Would You Talk to This Man? : Booking: Some insiders say that celebrities are reluctant to go one-on-one with Howard Stern on his new TV show.

By DANIEL CERONE

Nov. 19, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There’s little doubt that the fans who made Howard Stern’s nationally syndicated radio program No. 1 in Los Angeles on KLSX-FM (97.1) will be out in force when the self-dubbed “King of All Media” holds a mock funeral at the Hollywood Palace on Tuesday for Mark and Brian, the former top-rated morning jocks on KLOS-FM (95.5).

The more pressing question is: What kind of support will the controversial broadcaster from New York, who has at times embraced and at times outraged celebrities with his irreverent radio interviews, receive from Hollywood?

Stern needs their backing on Saturday, when he will be in town to tape the first four episodes of a celebrity interview program called “The Howard Stern Interview,” which premieres Nov. 27 on the cable TV network E! Entertainment.

At least a dozen publicists and managers around town, who turned down requests to book their clients, claim that the weekly talk show is aggressively going after big-name talent and having a hard time securing any.

But E! officials say they have had no problems lining up guests, which Stern echoed on his radio program Wednesday. So far, E! has booked 16 people on four taping dates, with each guest to be featured in a half-hour, one-on-one interview with Stern. Those scheduled include Garry Shandling, Joan Rivers, James Brown, comedian Sandra Bernhard, pop artist Richard Marx and Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood.

On the whole, however, Stern’s talent roster suggests that Hollywood heavyweights are not knocking down his door. “There are very big stars we work with who detest what he does,” said the head of one of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies.

“The Whoopi Goldberg Show,” in comparison, was boasting such names as Robert De Niro, Cher, Billy Crystal, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Douglas and Robin Williams weeks before its fall premiere in syndication.

Some talent handlers are not permanently ruling out doing the show; they merely want to see it before they allow their clients to appear. Others, however, simply do not want to subject their clients to the type of questions Stern puts to his radio guests.

On radio, Stern has queried Jerry Seinfeld endlessly about his sexual partners. He told Dennis Miller that he would like to sleep with his wife. He asked talk-show host Montel Williams and basketball star Charles Barkely why all successful black men marry white women. He wondered aloud to Patti Davis whether she ever used the bathroom right after her father, former President Ronald Reagan. Earlier this week he asked Stacy Galina of “Knots Landing” whether he could snap her bra strap (she said yes), then begged her to pull down her pants so he could see her underwear (she said no).

“We won’t do (the TV show),” said Los Angeles publicist Jim Dobson, who handles Robert Mitchum and Dean Stockwell. “We’ve had bad experiences with some of our clients on his radio show. While it’s good publicity, it’s not a good experience. He’ll introduce Tina Yothers as the has-been actress of Hollywood, for example. He’s very degrading, especially to women.”

On Monday morning, Stern will hold a private victory celebration with entertainment figures at Spago in West Hollywood when he broadcasts his radio program live from Los Angeles for the first time.

For that event, which is strictly a radio affair, Stern appears to be having an easier time landing celebrities. Seinfeld, Sally Kirkland, James Earl Jones, Wayne Gretzky, Ed Asner, Richard Lewis, Tori Spelling, Kelsey Grammer, Corey Feldman, Phyllis Diller, rapper Eazy-E and former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates are all expected to attend, according to the bookers, Levine/Schneider Public Relations.

“Being on camera is more inhibiting,” said Beverly Hills publicist Susan Culley, who was approached by E! for Christian Slater. At this point she is taking a wait-and-see attitude on the TV series.

“On the radio you can edit your voice as you speak,” Culley said, “but on camera you can’t edit the reaction on your face. You can refuse to answer something, but the camera has already caught your shock or embarrassment.”

E! is available in 20 million homes--only about 21% of all TV households in America. But reluctance to book Stern’s show has more to do with the host than the size of the audience, sources say. Many of the industry’s top names have appeared on E!’s nightly interview program, “Extreme Close-Up.”

Fran Shea, senior vice president of programming for E!, said that there are at least three film stars who are booked on Stern’s show, but she wouldn’t divulge their names. “We don’t want them to be pre-interviewed by the press, or antagonized about why they would do a show like this,” she said.

E! already has taken heat from the National Organization for Women for hiring Stern, who regularly spanks women on his radio show and asks them to strip for him. The radio program has been cited several times for indecency by the Federal Communications Commission. Shea vows that Stern’s interview show, which will be recorded at E!’s studios on a simple banquette set, will not feature any of the wild antics for which he is known.

“There really are three types of guests,” Shea said. “Those who will do the booking sight unseen. That’s probably the shortest list. But it’s enough to fill our booking dates. Then there’s the people who would like to see some tape first, which is the largest group of people. Howard has a large group of fans out here who know he can sell their projects. Then there’s the people who say absolutely not, never, no way.”

Out of 300 calls to book talent, only six people said they would never do Stern’s TV show, Shea said. She declined to name them.

Heidi Schaeffer of PMK Public Relations also falls in the wait-and-see category.

“I’ve gotten calls (from E!), and none of my clients are anxious to go on his TV show,” said Schaeffer, whose client list includes Candice Bergen and Teri Garr, the latter of whom E! specifically asked for. “I handle mostly women, and they find him offensive. I basically told them that I’m not going to put anybody on until I know what the show is going to be. My only reference to him is what I’ve seen him do in the past, like the lesbian dating game, which is really ridiculous and sick.”

Celebrities who have been personally burned by Stern appear to be the most adamant about not appearing on E! with him.

“He decimated John Tesh and Connie Selleca a couple weeks ago, absolutely crucified them on the air,” said Richard Grant, the married couple’s publicist. “So I was completely taken aback when someone (from E!) called me because Howard wanted to interview them on his TV show.”

“I have no animosity toward Howard, but I don’t know that Connie and I sitting down with him doing an interview is the best thing for our careers,” Tesh said Wednesday.

One of Stern’s staff members, Stuttering John, has been crashing Hollywood functions for several years, ambushing celebrities at press conferences and asking them embarrassing questions. The responses are later played back on Stern’s radio show and also were sometimes shown on his syndicated TV show that shut down production earlier this year.

Elliot Sekuler, a publicist at Rogers & Cowan, vowed never to work with Stern after a rude question from Stuttering John brought one of his clients to tears at the Grammy Awards. “I choose not to work with people like that.”

E! AND NOW: Stern’s show on E! brought NOW protests and raises other questions. Robert Epstein column: F4