Mario sits down with his friend & famed attorney Robert Shapiro who shares some epic untold stories about defending Marlon Brando's son in a murder trail, working on Johnny Carson's DUI arrest, almost getting pranked by Sacha Baron Cohen, and more! Mario and Robert also discuss their shared love of boxing, and Robert tells us about the amazing drug prevention work he's doing with his foundation that he started after losing his son to addiction.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, excited for this episode of Listen to Mario.
Mario Lopez here, and this week I got an old
buddy of mine, and I mean old because I've known
him a long time, not by his age necessarily. Robert
Shapiro is joining me. And most people, of course know
Robert from O J's Dream Team back in the day.
He was a quarterback of that team, and he's had
(00:20):
a long career defending a lot of celebrities, not just
o J. He also started a really cool, important foundation
in honor of his son, and like me, he's really
into boxing, loves to talk about it, and there's a
lot to talk about just in general, including how he
almost got pranked by Sasha Baron Cohen. So let's get
to a Mario. Mr Robert Shapiro, Welcome to the podcast.
(00:44):
How are you, sir. I'm doing great, Mario. It's so
great to be with you outside of the gym where
it's less than ninety degrees exactly for those of you
not familiar, Mr Robert Shapiro obviously one of the best
attorneys ever, but at the same time, the man's a beast.
Hangs out of the boxing gym. We've sparred together, keeps
himself in phenomenal shape and has lethal hands. Was that
(01:07):
just because of love and respect for the sport? Don't
think I've ever asked you, Bob, how did the fascination?
You know, it's very interesting. I never ever liked exercising
for the purpose of just exercising. And I was a
member the sports club years ago at sports Cube l
A which is now Equinox, and they put in a
speedbag upstairs and I said, you know, I always thought
(01:29):
that was cool. My dad used to take me to
Hollywood Legion Stadium for the fights in l A. And
we we always watched the fights. I actually listened to
the fights on the radio, and uh, you know. Then
they started a boxing class and they had six people
in the boxing class, three guys and three women, and
an ex marine fight are teaching it. The end of
(01:49):
the class, I was the last person there. Everybody else
had quit and I talked to the teachers. In was
Jason Rossie. I said, Jason, you know what if you
just come train me and we agreed. I set up
a makeshift thing in my house and I trained with
him for a couple of years. And then there was
a fight between Michael Moore and Evander Holyfield. I remember
(02:12):
that one, the first one of the second one, first one, okay,
And it was the day of my son's bar Mitzvah,
and I got them to take a picture together with
my son. And then they came back to the wild
Card and I met Freddie Roach and I told him
about my interests. He said, why don't you come train
with me? And that's starting my interest And you know,
(02:36):
like you, we're serious about it. Exactly. We're not in
there just to work up a little sweat and throw
a few punches. I mean, we want to know the technique,
we want to know the strategy. And both of us
are lucky we get to hang out with the pros. Yeah, exactly, No,
that is that is a fun little benefit. But yeah,
I can vouch Bob gets in there, mixes it up
and lets those hands go. But um, you're doing a
(02:59):
really cool thing for essentially your son. Can you talk
a little bit about the foundation and what and what
it does for these great kids? So Mario in in
two thousand five, as you know, our son Brent, who
was just the most wonderful kid, uh, was a drug
addict and alcoholic. And you've been through a couple of
(03:20):
rehabs and finally was on the road to sobriety, been
sober for eighteen months, was on the dean's list at
USC for three semesters, and ready to go to law school.
And uh he got invited to a party with his
new girlfriend. And it wasn't one of these crazy Hollywood parties.
It was like back to school on a school bus
(03:42):
at the Hollywood Legion Stadium in uh, in Hollywood. And
as I was told after the fact, he broke his sobriety.
And you know, we know today that drug disease is
a chronic disease. It's treatable, not curable, and recurring. And
(04:04):
it recurred with him to the degree that he took
two Yagameister shots and then took a half of ecstasy,
got violently ill, started to projectile vomit. And this is
a normal situation today where somebody would simply call nine
one one, they go to the emergency room, they get
(04:26):
back into a rehabilitation program, and hopefully they'll be back
on the on the right track. Nobody called nine one one.
They didn't want us to know. So one of the
things we started was the Brent Shapiro Foundation for Alcohol
and Drug Awareness. Now the drug now it's called the
Brand Shapiro Foundation for Drug Prevention. But we wanted to
(04:50):
get the awareness out that you know, if there's a problem,
call nine one one. So we started something called Save
a Life, our Save a Life program and they're simple
cards which show you what the symptoms are when somebody
needs to get to the hospital. And it also shows
you something that we help pass and that's the Good
(05:11):
Samaritan Law. So if God forbid, somebody is sick under
the influence, even has drugs on them, and somebody's going
to take them to the hospital and has drugs, nobody
gets arrested. And so that now is saving more lives.
And if your listeners go to Brent Shapiro dot org, uh,
(05:33):
the save Life card is there. We have children's books
starting at the age of five called Somo Says No,
introducing kids immediately to what drugs and alcohol can do
to people long term. That's an awesome, awesome foundation because
I think everyone literally knows someone or somehow affected by
drug rock whol addition and the fact that you're raising
(05:56):
the wareness level and how to get help so is
a great thing. So happy to be a part of it, Bob,
And you know I've so from there. We're now at
the point where not a day goes by that you
don't hear about the epidemic in America with opiates, with heroin. Uh,
and everybody is aware now. So three and a half
(06:17):
years ago we changed our focus and we went to prevention.
How do we prevent this epidemic? Well, there's no way
we're going to win the war on drugs. It started
in the nineteen fifties, and we have as much chance
of winning this war as the war in Afghanistan. Just unfortunately,
(06:38):
no matter how good our agents are, how much money
we throw at it, this is a demand problem, not
a supply problem. And so we said, what if we
give kids rewards for staying sober? What if we try
this nobody's tried it and and give them an incentive
(06:59):
and change peer pressure from just try it too. I'm
not stupid, I'll never try it. Because we know that
if somebody uses drugs before the age of fifteen, the
likelihood of a lifelong problem increases by five to unbelievable
scary statistics. And so we we started Brent's Club in
(07:23):
partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America and
we started on Cincinnati Avenue in Boil Heights, right in
the heart of gang land and drug dealers on every corner.
