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In 1997, Howard Stern played himself in ‘Private Parts’. But, somehow, he was almost replaced by Jeff Goldblum
Howard Stern’s 1997 film *Private Parts* nearly cast Jeff Goldblum as Stern after the radio host rejected six screenplay drafts. The dispute centred on scripts that Stern felt turned his life into cartoonish comedy, rather than showing the more revealing mix of his off-air personality and provocative radio career.
Stern said the suggestion that Goldblum replace him felt insulting, and argued that audiences would not accept “The Fly as Howard Stern”. Director Ivan Reitman helped persuade the producers to focus on the interest of Stern’s real life; after joining as a producer, he helped reshape the screenplay. Stern then pushed through another 24 drafts before the film, directed by Betty Thomas, was released in February 1997.
In short
- Jeff Goldblum was considered to play Howard Stern.
- Stern rejected six early screenplay drafts.
- Ivan Reitman helped reshape the film’s script.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Casting Jeff Goldblum could have given the film a more conventional leading performance and helped translate Stern’s provocative public persona into a character audiences could follow. The early scripts’ comic approach may have seemed a practical way to make an unusual radio career work as a mainstream film, while reducing the risk of a self-portrait feeling self-indulgent.
The case against
Stern’s insistence on playing himself could be defended as essential to a film whose appeal depended on the contrast between his on-air provocations and off-air personality. A stand-in actor and scripts that made his life cartoonish risked losing that authenticity, so his repeated revisions were a reasonable effort to protect the story he believed audiences would find compelling.