Howard Stern

Howard Stern, Manhattan NY, ‘92 & ‘93. This was back before Sirius, when he was still on regular, you know, terrestrial radio. He was huge, especially if you were commuting in the New York area. You could literally look at other cars around you and know they were listening to Howard too—everyone cracking up at the same wild thing he just said. It was kind of a shared moment every morning.

Anyway, I got hired to shoot him for the cover of Penthouse magazine. And I was like oh, this is going to be fun. He’s all about sexual innuendo, so I figured, let’s play off that. My assistant’s brother was a cop, so him and his partner came over, and we got some pictures, but they weren’t really doing it for me. And I’m like look, this is Penthouse—what if we did Howard as a centerfold? I could tell Howard was not super into it. But I told him about this old Burt Reynolds Cosmo shoot, where he was naked, but sort of strategically draped—it was this huge thing when it came out in the 70s. He was still hesitant, but I pushed. He finally said, “Okay...but only if I get to see the pics before you send them.” I never do that—I feel like it’s a disservice to the magazine that’s hired me—but I wanted this picture, so I said yes.

So we do it, we got the shot. I brought the pictures to Howard at his studio, and nobody knows I’m doing this. It was hush-hush–the magazine would never know. He’s into it. So I’m good to go and bring it to Penthouse. I get on the subway, make my way back to my studio, and as soon as I walk in the door, my assistants are freaking out: “Oh, my God! Howard’s on the air, and he’s talking about you!” He told the whole story—totally sold me out! It was worth it, though.

Fast forward, and he asks me to shoot the cover for his book, Private Parts. He walks into the studio and these two strippers, who proceed to get unabashedly undressed and pose with him. But this time he was down to take it up a notch. He got naked too, and we got the strippers covering his privates. We really just played with the whole thing.

Years later, our mutual friend Rachael Ray gave him that centerfold photo for his birthday. He loved it. Didn’t even remember selling me out. Go figure.