Private Parts (1997 film)

Private Parts
Directed by	Betty Thomas
Produced by	Ivan Reitman
Written by	Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko (screenplay) Howard Stern (book)
Starring	Howard Stern Robin Quivers Mary McCormack
Music by	Porno for Pyros Marilyn Manson Dust Brothers Howard Stern
Cinematography	Walt Lloyd
Editing by	Peter Teschner
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	7 March 1997 8 May 1997 20 June 1997 20 November 1997
Running time	109 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000
Gross revenue	$41,198,146 (USA only)
IMDb • Allmovie

This article is about the 1997 film. For other uses, see Private Parts (disambiguation).

Private Parts is a 1997 biographical film directed by Betty Thomas from a script by Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko.^[1] The film follows the life of radio personality Howard Stern from boyhood to the cusp of break-out success as a shock jock. It is based on Stern's autobiography Private Parts which was released in 1993.

Synopsis

Following an appearance at the MTV Music Video Awards (as alter-ego "Fartman"), Stern boards a flight to go home and finds himself seated next to an attractive woman visibly repulsed by him. In order to win her over, he begins to tell her his life story using his "radio persona" for a wedge. At the same time that the film charts his rise from a routine, if not mediocre, DJ to humorous morning personality, it also follows his relationship with Alison Berns who will become his first wife. Both of these elements of his life were not without their ups and downs.

Cast

Reception

The film premiered at the top of the box-office in its opening weekend with a gross of $14.6 million. It grossed more than $41 million in total, with a production budget of $20 million.^[2]

It received mostly positive reviews from critics, most notably from Siskel and Ebert who were frequent guests of Stern's radio show. Some critics claimed that the film glossed over his use of sexual and racial humor.^[3]

For his performance, Stern won the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Male Newcomer. The awards are given by the result of write-in votes from fans and Stern won by a wide margin. Stern was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy. He was also nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst New Star.

Other versions

Universal HD version

The film premiered in 1080i High Definition on Universal HD on March 11, 2008. It is the uncut feature-film version with minor commercial interruptions.

USA Network version

For the film's basic cable premiere on USA Network in 2000, Stern appeared in new taped segments in which he occasionally pauses the film to comment on it. USA premiered the film even though no alternate scenes had been filmed to replace the nudity nor had any alternate dialogue been recorded to replace the profanity for television broadcasts. The nudity was simply pixelized and the profanity bleeped. In 2007, VH-1 began airing this version.

Rough cut

A substantially different version of Private Parts appeared on Internet fan sites devoted to Stern sometime in May 2006. The newly-found version is an early rough cut of the film with substantially different dialogue and music, several deleted scenes, and a very different ending. Some of the deleted scenes, such as Howard being fired and escorted out of WNBC, appeared in the film's original trailer and publicity materials before being cut. The picture quality of the Internet version is very poor with compression artifacts, VHS artifacts, and visible dust on the print.^{[citation needed]}

Video cover

Alternate VHS cover

When the film was released on video, some store customers objected to the original cover featuring Stern with no clothes on. An alternate version of the cover was produced featuring Stern fully clothed.

Soundtrack

Private Parts: The Album
Soundtrack
Released	February 25, 1997 (1997-02-25)
Genre	Rock, pop
Label	Warner Brothers
Professional reviews
Allmusic link

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2007)

• Stern, Quivers and the rest of the cast of The Howard Stern Show were still broadcasting five days a week during the production of the film. At the end of every show, they would immediately drive to the film's set.
• Stern's love for his then-wife Alison is a central theme in the movie, and she even has a bit role as one of the receptionists at WNBC during the "Lance Eluction" segment. Howard and Alison divorced four years after the movie.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus was originally cast as Stern's wife, Alison, but later backed out because she wanted to spend time with her family.
• A few scenes during Stern's college years were filmed at CUNY Lehman College in The Bronx, New York.
• Producers originally considered Jeff Goldblum to play Stern.
• Ozzy Osbourne has a cameo in the film, commenting on Stern saying: "What a fuckin' jerk."
• LL Cool J is featured on the film's soundtrack album with Red Hot Chili Peppers in the song "I Make My Own Rules". But he had not gotten Def Jam Records' permission to perform on it. His name was blanked out on the album's track listing but he is still credited as a composer under his real name "James T. Smith".
• In the film Stern drives a 1970 Plymouth Valiant four-door sedan.
• For the scenes that featured Stern in high school, filming was done at Union High School. Years later Artie Lange would join the Howard Stern show and coincidentally graduated from the very same school several years prior.
• "Dee Dee", the WWDC Program Director portrayed by Allison Janney, was in reality Denise Oliver, but her real name was never spoken in the movie, probably for legal reasons.
• John Stamos stood in for Luke Perry for the Fartman MTV scene. Perry later admitted that he feared the movie would not be good and turned down the chance to play himself.
• The Private Parts film cover/poster bears a close resemblance to the album cover of The High and the Mighty (album) by American rock musician Donnie Iris.
• WNBC Program director Kevin Metheny is referred to as Pig Virus in the book and in real life,^[4][5] but is named Kenny Rushton and referred to as Pig Vomit in the film.^[1]
• The last WNBC Program Director Howard Stern worked under, Dale Parsons, is not mentioned in the movie at all, although he was WNBC's Program Director at the time Stern was fired.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Private Parts

• Private Parts (film) at the Open Directory Project
• Private Parts at the Internet Movie Database
• Private Parts at Box Office Mojo
• Private Parts (1997) at Rotten Tomatoes