An Interview With Donny Deutsch

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L.G.: Speaking of which... 

D.D.: Yes.

L.G.: You had Ann Coulter on last year when she was promoting her book Godless, and you complimented her on her legs and then you said, "Well, maybe we can go out to dinner, have a lot to drink, and then you can have your way with me." I take it the romance is over?

D.D.: Did I say that? Were those my exact words?

L.G.: Pretty much. [Deutsch told Coulter, "You have beautiful legs," at which she flashed a smile and said, "Thank you!" Later in the interview, Deutsch mused, "If you and I had dinner tonight, we would get along, we would get drunk, you would have your way with me..."]

D.D.: Where did you get those words from?

L.G.: YouTube has everything, man. [Here and here.]

D.D.: Okay, I don't remember the exact words. We always have a little fun, banter, kidding around. It was disappointing what happened, to tell you the truth. [Last week, Coulter claimed on The Big Idea that Christians are "perfected Jews," and Deutsch, a self-described practicing Jew, told her, "I'm offended by that personally."]  I think my show is about success and the American dream. I didn't have Ann on to argue and fight. I had Ann on to really talk about a very successful business model. I even started the interview, "Love her, hate her, she has a business model that works," and I kept trying to keep the interview on that. And she said, "Oh it's not a business model, I believe what I say, da da da da." I unfortunately failed in that interview, because I pride myself that my show is really a nighttime positive talk show, and I couldn't keep it on track. So I didn't do my job as an interviewer. And I asked her one question, "What would the world look like if it was Ann Coulterized?" And you saw her answers, and that was disappointing because that's not what I do here. And you know, I don't think she did it as a bit. I think it just came out, and it was unfortunate, and I reacted very genuinely. I gave her three or four chances to fix it and said, "You can't believe that," and just told her I was offended and, you know, moved on.

L.G.: Do you think she's an anti-Semite?

D.D.: You know what? I actually don't, to be honest with you. I think it's a demonstration of her losing a little touch with what words can do and what words can mean. Once again, I don't know her deeply. I know her very, very casually. If I had to bet, I'd say no.

L.G.: Have you ever been out to dinner with her?

D.D.: No, no. I've bumped into her in the media world, and we have very pleasant interactions.

L.G.: Have you ever seen her out to dinner with Andrew Stein? [Coulter has been spotted at candlelit dinners several times in the past month with Stein, the former New York City Council president.]

D.D.: No. But you know what? I don't buy that argument of "I have plenty of black friends," you know. Words are words, you know what I mean? And so, once again, I don't want to waste any more time on that. It's unfortunate. I think we're coming to a moment in time where that stuff is getting a little old.

L.G.: Well, let me ask you this. How much did that whole incident raise the profile of your program?

D.D.: It's a catch-22, because it was a little off-brand for us.

L.G.: Have you ever gotten that much attention for anything on your show?

D.D.: That caught a media storm. So no, not that level of being, you know, the CNN lead story of the day or the bottom of the three stories on top of the Today show. I don't think too many shows get that. It was a little off-brand for us, because as I said, my show is about the American dream, and that kind of took a detour. So when it happened, it was genuine. We weren't going, like, "Oh, wow, look at this!" It's like, "Shit!" You know what I mean? Because it's not brand for us, if you will. We almost said, "Do we even run this?" But you can't not run it. And we literally didn't service it. [The liberal watchdog group Media Matters, not CNBC, promoted the Coulter dustup.]

L.G.: But then you went on the Today show.

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