Barry Diller: "The Truth about Diane and Me!"

Ugly rich people in love.

Pass.

I'm sorry, but did anyone ask?

Pretty stunning for him to get this personal.

I mean he's a hundred years old now, but still.

Thanks for sharing this, it was an all-around interesting read with something for everyone:

[quote]Sam Spiegel had lent me his grand boat, the Malahne, for a cruise in the south of France. He asked me if his friend Irene Mayer Selznick could join us. Katharine Hepburn had introduced us because Irene, the daughter of MGM titan Louis B. Mayer, knew everything about how big studios ran. Hepburn felt Irene might be a help to me. She was, and we became friends.

[quote]I’d brought along David Geffen, and at the first night’s dinner it was quickly clear that Irene and David had an almost physical aversion to each other. Irene regally condescended to young David’s biting Brooklyn brilliance, and it was all tight asses until David said, “You know, Irene, you’re a cunt.” To which Irene gushed out a big laugh, all tension ceased, and all was calm except for the boat itself, which broke down outside St.-Tropez.

Irene Selznick should be a DL icon. Her autobio is fascinating and dishy. She has a very interesting life and was a colossal bitch! Routinely crossed her sons out of her will just for the sport of it. Knew everyone in old Hollywood. Had a delicious feud with her sister. Produced Streetcar. Was a juvenile parole officer for a weird stint. Whip smart and master holder of grudges.

Hands off Diane! She's mine.

Wait, these two idiots are still alive?

Barry Diller Comes Out as Gay After 24-Year Marriage to the Fashion Designer Diane von Furstenberg

Sad, self-loathing closet case til the end.

All about Barry!

I once had dinner with her son Alex in Paris. Possibly the biggest cunt I have ever met in my life.

[quote]Sad, self-loathing closet case til the end.

Was Diller ever involved with any guy? Or did he just use well-paid escorts who kept quiet?

And isn't he supposed to have a huge cock?

Oh, Barry Diller was known to be gay LONG before his marriage to DVF. And her first husband was gay and died of AIDS. I always assumed she was a dyke and the marriage to Diller just made the high life easier for both of them since they were genuinely close and seemed to understand each other.

Great.

Jack Off and Diane.

[quote]Barry Diller, Barry Diller … this name I kept hearing among people … You were a mystery to me, you are a mystery and you probably will keep being a mystery … I probably need you more than you need me and you probably are more of a man than I am a woman … I like your image, your mystique, you are someone people talk about, I like that … and then I like the rest: the real stuff … your heart! I love your heart, I know your heart … I know you have so much to give and I want to get it … D

It's an unconventional relationship for sure, but it certainly seems to work. My husband has worked for them for the last 15 years or so. She was thrilled when he came out a bit late in life, and we got married. Diane's best friend lives in one of the guesthouses on the estate, an older gay man. Both Diane and Barry have basically come out as bi, so this honestly doesn't reveal anything new. Maybe further details when the book is released?

It doesn't seem like he was trying to hide anything.

Alex was pleasant, good looking and kind of breezy in college. We eye fucked a coupled times so I figured he sparkled a bit, like his daddy. But I had no luck getting into his pants. I wonder what made him act like a cunt to you, R11.

[quote]Oh, Barry Diller was known to be gay LONG before his marriage to DVF. And her first husband was gay and died of AIDS. I always assumed she was a dyke and the marriage to Diller just made the high life easier for both of them since they were genuinely close and seemed to understand each other.

Are you new to DL, dear? I'd be more alarmed if you did NOT know he was a pathetic closet case.

[quote]Alex was pleasant, good looking and kind of breezy in college. We eye fucked a coupled times so I figured he sparkled a bit, like his daddy. But I had no luck getting into his pants.

Probably because he's straight, unlike his stepdaddy.

From the article: "The first chapter of our romance ended in the days of Studio 54. The momentary affair she had with Richard Gere and my overreaction to it lit the spark that would separate us."

Cunt, please. No one buys that you had "the hots" for DVF. You were high on coke & Quaaludes 80% of the time FFS!

