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As a teenager, playing
air guitar was Kato's favorite act:
"He thought he
was Bruce Springsteen,"
says his sister Go~.
"All the little girfs used to scream
when he played,'
I
If
Kato Kaelin
is a happy puppy
these days,
rolling around in
the karmic
wave that carried
him from
freeloader to
phenom as if he
were born to it.
problematic, because he does not und~rand
you can only be in one place at a time and
must choose between all those A-list parties,
show-business meetings, and hot new babes.
When, by some miracle, be shows up at
my hotel for our interview only s~ghcly lace,
he gets waylaid further in r.he lobby.
".Am-age!" he trills over the house phone.
(No matter how short your name, be
diminutizes it furthe.r. Amy, An1age. The
Juice, Juiceage.. ) "You have co rome down
co the lobby right now and see this! There's
a woman here whose husband plays in Rod
Stewart's band! Rod's coming and he wams
to meet me!''
I agree, with a warning: Should he waste
any more of our time be will have co cancel his date with Laylage, a twencyish
"model-girl" he just mer ar a photo shoot.
"I promise it will just take a minute,"
he says.
When I get there, the band member's wife
is seducing Kato with cue-rate vacations to
Singapore, which she can arrange through
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health-care professionals. Kato was the only
Eek! The Cat director Holland daims,
one of Al's kids who never held down a tra- "There are 2illions of guys like Karo out
ditional job; his father had a problem wiLh here in LA who reason that at some point
thar. AI felt he needed to find some profes-. you aan only do so much, then you're waitsion, some trade-something other than ing for your break. You just open yourself
"Class Clown" to pur on his resume.
up and let it come in, instead of putting it
"I always thought my dad was tough on out. And sometimes it happens; people
me," Kato recalls. '1tsrarnxi when I was who don't work all thar nard suddenly
in school. He wanted me to be a pro become famous."
lr's happening for Kato. A Roseanne
ballplayer, and Twas good enough to have a
shot, but I wasn't commirred. 1 preferred episode he appears in bas not ytt aired, but
hanging with my buddies co mnning and there are movie roles he could take right
working out."
now, if he wanted them. Eek! T/;e Gtt and
To this day, Kato
occasional stints hostdoes not have the focu~
ing Talk Soup keep
his father wanted for
him afloat till he plays
Alone with Kato,
him. nr just always
Vegas with Anderson,
whom he'll also
wanted ro be on the you can
accompany on che
top, in something, to be
in d1e spoilighr. I never see how pleasant
road. Ir's almost as if
he can't put his foot
gave up," Kato says.
it must have
He decided Calidown without stepfornia was the place been for OJ and
ping in it. When Kato
where destiny would
went to see the heavymetal band Anthrax,
find him after taking a Nicole to have
trip to Redlands with
they told him, even
someone
one of his high school
though he can't sing,
that he could join
buddies. Just over a year so determinedly
later, he transferred to
their group. When he
ingratiating
a college in che area.
flew back to LA from
Again, he had a slight
the Kentucky Derby
hanging around
(where he was f~ted
problem with location.
''1 thought Redlands the house.
with Muhammed Ali),
was LA," he admits.
he just happened, hav"How did I know
ing been bumped up
what was meant co bappeo ro me when I to first class, co be seared next ro Jon Lovit'l..
wa~ growing up?" says Kato. "I was pretty,
Lovitt offered him a role on bis FOX carno, very hip back then-I mean, 1 always toon series, The Critic.
knew I was way, way ahead of my time. I
'Tm going to conquer this comedy thing
remember when I was a lirde kid looking first," declares Karo. "I've got Louie
in the mirror sometimes, when fd get into Anderson, T can't ask for anything more.
an argumenr with my dad or something, r He's brilliant, he's a genius. He has an
remember crying all the time and going: insight in me-l mean, he just knows me."
