Welcome back to just be with Bethany. So do you remember the Gwyneth Paltrow vagina scented candle? You played them saying that out loud? Well, it's sold out really quickly. So Gwyneth Paltrow, I remember her vagina. It had if it was a vagina scented. So whose vagina, by the way, whose I want to know who is with Gwyneth Paltrow on here so I can ask her whose vagina was the candle modeled after and who were the vagina testers like?

Who are the Veja? Who are the people? The women are men just doing all the vagina testing and mixed because it's like mixing a fragrance like I like this. It has a little bit of gardenia and has a little bit of musk. It has a little bit of patchouli. It has a little. So I want to know, like the ten vaginas that got mixed into the Gwyneth Paltrow vagina candle. But I digress. And this candle blew up in someone's house.

So I said it's better than someone's vagina blowing up. What did the smell like all over the house? It's so that that person says the move now does she get is going to have to buy the person a new home because that person's home smells like vagina everywhere. I just want vagina. From what I understand, there are people that won't be with certain people because they don't have a pleasant smelling vagina. So I just want to know whose vagina is it anyway.

But Gwyneth Paltrow, it's just amazing. Let's do the dicks dick smell again on XPS, the penis scandal, the Asciano, the tame candle, the candle, the ball scandal, the after sex scandal. I mean, I want to be Gwyneth Paltrow when I grew up. Right. Just fucking do anything you want. I bet you that would all work. Like all those candles just would just work. Oh, it's Gwyneth's vagina. Well, did you smell her own vagina?

She does do yoga. She does work with Tracy in Houston. So maybe she's that that but that's flexible that she smells her own vagina. But I will say something and all you women know your vagina doesn't smell the same every single day. It doesn't smell the same every single day. It smells different after certain activities. It smells different during that time of the month and not your vagina. This is not the same all the time. And I don't like that.

About a 50 year old vagina. How old is going to. She's forty eight years old. She's a middle aged woman. And I'd like to know what a middle aged, beautiful blonde actress slash empire owner vagina smells like. So I'm going to have to get the candle and then I'm going have to smell. Gwyneth Paltrow is vagina do and see if they smell the same because as anyone tested that. Right. Do you agree? I mean, what are the odds, what are the odds that her vagina smells like that candle, right?

Zero.

So if any of you have smelled the candle, I'd like to know what. So we're going to talk to Andy Cohen, who has so many job titles, I don't think you would believe it. He has not only worked at CBS for 10 years and was a vice president in programming and development at Bravo. He hosts Watch What Happens Live. He's won a Peabody and an Emmy has produced dozens of television shows. He's written multiple New York Times best sellers.

He has a touring show with Anderson Cooper. He has his own imprint where he publishes other people's books and he's hosted many different shows. And he's only just begun. And to be honest, I just think he really makes the whole thing look effortless because he's loving what he does. But he's a hard worker and he's only halfway there. He's got so much to do. So pretty amazing story. And I can't wait to talk to him in a different way about business and not just him in my backyard.

Which is how it usually happens. Hi, Andy. Hey, baby. This is a flip of a switch right now, which I enjoy. Me too. I would normally say that you don't need an introduction, but I actually think you do, because I think that people know you for just a handful of things and you have had quite a lot in your career basket.

Yes, it's a bountiful basket. It's a beautiful basket. And I know you. But when we talk, we talk about gossip or what we did that day or Ben or the Housewives. And, you know, the show is about people who have had non-traditional, circuitous routes to get to where they are pretty much started from the bottom and now they're here. So you have a radio channel, a book imprint effectively with Anderson, a touring company, a production company.

You are an award winning producer in so many different genres. And I mean, people don't realize you worked at CBS for 10 years, even before you were an executive at Bravo and a vice president at Bravo. And I don't know that I can think of another high powered executive that is so seamlessly transitioned into being such a successful on air talent. So did I get all that right? And I know there's a lot more. You've won a Peabody Award, you've won an Emmy, at least an Emmy.

Have you won more than one Emmy?

I've only won one Emmy. And you did get it. All right. And I appreciate it and is a circuitous route indeed.

I think that you're a person who has navigated getting to where you are in a very seemingly effortless way. Thank you. It look you make it look easy. You make it you're very casual. You're very relaxed. And I just wanted to ask you what you thought you were going to do. Like what did you think you were going to be? Well, what I wanted to be, I think in the back of my mind, because what I in my in my fantasy was that I would be able to be myself on TV, but I didn't know how to manifest that.

