Robert Hofler, VARIETY'S THE MOVIE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE editor: Mr. Media Audio Interview

Cover of The Out-of-Towners

Nobody asked, but here are a couple of the movies that changed my life:

The Out-of-Towners with Jack Lemmon. The first movie I ever saw at a drive-in with my parents. Scared me out of New York City for years.

Superman with Christopher Reeves. I believed a man could fly.

Serpico with Al Pacino. I saw a topless woman on screen for the first time.

Star Wars. I was lucky enough to be at the red carpet, New York City premiere. When that first battle cruiser went across the 70 mm screen, I never looked at mbies the same way again.

And then there was the first time I saw porno in a movie theater. I was working at the old Royal Park Theater 4 in Gainesville, Florida, and we showed Debbie Does Dallas at a 5 p.m. show. Good thing I saw that show; the police thereafter confiscated our print.

So that brings us to my guest today, Variety magazine senior editor Robert Hofler, who is author of a fun new book called Variety’s The Movie That Changed My Life.

You can LISTEN to this interview with ROBERT HOFLER,editor of VARIETY'S THE MOVIE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE, by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player above!

Copyright 2009 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Joe Pistone, DONNIE BRASCO: UNFINISHED BUSINESS author, ex-FBI agent: Mr. Media Interview

My favorite book in the 1970s was Serpico by Peter Maas, the story of a New York City cop who seemingly single-handedly fought the force of corruption in the city’s police department. I read all the books of that genre in that era, from Supercops to The Valachi Papers and The French Connection.

One of the most fascinating parts of those works was always the tales of cops who went undercover to infiltrate the bad guys, from drug dealers to the Mafia.

No one ever did undercover police work better or with more distinction than Joe Pistone, who you probably know better as “Donnie Brasco.” Brasco became a household name in the 1980s as the undercover character played by Pistone, perhaps the ballsiest FBI agent ever. His six years undercover ultimately led to testimony that sent more than 200 mobsters to jail and – indirectly, several to their deaths.

Pistone was famously portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 1997 movie, Donnie Brasco, which co-starred Al Pacino and was based on Pistone's book of the same name.

He’s just published a new book – with Charles Brandt -- Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business, that fills in some gaps from the first book.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with JOE PISTONE -- a.k.a. "DONNIE BRASCO" -- by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!