The Belle de Jour of Beverly Hills

Pierce is upset that John Gregory Dunne had penned Don’s obituary. We learn that Pierce and Don had a falling out and that Pierce knew little of Don’s dark days before his death. A tip from Robert Evans leads Pierce to Don’s madame- Madame Cora. Pierce learns that Don and the madame were close friends dating back to when they were both first starting out in Hollywood. Cora believes it’s no coincidence that the LAPD is staked outside her house just days after Don’s death. 

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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 when
to make 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 four, the Belle
du jour of Beverly Hills. If Don needed a shot
of publicity, Pierce provided the headlines rock star, exact, Hollywood renegade,

(00:43):
American maverick, speed freak, bad boy. Pierce made Don infamous.
Every journalist in town wanted an interview. Perhaps the one
interview Don came to regret was the infamous you know
what I like to do it for PM, bore myself
a whiskey, cut a few lines, and abuse a screenwriter interview.

(01:06):
This was right after Beverly Hills Cop, when Don was
the hottest producer in town. All the studios wanted to
sign him to a huge deal. One would think a
guy in Don's position would play things close to the vest,
but Don, being Don let it rip. Most of the
interview is set up as a day in the life
with the world's most successful producer. Don starts off by

(01:29):
threatening Newsweek, who do I have to kill over there?
In response to Newsweek failing to put him on the
cover next to Eddie Murphy to promote Beverly Hill's Cup,
never mind that he's the producer and not the star
of the movie. He then hurls a photo of his
ex girlfriend, shattering the picture frame. Don, we learn, is
in a lot of pain. He's recently cracked three ribs

(01:52):
by stabbing himself with his ski pole on a steep
run in Aspen. Later he'd tell the journalist it was
five ribs. The story changes every time he tells it.
He compares the pain of trying to talk with broken
ribs as the equivalent of the Holocaust. Yeah, he really
said that, and yet he continues talking. To numb the pain,
he takes out a bottle of whiskey and cuts a

(02:14):
few lines of cocaine. He tells the reporter that this
is his favorite thing to do at four pm. He
likes to pour a whiskey, cut a few lines, get
on the phone, and rip a screenwriter to shreds. He
then does just that, all the while wincing in pain
from his broken ribs. And that's only the first few
paragraphs of the article. After comparing his ski injury to

(02:36):
the Holocaust, he then goes on to insult Steven Spielberg,
excluding him from his top ten lists of directors for
Top Gun, as if Spielberg doesn't have a say in
the projects he chooses. Don makes it clear no matter
who directs Top Gun or any of his movies, the
real director will be Don. The script, the casting, the music,

(02:58):
the edit, the visuals all from the genius mind of
Don Simpson. During the interview, there's a call to Don's
assistant from Playgirl magazine. They've named Don one of their
most eligible bachelor's. Don reacts with mocking chagrin. You gotta
wonder was this Playgirl call set up to coincide with
Don's interview. On the call, Don modestly states he'd need

(03:21):
a body double, joking that Warren Beatty should be his
stand in. He goes on to say that if he
was a girl, he'd fuck Warren baby. On top of
the cocaine and the Holocaust comment and the Spielberg diss
and the Warren Beatty fantasy and the threats to Newsweek.
There are damning testimonials from Don's so called friends in
the business. One executive calls him a baby who wants

(03:44):
to play with his toys for a while until he
wants new toys. Babies can be cute until they piss
on you, then they're not cute at all. Mega I
c M Agent Jeff Berg calls him functionally psychotic. Don Steele,
head of Paramount, and his former protege, calls him a
fabricator of tall tales. But the most damning quote is

(04:05):
from Don himself. People want me, Don says, they may
hate me, but they want me. That's what being a
member of the club is all about. And without that
you might as well be dead. The last line strikes
a chord. Was Don trying to tell us something? Would
he be dead without the movies? The forecast is chillingly accurate.

(04:28):
Don was later said to be angry over the article,
not because his quotes were inaccurate, but because he spoke
his mind and didn't bother to edit himself. He couldn't
help it. Don was honest to a fault. Pierce vowed
to protect Don from his honesty to save Don from himself.
Aside from Pierce, the two journalists closest to Don were

(04:49):
the husband wife writing team Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne.
After Don's death, The New Yorker published Dunn's obituary on
Down in the Don wrote of how Don's doctor had
died a few months earlier. That had been bad news,
done rights a note of foreboding, and now Don himself

(05:10):
was dead. Several days later, Joan and I looked at
the notes of a telephone conversation we had with Don
in about the reporter character in our film Dharma Blue.
He's this guy who doesn't play by the rules, doesn't
play the odds, a loose cannon. Don said, he has
always gambled. He's always played alone, hand played on the edge.