And when I was growing up, that just seems so egotistical. It was before Instagram was before we were all admitting that we love to put ourselves out there. And it just seemed kind of self-centered. So I decided to go into news because I thought, well, I could be a reporter and maybe I could kind of have some fun with that. And in my mind, I thought, well, maybe I would be on a morning show or something like that hosting.

But I quickly gave up the idea of being on camera because my last internship was at CBS News in New York. And the idea of moving from small market to small market, kind of trying to break into reporting versus moving straight to New York and working behind the scenes, I think I just got very attracted to the allure of working in New York and being kind of swimming in the with the big fish. Well, that's so interesting.

When I was trying to be an actress years ago, I felt like I was trying to be someone else. And I thought the same thing that you thought. And we're similar ages. And we came up at a similar time in very different routes. But I thought the same thing that you thought, how do I be myself? But even hosting felt like it just so much copy. And you're confined to being all cheery and you have found a way to do exactly what you want to do in your own way.

And you've totally kept it real. You know, I'm a fan of strong, powerful women and people that speak their mind. And Hillary Clinton is someone I admire. You're listening to her right now, just and she has a new podcast called You and Me Both that I think you will love Hillary Clinton's life.

You couldn't even make up. She's been everywhere. I met everyone. And now she's bringing them all to her podcast. Each week, with the help of her guests, she'll dig into today's biggest issues from the role of faith and politics to addressing food insecurity. The smart, funny, honest conversations show a side of Hillary that you've never seen before. And the same goes for her guests like Tan France, Stacey Abrams, Gloria Steinem and Kamala Harris. Listen and subscribe to you and me both on the I Heart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you consider yourself a brand? I guess I kind of do in some sense. It used to be that the brands were, you know, the networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, but now the brands seem to be the people or the shows. You know, The Housewives is a brand. Bravo is one of the few networks, I think, that has maintained its brand identity as all these other networks have lost. So I guess in some theory, I mean, in some in some way, I guess I am a brand.

I don't love the word, but it is what it is.

Because you think it's a pretentious word. My personal brand. Do you think it's like a potential? Yeah, exactly. I just think it's I think a lot of people use it who you're like, all right. With your brand, like, settle down.

I agree. But I mean, you don't think of yourself as me because I know you personally, but you are. I had a filter for how I would bring people on and who they would be. And there were a lot of people that are very rich and very successful that I didn't want to have on here because I didn't feel that they were a mogul. And I do feel that way about you. I mean, when I talk about what I said before, I mean, and you've written multiple books and you have multiple shows and you've had, you know, a lot of success, but you're so casual about it and you sort of just are natural about it, that I wonder if you think that you would have been successful at anything you did like.

Did you would you feel lucky or smart or both? Do you? What combination?

I feel both really lucky. And and I do think that I'm smart and I am cocky enough to think that. Yes, I, I think that I would have been successful at what I tried to do. Now, I don't think I would have tried to do anything that I wasn't going to be successful at. So I wouldn't have tried to be a brain surgeon or a scientist or something with math or an accountant, because I would be horrible and I'm not interested.

But the things I was interested in, I just always I mean, it is such simple advice, but I always say to people, if you are passionate about something, you should be able to succeed in that because your passion is going to drive you, you know, your success. So I feel like everything that I've done, I have done because I thought I can do that and I'll be good at that. There have been a lot of things that have been pitched to me or proposed to me that I've said I don't think that's going to work.

I'm not going to do that. So while it may seem like I say yes to everything, but I actually only say yes to things that I think will work or that I can do.

I don't know that it seems like that knowing you personally, you say no to a lot and a lot of it could be really lucrative and moneymaking. But you're also in a position where you're out there every day and whatever you say you could you can you could lose it all in a second for one stupid thing that you say that you don't even mean. I mean, are you afraid of that?

Yes, I think about it every day. And I have thought it every day just because I think on the one hand, I'm so grateful for everything that I have. And I am hyper aware and it's really heated up in the last six years, this council culture. And so, yes, I absolutely do. And I have to say and you and I talked about this, too, when covid started, I really started kind of counting my my shackles and thinking, OK, well, what happens if this goes away and what happens if that goes away and am I OK?

And I think that, you know, I think it's it's good to always be in shock of that stuff. And I think part of the reason that I try not to flaunt things where you were saying earlier, oh, you know, you're you're successful, but you seem pretty laid back about it. I think that we've both seen so many people just be assholes with success and with fame. And I think for me, certainly that's been I knew a lot of famous people before I ever became famous, as it were.

And I think that I looked at them and how they handled fame. And I said, OK, oh, they're cool. Oh, they're not being cool. And I think that I tried to kind of ease into it and keep my shit together, as it were.