"It would be ten years until she came back in my life. We’d both had relationships with others that didn’t come close to standing the test of time."

Translation: after being let off "the hetero hook," he joined the Velvet Mafia – along with David Geffen, Calvin Klein, and many other A-list closet cases at the top – and, like his pals, figured out how best to seduce the hottest barely legal boys.

And as it so happens, I got to know one of his former "kept boys" when I was living in NYC, about 25 years ago. (Not romantically, alas.) He was insanely hot, of course, but also the most blindingly obvious gold digger I've ever met: we went on a date, but I didn't "meet his standards" because I'm worth less than $50 million. (At least he was honest about it.) He also explained his "arrangement" with Diller, and it was his understanding that this was how Barry handled all of his "boys" (at least 20 over the years): Geffen sourced quite a few of them through his infamous WeHo pool parties, and Diller typically set them up in posh downtown high-rises – condos or co-ops they got to keep as a "parting gift," including an annuity of sorts to cover their property taxes and monthlies in perpetuity – for periods ranging from six months to two years.

But NEVER beyond then: Geffen was too afraid of intimacy, and mostly only kept the boys on for about a year. They were often lively years: most of the Velvet Mafia summered on the Med, so his boytoy got to spend six weeks cruising around some of the poshest places in the world. They hopped around on private jets & dined mainly on yachts to prevent anyone from discovering the truth.

R2 You’re sorry?

[quote] his boytoy got to spend six weeks cruising around some of the poshest places in the world

And fucking Barry Diller.

[quote] to prevent anyone from discovering the truth

Everybody knew the truth.

I kind of always thought it was something like this; that she knew all along that he's gay and that this situation worked for them. And that's really all that matters here.

Wasn't Richard Gere gay?

No, just the gerbil

Barry Diller is gay, gay, gay with or without Diane..

R14 yes, I believe so.

I remember when the short lived Jay Mohr sitcom ACTION was on there was a scene where a movie mogul steps out of the shower and Jay's very hetero character freezes because he sees it and can't believe how big it is.

Some article about that scene claimed it was based on Barry Diller, some said Geffen.

I bet there are some rent boys with stories...

Maybe the rent boys simply enjoyed the big cock and lux experiences. Diller's career and life are not racked by scandal. Maybe a bit of insider trading and cronyism. THE HUMANITY!

I wonder if any famous guys started out as "Diller boys"

R30 Jay Mohr is one lucky bastard who's traded up with each successive wife. He must have his own sizeable asset.

Barry Diller being gay surprises no one on DL. We've been saying it for literal decades.

r32: Like so many members of "The Gay Mafia", he is a cold narc.

He liked his boytoys hot, young, blonde, and dumb. Easily replaceable and forgettable.

R36 my point. Win win for both parties.

I thought he was long dead.

Who is a confirmed Diller Boytoy?

Like Nick Gruber confirmed for Calvin.

I knew Barry Diller's aunt 30+ years ago. She's long since been deceased. She told me he was gay way back then (she said "gay" and not bi). I never thought he was in the closet.

Well than Barry Diller is bi, because he says he actually had sex with her, enjoyed it, and is/was in love with her. All this time I thought he was just 100% gay and barely hiding it. If you have a "female exception"-- you are still bi.

Diane is down with fag lovers. News at 11.

Isn't Diane into the ladies?

Is Diller lying about having sex with her? I wouldn't put it past him.

"It wasn’t much better when I was introduced to Egon’s wife, the deliriously glamorous Princess Diane, who politely and dismissively said “Hello!” and quickly moved on to embrace someone more familiar and certainly more at ease than I was. She looked through me like cellophane, and I left that night thinking that after her casual obliviousness and Egon’s put-down, nothing could ever induce me to see either of them again. The only positive outcome from that night was that I went to the tailor and had him lengthen my trousers."

First impressions are important Barry - they were showing you who they were. Egon and Diane were two bitchy queens who liked to look down on others. And you LOVED it and sucked up to them.

Whatever.