We started with about sixty kids programs started to be successful.
It's grown to kids there and San Gabriel. And then
(07:45):
people are saying, well, that's in the underserved areas. Didn't
you say this problem is everywhere? And I said, yes,
it is. So we've opened the club in Malibu, and
now we're going to open up our first partnership with
the NFL, with the New York Giants sponsoring our biggest
club in the Bronx New York. And and our goal
(08:06):
is simple, Uh, with people like you talking about this
and with a public now getting aware, we want to
put one of these clubs in every city that has
a professional sports franchise. Bravo, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. We
talk all the time and do spots on the opioid
epidemic and all this stuff. So that's great, wonderful thing
to be a part of. Here's it that you're still
(08:28):
very much practiced law. I do you know? I have
three passions in life, and not necessarily in this order. Boxing,
my practice of law, primarily civil, and my business interests. Uh.
That now started with legal zoom dot com, which has
(08:52):
proven to be very successful not only for us but
for the public. Yeah, Bob, how did you become I've
asked you this, I think before a long time ago.
How did you become the go to attorney for um
celebrities in a certain clientele? Because he worked with a
lot of high profile guys. How does that happen? Because
it's not by accident? Is this sort of like high
school where just the popular kid attracts all the cool kids?
(09:16):
You know? That's a great question, and honestly, nobody's ever
asked me this publicly. Uh. I was in the d
A's office right after law school, and I wasn't the
greatest student in law school, but I had one thing,
and that was I had an ability to assimilate large
amounts of material very quickly and articulated and be persuasive.
(09:40):
So I won the Mood Court competition, became the Chief
Justice of the Mood Court and decided to become a
trial lawyer. And I never wanted to be a lawyer.
In fact, I think I'm going to write a book
which says I never wanted to be a lawyer, would
you want to be? I wanted to be in business.
I graduated U c l A with degree in finance
(10:01):
and economics, and so I was wanted to be in business.
And now fortunately I am in business. But they had
no graduate schools of business at U c l A.
And the war in Vietnam was looming, and the draft
board was right across the street, and I was one
a bit and ready to go. The only way to
(10:24):
avoid Vietnam where there are several ways. One you could
burn your draft card. Two you can move to Canada.
Three you could become a conscienti objector, or four you
could get a deferment by going to a graduate school.
So I started applying to law schools and I got
accepted at the last minute. I got the last seat
(10:46):
in the class at Loyola Law School, uh and and enrolled,
and I found, you know, well, maybe I'll try this.
Became a Deputy District Attorney with a LA District Attorney's office,
tried cases for about two years and went into private practice.
And the first case I get went on just out
(11:11):
of the d a's office as I get a call
from Liza Minelli, and I don't know lizamn Elli. Why
is Liza Manelli calling me? Liza man Ellie is calling
me because her choreographer, David Winters just got arrested in
Las Vegas. How do I know David Winters? His son
(11:32):
and my son go to the same grammar school. And
I'm the only lawyer he knows that does criminal law
hand SLIZAMNELLI calling you, Okay, Liza Melly calls me, But
it's not really for David Winters. It's for Linda Lovelace
who got arrested with David Winners. Now, Linda Lovelace was
(11:54):
well known in America for one thing that became very
very black, and that is she was the first porno
star to actually have movies shown in legitimate theaters. And
the movie was called Deep Throat, so you can you
can look it up. I've heard it, okay, But she
(12:18):
was as recognizable as the President of the United States.
Let me turn this down, form off. Uh. So I
get on a plane and I and I fly to
Las Vegas and I meet Linda Lovelace and David Winter
and they tell me this story of how Sammy Davis Jr.
(12:40):
Wants to do a review with Linda Lovelace in Las Vegas.
This did not go over well with the people that
were running the hotels at that time in Las Vegas
that this was something far away from the image they
wanted to project. And Linda Lovelace and David Winners go
(13:04):
out for dinner one night, first night they're there, and
go to a nightclub. Everything is set up for him.
They come back and exactly one minute after midnight, the
Metropolitan Squad, which is the police squad of Las Vegas,
rage their room with guns, with more than ten officers,
(13:27):
everybody on the ground, and they arrest him for possession
for sale of cocaine. We I get involved, and I
need to find another lawyer in Las Vegas. So I
find the best lawyer there at the time, and the
two of us take this case and it is the
first nationally publicized case in America, on the cover of
(13:50):
almost every newspaper in magazine. And you're young, and we
win the case, and it just just went from there
and there that wasn't the craziest case you had. And
then you were also you also handled Phil Specter. Didn't
you handle Phil? Only for a while? I didn't try
(14:11):
Phil Specter's case, but uh the next Then in the
seventies there were very stringent drug laws, even for marijuana.
Marijuana was a felony, and rock and rock and roll
was everywhere, and the people in rock and roll were
(14:32):
getting arrested or having problems. And I represented just about
every major talent in the world in the seventies on
drug cases, which which pretty much all of them, you know,
everyone you know. I represented Billy Preston, Uh. I don't
(14:54):
want to name a lot of people because some of
these have gone on now. Shaka Khan, who is now sober,
I represented her and a lot of people who who
are still around, but got it not necessary to bring
that up now. And after that, the next big case
(15:15):
in America was Christian Brando, Right, Marlon Brando's son. That's right,
Marlon Brando's son. Was that before or after he saved
Michael Jackson's life. That was before Michael Jackson, way before
Michael Jackson. Uh. Christian was one of two of Marlon
(15:36):
Brando's children other than the adopted kids UH, which he
had from basically from Tahiti and one from London. Then
later on he had several other kids, supposedly with maybe housekeepers.
You won that one too, right, that case where you settled,
(15:57):
We settled that case. That case was a difficult case. UH.
Christian admitted to the police that he shot his sister's boyfriend.
His sister was Cheyenne, one of the most gorgeous women ever,
and she reported that her boyfriend was beating her up.