Well, that's a good way to ask you the next question. Do you what is your relationship with money? Meaning do you have noise about it? Do you consider yourself wealthy? And who do you ask business advice? Like who do you go to to ask financial and business advice? Are you good at that? What's your whole relationship with money and the managing of your affairs?

You know, I grew up firmly middle class or upper middle class where I, I, but I. Was also I worked every summer of my life and I was expecting. That's true. Yeah. What did you expect? What did you do to I. Oh my God.

Well well, first of all, my family owned the food manufacturing and distribution company. And I worked there. I worked in the factory. I drove a forklift. I made deliveries. I made copies. This is all different summer. So and again, it was working for my family business. But I'm telling you, like, I was expected to be there at seven thirty in the morning, it was a union shop. So you had clear break times.

You had a break at ten, thirty for fifteen minutes. You had a lunch break at noon for a half an hour, and then you had a break at like three thirty or something for fifteen minutes and then you got off at five thirty and like it was I was not expected just because I was the boss's kid.

I was not expected to, you know, I was not given like, oh, you can take an hour because really are you going to get fired? I was I was meant to leave. I was meant to be an example and not be an asshole. And I worked at a pushcart at Faneuil Hall in Boston selling Mexican pullovers and blankets. I worked it. I was a waiter. I was I had so many jobs. I was a receptionist at a radio station.

So I definitely always was taught the value of money, you know, with the world of social media and filters and, you know, being making five million dollars a year on Tic-Tac and this younger generation, I worry about people really knowing what that hard work is, really the way to be successful, even if you are a social media star and even if you do filter your eyelashes on your ass on or whatever you're doing, hard work is really the key to success, in my opinion.

Like, you have to be a person. Getting on TV is not going to make you successful. Putting a fucking handbag on TV and talking about it is not going to make you a million dollars, like, really just following through, executing and working hard. And when you and I talk, we talk about bullshit. We don't talk about the jobs you had in high school that your parents made you have. And I think the people need to know and hear that you can have all of it lined up.

But if you're not going to work your ass off and you said you have to have passion, you have to love what you do, have the drive, but ultimately have to work your ass off. Do you mean don't you agree? That's the bottom line. You work hard, don't you? Work really hard.

One hundred percent. And I think that, you know, I remember when I started at CBS News, I was an intern there, and then I moved to New York after school and I was like, you know what? I'm going to wait tables until I can get a job at CBS News. Something has to open up. I really want to be there. And I moved there. And weirdly, a night time desk assistant left the morning show soon right after I moved there and I got that job.

And when I tell you at first of all, I was working like seventy hour weeks at least I worked so hard, but I loved it and I felt so successful because I was getting checks that said CBS. I was like, I made it. I mean, I just I thought I was the shit. I really thought I was amazing.

And, you know, that we did not count ours. Our generation didn't count. Ours didn't count Saturdays. Well, I was the same way. And it was also it seems like it's part of your identity. And by the way, we've talked about being a little rudderless. Now, I feel like you're in such a social career. So you host this fun show, you have cocktails, you see people. You don't really have to do anything besides that unless you're talking about dating.

And I feel like now since the pandemic, you're not having that social stimulation. Yeah, it's weird.

I mean, it's weird doing a show. I mean, but that's another thing. I mean, I'm just so grateful to be able to still do it. But it's so weird, the idea of doing a show from home. I mean, I walk up to my computer, I put my makeup on, I turn on all the lights. I'm doing it by myself. And then you're done a half hour later. I mean, it's like, well, where are the people?

Exactly what exactly do you seem? Very decisive. I've come to you with different projects and you don't really seem to look back like you'll say no. Yes, I think so. And if you don't like it, you just don't like it. Do you feel like, I don't know, what percentage do you go with? Gut instinct, decisiveness just on me for?

I'm very gut instinct and I've worked for a lot of people who have been very research driven. And so that's been an interesting experience for me, where sometimes I have. I have. I thought that his show was going to be a huge hit and it's a bomb. And then we do the research on why it was a bomb and it was stuff that I could have never predicted. And I'm grateful for that, you know, Intel.

So I. That programming television is very I think it's very you have to go with your gut if you if you really believe that you know what you're doing. And I do a lot of people who are very skittish in television and who are you know, the development phase is endless. I hate development. I ran production and development of Bravo for years. Development usually takes so long and it's agonizing. And you and I have talked about this way. Oh, my God.

The time and the time between pitching a show and it actually getting on the air is often really long. And I you know, in my mind, it's not a sure thing. What are you waiting for? That's why we couldn't do movies.