(05:31):
In retrospect, we knew Don was talking consciously or unconsciously
about himself. Reading John Gregory duns obituary opened up an
old wound for Pierce. For years, Don had predicted that
he would live fast, die young, and Pierce would be
the one to write his legacy. But Don and Pierce

(05:52):
had a falling out after days of thunder, and according
to Pierce, they wouldn't speak again for another five years,
but then about a year before his death, Don reached
out Dangerous Minds with Michelle Peiffer had become a hit.
This was the beginning of Don's big comeback. Pierce had
been waiting for the call to get the exclusive, but

(06:12):
Don only called in Pierce to rant and rave over
Pierce's article on Hugh Grant. It was Don's belief that
Pierce had violated the celebrity journalist code that a prospected
journalist should never probe into a celebrity's private life. As
we noted, Pierce had written the Hugh Grant piece in
nine back when he was stranded in Los Angeles waiting

(06:36):
for his editors to fly him back to England. Sty
quid might have been the difference between Hugh Grant's private
encounter with the street Walker and a mohat scene around
the world. On the night Hugh Grant went cruising for company,
he only had sixty quid in his pocket. For a
hundred he could have spent the night in Divine Brown's

(06:57):
motel room. But for sixty have to get busy in
Hugh's car. That was a okay with Hugh. He was
missotted with Divine brown hot ink. He called her a
nod to our hot pink painted toenails. Divine had just
had a manny Peddy that day, and of him was

(07:18):
expecting good money from Divine the evening. She had no
clue the englishman of the BMW was a multimillionaire movie star,
and that was a okay with you. He rolled down
the window and introduced himself as Nigel. Divine would call
him nights throughout the evening, an evening that lasted all

(07:42):
of ten minutes. The evening they have lasted longer if
it weren't for the brake lights. While Divine got busy
bobbing on Hugh's huey under the steering wheel, Hugh's foot
tapped along on the brake pedal. Blinking lights caught the
attention of a cop patrolling the strip, and that was

(08:05):
the end of the evening for Hugh and Divine, but
not the end of the story. Hugh still had to
do the obligatory talk show appearances to promote his new movie.
Nine months when the talk show Larry King suggested he
go into psycho analysis for his Dirty Deed, Hugh responded that,

(08:26):
admitting to his goatsh behavior was all he needed to
clear his conscience. He was a naughty boy, he told America,
and for that he was sorry. The audiences went crazy
for his sheepish apology. They loved him all the more
for telling the truth. Meanwhile, Divine Brown was getting recognition

(08:49):
of our own appearances on how Its Stern brought her
paid endorsements and softborn movie work. In a matter of months,
she had made one million dollars, bought herself a Rolls
Royce and a rental in Beverly Hills. She made her
dance to have him, and she sent her two kids
to private school. This was a modern day pretty woman

(09:13):
fairy tale. While Hugh didn't gaze at the ending, in
the end things worked out rather nicely for Hugh and
Divine John Gregory Dunne, John Didion, Hugh Grant, Divine Brown,
Autumn Weston, Don Simpson. Their voices were swirling around in
Pierce's head as he drove through Beverly Hills looking for

(09:36):
the address of the madam who had sent Autumn Weston's
services to Robert Evans. At first glance, Pierce thought the
address was some mistake. Stone Canyon Road. That's where done lived.
How convenient for Don to have his madam right down
the street. I arrived at the Stone Canyon Road address.
In the rear view of my rented convertible, I noticed

(09:57):
a Mercedes parked down the street. Two middle aged men,
nondescript and inconspicuous but for the fact they are parked
outside the most notorious brothel in Los Angeles. I assume
the two men will go in first, as if that
is the protocol to give right of way when you're
the second party arriving at a brothel. I wait a minute,

(10:21):
but the two men stay in their car. After a
few minutes, I conclude that they are staying put. I
step out of my car at that very moment the
two men have gotten out of their car. There is
an awkward high noons standoff as we stare at one
another down the street. The two men then stepped back
inside the Mercedes, and one of them gives me the

(10:43):
nod and right of way. Now standing alone outside the brothel,
I have no choice but to go in. I find
a woman standing in the doorway. She looked early twenties,
ethnically ambiguous, hispanic that I noticed her make eye contact
with a handyman working on a broken sprinkler pipe. He