And Christian said, let me look into this like Santino
(16:20):
from the God Fight, exactly right. And the case ended
up with this young man from Tahiti being on Marlon
Brando's couch and with a bullet through his head at
point blank range, and Christian admitted doing the shooting. It
(16:44):
was a difficult case, but but we believe that there
were certain defenses to this case. That number one that
Christian was enraged that there was diminished capacity on his
art and as a result, we were able to settle
it for a manslaughter conviction UH and Christians served five years. Unfortunately,
(17:11):
Christian also had had an addiction problem. Who certainly had
an alcohol problem, and he passed away working as a
welder up in northern California. He never wanted the limelight,
but one of the nicest people, humble, never wanted the limelight.
At all, and unfortunately had a very very difficult life,
(17:37):
to say the least. So by the time you got
the Simpson case, that was like nothing to you. Then
you've been on the you've been at the high levels
in the used to the attention all for years. Yeah,
I had, you know, been fortunate enough to h to
get the cases that I wanted. And then in between those,
(17:58):
I got a case that I think to me was
the most important case I ever had, which Flee Bailey
got arrested in San Francisco. And ef Lee Bailey was
the most famous lawyer in America. He had just defended
Patty Hurst about five years before, and people didn't view
(18:19):
his performance that well in the Patty Hurst case. Especially
Patty Hurst was very critical of him. And she was convicted,
uh and went to prison and uh. Mr Bailey got
arrested in San Francisco, and he had the choice of
any lawyer in America to represent him, and he asked
(18:41):
myself and his partner Al Johnson to represent him. The
night before we start the trial, Al Johnson gets sick.
The case is the first nationally publicized trial in America.
It's the longest and most expensive drunk driving case. Ever,
normally there are two maybe three witnesses. In this case,
(19:03):
there were forty and Mr Bailey was acquitted. Wow. And
drug driving cases, it usually was yeah, yeah, they're a day.
I mean, they're they're very simple. The arrest. How long
did it go on? It went on for one week? Uh. Actually,
at the the end some of the juror the alternate
(19:25):
jurors got too tired and they were unavailable and one
of the regular jurors couldn't do it. So we were
down from twelve jurors to eleven. And it's much in
our favor the more jurors. Yeah, it's an unanimous verdict,
and we decided to go with eleven jurors and still
got a knock guilty verdict. So that one was was
really important. And there was one thing that is a
(19:50):
pretty cool antidote there. There was a reporter in San
Francisco who wrote a daily column and it is one
of those like people in New York read page six.
People in San Francisco read the chronicle and read his story,
and he said, the uh, the worry around San Francisco
(20:13):
is f lee. Bailey got acquitted and Patty Hurst Scott convicted.
What's the difference. He had a better lawyer. At the
end of the day, that's all really the representation. And
then you know, I got other cases. At the exact
same time, on the exact same date, Johnny Carson gets
arrested in Beverly Hills for drunk driving. Really Carson, Johnny
(20:40):
Johnny Carson gets arrested right in front of what is
now the Beverly Center. It's the borderline, I would believe
ed McMahon. Yeah, so this is the border line between
Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. He gets stopped, he's driving,
(21:01):
and officer comes up and says, you know, identification and registration.
And he looks at him and says, I'm Johnny Carson.
And the cop, the Beverly Hills cop turns to his
wife Joanne and says, can you identify this man? What?
(21:22):
And Johnny Carson says, you ever see the Academy Awards,
You ever see the Tonight show with that squad? Cars
come from both sides and take Carson away in handcuffs unnecessary. Okay,
next morning, no, this is this is Friday, Monday morning.
And then Bailey gets arrested that same night. They both
(21:43):
hire me. Monday evening business is booming at that businesses. Okay,
Monday night Carson comes out on television, and Carson was
the number one rated show maybe maybe ever. Okay, and
he always came out with a slogan I've got good
(22:04):
news and bad news. Well, on Monday night, he comes
out with two guys dressed as Beverly Hills cops that
are about six ft five in handcuffs, and he comes out.
He pretends to swing a golf club. That's how he opens.
Now he's swinging the golf club in handcuffs, and he says,
I've got good news and bad news. He says, the
(22:26):
bad news, I was arrested for drunk driving on Friday
night by the Beverly Hills Police Department. The good news
my lawyer's eff Lee Bailey A oh my god, which
Mr Bailey didn't take kindly, very clever, very good. Anyway,
(22:47):
It's a good question. Things I rarely talk about. But
you got me at a good moment today. I got you.
I got you at a good moment. Listen, I gotta
I gotta ask you about because I just think this
is funny. John Travolta told me that he reached out
to you for his portrayal of you for the movie,
but you in fact say that is not true. Okay,
I would have met with John Travolta in a second
(23:09):
number one. I think he has always been one of
the best actors around. When I heard he was selected
to play me, I didn't see any resemblance, you know,
any of us. By the way, you gotta think that's
flattering though, I mean John Travolta, you know, of course,
(23:29):
But you know, I thought maybe Sean Penn. You know,
you know me, I've got somewhat of an edge, you know, right,
you got firing, you know. Yeah, I'm a little different person.
So I did watch part of the first episode, and
number one, the guy who wrote the story, Jeff Tuban,
(23:50):
is somebody that I don't get along with, have never
gotten along with. And one day I will say why
I don't get along with him? But basically, I don't believe. Uh.
He had a lot of integrity when he was covering
the Smson case, and he admitted on television that most
of this story was fictionalized of what he thought took place. Uh.
(24:12):
When I when I saw it Travolta pretending to be me,
I didn't recognize myself at all, either in movements and action,
in words, or in any other way. And and everybody
who knew me called me and said, why is he
doing these things? And I said, I have no idea.
So I didn't aggravate myself and watch anymore. My wife did,
(24:33):
and she still aggravated to this minute. Uh, but uh,
you know, it's very interesting. That show was very well received.
People liked it. Uh, got lots of nominations and lots
of awards. And there were four major lawyers that were
characterized in that And of those four major lawyers and actors,
(24:54):
all got nominated for Golden Globes, and all got nominated
for Emmy's and all one except one person, John Travolta.