I mean, for the most part, it take two years like we like I like I used to cry for the cameras on, but the camera's on because this is happening. Get the fucking cameras out. Yes, exactly. I think that programming, which you still are involved in programming because you produce so many things and you have such an a voice and an opinion and power at Bravo. And I know you don't run the network and people blame you for everything that happens there, but it's not unlike products.

So being and I have a brand and I have many different products and being in that space, often something comes out and then 10 other people want to do the same project, same product. And I'm always at the school like B first, B fastest. But once that's been done, you don't want to keep doing it ten times. And in television, it's so much of like, oh, we're doing a lot of cooking shows right now. The home space is big right now or the dating space.

And then it's like derivative content of the original. You don't seem to like that. You don't like derivative.

Yeah. I mean, however, I'm I'm happy jumping on the bandwagon. I mean, you know, if I think there's some new way to do it or if I, you know, for example, if dating shows were really hot, but I was working with you and I was like, OK, well, what if we build a dating show around Bethenny like that to me would be, in my mind, something of a sure thing.

I don't know what it is. I mean, I'm just spit balling, but like, you know, so. Yeah. Your own spin on it. Yeah.

So what's your parenting style like, what what do you know yet what your parenting style is? Because Ben so young, do you have any idea like what?

Well, I think that it's it's fairly laid back, I think and I've talked to other parents about this.

What I'm finding is I think there's great I think there's something really positive about having a child later in life. I think, you know, I'm more Zen about where I'm at. I'm not I'm not losing my shit about everything. And where's this kid going to go to school? And I just think I'm more comfortable where I'm at. And I feel like, you know what?

We're going to get this kid into a good school. All right. I'm not going to lose my mind about this. And so I just think there are things to sweat and things not to sweat. So I'm just trying to be laid back and I want to expose him to as many people and as many things as possible that I want. You know, it was really important for him to listen to music. I mean, so there's music playing all the time at my house.

And it's not kids' music, by the way. It's Grateful Dead. And but I. I want him to appreciate music.

That's so funny. You and Paul are so similar. I know he goes to dead shows you love the dead and he's the music is such a part of his life. It's so funny. I'm such a type person. I don't know if I consider you type. I consider you like type B plus. I don't think you're that you don't sweat everything like me, you don't sweat all the small stuff. But when it comes to parenting, I'm the same exact way.

I was like my kids not going to go to their wedding in a diaper like it's not it it's not that deep potty training or getting into school. I just I just the same thing. I think it's like business. It's your gut instinct. If you go with your gut, with kids, it's not there's no perfect parent, no perfect kid. But are you do you want do you honestly want a life partner or do you want it? I know you've in the past we've talked about this and you may not necessarily want to do it alone, but as we get older, we get more set in our ways and selfish and you have a very full life.

So what do you and can you work as hard as you do in your business at a relationship or a partnership? And do you want that even?

I think that I do want it, but I don't seem to be working very hard to get it. And it's funny because, you know, a lot of times I'll be you know, I waste an inordinate amount of time on Instagram kind of looking at other people's, you know, pages and whatever. And a lot of times you see people and they're great looking in there and they're all these shirtless pictures. And then you're like, OK, let me let me put myself in the position of dating this person.

Now, is this who I want as a boyfriend, Mr. Speed shot every day like and I find it interesting that it's twenty twenty.

And Paul has like a small social following because he's produced some movies, but he doesn't post at all. I can post a picture of a sunset once every six months. I've never been in a relationship with someone who had social media, which I love, by the way. I wouldn't be into like some guy taking pictures of himself and filtering himself and showing how great is fake life was the one of us that have to fucking project the bullshit, right?

You're looking with it's eye candy and you're like, oh, my God. Oh, this guy's amazing. I want to meet him. And you're like, wait.

So exactly. And also, what do you think of. But does that bother you? Does it bother you? Social media and people's bullshit lives. I mean, the Housewives is all about everyone calling everybody out and everything. And on watch it happens live no stone unturned.

It kind of does. But then on the other hand, that's the thing. It's like, well, guess what? If I was someone else looking in on my social media, am I the person I would want to date? Maybe not. I may be like, you know what? That guy was kind of a douche. I mean, so, you know, it's, you know, people who live in glass houses, man, you know?

And also, I mean, that's the other thing. If I was watching my own show, would I want to date me? I don't know. I don't know.

I I'm too inside baseball. I mean, I think you're pretty fucking eligible and datable. But what you know, so being gay and being Jewish has to have the drawbacks of being Jewish. Let's start with the easier one. Have there been drawbacks? And like, has there been any obstacles? Not in the entertainment industry, right?