(11:06):
returns her nod as if to say it's okay to
knock on the door. At the time, Peter started nothing
of the exchange. He would later come to learn that
the so called handyman doubled as a scout, recruiting beautiful
women along the Sunset Strip to come work for the madam.
I gave the woman a wide berth, I'm sure how
to approach or whether to make conversation. As I wait

(11:30):
for someone to answer the door, I became keenly aware
that I had no invitation or references to vouch for
my business, nor was I carrying any money to pay
for any such business. A woman named Molly opens the door.
She has rock and roll joan, jet black hair, angular cheeks,
and pouty lips. I imagined if Mick Jagger and Charlotte

(11:53):
Gainsburg had a love child, she might grow up to
resemble Molly. Molly quickly waves the woman in and then
looked me up and down. Her mouth twists into a
Cheshire grin a warm invitation or disingenuous derision. I wasn't sure.
Perhaps it's simply standard greeting for a new john visiting

(12:15):
the brothel. She gestures for me to step inside. I'll
wait in the foyer alongside the woman that I just met.
At the door. Molly prompts me to follow upstairs to
Cora's bedroom. I smell something vaguely like French perfume. As
we descend the stairs, a swarm of Persian cats nip

(12:36):
at my ankles, their tiny teeth tearing through my suit trousers.
I frantically shaped them off. I hear Molly chuckling behind me.
I enter Cora's bedroom. Her maid brings in tea on
a tray. Cora lies in a nightgown, propped up in bed,
speaking on one of her six telephones. I recognized the language.

(13:00):
I was once hospital lies for gout under care of
Filipino nurses. She's speaking to go Log. The cats launched
onto Cora's bed, vying for her attention. Molly serves them lunch.
I see the tea set isn't intended for me. Molly
empties a takeout container of locks from Barney's Green Grass

(13:20):
and serves the cats on fine china. Cora takes another call,
this time in English. Pierce is now recording with the
device in his pocket, ten feet away from the infamous
Madame Cora lying in her bed. Well, nobody want to
head it, bratt, My girls are shaped. Pandering is the

(13:40):
criminal charge for hustling car girls. It's also an apt
description of Madame Cora. For you. Two fantastic nineteen year
olds volleyball girls from Orange County ready to dabl I
can get them on the blame tomorrow in time, but
a blue job and a late beanet. Don't pick it
out your schedules table agent. She hung up the phone.

(14:05):
She stroked one of her cats and assessed the sun
burnt English gentleman seated by the foot of her bed.
She appeared to be racking her memory, trying to figure
out where she may know him from Young Guns. At
the party, you drank too much, Don, and I called
you a cap. She remembered him from a party eight
years ago, and in fact, he did drink too much.

(14:27):
It was one of those premiere parties where the waiters
always seemed to be reappearing with a fresh drink. Donn
had asked Pierce to attend so he would write a
profile on his acting performance in Young Guns Too. Don
was set to play one of the Pinkerton Men. The
role proved to be another acting disappointment. His character wasn't
given a name. He's listed in the credits only as

(14:48):
Pinkerton Man. Pierce then started to explain how he showed
up at the wrong funeral. I wasn't invited. I would
have liked to pay my respec Cora spoke of how
she and Don had any conversations about death. One was
never going to die old. I was never going to
die up, Pierce laughed uncomfortably. Later he would admit he

(15:11):
was intimidated by this petite woman in her nightgown, stroking
her cats. There was an awkward beat. Here was Pierce's
chance to ask her about her connection to Autumn Weston
when I was dwelled leaving in the Philippines. But instead,
and without prompting, Cora launches into her life story. I
opened my proNT door to a Japanese soldier pointing a

(15:33):
baronette at my chest. The soldiers locked me and my
family in the house and said the umpire. We escaped
through a window. Never again was I scared of this.
Cora describes how her family moved to San Francisco and
how she ran away to live with a group of priests.
I I do the laundry. I realized I love to

(15:53):
play house. One day, I'm walking to the Castro and
get caught in a crowd of women and marsh topless
in front of the Clothic Movie Cinema. This was the
first erotic cinema festival in San Francisco. At the time,
a young councilwoman named Diane Feinstein was trying to make
a political name for herself and trying to shut down

(16:14):
the festival. Many of the filmmakers and the backers of
this festival say that the films they are now making,
and the ones particularly in the festival, are not pornographic,
but or or films. What do you think this maybe?
And uh, I I cannot say that this is not
the case. I think, uh that those films of what

(16:37):
I would call the softcore pornography at this point in time,
that are done with some amount of taste and are
done with some standards and plot are in one area.
The thing that I regret, Mr Williams, is that this
whole field is jeopardized right now because of the irresponsibility

(16:58):
of certain money hungry people. All these women broughtest with
their boobs hanging out while this one guy India is
handing out players by He was a ball of fire

(17:19):
and no hand. If you want to protect pree speech
by a ticket, watch evotic movies. She learned later the
guy was Don Simpson. They were in San Francisco at
the same time. His promotions got the festival attention and
national news that would lead to a free speech case
that would go all the way to the Supreme Court.