There you go. So I rest my case. Yeah, you're
you on that. That's bad tunistic, that's fantastic with something
completely different. Just wanted to ask you about um because
(25:14):
I know you know him. Sasha Baron Cohen had the
finale of the show Who Is America? With O. J. Simpson,
And I did not know that Bob actually tried to
get punked by Sasha Baron Cohen when he was the
Ali G show. I'd say it's really amazing. How they
set you up. I get a call from a guy
(25:35):
with a very heavy English accent and he tells me
that that he's a producer of a show very similar
to the BBC, an educational show geared towards children, and
they have this hip host who you know, tries to
bring kids together to learn something educational through people who
(25:59):
are ex urts in the field. And so they give
me all this flattering nonsense and I said, yeah, it
sounds great. I completely forget about it. And three months later,
my assistant calls me and I'm literally working out at
home and says where are you. I said, I'm at home.
Why He says, well, you know, the people from Great
Britain are all here and they're all excited to have you.
(26:22):
I said, oh, you know, see if they can come back,
I can do it on Monday. And she said no.
They rented a big hotel suite and they've got all
their cameras and everything. So I said fine. So I
show up at the hotel right across my office, very convenient,
and I walk in and there's four or five guys
in rumpled suits and the first thing they asked me
(26:44):
is would you like a drink. I said, why would
I want to drink. I'm gonna be doing an interview
for a kid show. It's just not not not what
you would expect. And then they said, you know, and
and here's our standard release form, you know, and I've
been on enough TV shows that I just signed it.
I don't read it, good attorney, don't listen, don't do
(27:07):
what I do, do what I say. And so so
I go up there and all of a sudden, I
have to go to the bathroom, and so I go
to the bedroom side, and there's this guy who's about
six ft tall in a Laker jumpsuit covered with gold chains,
and he's got two things on that are kind of crazy.
(27:27):
One he's got a master P hat on and two
he's got a Woot Tang Clan T shirt on. And
I said, you know what a coincidence that I know
Master P because my son's a DJ and I represent
uh one of the lead guys in uh the Woot
Tang Clan Old Dirty Masters wait V really, yeah, the
(27:52):
most fascinating life ever know, his his his the people
that I mean, but he's attached. To get back to that,
they're going to digress. So so you know, and the
guy says, I'm out here d jaying for the weekend,
and so I have no idea, and so I go back,
and it's professionally set up, you know, just like your
show here on Extra. They have the sound man in
(28:15):
the video guys, couple of cameras, so it looks very professional.
I sit down like I would sit next to you,
and this guy come sits next to me. He said,
oh my god. I mean it was like okay. So
he starts out and he's the first question is we
have with us the very famous American lawyer Richard Shapiro.
(28:39):
So I said, okay, let's let's take a step back. Okay,
you know, you got notes in front of you. My
name is Robert. Okay. So he starts again, and the
first the first six or seven minutes are all straight,
straight questions. Okay. That serious. He brings me in, you know,
(29:01):
and then he says, and he speaks, you know, in
this broken accent. When he was alleg does you ever
lose a case? And he said, of course, I lose
a case. He says, well, why doesn't you change sides
when you was losing a case so you become the winner.
Of the case, and I'm saying, okay, you know, look,
(29:24):
obviously you can't do that in Great Britain, and you
can't do that in the United States. We can't do that.
And now the questions are getting really kind of off
the wall, and I'm getting a little bit, uh, a
little bit aggravated. And so the next question is, you know,
it's got a case for you. Okay, what's the case?
(29:46):
He says me. Good, Bro is with the Queen at
Buckingham Palace and the twos of them are smoking a
joint and the alarms go off because of the smoke,
and the Bobby's come in and the joints between two
of them, but they arrest me. Bro, How's you going
to defend him? And I look at him and I said,
you know what, you're the village idiot. He said, who's
(30:09):
you calling the village idiot? I said, you know, I
don't mean to insult you, but that's a question like
the village idiot would ask. He says, you're just saying
that because I'm black. I said, no, it's got nothing
to do with the way you look. It's got something
to do with your stupidity. And listen, this interview is over,
and and and I ended it and I walked away.
(30:30):
The producer come back, you know, Mr Shapiro, he's going
to go back on script. He just got got carried
around a little bit back. So I'm sitting there for
a few minutes. I said, let him go back over
his notes. And I said, you know what, guys, this
show is not for me. And I walked away. So
so so now, Mario, I see him, you know, years later,
(30:52):
at the Sunset Tower restaurant in Beverly Hills, and he's
dressed straight, you know, And I go up to him
and us said, you know, I just wanted to reintroduce myself.
He says, no, I know exactly who you are. You
cost us a million dollars when you walked out on
this show. You're only one of two people who did it.
The other person was Donald Trump. Really, have you ever
(31:15):
seen the Trump? What did he try to do with Trumps?
Where a terrible like business idea and then Trump goes
all right, good luck with that and just leaves and
just leaves. But at least they aired that. Mind they
didn't even air yeah, oh wow, So yeah, I'm surprised
that they even got you that for that love. But
that's funny. Well, jokes on you. This is not a
real radio show. This whole thing that's fascinating. But did
(31:38):
you see his finale when he had your former client?
Not only did I I've seen every one of his
shows and I try to do it now. No, I'm
a huge fan, and you know, I mean sometimes I
have to watch it twice because I'm laughing so hard
I'm not hearing the next line. The things that he
gets people to do, isn't that crazy? They're just incomprehensive.
(32:01):
They're literally incomprehensible. And uh, but you know, there's a
good part to it, in a sad part. The good
part is it's incredibly entertaining. The sad part is there
are some people that are so far out of touch
with reality that they will do virtually anything to promote
(32:21):
their own agenda, and he's proving that. Let me just
ask quickly, because as I watched the o J thing
with him, I was unbelievably uncomfortable. Were you you know?
I really wasn't. I really haven't had any contact with
Simpson since the case. I ran into him twice, just coincidentally,
(32:43):
once at a car wash of all things, and once
unfortunately at a premiere when he came where he came
up and uh, you know, it wasn't something that I
wanted to be photographed with, but uh so you know
I saw it and you know, really didn't have much
thought other than pretty sad. Well, Bob, always a pleasure
(33:04):
to catch up. Thank you. Always great to be with you. Mario,
don't forget to follow. Listen to Mario on I Heart
Radio or subscribe where
All right, excited for this episode of Listen to Mario.
