Private Parts
Based on a best-selling autobiography, this comedy drama is the surprisingly sweet-natured life story of a controversial radio personality. Howard Stern, who stars as himself, is a nerdy New York kid who dreams of a disc jockey career despite being a self-loathing klutz who lacks a traditional broadcaster's voice. A strikeout artist in college, Stern's romantic travails end when he meets and marries Alison (Mary McCormack), a beautiful social worker. Stern's early career at several radio stations is undistinguished. Bored, he makes his life the centerpiece of his show, including his obsessions with sex and bathroom humor, and he finds willing cohorts in news reporter Robin Quivers and producer Fred Norris. After an abortive tenure at a Washington D.C. station that loathes his high-rated antics, he lands at NBC in New York. Again, Stern clashes regularly with executives, especially Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton (Paul Giamatti), who runs roughshod over Stern's team. At home, Stern's tendency to discuss the intimate details of his marriage takes a toll, reaching a meltdown when he jokes about Alison's recent miscarriage on-air. more..
Director: Betty Thomas
Starring: Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Mary McCormack, Fred Norris, Paul Giamatti
What can I tell you? It works. Private Parts is a comic firecracker with a surprising human touch.
Director Thomas applies the deft comic touch which made The Brady Bunch Movie (similarly ignored outside the US) such a hoot, to make for a deliriously funny, frequently outrageous romp.
Howard Stern has been accused of a lot of things, but he has never been accused of being dumb. With Private Parts, his surprisingly sweet new movie, he makes a canny career move: Here is radio's bad boy walking the finest of lines between enough and too much.
Shaped and softened by producer Ivan Reitman, screenwriters Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko, and director Betty Thomas, however, the movie-star Stern is a defanged tiger, funny but tranquilized.
Private Parts is witty and fast-paced and makes Stern's raunchy, breast-obsessed, lesbian-fetishizing, big-penis-envying, arrested-adolescent outlook seem like harmless fun.
Favorite Male Newcomer
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (1998)
Betty Thomas
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1997)
Worst New Star
Razzie Awards (1998)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
Satellite Awards (1998)
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