I'm not nude.

LETTERMAN: May we show the pictures?

(Farrah looks shocked and  the audience cracks up)

By the way, what does your family think? What is the response you get from like, for example, your son? How old is your son, like 12 years old?

FAWCETT: 12.

LETTERMAN: What was his response? Has he seen the pictures in the Playboy?

FAWCETT: Yes, he has.

LETTERMAN: And what is his reaction to that?

FAWCETT: "Yo mom." No, no, no. 

(Audience cheers)

LETTERMAN: "Yo mom. Yo mom."

FAWCETT: No. He said, "Dope, that's really dope." I said, "Dope?" But any -- I have to say that I wouldn't have done the 1995 layout without his permission.

LETTERMAN: He was all right with it then; he was comfortable with it as a young man?

FAWCETT: Well, he grew up with me with – surrounded by lots of my artwork, which is predominantly the female body.

LETTERMAN: Right, so he's seen that sort of thing before.

FAWCETT: Yes, and he understood when I explained it to him what I wanted to accomplish which was to prove --

(Audience laughs)

Bad, you're bad -- to prove that art sort of like --

(Farrah looks out window behind Dave and says "Wow")

(Audience laughs and cheers)

FAWCETT: I really thought I was looking out the window.

(Audience laughs)

Because I've never been here before.

LETTERMAN: That's right.  It's your first time here.

(Letterman looks out window behind him and turns back to audience and says "Wow")
(Audience cheers wildly)

FAWCETT: This is mine. It's just water?

LETTERMAN: Yeah.

FAWCETT: My God.

LETTERMAN: (Attempting to change the subject) Look how nice you look. That's a lovely picture. You look great there on camera.

FAWCETT: No, I don't like the way I look.

(Audience cheers)
(Corky falls down off camera)

LETTERMAN: What happened? What happened? Are you all right, Corky? Did you go down? One of our stage managers went down, hit the deck. Are you all right? Are you OK?

SHAFFER: What happened? What's he doing?

LETTERMAN: Oh, you tripped on a cable.

SHAFFER: I don't blame him. 

(Audience laughs)
(Yet another Basic Instinct shot from Farrah)

FAWCETT: Has that ever happened before?

LETTERMAN: Only on his honeymoon. I don't even know what that means.

FAWCETT: Lots of firsts, lots of firsts.

LETTERMAN: Hang on a second now, Farrah. Let me see what we're doing here now. We have to take you down for x-rays? Are you gonna be all right?

FAWCETT: But I want to finish my story.

LETTERMAN: All right. We're coming right back. We'll be right back with Farrah Fawcett, ladies and gentlemen.

(Commercials)

LETTERMAN: Welcome back to Nightline. So what were we talking about, your artwork?
I want to show some of these. How many times have you been in Playboy, by the way?

FAWCETT: The first time was 1978 with all my clothes on, first time I think anybody -- and it's so interesting. I was thinking back the other day, because there were two covers. Hef wanted one and I wanted the other. What gave me the guts? I called him up. I said, "No. I like this one." So we were arguing.

LETTERMAN: That's a smart thing to have done, appear in Playboy with your clothes on. I think that really -- that satisfies and calls -- I don't know what I'm talking about.

(Audience laughs) 

But I think it's a shrewd thing for you to have done, and you've been in two more times, and you're on the cover of this one. Let's just take a look at this. We have to be sort of careful.

FAWCETT: Right. You don't have the other cover?

LETTERMAN: Well, what other cover are you talking about? The other cover, meaning what?

FAWCETT: No. There are two.

LETTERMAN: And here's TV Guide.

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: I had my clothes on.

LETTERMAN: And you're naked in TV Guide as well. Wow, look at Thursdays at 9:00. 

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: No, stop, no.

LETTERMAN: Is this the cover you're talking about?

FAWCETT: No, not that one. I don't like that one. That's the 1978. Hef won.

LETTERMAN: Right. Anyway, did we get all of the ones?

FAWCETT: No.

LETTERMAN: If you have a second, what's the deal on this guy? What's happening there? Who is that guy? What is that all about?

(Letterman shows a Calvin Klein ad showing a guy in underwear)

LETTERMAN: "Look at me. I'm in my underpants."

FAWCETT: No. What does that say?

LETTERMAN: I don't know. I just -- there you go.

FAWCETT: I don't know.