Mario Lopez here, and this week I got an old
buddy of mine, and I mean old because I've known
him a long time, not by his age necessarily. Robert
Shapiro is joining me. And most people, of course know
Robert from O J's Dream Team back in the day.
He was a quarterback of that team, and he's had
(00:20):
a long career defending a lot of celebrities, not just
o J. He also started a really cool, important foundation
in honor of his son, and like me, he's really
into boxing, loves to talk about it, and there's a
lot to talk about just in general, including how he
almost got pranked by Sasha Baron Cohen. So let's get
to a Mario. Mr Robert Shapiro, Welcome to the podcast.
(00:44):
How are you, sir. I'm doing great, Mario. It's so
great to be with you outside of the gym where
it's less than ninety degrees exactly for those of you
not familiar, Mr Robert Shapiro obviously one of the best
attorneys ever, but at the same time, the man's a beast.
Hangs out of the boxing gym. We've sparred together, keeps
himself in phenomenal shape and has lethal hands. Was that
(01:07):
just because of love and respect for the sport? Don't
think I've ever asked you, Bob, how did the fascination?
You know, it's very interesting. I never ever liked exercising
for the purpose of just exercising. And I was a
member the sports club years ago at sports Cube l
A which is now Equinox, and they put in a
speedbag upstairs and I said, you know, I always thought
(01:29):
that was cool. My dad used to take me to
Hollywood Legion Stadium for the fights in l A. And
we we always watched the fights. I actually listened to
the fights on the radio, and uh, you know. Then
they started a boxing class and they had six people
in the boxing class, three guys and three women, and
an ex marine fight are teaching it. The end of
(01:49):
the class, I was the last person there. Everybody else
had quit and I talked to the teachers. In was
Jason Rossie. I said, Jason, you know what if you
just come train me and we agreed. I set up
a makeshift thing in my house and I trained with
him for a couple of years. And then there was
a fight between Michael Moore and Evander Holyfield. I remember
(02:12):
that one, the first one of the second one, first one, okay,
And it was the day of my son's bar Mitzvah,
and I got them to take a picture together with
my son. And then they came back to the wild
Card and I met Freddie Roach and I told him
about my interests. He said, why don't you come train
with me? And that's starting my interest And you know,
(02:36):
like you, we're serious about it. Exactly. We're not in
there just to work up a little sweat and throw
a few punches. I mean, we want to know the technique,
we want to know the strategy. And both of us
are lucky we get to hang out with the pros. Yeah, exactly, No,
that is that is a fun little benefit. But yeah,
I can vouch Bob gets in there, mixes it up
and lets those hands go. But um, you're doing a
(02:59):
really cool thing for essentially your son. Can you talk
a little bit about the foundation and what and what
it does for these great kids? So Mario in in
two thousand five, as you know, our son Brent, who
was just the most wonderful kid, uh, was a drug
addict and alcoholic. And you've been through a couple of
(03:20):
rehabs and finally was on the road to sobriety, been
sober for eighteen months, was on the dean's list at
USC for three semesters, and ready to go to law school.
And uh he got invited to a party with his
new girlfriend. And it wasn't one of these crazy Hollywood parties.
It was like back to school on a school bus
(03:42):
at the Hollywood Legion Stadium in uh, in Hollywood. And
as I was told after the fact, he broke his sobriety.
And you know, we know today that drug disease is
a chronic disease. It's treatable, not curable, and recurring. And
(04:04):
it recurred with him to the degree that he took
two Yagameister shots and then took a half of ecstasy,
got violently ill, started to projectile vomit. And this is
a normal situation today where somebody would simply call nine
one one, they go to the emergency room, they get
(04:26):
back into a rehabilitation program, and hopefully they'll be back
on the on the right track. Nobody called nine one one.
They didn't want us to know. So one of the
things we started was the Brent Shapiro Foundation for Alcohol
and Drug Awareness. Now the drug now it's called the
Brand Shapiro Foundation for Drug Prevention. But we wanted to
(04:50):
get the awareness out that you know, if there's a problem,
call nine one one. So we started something called Save
a Life, our Save a Life program and they're simple
cards which show you what the symptoms are when somebody
needs to get to the hospital. And it also shows
you something that we help pass and that's the Good
(05:11):
Samaritan Law. So if God forbid, somebody is sick under
the influence, even has drugs on them, and somebody's going
to take them to the hospital and has drugs, nobody
gets arrested. And so that now is saving more lives.
And if your listeners go to Brent Shapiro dot org, uh,
(05:33):
the save Life card is there. We have children's books
starting at the age of five called Somo Says No,
introducing kids immediately to what drugs and alcohol can do
to people long term. That's an awesome, awesome foundation because
I think everyone literally knows someone or somehow affected by
drug rock whol addition and the fact that you're raising
(05:56):
the wareness level and how to get help so is
a great thing. So happy to be a part of it, Bob,
And you know I've so from there. We're now at
the point where not a day goes by that you
don't hear about the epidemic in America with opiates, with heroin. Uh,
and everybody is aware now. So three and a half
(06:17):
years ago we changed our focus and we went to prevention.
How do we prevent this epidemic? Well, there's no way
we're going to win the war on drugs. It started
in the nineteen fifties, and we have as much chance
of winning this war as the war in Afghanistan. Just unfortunately,
(06:38):
no matter how good our agents are, how much money
we throw at it, this is a demand problem, not
a supply problem. And so we said, what if we
give kids rewards for staying sober? What if we try
this nobody's tried it and and give them an incentive
(06:59):
and change peer pressure from just try it too. I'm
not stupid, I'll never try it. Because we know that
if somebody uses drugs before the age of fifteen, the
likelihood of a lifelong problem increases by five to unbelievable
scary statistics. And so we we started Brent's Club in
(07:23):
partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America and
we started on Cincinnati Avenue in Boil Heights, right in
the heart of gang land and drug dealers on every corner.