[quote]Is Diller lying about having sex with her? I wouldn't put it past him.

I don't think he's lying. There was something about Diane in her prime that gay men found sexually appealing and she seemed to be aware of it herself. In a letter she wrote to Diller early in their relationship, she mentioned that he was probably "more of a man than I am a woman." Private photos from that era show how intimate they were.

The way he writes about it is funny because he acknowledges that everyone around him was as shocked as he was. Even his butler was confused when von Furstenberg spent the night, and he said David Geffen walked in on them once at a party and quickly closed the door, looking "more than astonished."

[quote]First impressions are important Barry - they were showing you who they were. Egon and Diane were two bitchy queens who liked to look down on others. And you LOVED it and sucked up to them.

He didn't like either of them after that and subsequently declined to attend a party Diane threw for Sue Mengers. But when Mengers caught wind of it she called him and said this was about her, not Diane, and “It would be too insulting if the top movie person in New York didn’t show up at a dinner for the top agent in the world." So he went and was surprised when Diane wasn't a bitch. It's all in the excerpt.

One of my friends, who is thoroughly 100% gay, had a daughter from the only sexual relationship he had with a woman in the late '60s during the height of his druggy days. I am not kidding, he said it was the best sex he ever had.

R47 - probably Diane wasn't a bitch at the party because Sue Mengers spoke to her beforehand and also told her WHO he is and how much power and money he has.

He's a gay simp for Diane - just like Egon.

Any old bitch with a drug habit and she's yours! I guess Liza was already preoccupied with Halston and others.

It was very important to him to be photographed with women. Literally thousands of pics of him attending events with fish (usually Diane, who looks like a Greek peasant woman). But no guys.

I doubt if he's ever fucked a woman.

I thought this was going to be an exposé about the sordid sex life of dangerous driver Aunt Diane. Shame.

It seems pretty clear to me that Miller was/is completely incapable of having an intimate relationship with another man. He reminds me of a gay friend of mine who is only sexually attracted to much younger guys - but only if they are really stupid. If they were intelligent, well-educated, cultured or had shared interests - someone he could theoretically have a conversation with - he lost all sexual interest in them.

Young, Dumb and Full of cum: Fuck 'em and forget 'em.

Diller, not Miller

(oops)

I suspect Diller's version of gayness was typical of many high-profile, wealthy gay men of an older, closeted generation.

R53 R52 well there is no such stereotype, or pattern of relationships, or ways to love, for any class of men. Rich sugar daddies have all different patterns and preferences of sex partners and lovers. Diller may have had a fuck and leave em M.O. but many rich old men have long term "lovers" or "wards" or "adopted sons" and are very fond of them and some even love them.

R48, that's usually what the fakegays say. Why didn't he just keep trying with women, since men can't give him the same quality of sex? Isn't it weird that no manhad ever been as good as his babymama? Ur basically a heterosexual at that point.

r54: That is true. And more men today of every age have embraced that.

But there is no doubt many men share Diller's conception of gay relationships of "fuck 'em and leave 'em". It's emotionally closeted, and yes, true of an older generation.

I was pretty surprised when he told me, r55. I'm sure the drugs had something to do with it. He never had a relationship with his daughter. He eventually got clean and lived a productive life.

It was a sad situation. She contacted him as an adult to try to establish a relationship, but he couldn't bring himself to respond to her. He clearly felt a lot of guilt about it. I guess he didn't know how to do the 12 step amends part or how to deal with the situation so he just avoided it.

It is so brave of him to come out... and at such a young age!

But as he says in his book, R8, "everyone knew."

Who knows people. What would possess him now to say all everyone knew. 'Course it would help sell his book. He rode past me on his bike once, up at the pier where his boat was. He didn't look at me! I was offended.

Phil Hartman

if above link contained info about the Barry Diller/Phil Hartman sextape...

For anyone interested, Diller will be interviewed tomorrow morning on CBS Sunday Morning.

R63 - only if Phyllis has come back from the dead and going on tour do I have any interest in watching a Diller on CBS Morning with Jane Fucking Pauley.