(17:41):
This would be the first of Don's many Forest Gump
style brushes with political history going to dentally. Both move
to Los Angeles at the same time. I'm marry her
two kids. Then my husband works out on me. I
go work at the flower shop in the Embassador Hotel
where they kill Kennedy's brother. Now I was good with flowers.

(18:03):
I matched the bouquet to the customer's request, and then
I make up sell for nicer flowers. Good training for
my present propation. One day a wealthy British lady came
in and ordered yellow roses. I tell her yellow roses
not good enough for such an equation. The woman says,
I'm the right person to take over her business. I

(18:27):
say what business she is? She makes a part to
me to buy her black book. The black book contained
listings of prostitutes and clients. She's retiring and it's mine
for five thousand dollars. The next day, my mother passes
away and my piance dies of heart attack, both same day.

(18:50):
I take it the sign I need to make the
change in my life. I call a woman, I buy
her book. Happy. Men in the book are did other
half geriatric, and the girls arecks. It takes three years
to build the business from scratch. Around this time, Don

(19:12):
was trying to find work at Paramount. I always tease
him I got imagined first. When he saw my house,
he wanted a house nearby. That's how we became neighbors.
We talked all the time. I was like the mother,
the shrink, the business advisor, or roll into one. Cora

(19:34):
tot a story about how she provided intel on a
famous actor. When he's trying to green light on American
Giga law, he worried about losing Richard gear Po lead.
The studio wants Trabolta. I have a client to go
to Trabolta scientology meeting. Says the script is too gay
and how it can ruin his image. Imagine that too gay?

(19:57):
Cora Toton that Travolta was backing out. He was going
to lose his start date. Don called Barry Diller. Travolta
was out. They need to make an opper to give
by Friday or they loose the movie. This is the
kind of Hollywood movie information only I know. After that,

(20:18):
don't always go to me for information. But my information
much bigger than Hollywood. That's why I have said in
Bones on my Bed, I know everything going on in
l a On the politicians, the cops, the judges, the
sport guys. I know secrets. So what do you think?

(20:43):
Do you want to write my book? It's a great book. No,
poor Filipino girl becomes powerful Hollywood madam. That's a story,
you know. They were interrupted by the sudden appearance of
the woman Pierce had seen earlier making eye contact with
the handyman. Is attempted to excuse himself, but Cora insisted
he stayed for the job. Interview good material, she says

(21:06):
for the book. From the tapes, we were only able
to render CORU's half of the conversation, what's your name?
Go to college? Lit at your shirts? I need to
see them. Show me your ask lift up your skirt.
Are you worried about him? I don't worry. He's all

(21:27):
right there. Don't be shy in my january in a
blocker room. We just had to work out. This back
and forth went on for several minutes, with Cora impatiently
demanding the woman to reveal herself and the woman politely declining.
Cora then abruptly leaves the bedroom. Pierce asked Molly where
she was going. Molly points to the window Cora has

(21:48):
confronted the two mustached men seen earlier in the Mercedes.
Pierce would later learn they were lap D vice squad
with Coragon. Molly sees the opportunity a d to Savage
her employer. She was a lousy businesswoman, too nice to
her girls. Her brothel was a pretty woman fantasy land

(22:08):
for girls to make some money before moving on to
better opportunities. If Molly were running the business, she'd hold
her girls on a tight leash. She'd keep them ragged
rough around the edges. Desperate, Molly's tone had become nasty.
She references some of the Arab clients and the mysterious
disappearance of a girl named Courtney Washington, a volleyball player
from Laguna who flew on a private jet to the

(22:31):
Middle East and never returned. Cora has now returned from
talking to the cops. She's in a state of dress.
I keep all by murder suspects, drug dealers. Last year
we thout me. That is lp D organized crime and
intelligent unit. Now they're trying to take me down. For

(22:51):
over twenty years, Cora had an immunity arrangement with the
l A p D. She would run her business in
exchange for providing the police with criminal intelligence. Cora suddenly
looked to Pierce with suspicion. Was it a coincidence that
the vice squad was camped outside at the very moment
Pierce decided to drop in for a chat? And what