We started with about sixty kids programs started to be successful.
It's grown to kids there and San Gabriel. And then
(07:45):
people are saying, well, that's in the underserved areas. Didn't
you say this problem is everywhere? And I said, yes,
it is. So we've opened the club in Malibu, and
now we're going to open up our first partnership with
the NFL, with the New York Giants sponsoring our biggest
club in the Bronx New York. And and our goal
(08:06):
is simple, Uh, with people like you talking about this
and with a public now getting aware, we want to
put one of these clubs in every city that has
a professional sports franchise. Bravo, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. We
talk all the time and do spots on the opioid
epidemic and all this stuff. So that's great, wonderful thing
to be a part of. Here's it that you're still
(08:28):
very much practiced law. I do you know? I have
three passions in life, and not necessarily in this order. Boxing,
my practice of law, primarily civil, and my business interests. Uh.
That now started with legal zoom dot com, which has
(08:52):
proven to be very successful not only for us but
for the public. Yeah, Bob, how did you become I've
asked you this, I think before a long time ago.
How did you become the go to attorney for um
celebrities in a certain clientele? Because he worked with a
lot of high profile guys. How does that happen? Because
it's not by accident? Is this sort of like high
school where just the popular kid attracts all the cool kids?
(09:16):
You know? That's a great question, and honestly, nobody's ever
asked me this publicly. Uh. I was in the d
A's office right after law school, and I wasn't the
greatest student in law school, but I had one thing,
and that was I had an ability to assimilate large
amounts of material very quickly and articulated and be persuasive.
(09:40):
So I won the Mood Court competition, became the Chief
Justice of the Mood Court and decided to become a
trial lawyer. And I never wanted to be a lawyer.
In fact, I think I'm going to write a book
which says I never wanted to be a lawyer, would
you want to be? I wanted to be in business.
I graduated U c l A with degree in finance
(10:01):
and economics, and so I was wanted to be in business.
And now fortunately I am in business. But they had
no graduate schools of business at U c l A.
And the war in Vietnam was looming, and the draft
board was right across the street, and I was one
a bit and ready to go. The only way to
(10:24):
avoid Vietnam where there are several ways. One you could
burn your draft card. Two you can move to Canada.
Three you could become a conscienti objector, or four you
could get a deferment by going to a graduate school.
So I started applying to law schools and I got
accepted at the last minute. I got the last seat
(10:46):
in the class at Loyola Law School, uh and and enrolled,
and I found, you know, well, maybe I'll try this.
Became a Deputy District Attorney with a LA District Attorney's office,
tried cases for about two years and went into private practice.
And the first case I get went on just out
(11:11):
of the d a's office as I get a call
from Liza Minelli, and I don't know lizamn Elli. Why
is Liza Manelli calling me? Liza man Ellie is calling
me because her choreographer, David Winters just got arrested in
Las Vegas. How do I know David Winters? His son
(11:32):
and my son go to the same grammar school. And
I'm the only lawyer he knows that does criminal law
hand SLIZAMNELLI calling you, Okay, Liza Melly calls me, But
it's not really for David Winters. It's for Linda Lovelace
who got arrested with David Winners. Now, Linda Lovelace was
(11:54):
well known in America for one thing that became very
very black, and that is she was the first porno
star to actually have movies shown in legitimate theaters. And
the movie was called Deep Throat, so you can you
can look it up. I've heard it, okay, But she
(12:18):
was as recognizable as the President of the United States.
Let me turn this down, form off. Uh. So I
get on a plane and I and I fly to
Las Vegas and I meet Linda Lovelace and David Winter
and they tell me this story of how Sammy Davis Jr.
(12:40):
Wants to do a review with Linda Lovelace in Las Vegas.
This did not go over well with the people that
were running the hotels at that time in Las Vegas
that this was something far away from the image they
wanted to project. And Linda Lovelace and David Winners go
(13:04):
out for dinner one night, first night they're there, and
go to a nightclub. Everything is set up for him.
They come back and exactly one minute after midnight, the
Metropolitan Squad, which is the police squad of Las Vegas,
rage their room with guns, with more than ten officers,
(13:27):
everybody on the ground, and they arrest him for possession
for sale of cocaine. We I get involved, and I
need to find another lawyer in Las Vegas. So I
find the best lawyer there at the time, and the
two of us take this case and it is the
first nationally publicized case in America, on the cover of
(13:50):
almost every newspaper in magazine. And you're young, and we
win the case, and it just just went from there
and there that wasn't the craziest case you had. And
then you were also you also handled Phil Specter. Didn't
you handle Phil? Only for a while? I didn't try
(14:11):
Phil Specter's case, but uh the next Then in the
seventies there were very stringent drug laws, even for marijuana.
Marijuana was a felony, and rock and rock and roll
was everywhere, and the people in rock and roll were
(14:32):
getting arrested or having problems. And I represented just about
every major talent in the world in the seventies on
drug cases, which which pretty much all of them, you know,
everyone you know. I represented Billy Preston, Uh. I don't
(14:54):
want to name a lot of people because some of
these have gone on now. Shaka Khan, who is now sober,
I represented her and a lot of people who who
are still around, but got it not necessary to bring
that up now. And after that, the next big case
(15:15):
in America was Christian Brando, Right, Marlon Brando's son. That's right,
Marlon Brando's son. Was that before or after he saved
Michael Jackson's life. That was before Michael Jackson, way before
Michael Jackson. Uh. Christian was one of two of Marlon
(15:36):
Brando's children other than the adopted kids UH, which he
had from basically from Tahiti and one from London. Then
later on he had several other kids, supposedly with maybe housekeepers.
You won that one too, right, that case where you settled,
(15:57):
We settled that case. That case was a difficult case. UH.
Christian admitted to the police that he shot his sister's boyfriend.
His sister was Cheyenne, one of the most gorgeous women ever,
and she reported that her boyfriend was beating her up.
