"A Tale of Two Simpsons"

Pierce connects with an actress who had worked with Autumn Weston on the b-horror movie Leprechaun in which Jennifer Anniston starred in her first leading role. Here, Pierce learns that Autumn’s doctor- who had overprescribed her electric shock therapy— had attended many of Don’s parties. Pierce later connects with drug dealer Royce Newton who takes Pierce to a Laker game and later to a party at the team owner, Dr. Jerry Buss' estate. Royce has a falling out with Pierce after learning he tried to contact Autumn Weston and that he’s found little evidence to clear his name implicating his cocaine with Don’s death. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Ballad of Hollywood. Jack and the Ridge
Cage in Hollywood, Shack hit the big time and win
to make movies. From I Heart Radio, the Based on
True Events anthology, we chronicle true events in the Hollywood tradition,
that is to say, adhering to the facts as long

(00:22):
as the facts don't get in the way of a
good story. First up, the Down the Definitive Episode podcast
series on Hollywood producer Don Simpson. Episode five, A Tale
of Two Simpsons. Pierce learns that Autumn Weston's doctor was
a regular at Don's house parties. After Pierce received the
three thousand dollar hotel bill, he approached the front desk

(00:44):
and did what anyone with less than two thousand dollars
in his checking account would do. He smiled and requested
a late checkout. There was no point in contesting the bill.
He had naively followed Royce Newton's instructions. Dude, they just
need a credit card from the person staying at the hotel.
A warry brow. I'll take care of the bill. But
repeated calls to Royce's pager went unanswered. The only other

(01:05):
number he had was from an actress at the point
Doom party she had mistakenly thought Pierce was the actress
rufus Sewell, Pierce was happy enough and drunk enough to
oblige her with onset stories of his latest film called
Comfort Farm and what it was like to work with
the young actress Kate Beckinsale. Now he had the daunting
task of impersonating an Olivier Award winning actor in order
to find Hollywood's most notorious celebrity drug dealer. This recording

(01:29):
was Pierce's recollection after leaving the actress's apartment. Pierce has
edited her name out of privacy concerns. I'm now standing
outside the art deco Fontenoy apartments in Whitley Hines, a
stone straw away from the Hollywood hips to dance club
late to a cafe and the dive bar bordiness where
Charles mccowski dragged boilermakers and wrote notes from a dirty

(01:52):
old man on cocktail napkins. I've just left the apartments
of the actress mel one of the doors of the
Leprecorn horror film trilogy. Wow is that regal? But how
are you? I'm electrican and me to you, and yet
despite her successes, she has not gotten over her disappointment

(02:14):
that the actress who beat her out of the lead
in the first Leprecorn film, Jennifer Aniston, now has a
lead role on a hot new television sitcom. The apartment
and deco remodel has just been freshly painted, and there
are still tarts on the floor. The paint fumes are strong.

(02:36):
I feel slightly lightheaded. I'm offered a glass of vodka
and a bowl of chips and guaq made fresh from
a Fueto avocado tree at the courtyard. It is evident
that Melan has been drinking. She lands one more dig
at Jennifer Aniston, chalking up success in this town to

(02:57):
having connections. It's not who you know until you blow
as sure how the talent and hard work will inevitably
pay dividends, She replied. It's easier for male artist being
an actress in this town and not going old Peg
and Whistle. Pierce, a film historian, knew the Entwhistle story

(03:19):
all too well. Young ingenue Starlett moves to Hollywood, broken home,
an orphan. She comes to town looking to be a star,
But what is she really looking for? To be loved?
Of course, she's immensely talented. Played head a gobbler on Broadway,
yet she can't get a movie role. Rejection upon rejection,
she gives everything blood, sweat and tears. Finally, her big break,

(03:44):
Thirteen Women with Myrna Loy. She's made it, only to
find at the premier screening nearly all her scenes end
up on the cutting room floor. Washed up at twenty four,
she climbs up the Hollywood sign on Mount Lee under
a starless night. Standing up on the letter H she
leaves a note, I'm a coward. I'm sorry. If I

(04:04):
had done this a long time ago, it would have
saved a lot of pain, and jumps to her death
side note. A few years earlier, a young actress went
to the theater and, after seeing Peg on stage, declared,
I want to be pagant Whistle. The actress Betty Davis
Pierce checks for a reaction to his retelling of the
most tragic of actress tales. She seems to concur that

