Listen Live
Donate
 on air
Schedule

KCRW

Read & Explore

  • News
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Culture
  • Events

Listen

  • Live Radio
  • Music
  • Podcasts
  • Full Schedule

Information

  • About
  • Careers
  • Help / FAQ
  • Newsletters
  • Contact

Support

  • Become a Member
  • Become a VIP
  • Ways to Give
  • Shop
  • Member Perks

Become a Member

Donate to KCRW to support this cultural hub for music discovery, in-depth journalism, community storytelling, and free events. You'll become a KCRW Member and get a year of exclusive benefits.

DonateGive Monthly

Copyright 2025 KCRW. All rights reserved.

Report a Bug|Privacy Policy|Terms of Service|
Cookie Policy
|FCC Public Files

Back to The Business

The Business

'Conan O'Brien Can't Stop' and Gavin Polone's Many Lives

Agent-turned-manager-turned Producer Gavin Polone on his new movie, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, and what it reveals about his star client...

  • rss
Download MP3
  • Share
By Kim Masters • Sep 5, 2011 • 28m Listen

Gavin Polone, the agent turned manager turned producer known as "The Dark Prince of Hollywood," talks about his new movie, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, and what it reveals about his star client. Polone has been Conan O'Brien's manager -- and his agent before that -- for decades. Polone talks about wooing O'Brien in a derby of "gigantic” proportions when the comic was a writer on The Simpsons who dreamed of performing some twenty years ago. Polone also reflects on his own career in Hollywood and his dark reputation. He looks back on his years as an "arrogant" and "demanding" agent and how he was drummed out of the agenting business after being fired from not one but two agencies. He says, "I was impossible-- I was a jerk." And although he claims to have mellowed with age Polone admits that an online cartoon made by his former assistant just last year, which shows him to be a rigid and difficult person, is not entirely untrue. Polone honestly assesses his personality and how it's informed his career in the entertainment business saying that he can understand why people would call him a 'misanthrope.' Still, he maintains he's happy leading a bizarre, solitary life saying, "I live the life of a rich serial killer." (Although this program originally aired on June 20, 2011, today's banter topics are new.)

Today's Banter Topics

- The Lone Ranger might get the green light from Disney after all

- The Help reaches $100 Million at the box office

- Sneak peak into the Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals

Banner image: Conan O'Brien in Conan O'Brien Can't Stop. Photo: Rodman Flender

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Kim Masters

    partner/writer at Puck News, host of KCRW's “The Business.”

  • KCRW placeholder

    Darby Maloney

    Producer

    CultureEntertainmentArts
Back to The Business