Believe you me- he is ALL man.

Why is he naming names at his age as a billionaire? Not necessary.

Not sure why anyone is expected to want to know more about Diller.

There are a few comments on the article which read very DL:

Diller’s story is hardly new: closeted gay man marries woman and pretends to be a hetero couple (oh yes, they pretended) until such time, if ever, he’s ready to tell the truth. Congrats Barry, 83 years in the making. You coward.

Why? You see there was this thing called AIDS that began devastating gay men 45 years ago when Barry was 38 years old and a powerful studio head. Never mind the paper weights he threw at his assistants, or the imperious ditching of his corporate 450-SL in the departure lane at LAX so he could catch a flight. His invisibility as a prominent gay man during the all-hands-on deck days of the AIDS crisis was disgusting: he wanted his boys, and his silence. To suggest as he does now that Silence isn’t Hypocrisy is laughable. “A big, beautiful lie” as Trump would say.

AIDS claimed the life of a lover of Barry’s who lived his final days out at Diller’s Coldwater Canyon estate. It also claimed the life of Egon von Fürstenberg, Diane’s husband. Diller’s voice would have been important in marshaling support for the dying and validating the agency of the living. Silent Barry, he was a profile in cowardice.

He didn't take a man to a “heterosexual party” he doth say? I mean, I’ve never been invited to a heterosexual party, and I’ve been to some of the same parties as Diller and nobody required me to declare my sexuality, or that of my dinner partner. Certainly not Gil Shiva. Diller fails to provide context: Gil was a gay man who married a very, very wealthy woman. He’d been a sex worker in Israel and was extremely handsome. That’s a story as old as time but I can’t help but chuckle as Diller sets the scene at Gil and Susan’s apartment at the Dakota, where Gil politely asked to give me a blow job twenty-four ago. Gil has left us.

Barry was a member of the Lavender Mafia along with Geffen, Calvin Klein and the late Sandy Gallin. They were all powerful, about the same age, Jewish, New Yorkers (save for Diller), and gay. Each of them had their own path to coming out, or coming to terms with their sexuality: Geffen was once in love with Cher, Calvin married Kelly, and Sandy had married a woman at a young age. All of them have now come out. It’s never too late, and I am happy that Diller, even with his twisted narrative, made it to the other side.

There is no way they fucked, maybe she sucked his cock but no way he licked her pussy

well she never had his kids. Which is odd for a gold-digger.

[quote]I mean, I’ve never been invited to a heterosexual party,

Never?

[quote]well she never had his kids. Which is odd for a gold-digger.

She also had the superior career at the time of their initial involvement, as Diller self-deprecatingly mentions more than once in his book.

I had a friend, Jim, who had a nice house with a pool on Lloydcrest Drive in Beverly Hills and almost every Sunday hosted a naked all male pool party. 10-15 people on average. Barry was a regular and was ugly and gross even back then. What made him so gross was his imperious and arrogant attitude toward other queens there. Jim always depended on Barry for production work and always pre-paid at least 1 or sometimes 2 guys to be there and come onto Barry and make him feel good. Barry never was naked at the party, but liked observing and would always go into the master bedroom with one or both of the pre-paid guys for sex. When finished, he would come back out to say his goodbye to the host and exit. Jim would always quiz the guys about what they did and if he was satisfied. I don't think he ever realized the guys were pre-paid because he would always talk with them for an hour or more before going to have sex. I think he thought he was seducing them. This was the early 1980s.

Anyone reading this recognize this description? The first name and street are real.

On CBS This Morning.

R70, did you happen to be in remedial math? I will be nice and assume so. I also assume I won't be able to teach you Sudoku.

R70 DVF was 55 years old (as in post-menopausal) when she married Barry Diller in 2001. She already had 2 adult children from her first gay husband and was extremely wealthy in her own right.

Can Barry still get it up?

He's a really terrible person.