(04:26):
show business will destroy an actress's self esteem, and then
asked me whether she needs a nose job. A delivery
messenger had just dropped off a script, It's a play Moliere,
to be performed at a black box on Melrose. She
asked my advice on whether to pursue Moliere on Melrose

(04:47):
or an adult movie role on Spice Channel that pays
two thousand dollars a week. She's very keen on the
Spice Channel opportunity and indulge your curiosity. The Spice Channel
was an American softcore cable TV offering in the mid nineties.
For those that didn't pay for the subscription, the channel

(05:10):
would offer a scrambled video blurring the naked actors in
a sort of psychedelic painting collage known among horny teenage
boys as a castle Corn. Because she paused, I tried
to segue into her relationship with Autumn Western. She immediately
becomes defensive. She wants to know if I'm interested romantically

(05:30):
in Autumn. It is Autumn I should know doesn't date actors.
I momentarily forget. She thinks I'm rufus Seoul. I tell
her I am concerned about Autumn's well being. I recognized
the marks on her temples. I knew from my time
at bethelhum Royal that excessive ect can lead to marks

(05:52):
and burns on the head and face. What I learned
about Autumn Western shocks me to the core. Under the
direction of her doctor, Autumn Western had undergone electro shock
therapy for two minutes sessions, a total of twenty seven times.

(06:12):
I had known and firmly believe electro shock to be
quite effective as the gold standard for depression and psychosis,
but only have used for short sessions and over a
limited number of treatments. The duration a number of sessions
administered to Autumn suggested medical malpractice at best, criminal action

(06:33):
are worse. I pressed for the name of the doctor
who had prescribed the treatment. She replies she doesn't remember
the doctor's name, only that she had met him at
a party in her famous producer's house. Was it the
producer Don Simpson? I referenced some of his films Flashdance,
Top Gun to jarb her memory. I wasn't at all

(06:56):
surprised when she said yes. But before I can find
out anything more about Autumn or her doctor or her
relationship to Don, my pager buzzes. Pierce finds himself back
on the move. The number on his pager linked Royce
Newton to the famous Sunset Marquis Hotel. The Marquis was

(07:16):
a hidden oasis designed for rock stars to party on
night and sleep all day, which explained why the hotel
was mostly empty. At eleven am in the lobby, I
spied George Michael and his Caesar style bowl cut. I
know he's theo bell Air sunglasses, and remind myself to
see if I might later find a pair of discount
At a table nearby, La Lover is sipping tea and

(07:39):
frowning in silence with his wife, the actress Julia Roberts.
I wonder if they're going to make it. It had
taken me ten minutes to find off street parking, and
by the time I've reached the Paul Cabaners, Royce is
nowhere to be found. My pager goes off again, another
message from Royce, another locale. I begin to feel like

(08:05):
Joseph Cotton, looking for the whereabouts of Harry Line instead
of the back alleys of Vienna. I'm hit to an
insider's look at the most exclusive hotels in l A.
I'm also privy to a day in the life of
a celebrity drug dealer. Where would Royce go next? Beverly
Wilsher four seasons at the New Hotspots sky bar at

(08:30):
every stop by encounter an apologetic front death person Mr
Newton has left in haste to his next business meeting.
The only positive development in my wild dash around town
is my newfound confidence in using the Thomas Guide. My
pager goes off again an apology. Let me buy you lunch,

(08:51):
he says. I drive through a rundown fish and chip
stretch in mid city to find Royce stressed like a
dog's dinner in any product, digging into a paper play
of beans and pastor joint Cold Sky tacos. When I
trying to discuss the hotel bill, he cuts me off.

