*Entertainer Steve Harvey is making news again. He was recently interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter to discuss among other things, his move back to Los Angeles/Hollywood; his new show; his controversial meeting with Donald Trump and another controversy, the infamous leaked memo.
As far as that meeting with Donald Trump, here’s what he had to say:
The backlash. It was so vicious that it really threw me. I was being called names that I’ve never been called: Uncle Tom. A coon. A sellout. Because I went to see this man?! Which only happened because my business partner got a call from the Obama transition team, who said that the Trump transition team would like to set up a meeting. The Obama team said they thought it would be a good idea because the president is encouraging dialogue. And I have a relationship with Obama. We’re friends. So I say, “OK, cool.” Now, here’s the crazy thing: I’m supposed to be on a boat for my 60th birthday, so my wife says, “Steve, just take off [and skip the meeting]. You’ll meet with him some other time.” God, I should’ve listened.
In his meeting with the newly elected president, he admitted to Trump that he didn’t vote for him, but made an offer to work with his administration with inner cities concerns.
We talked about golf for 20 minutes. And then I told him, “Mr. President, I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t vote for you. I campaigned very hard for Hillary Clinton.” And I said, “The problem was that we made a lot of mistakes in the campaign. We were playing checkers and y’all was playing chess. But now that you’re here, you’re the 45th president and I’m going to help you.” He wants to know how, so I say, “You’ve appointed Ben Carson as the head of Housing and Urban Development, and I’ve got keys to a lot of cities around this country from the years of performing that I’ve done. I can get an ear to them really quick and find out what their real needs are. Y’all keep closing schools in the cities. Why don’t we take those schools that are closing, put some HUD money in them, and reopen them as vision centers and teach STEM and computers and coding? If you connect me with Ben Carson, I can help him with that.” A few minutes later, he had Ben Carson on the phone.
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He adds that he and Ben Carson are trying to make progress.
I’ve been to HUD twice. I’ve met with Dr. Carson and we’re actually trying to get it started. We’ve had meetings, and now we’re just waiting on the final notes. We have several teams in place. Hopefully before the year goes out, we’ll be making the announcement about the first vision center.
When asked if he’s kept in touch with Trump, his response was:
No, I haven’t talked to him since.
As far as returning to Hollywood, he says this time it’s different. The last time Steve Harvey called Los Angeles home, he was in what he calls the “pick me” phase of his career.
“Back then, I was trying to make it,” he says, fiddling with a cigar on the table. “I was trying to get picked. ‘Hope I get on this.’ ‘Hope I get on that.’ This trip back is very different.”
The article goes on to explain why: “Harvey, who has lived in Chicago for the last five years, is here in Hollywood to add a new daytime talk show to a vast empire that includes five game shows, four books, a clothing line, a foundation and a popular syndicated radio show. In the last year alone, the married father of seven hauled in $42.5 million, according to Forbes.”
What about that leaked memo? It seemed as though the backlash threw him, too.
Yeah. (Laughs.) I’ve got six shows! My time is consumed. For four years, I tried to be congenial. I’ll talk to people. “Hey, how you doing?” But I started watching them take advantage of me, so now I come onstage, here they are. I go to my dressing room, here they are. I go down the hallway, there they are. I’m sitting in my makeup chair getting makeup done. “You didn’t hear me knock. Can I talk to you?” Boom, they’re in my dressing room. I put doorbells up. They quit ringing the doorbells. I put signs on my door, “Knock before you enter.” “You didn’t hear the knock, so I came on in.” So I said, “Wait a minute, man. Let me send a memo out at the beginning of the year so in year five I can just walk from backstage to my dressing room.” ‘Cause other celebrities, trust and believe, you can’t bother them. You better not even be in the hallway when they’re walking. So, I sent the memo at the beginning of the year. Then the year is over, we’re about to do the wrap party, and one very angry guy — and he’s angry because my new producer came up there and interviewed some people and he wasn’t one that was picked — sends it to [media writer] Robert Feder in Chicago. I was OK with it until I saw it on CNN.
He was then asked if he was worried about his reputation?
Absolutely you get concerned. That’s only human. I’ll do jokes about it on the show. Look, if you never turn around and face the problem, it swells and becomes this big, uncontrollable monster. So as soon as something happens to me, I immediately go, “Let’s dance with it a little bit and see what it really is.” Like the Miss Universe thing [where Harvey announced the wrong winner].
Would his bucket list include late night hosting?
Man, I’ve always wanted to do late night. Jay Leno said years ago, why you are not doing late night is a mystery to me. [Jimmy] Fallon has said that to me. Comedians know. Somebody’s got to greenlight it. And let me tell you how good it would be. I could really take the gloves off. Oh man, it would be funny. Chris Rock did a joke about this, though. What’s a black man got to do to get a late-night show around here? It’s like trying to play golf at the Wilshire Country Club.
You can get the rest of what Steve Harvey had to say at The Hollywood Reporter.
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