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Inside Rex Reed’s Dakota: An Afternoon of Unrepentant Opinions and Hollywood Tales

"I joked for years that I was going to write a book that I was saved by lemon meringue pie," Rex Reed told me in 2022, recounting the night he skipped dinner at Sharon Tate's house. "I'm telling you, I've got a million of these stories."

On February 12, 2022, I interviewed Rex Reed in his apartment for my podcast about aging showbiz legends, “The Originals.” Though I’d worked for the New York Observer in the late nineties, I’d never met Rex or seen him before in the flesh—like fellow columnist Peter Bogdanovich, he wisely steered clear of the grubby, overcrowded Upper East Side townhouse HQ. It was immediately clear that Rex was ready to talk—he’d taken a lot of fire for stuff he’d said in his reviews, notably for calling Melissa McCarthy “tractor-sized” in a 2013 review for Identity Thief, which he loathed. Somehow, unlike everyone else with a regular gig, the fear of cancellation never seemed to even cross his mind, so as you’ll see, he doubled down. I loved it.

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I was horrified when the SD card of my digital recorder ran out of space, and I had to sprint ten blocks to grab a new one at Staples. “Why didn’t you bring more tape?” he asked. It wasn’t clear he understood digital recording and did his best not to seem miffed by the 30-minute interruption. I felt, as I should have, like an idiot, but Rex was game to keep going. I was appreciative and relieved that Rex reviewed movies, not podcast interviewers. I will forever treasure the memory of my afternoon listening to Rex giddily unload on everyone and everything. He was a dream subject.

The Originals: Rex Reed

Below are highlights of my 2022 interview with Rex Reed. (Listen to the full episode here.)

On living and dying in The Dakota

I don’t want to sell it. Where would I go? I spent a lot of time getting this apartment just the way I wanted it, and I wouldn’t want to start over now. You can’t find Regency doors. Now you just get flat-surface doors in apartments, and you don’t get all these wonderful custom-fitted shutters. I had a will, and everything was all spelled out, and all of the people in the will died, and now I’ve got to do it all over again. And I’ve got to think up new people to leave things to. There’s no dog. There........

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