(09:12):
My worries don't compare to what he's going through right now.
As it turned out, Royce did indeed have worries. He
explained why he was so difficult to reach. The network
E Television had been camped out outside his mobile home
in Point Doom. There were reports the l APT was
zeroing in on him as a possible suspect, A suspect

(09:32):
for what Pierce asked, Don wasn't murdered. It's o J Man,
Royce groaned, they're linking me back to o J. A
year ago, Pierce reported how Royce was implicated at the
o J trial. O J's defense team tried to discredit
the testimony of OJ's former friend the x cop Ron
Ship by suggesting Ship was a party hound and that Royce,

(09:55):
who was known to be both o J and Nicole
Brown's drug dealer, dealt Ship as well. What was even
more incriminating for Royce was the Johnny Cochrane Columbian cartel
theory that only a drug cartel was ruthless enough to
commit such a gruesome knife crime, and that it was
the Colombians drugs presumably sold by Royce to Nicole o

(10:16):
J and Fay Resnick that sparked the Colombians to go
after Resnick over an unpaid drug debt. But when the
Colombians arrived, they found Nicole and Ronald Goldman, and naturally,
as one must do if one is a ruthless cartel,
they cut them up in horrific retribution. The theory was
just that, a theory, but it did serious damage to

(10:37):
the case of o J's prosecution and did serious damage
to the drug dealing business of Royce Newton. At the time,
Royce had only been off probation for two years. Here's
Pierce describing Royce recounting his troubles with the law been

(11:00):
arrested outside a nightclub with ten ounces of cocaine. As
Royce tells it, it was Rip James's bodyguards who set
me up. As soon as I came out of the club,
the cops were onto me. They sent me straight to Chino.
I was stabbed twice in six months. Even so, I
was more afraid to leave prison than to stay in.

(11:23):
I knew the Colombians would come after me. I owed
them ten ounces of coke. Two days out of prison,
five wits pull up in the driveway. I don't have
a gun. I'm in sober living as part of probation.
My sober living buddy is trying to call the cops,
but the Colombians have cut the phone cord. One guy
puts his hands around my neck. Another guy grabs my shirt.

(11:46):
They all jumped me at once and start hugging me,
all ten of them high on coke. Holler and respect.
I didn't spill names. I passed the loyalty test. As
a reward, they put out a twenty our stack. They're
not fronting me. It's a gift. Just like that. I'm

(12:09):
open for business. In no time. My whole cleantel has
come back. Jack and Kiefer, Julian Lennon, and the King
of Sweden. Royce tells Pierce how he had struggled in
high school and thought he was probably dyslexic, and that
the King of Sweden was also dyslexic, and that their
relationship evolved over a shared history of being unable to spell.

(12:30):
A lot of Royce's relationships with clients were on that
sort of personal level. That's why he'd been so successful.
I ask about his relationship with Don and whether that
relationship was personal. Royce reveals he was just out of
high school when he was arrested for breaking into Don's office.
He stole one of his gold records off the wall.

(12:50):
We can never verify which gold record, but it was
most likely the gold record from the Flash Dance soundtrack.
Dawn didn't press charges. Dawn told the cop that Royce
was his assistant. How to explain nicking the gold record simple,
Don had asked Royce to have his record professionally polished.

(13:11):
Royce love Don right then and there. Don introduced Royce
to everybody, Don Henley, Don Johnson, but Don Simpson made
sure it was the Dawn and nobody else that would
get first DIBs on Royce's drugs. Don would fly Royce

(13:31):
in for his infamous Aspen Ski party. Royce could easily
clear a hundred thousand dollars in a weekend. Those were
the glory days when you couldn't buy a car without
doing a line with a dealer, or sell a script
without doing a line with your agent. That was l
a and the eighties. But in the nineties everything changed.

(13:53):
The drugs were still flowing, but now Royce had to
be far more discreet, like awl in the Limo Man.
According to Pierce Our, the Limo Man was Royce's main rival.
Whereas Royce was conspicuous, Our the Limo Man was rarely seen.
He would show up to a deal in a chauffeured limo.
The driver would take the client's money. A second limo

(14:15):
would then pull up to make the drug exchange. When
Don was at the studio. It was said that Don
would pay a premium for how to hide his cocaine
inside a screenplay to then be delivered to Don before
his story meetings. For as much as friends warned Royce
to be more discreet, he didn't seem to heed their advice.
The Los Angeles Laker owner Jerry Bass is a friend,

(14:36):
and Royce has been given floor seats for Magic Johnson's
comeback from retirement game after his HIV diagnosis our watchers.
Royce greets the security guard outside the four room club
with a low five handshake followed by a high five,
a sleight of hand drug for cash transaction so obvious
a four year old child could spot it from the