No, no, not that I have had. And then regarding being gay, I would say I started working at CBS News in nineteen ninety. It was it was first of all, the AIDS epidemic was in full swing. And second of all, people were really closeted at CBS News. I was not only one of the youngest producers there, I was one of. Not many out people I worked with, a lot of older gay guys, correspondents and producers, who I would run into a gay bar, that was sometimes how I found out that they were gay, but they were very closeted because CBS News was it was just a very conservative place and it was not.

But I just was like, look, this I was already out at that point. And I was like, look, you know, this is just who I am. And so I can't say I mean, I remember once being in the control room and someone kind of said, faggot. And you you you you hear things or you feel like, oh, wow, OK, well, that's surprising.

I guess I am still living in the world in nineteen ninety two and this is what it is. But I can't say that it hurt me. I didn't feel like it hurt me. It was still kind of the entertainment business was just a different time and your parents were always supportive like from when I don't even know how good you are when you came out.

But they were so always supportive. It was always. Or did they always do they know you were gay from when you were a small boy or now because you're you're what I call a straight gay. When you were first on Bravo hosting the reunions, Jill Zarin wanted to set you up with someone we didn't even know. You seemed like a great straight Jewish guy. Oh, yes. She wanted to set you up with someone because you seem strange to me.

I know. Yeah, I, I. They I mean, listen, I had a Supreme's poster in my bedroom when I was growing up, you know what I mean? And I was listening to Diana Ross and I you know, I thought that I seem pretty gay. My mom found gay porn under my bed when I was either in a senior in high school or freshman in college. And so, you know, that pretty much took off.

And then when I came out a couple of years later, she always says that that she knew I was gay.

I was in our production of Carousel in high school. And she says, and I quote, Will, when you came prancing on to the stage, etc.. So I had a pretty good idea. I'm like, I wasn't prancing mom. She's like, oh, yes, you were. You were prancing. I'm like, oh, all right. That's amazing. That's amazing.

You know, my mother's famous line, when I told her I was gay, she said I probably would have hated your wife anyway.

That's amazing. All right. Well, I won't keep you too much longer. I just want to know if there was that I'm an introvert and that I am a homebody and never want to leave the house is a surprise to people about me. So what is a surprise to people about you?

Most people, except for your best friends and your family, know what is maybe a surprise to people is that I really am just kind of a hippie at heart. Like I really am happiest just sitting on a beach all day doing nothing, you know, listening to the Grateful Dead, like, you know, that's what I want. Well, all right. I like that. There you go. So I just want to thank you so much because I know how busy you are and this is your vacation time.

And I really appreciate it. And I just want to acknowledge that you are the one who called me and did say you have to do this, you're going to love it and be good at it. I loved it. And thank you for having.

Well, thank you for having me, too. And have a wonderful holiday and I appreciate you. OK, I'll talk to you. Bye.

All right, that was Andy Cohen on speaker, because it's just the way we're dealing with shows from your home.

So anyway, you know, the reason I thought that that was particularly compelling is that I don't think people know that much about Andy. He's happy go lucky. He's, you know, the consummate host.

He's effortless and casual and he's always smiling and is super charming and, you know.

He's really deep, he's a really deep person, and he just has a very, very unique story because he's come up in a really interesting way.

He was an executive and he managed to get himself on camera and then managed to be a really successful late night talk show host. So I just think he's an interesting story.

He's definitely a mogul.

And even though I'm friends with him and he comes to my house and we chat, we don't get into the meat of the matter. We never have talked about his child. And we don't talk, really, except for just how are your parents?

They're good. We don't get into what makes him who he is. And I think you can learn from his story. So I thought that was very insightful and in many ways simple, you know, work really hard and love what you do and you'll be successful at it.

And as a parent, not to get bogged down and obsessed with doing everything right. It's all going to work out. So thank you all for listening. I thought that was really great and I'm loving these conversations.

We'll talk soon. GSP has hosted and executive produced by me, Bethenny Frankel, Brail Productions and Endeavor Content. Our managing producer is Samantha Allison and our producer is Caroline Hamilton. Corey Preventer is our consulting producer with the ever faithful. Sarah Cattanach as our assistant producer. Our development executive is Nayantara Just Be is a production of Endeavour content and spoke media.

This episode was mixed by Sam Baer. And to catch more moments from the show, follow us on Instagram at Just Be with Beth. What's up, I'm Delaney, I'm Kelsey, and I'm Taylor, and we are three type comedians and the host of the self-help podcast, if you've ever found self-help to be a bit cheesy over the top or absolute garbage, we get it. And we're here to help you sift through the dumpster of self-improvement to find the gems that actually might change your life or at least give you some hot quotes to keep in your back pocket for that wedding toast you might get one day.

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