And Christian said, let me look into this like Santino
(16:20):
from the God Fight, exactly right. And the case ended
up with this young man from Tahiti being on Marlon
Brando's couch and with a bullet through his head at
point blank range, and Christian admitted doing the shooting. It
(16:44):
was a difficult case, but but we believe that there
were certain defenses to this case. That number one that
Christian was enraged that there was diminished capacity on his
art and as a result, we were able to settle
it for a manslaughter conviction UH and Christians served five years. Unfortunately,
(17:11):
Christian also had had an addiction problem. Who certainly had
an alcohol problem, and he passed away working as a
welder up in northern California. He never wanted the limelight,
but one of the nicest people, humble, never wanted the limelight.
At all, and unfortunately had a very very difficult life,
(17:37):
to say the least. So by the time you got
the Simpson case, that was like nothing to you. Then
you've been on the you've been at the high levels
in the used to the attention all for years. Yeah,
I had, you know, been fortunate enough to h to
get the cases that I wanted. And then in between those,
(17:58):
I got a case that I think to me was
the most important case I ever had, which Flee Bailey
got arrested in San Francisco. And ef Lee Bailey was
the most famous lawyer in America. He had just defended
Patty Hurst about five years before, and people didn't view
(18:19):
his performance that well in the Patty Hurst case. Especially
Patty Hurst was very critical of him. And she was convicted,
uh and went to prison and uh. Mr Bailey got
arrested in San Francisco, and he had the choice of
any lawyer in America to represent him, and he asked
(18:41):
myself and his partner Al Johnson to represent him. The
night before we start the trial, Al Johnson gets sick.
The case is the first nationally publicized trial in America.
It's the longest and most expensive drunk driving case. Ever,
normally there are two maybe three witnesses. In this case,
(19:03):
there were forty and Mr Bailey was acquitted. Wow. And
drug driving cases, it usually was yeah, yeah, they're a day.
I mean, they're they're very simple. The arrest. How long
did it go on? It went on for one week? Uh. Actually,
at the the end some of the juror the alternate
(19:25):
jurors got too tired and they were unavailable and one
of the regular jurors couldn't do it. So we were
down from twelve jurors to eleven. And it's much in
our favor the more jurors. Yeah, it's an unanimous verdict,
and we decided to go with eleven jurors and still
got a knock guilty verdict. So that one was was
really important. And there was one thing that is a
(19:50):
pretty cool antidote there. There was a reporter in San
Francisco who wrote a daily column and it is one
of those like people in New York read page six.
People in San Francisco read the chronicle and read his story,
and he said, the uh, the worry around San Francisco
(20:13):
is f lee. Bailey got acquitted and Patty Hurst Scott convicted.
What's the difference. He had a better lawyer. At the
end of the day, that's all really the representation. And
then you know, I got other cases. At the exact
same time, on the exact same date, Johnny Carson gets
arrested in Beverly Hills for drunk driving. Really Carson, Johnny
(20:40):
Johnny Carson gets arrested right in front of what is
now the Beverly Center. It's the borderline, I would believe
ed McMahon. Yeah, so this is the border line between
Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. He gets stopped, he's driving,
(21:01):
and officer comes up and says, you know, identification and registration.
And he looks at him and says, I'm Johnny Carson.
And the cop, the Beverly Hills cop turns to his
wife Joanne and says, can you identify this man? What?
(21:22):
And Johnny Carson says, you ever see the Academy Awards,
You ever see the Tonight show with that squad? Cars
come from both sides and take Carson away in handcuffs unnecessary. Okay,
next morning, no, this is this is Friday, Monday morning.
And then Bailey gets arrested that same night. They both
(21:43):
hire me. Monday evening business is booming at that businesses. Okay,
Monday night Carson comes out on television, and Carson was
the number one rated show maybe maybe ever. Okay, and
he always came out with a slogan I've got good
(22:04):
news and bad news. Well, on Monday night, he comes
out with two guys dressed as Beverly Hills cops that
are about six ft five in handcuffs, and he comes out.
He pretends to swing a golf club. That's how he opens.
Now he's swinging the golf club in handcuffs, and he says,
I've got good news and bad news. He says, the
(22:26):
bad news, I was arrested for drunk driving on Friday
night by the Beverly Hills Police Department. The good news
my lawyer's eff Lee Bailey A oh my god, which
Mr Bailey didn't take kindly, very clever, very good. Anyway,
(22:47):
It's a good question. Things I rarely talk about. But
you got me at a good moment today. I got you.
I got you at a good moment. Listen, I gotta
I gotta ask you about because I just think this
is funny. John Travolta told me that he reached out
to you for his portrayal of you for the movie,
but you in fact say that is not true. Okay,
I would have met with John Travolta in a second
(23:09):
number one. I think he has always been one of
the best actors around. When I heard he was selected
to play me, I didn't see any resemblance, you know,
any of us. By the way, you gotta think that's
flattering though, I mean John Travolta, you know, of course,
(23:29):
But you know, I thought maybe Sean Penn. You know,
you know me, I've got somewhat of an edge, you know, right,
you got firing, you know. Yeah, I'm a little different person.
So I did watch part of the first episode, and
number one, the guy who wrote the story, Jeff Tuban,
(23:50):
is somebody that I don't get along with, have never
gotten along with. And one day I will say why
I don't get along with him? But basically, I don't believe. Uh.
He had a lot of integrity when he was covering
the Smson case, and he admitted on television that most
of this story was fictionalized of what he thought took place. Uh.
(24:12):
When I when I saw it Travolta pretending to be me,
I didn't recognize myself at all, either in movements and action,
in words, or in any other way. And and everybody
who knew me called me and said, why is he
doing these things? And I said, I have no idea.
So I didn't aggravate myself and watch anymore. My wife did,
(24:33):
and she still aggravated to this minute. Uh, but uh,
you know, it's very interesting. That show was very well received.
People liked it. Uh, got lots of nominations and lots
of awards. And there were four major lawyers that were
characterized in that And of those four major lawyers and actors,
(24:54):
all got nominated for Golden Globes, and all got nominated
for Emmy's and all one except one person, John Travolta.