(23:13):
of Dawn? Cora says, he dies three days ago under
suspicious circumstances, and now vice squad is watching his madam's
every move. Pierce tries to assure Cora he has nothing
to do with the vice squad. He tries to shift
the conversation, wondering aloud if perhaps Don was seeing prostitutes
outside of Chorus girls. Maybe I'm not the only madam

(23:36):
in town. Pierce, now an investigative journalist, mode, wondered if
perhaps this new madam supplied girls that would engage Don
in rough play. He notes the sex toys he found
in Don's house and if perhaps rough play contributed to
Don's death. Cora can only speak for her own. Not
a play with my girls. He was a gentleman with

(23:58):
my girls, the king of Done, but he had a
very unhealthy self esteem. He new that they did. He
was too afraid of rejection when he put an ad
in the classifieds for a date. He was very shy,
very hard from himself. I can write a whole chapter
on Done in my book The Producer and be Madam

(24:20):
you want. It's a fascinating story, Pierce tells her he'd
like to give it some thoughts. Get the money maker,
come back and see me tomorrow. I'll tell you everything. Pierce,
realizing his time is up, makes the last stitch effort
to bring up Autumn Weston. Cora doesn't recognize the name.

(24:40):
Maybe she worked under an alias, Pierce offers. Cora replies, no,
Autumn Weston. Here. She knows everything about her girls, no secrets.
Pierce will later find out that this is not the case.
Pierce exits Corra's house and returns to his car at
the roundabout It but Gio Roade Piercy's the two undercover

(25:02):
vice squad cops in the mercedes. Pierce slows down for
a better look. The cops are speaking with the woman
who just left Madam Corus. The cops look over at Pierce.
His heart is racing. Do they recognize him? Will they
pull him over? Pierce drives away slowly. He checks his

(25:24):
rear few mirror for flashing lights. Listen to the Don
on the I Heart Radio Apple Podcasts or wherever you

(25:46):
get your podcasts, Episode four Disclaimers. John Gregory Dunn, the
husband of Joan Didion, actually did write a semi flattering
obituary about working with Don. Don put the famous literary
couple through dozens of drafts on a big UFO idea
that Don had hatched in hopes it would become his
next big blockbuster. The movie was never made. The majority

(26:06):
of Don's press coverage was less favorable. Often the damage
was self inflicted. He was candid about his vices and
transparent about his insecurities. The infamous interview where Don tells
the journalist Lynn Hershberg, you know what I like to
do at four pm? I like to pour myself a whiskey,
cut a few lines, and get on the phone and
abuse a screenwriter was printed word for word when it

(26:27):
came to the press. Don always seemed to be his
own worst enemy. What Don would have loved was a
journalist like Pierce to fawn over his achievements and credit
him for a film success. Disclaimer to Pierce obviously never
wrote about Hugh Grant, but the Hugh Grant story where
he got busted in his car with the prostitute Divine
Brown is true. According to the Daily Mail, the cops,

(26:47):
upon seeing the flashing brake lights were laughing as they
approached the car. If only Hugh had been carrying enough
cash to take his business to a hotel room, which
leads us to Don's beloved madam in our story. She
is the fictionalized Madame Cora, based on the real life
Madame Alex. It is true that Alex lived just a
few blocks from Down on Stone Canyon Road. They were

(27:08):
more than neighbors. They were friends who loved to trade
gossip and intel on deal making around town. You could
imagine Don lying on the couch and Alex's French boudoir,
downloading his show biz wowes. Don would often send Alex
flowers and gifts from Tiffany's Madame Alex would send him girls.
What struck Alex was how insecure Don could be. He
was often nervous before meeting one of her girls. According

(27:29):
to Joe Esterhouse, he would spend the night trying to
woo them, as if somehow the money wasn't enough incentive
for physical contact. We don't know when Don and Alex
had their falling out. We assume it was around the
time of Madame Alex's bust by the Vice Squad. We
fictionalized the timeline between Don's death and Alex's arrest our
Wagged the Dog. Theory that the investigation was some sort
of distraction from Don's death is fabrication. The arrest happened

(27:51):
years before Don's death. Nevertheless, the timing of her arrest
was strange and suspicious. For twenty years, Alex was the
top informant for l A p D. She reportedly gave
them murder suspects, drug dealers, even potential terrorist threats. So
why after a twenty year immunity arrangement did they suddenly
decide it was time to take her down?