(14:58):
private entrance. We take the private elevator to a private
door that leads to a private member's only club, but
the vibe once inside is oddly not so private. There
are pretty people next to not so pretty people that
are clearly money people. The pairings are obvious. The pretty
attracts the money, and the money attracts the pretty. It's

(15:20):
all transparent and transactional. It's no wonder I feel so uninvited,
possessing neither the money nor the pretty. Royce, on the
other hand, is at ease working the room. We sit
down in an exclusive roped off section where the buffet
is fifty ft long with premium states and seafood and

(15:42):
giant dessert cakes. Royce mentions needed to go see the
Lakers owners is sweet. I dine alone on lobster thermidore
and a dry martini while watching a tribute to Magic Johnson.
I could see why they call him magic. He's a
the guilic performer. You can call it the night that
the lights went back on in Los Angeles. Magic Johnson

(16:06):
talking to his teammates on his return January. I find
Magic's come back inspiring. I'm reminded that I too have
been out of the game for quite some time, and
like Magic, I have lost none of my love of
the game. There's an excitement in the air. I follow
the fans exiting into the arena and take my seat.

(16:29):
But welcome to Magic Counsin Media. I haven't been a
bug like this in l A since the late eighties,
when it was really showtime. On front row, I spotted
Sharon Stone in a copper pant suit of blue tinted sunglasses,
her hair cropped short from filming her new movie Sliver.
She holds a beer and appears to be smiling in

(16:50):
my direction. I look around to see if perhaps her
attention might be on someone else, but I'm the only
one there. In my mind, I make the Bob Evans
Sliver connection and think, my god, this is as good
as chance as any to go up and start a
conversation with a glamorous movie star. It's a few minutes

(17:11):
into the game before Magic makes an appearance. They speak
for us here. Just as Magic enters, Royce takes a
seat beside me. He makes no mention of the fact

(17:32):
he's abandoned me for the past hour. He flashes a
knowing look to Jack Nicholson and then waves to Sharon,
all of them wearing their sunglasses inside the arena. I
now understand why they call the Lakers showtime. In the
fourth quarter, the courtside crowd begins to disperse. I asked

(17:54):
Royce why it's l a man. He responds, I later
learned that everybody in l A leads early to beat
the traffic. Royce informs me he needs to replenish his inventory.
There's an after party for Magic at the House of
the Lake, his owner. The night, Royce and Pierce pull

(18:15):
up to Pickfair Dr. Jerry Buss's estate in bel Air.
All the glamorous estates seemed to have their own namesake.
Pickfair was the surname blend of the actress Mary Pickford
and the actor Douglas Fairbanks. It was the first private
home in Los Angeles with a swimming pool at fourteen bedrooms,
twenty four baths, and thousand square feet. Pick Fair parties

(18:37):
in the nineteen twenties and thirties were as you could imagine, legendary,
But the parties came to an end when Mr Fairbanks
had a torrid affair with the lady Sylvia Ashley Mary
Pickford filed for divorce. It was said she lived in
the home for the next forty years under a dark
cloud of alcohol and depression. The house would fall into
total disrepair until the Lakers owner dr Us snatched it

(19:01):
up and restored it to its former glamour. Royce shows
me around the party. Just hours ago, I was sitting
called side close enough to slap a high five after
a maid basket. Now I'm standing close enough to do
the same, although I wouldn't dare. Instead of cheerleaders, they're
now surrounded by the most beautiful women I've ever seen

(19:24):
in my life. One Laker catches my attention. He's one
of the bigger guys with a throwback seventies Jerry Carl.
He dances by the massive speakers. No groupies, no pretty
young ladies. He's there dancing alone, grooving to the music.

(19:46):
I learned from Royce. This is a c. Green. The
reason he's not surrounded by babes, Royce tells me, is
because he's a devout Christian and a Virgin. I marvel
of this man, at the highest vain and yet abstinent
from all temptations swirling around him. He was, in many

(20:08):
ways the polar opposite of Dawn. As I watched Mr
Green dance to earth Wind and Fire, I realized that
nobody at the party is having a better time than
Mr Green. Royce finds me and gestures to come out
to the pool where we could talk away from the music.