There you go. So I rest my case. Yeah, you're
you on that. That's bad tunistic, that's fantastic with something
completely different. Just wanted to ask you about um because
(25:14):
I know you know him. Sasha Baron Cohen had the
finale of the show Who Is America? With O. J. Simpson,
And I did not know that Bob actually tried to
get punked by Sasha Baron Cohen when he was the
Ali G show. I'd say it's really amazing. How they
set you up. I get a call from a guy
(25:35):
with a very heavy English accent and he tells me
that that he's a producer of a show very similar
to the BBC, an educational show geared towards children, and
they have this hip host who you know, tries to
bring kids together to learn something educational through people who
(25:59):
are ex urts in the field. And so they give
me all this flattering nonsense and I said, yeah, it
sounds great. I completely forget about it. And three months later,
my assistant calls me and I'm literally working out at
home and says where are you. I said, I'm at home.
Why He says, well, you know, the people from Great
Britain are all here and they're all excited to have you.
(26:22):
I said, oh, you know, see if they can come back,
I can do it on Monday. And she said no.
They rented a big hotel suite and they've got all
their cameras and everything. So I said fine. So I
show up at the hotel right across my office, very convenient,
and I walk in and there's four or five guys
in rumpled suits and the first thing they asked me
(26:44):
is would you like a drink. I said, why would
I want to drink. I'm gonna be doing an interview
for a kid show. It's just not not not what
you would expect. And then they said, you know, and
and here's our standard release form, you know, and I've
been on enough TV shows that I just signed it.
I don't read it, good attorney, don't listen, don't do
(27:07):
what I do, do what I say. And so so
I go up there and all of a sudden, I
have to go to the bathroom, and so I go
to the bedroom side, and there's this guy who's about
six ft tall in a Laker jumpsuit covered with gold chains,
and he's got two things on that are kind of crazy.
(27:27):
One he's got a master P hat on and two
he's got a Woot Tang Clan T shirt on. And
I said, you know what a coincidence that I know
Master P because my son's a DJ and I represent
uh one of the lead guys in uh the Woot
Tang Clan Old Dirty Masters wait V really, yeah, the
(27:52):
most fascinating life ever know, his his his the people
that I mean, but he's attached. To get back to that,
they're going to digress. So so you know, and the
guy says, I'm out here d jaying for the weekend,
and so I have no idea, and so I go back,
and it's professionally set up, you know, just like your
show here on Extra. They have the sound man in
(28:15):
the video guys, couple of cameras, so it looks very professional.
I sit down like I would sit next to you,
and this guy come sits next to me. He said,
oh my god. I mean it was like okay. So
he starts out and he's the first question is we
have with us the very famous American lawyer Richard Shapiro.
(28:39):
So I said, okay, let's let's take a step back. Okay,
you know, you got notes in front of you. My
name is Robert. Okay. So he starts again, and the
first the first six or seven minutes are all straight,
straight questions. Okay. That serious. He brings me in, you know,
(29:01):
and then he says, and he speaks, you know, in
this broken accent. When he was alleg does you ever
lose a case? And he said, of course, I lose
a case. He says, well, why doesn't you change sides
when you was losing a case so you become the winner.
Of the case, and I'm saying, okay, you know, look,
(29:24):
obviously you can't do that in Great Britain, and you
can't do that in the United States. We can't do that.
And now the questions are getting really kind of off
the wall, and I'm getting a little bit, uh, a
little bit aggravated. And so the next question is, you know,
it's got a case for you. Okay, what's the case?
(29:46):
He says me. Good, Bro is with the Queen at
Buckingham Palace and the twos of them are smoking a
joint and the alarms go off because of the smoke,
and the Bobby's come in and the joints between two
of them, but they arrest me. Bro, How's you going
to defend him? And I look at him and I said,
you know what, you're the village idiot. He said, who's
(30:09):
you calling the village idiot? I said, you know, I
don't mean to insult you, but that's a question like
the village idiot would ask. He says, you're just saying
that because I'm black. I said, no, it's got nothing
to do with the way you look. It's got something
to do with your stupidity. And listen, this interview is over,
and and and I ended it and I walked away.
(30:30):
The producer come back, you know, Mr Shapiro, he's going
to go back on script. He just got got carried
around a little bit back. So I'm sitting there for
a few minutes. I said, let him go back over
his notes. And I said, you know what, guys, this
show is not for me. And I walked away. So
so so now, Mario, I see him, you know, years later,
(30:52):
at the Sunset Tower restaurant in Beverly Hills, and he's
dressed straight, you know, And I go up to him
and us said, you know, I just wanted to reintroduce myself.
He says, no, I know exactly who you are. You
cost us a million dollars when you walked out on
this show. You're only one of two people who did it.
The other person was Donald Trump. Really, have you ever
(31:15):
seen the Trump? What did he try to do with Trumps?
Where a terrible like business idea and then Trump goes
all right, good luck with that and just leaves and
just leaves. But at least they aired that. Mind they
didn't even air yeah, oh wow, So yeah, I'm surprised
that they even got you that for that love. But
that's funny. Well, jokes on you. This is not a
real radio show. This whole thing that's fascinating. But did
(31:38):
you see his finale when he had your former client?
Not only did I I've seen every one of his
shows and I try to do it now. No, I'm
a huge fan, and you know, I mean sometimes I
have to watch it twice because I'm laughing so hard
I'm not hearing the next line. The things that he
gets people to do, isn't that crazy? They're just incomprehensive.
(32:01):
They're literally incomprehensible. And uh, but you know, there's a
good part to it, in a sad part. The good
part is it's incredibly entertaining. The sad part is there
are some people that are so far out of touch
with reality that they will do virtually anything to promote
(32:21):
their own agenda, and he's proving that. Let me just
ask quickly, because as I watched the o J thing
with him, I was unbelievably uncomfortable. Were you you know?
I really wasn't. I really haven't had any contact with
Simpson since the case. I ran into him twice, just coincidentally,
(32:43):
once at a car wash of all things, and once
unfortunately at a premiere when he came where he came
up and uh, you know, it wasn't something that I
wanted to be photographed with, but uh so you know
I saw it and you know, really didn't have much
thought other than pretty sad. Well, Bob, always a pleasure
(33:04):
to catch up. Thank you. Always great to be with you. Mario,
don't forget to follow. Listen to Mario on I Heart
Radio or subscribe where
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!