R76 reading skills? What's your damage, R70. Neither of you read the article? They met when Diane was 28, with 2 young kids from Egon. Barry was young as well. She easily cool have had more kids.they were together for years before they split up the first time.

I mean there was no way he was fucking her smelly cunt. Maybe he fucked her up the ass. She probably just sucked his cock and he would close his eyes and pretend it was a twink doing it.

Thanks for the vivid images, r80.

That article is just over-written, God there are so many extra words and unnecessary sentences.

And I don't believe a word of it.

They're both assholes.

We will still be thankful for the wrap dress long after Barry’s dead. I view him as her bitchy chihuahua.

I understand a portion of the book about JT had to be removed before publication.

No matter how “powerful,” plain unattractive little Jews always know they’ll usually not get sex like their handsome hangers-on, so they get a bit arrogant and imperious around other gays at a gathering. I see little reason for Diller’s book now.

We were courting plutocrats in the late 70s- early 80s, R85.

We talk about the velvet mafia, but leave out the push for sexualizing twelve-year old girls.

If you are GenX you remember all the “losing it” movies from the very early 80s.

Barry Diller's investments that led to losses included the failed streaming service Aereo and a bidding war for Paramount Pictures, where he lost to Viacom. Additionally, his acquisition binge at IAC, though initially hailed as visionary, caused some analysts to question his business judgment.

"The Truth about Diane and Me!" is all about me.

Who will star in the Barry/Diane romcom?

Legend has it that the SATC characters Bobby Fine and Betsy von Muffling were based on Barry and Diane.

[quote] Oh, Barry Diller was known to be gay LONG before his marriage to DVF. And her first husband was gay and died of AIDS.

It was Hepatitus C and Liver Cancer!!

[quote] He didn't like either of them after that and subsequently declined to attend a party Diane threw for Sue Mengers. But when Mengers caught wind of it she called him and said this was about her, not Diane, and “It would be too insulting if the top movie person in New York didn’t show up at a dinner for the top agent in the world." So he went and was surprised when Diane wasn't a bitch. It's all in the excerpt.

He was a nobody at the first dinner. 🥱

He was somebody at the second. 🤑

[quote] In a letter she wrote to Diller early in their relationship, she mentioned that he was probably "more of a man than I am a woman."

So masculine he is gay? Whereas she was comfortably bisexual?

R91 I see that wikipedia lists that (per his 2nd wife) as Prince Egon von Fürstenberg's cause of death. In the past, I've always seen it as complications of HIV/AIDS. Hard to know which is actually true.

R91 I’m pretty sure “liver cancer” was a euphemism.

^ I mean, r94, I’m pretty sure liver cancer was a euphemism - even if he DID have liver cancer.

[quote] We were once in Hong Kong on a Friday, where the construction boom was so booming that we had a headache from the noise but had to stay over the weekend for a meeting on Monday. I said, “Can’t we just get out of this place — go somewhere?” Diane knew Imelda Marcos, the wife of the Filipino president, so she picked up the hotel phone and … just called her. She invited us over to the Philippines, just like you’d ask a neighbor to come on by for dinner, and asked us to stay with her in the presidential palace, so off we went.

Wow! Rich, navel-gazing couple gets bored. She call's dictator's wife, who invites them to luxuriate on the dime of oppressed Filipinos.

are you new to this world, earth?

[quote]He was a nobody at the first dinner. 🥱

[quote]He was somebody at the second. 🤑

The meetings were months apart, his job was the same and Paramount's problems were deepening. Whatever other criticisms one could accurately lodge against Diane, she didn't need Diller financially or socially. Her connections were broader and wealthier than his, which were mostly concentrated within his industry since he had little life outside of work.

I don't think it was wise to include the Imelda Marcos story, but I'm glad he did.

The best thing about Barry is that he's willing to call out Trump, unlike some other big names from the business world

She good voomans who stand by her man.

In an interview pegged to the publication of his memoir, billionaire Barry Diller and I talked about the nine law firms that settled with President Trump.

"I would never employ one of those law firms that did that, that essentially folded under these circumstances," he said.

R103, interesting choice of words.