The host of Inside the Actor’s Studio and star of Arrested Development is a man of many talents — including working as a pimp at a Parisian bordello.
In an interview with Parade, Lipton reveals what it was like to work for working girls in post-WWII Paris:
On the truth behind his life as a pimp:
I was. It was only a few years after the war. Paris was different then, still poor. Men couldn’t get jobs and, in the male chauvinist Paris of that time, the women couldn’t get work at all. It was perfectly respectable for them to go into le milieu.
Young women desperately needed money for various reasons. They were beautiful and young and extraordinary. There was no opprobrium because it was completely regulated. Every week they had to be inspected medically. The great bordellos were still flourishing in those days before the sheriff of Paris, a woman, closed them down. It was a different time.
On how he got the job:
We became great friends. When I ran out of money, I said, “I have to go home.” She said, “No, you don’t. I’ll arrange for you.” So she arranged for me to do it. I had to be okayed by the underworld; otherwise they would’ve found me floating in the Seine.
But it didn’t stop with his friend — he represented “a whole bordello”.
I represented them all, but her especially. I did a roaring business, and I was able to live for a year. The French mecs didn’t exploit women. They represented them, like agents. And they took a cut. That’s how I lived. I was going through my rites of passage, no question about it. It was a great year of my life.
Even considering all that, when asked if he thinks people should pay for sex, he says:
I really don’t. I think if you can’t earn it on your own, then you don’t deserve it.
And there you have it, folks!
[Parade]
Photo via AP
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