(20:28):
He tells me he had buyers lined up for tonight,
but they backed out. Hearing rumors of Don Simpson's death
and possible overdose. His prophecy had runned true. Don's death
was bad for business. Word is now out that it
might have been Royce's coke that had killed Don. Voice

(20:49):
is distraught. It's apparent he's been diddling into his own product.
After failing to sell him. I've struggled to console him.
His pager beats and wanders off to take the call.
Several young women jump into the pool topless. Nobody seems
to pay them much attention. There's an attitude much like

(21:10):
the past or derv that there's more where that came from.
Royce comes back, his anger channeled into a controlled fury.
I attempt to calm him down, but it appears I
am the object of his wrath. He wants to know
why I am asking questions about Autumn Western. I should

(21:31):
be asking questions as to what the police have found
at Don Simpson's house, and why the fuck did the
autopsy reveally died of natural causes when everyone in town
knows that Don did a shipload of fucking drugs, some
of which were sold by Royce. Did I understand this
could mean a second degree murder charge under death by distribution,

(21:54):
which for Royce would mean a third time in prison
under California penal law. That's three strikes at twenty five
years to fucking life. I follow Royce through the party,
attempting to explain why I had made a house call
to Autumn Western's friend. Well, Royce is unhinged. He orders

(22:15):
me to leave town immediately. If ever I try to
contact Autumn or any of our friends, he will call
upon his mates. The Columbians to drive me up the
coast to feed me to the elephant seals of Piedras
Black Cass. Any hope of Royce paying my hotel bill
or the remote charts that he would continue paying my

(22:35):
way for the foreseeable future was smothered in a cloud
of exhaust from its Lamborghini. He's left me at the party.
Pierce ended up getting a ride home from the only
silber person at the party, A C. Green, the Christian virgin.
Mr Green wished me good luck, and he really meant it,

(22:55):
the implication that in fact I really needed some good luck.
Here was a devoutly pious man offering prayers that made
me feel so impious, and yet I knew of no
sins that I had committed. That evening, I walked past
the lobby, avoiding high contact with the desk cluck. My

(23:17):
plan was to grab my backs, return my Firebird at
the airport by a return ticket to England, and once
in England could test the credit card bill. I felt
a dreaded sense of deja vu as I was once
again about to get run out of Los Angeles without
a story to write on Don Simpson. I wondered if

(23:39):
other journals were looking into Don's story. The Los Angeles
Times writer Chuck Phillips and The AP writer Michael Freeman
had been active in chronicling Don's solicit affairs. Perhaps one
of them would crack the case. Pierce entered to find
an invoice under the door. It was marked paid in four.

(24:00):
There was an envelope with a message from the hotel clerk, Ms.
Maxwell has paid your bill. She asks that you meet
her for breakfast. Pierce notes the address six five Stone
Canyon Roade, Don Simpson's address. Listen to the Don on

(24:37):
the I Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts. Episode five Disclaimers. The actress friend of our
fictitious Autumn Weston is also fictitious. She did not star
in any of the Jennifer Anniston Leprecron trilogy movies. The
story of the actress peg Entwhistle, who killed herself by
jumping off the Hollywood Sign is true. It is likely
that Don, with his extensive knowledge of Hollywood history and

(25:00):
his own personal struggles as an actor, knew of the story.
As we mentioned, our drug dealer Royce Newton is inspired
by Don's drug dealer Race Newman. Race might have met
Don for the first time when Race tried to break
into Don's office to steal one of Don's gold records.
We don't know if their relationship was anything more than transactional,
but knowing Don, it's likely Don and Race were friendly

(25:21):
on the party circuit. Don, according to the documentary Death
by Excess, did by drugs from one of Race's rivals,
Al the Limo man, who reportedly, per Don's request, delivered
cocaine packed inside a movie script while Don was in meetings.
The scenes with Pierce trailing Royce around Los Angeles are fictitious,
including the recollection of the Night of Magic, Johnson's comeback

(25:41):
from HIV game, and the after party at Dr Jerry
Buss's house. The Laker power forward. A. C. Green was not,
to our knowledge, at any of Mr Buss's parties. Mr
Green was reportedly a virgin while playing in the NBA
and did not touch drugs or alcohol. He even refused
to spray champagne in the locker room during the Lakers
Championship sell Libration. While A. C. Lived in total abstinence

(26:03):
and Don lived in total excess, they did share a
pious religious upbringing. They also both went to college in Oregon.
We wonder what might have been if a C could
have connected with Don when he was spiraling in the
depths of his horrible addiction.