LETTERMAN: Get into a 12-step program immediately.

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: See, there's another one.

LETTERMAN: This is the one. Let's look at some of these.

FAWCETT: Two covers.

LETTERMAN: Two covers of this issue?

FAWCETT: Yes, two different covers.

LETTERMAN: I see, and what is the other cover?

FAWCETT: It's, uh, different. 

(Audience laughs)

It's -- oh, wait, maybe I can show it.

LETTERMAN: It would be really funny if the other cover was identical.

FAWCETT: Well, all right.

LETTERMAN: That would be silly, wouldn't it?

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: Farrah, let's just show some of these, if we can, because they're lovely. Actually, this is kinetic artwork.

FAWCETT: It -- Kinet? Really? What do you mean?

LETTERMAN: Like in motion, the human form.

FAWCETT: Oh, that's the other one.

LETTERMAN: Yeah, that's nice. Can we show that?

FAWCETT: Yes, yes, because you get -- Yes, so it's the first time Playboy has ever done two covers, two different covers of the same --

LETTERMAN: There's one right there. We can't show that too long.

FAWCETT: No, you can't see --

LETTERMAN: Otherwise there will be trouble in the control room.

FAWCETT: It's bubble wrap.

LETTERMAN: It's bubble wrap. All right. But I want to show the one with the paint there, show you're actually --

FAWCETT: What?

LETTERMAN: Now what have I done? I can't find it. We had them clipped earlier.

FAWCETT: Because, you know, the thing is -- first of all it's my -- my --

(Letterman sits back and looks at the Playboy and audience hoots)

Give me the damn thing.

LETTERMAN: There's a thing there. I just wondered something. Wow, hey, hello! 

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: There are things in here that I've never seen.

LETTERMAN: Yeah, I know. Things have changed. Here, there you go. Let's just show this one. Is this one all right? Tell the people what we're looking at there, because this looks like classic sculpture.

FAWCETT: Well, yes, well, OK. The thing is I had on paint, so -- that's one that's more -- You could just cover that, cover that.

LETTERMAN: How long did it take you to get the paint off?

(Farrah puts her hand over a picture of her breasts and the audience hoots and applauds)

FAWCETT: You know what, it took a long time, it took an hour, and there was only hot water, scalding, scalding, a little joke they played on me.

LETTERMAN: Oh, really?

FAWCETT: Yeah.

LETTERMAN: Now, Farrah, on the pay-per-view special, is it an hour long?

FAWCETT: It's 58 minutes.

LETTERMAN: 58 minutes? 

(Audience laughs)

FAWCETT: Okay, that's another first. It's another first. 

(Audience laughs)
(Farrah appears exasperated)

Did you know that?

LETTERMAN: No, I didn't know. I thought it was an hour, but I didn't realize it was 58. 

(Audience laughs and applauds) 

Did you run out of steam? What happened? You couldn't do an hour, huh?

FAWCETT: The thing is that they have their regulations. I don't know why but --

LETTERMAN: I know, but what kind of things do you --

FAWCETT: What do you mean you know? Because it's the first time --

LETTERMAN: What do you do on the show?

FAWCETT: Because this is the first time that there's ever been a pay-per-view -- what's wrong?

LETTERMAN: Well, nothing.

FAWCETT: Special that is a non-live event.

LETTERMAN: Are you taking calls? Are you taking calls on that show?

FAWCETT: Not Mike Tyson, not a concert, but OK, am I taking calls?

LETTERMAN: Yeah, on the show?

FAWCETT: I'm not there. 

(Audience laughs) 

In fact, that's what I say in it, when I was doing the shooting I was --

LETTERMAN: Right, but you also do some painting on the show.

FAWCETT: Yes, yes.

LETTERMAN: Okay, pay-per-view special on June 11th.

FAWCETT: That's right.

LETTERMAN: Well, I hope it's a big success for you, and congratulations on a lovely life and a wonderful career.

(Farrah giggles and audience laughs and applauds) 

Thank you for being here. You've been a great guest. Pleasure meeting you. Thank you very much.

FAWCETT: Thank you. Thank you.

LETTERMAN: Farrah Fawcett. We'll be right back with John Fogerty.

(Audience applauds)

THE END
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Late Show With David Letterman Webpage>
Farrah Fawcett
The Late Show
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June 6th 1997
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