Tm leaving. I am notstaying here. I'm leavrand-up comedy, perhaps an
ing.' " (He says these words in a sniveling,
childish voice.) "I'd wa.ir until I'd stopped
album, his own TV show, and
definitely movies are what he
bawling. And then fd move away !Tom the
mirror. J knew I was supposed to be ... "
sees in his furure, for srarters.
Infur "here."
Not only comedic roles, either.
Imagine. Kato Kaelin sr-,ming
Portents of grearness. Perhaps you have
to live in LA to understand. The aaors I in "The Tragedy Thing."
know in New York cot1stancly go to classes
"It's in me. I'm very deep. Believe me,
and workshops, showcases and auditions to emotions are ... " Kaco begin.., then he tells
refine their art, and yer they remain me this srory: "I was watching Drugstore
wracked with self-doubt. Kato, who takes Cowbi1J and d1ere's a scene where the girl
no classes, cites college productions when dies, and as soon as she died I got a phone
you ask about his theatrical experience, and call from my sister saying thac my dad had
never performed at a single amateur night died. That's why it always bad so much
before opening recently ar some small com- .unpacr on me. "
edy d ubs for Louie Anderson, exudes a
I have no idea what he means.
confidence so Zen, l asked if he was a
"I mean, 1 need to go and srudy some
Buddhist. (He isn't.)
more, but it just has to come our," says
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profile
at times, even to see rhac she showered.
Nevenhclcss, Cyndl's attitude coward her ex
today is more bemused than angry: "What
am. I say abour Kato? He's one of a kind,"
she says. Cyndi .!>'a)'S her generosiry springs
from her happy marriage to an engineer
named Rick, who embraced the fatherly
duties Kaco abandoned.
Karo himse!fadmits he had no desire ro be
a dad. ''I was like, Oh my God, no way can
you be pregnane, you Cln't be, you can't be, 1
don'r want to have a haby. l'd always rhink.
r'Or what ~n do l have a baby? and it's only
now that fm srarting to
know why TtfEmy was
born." When I ask him
co elaborate, he says, "As
far as me looking at a
flower, to me, it's a
flower, okay, bur Tiffany looks at a flower
very diffct~::ntly, deli1
I
cately. Now l understand women, with her
growing up."
He seems to be
implying chat Tilliny
was born 1.0 enhance
his own self-growth,
but I figure he can't be.
Then he nods his
head: Yes, that's right.
'Growing
up I was pretty,
no, very
hip back thenmean,
always knew I
was way,
way ahead of
my time,''
says Koto.
profile
given his final approval ro Stnr Witness: .My
Lift With Nicole and 0.). Simpson, a manuscript they'd worked on for six monrhs
together, has a different take on that.
Bur I believe Kato really thinks he is
telling the truth when he says, "There was
never a book." After all, he knows nothing
of the literazy world, only show business.
In show business, when somebody pitches
you a project, whether you love it or hate
it, you say yes, yes, yes. Does tbac mean
you made a deal? No, all it means is you're
a player. ln show business, nothing is real
but d1e check. That's how Karo can concede chat his voice was on Eliot's tape
recorder and his name was on the proposal
Eliot shopped around,
while ~'till insisting there
was no deal.
"1 never acrually
signed anything," Kato
rold me. "J never got
paid."
It is a licrle hard to
figure out why he clidn't publish a book, considering how innocuous Kato !Gulin: ihe
Whole Truth (the unauthorized version Eliot
published without him)
is, until you remember
how much Karo's life
has changed in the
rime that elapsed between the pitch and the publication. Karos
dance card is much fuller roday. What looked
like a great financial opportunity at the time
doesn't look so good now that he knows he
can make money in ways more helpntl ro
his career because they arc less directly
exploitative of his relarionship with rhe
Simpson family, and rhus less likely to
underscore his curiosity value. Says Kato:
"Everything's becoming very legitimate for
me now."
I'm nor daiming that Karo treated Eliot
nicely; but why would Eliot, a mere hired
hand, expect Kato to be nice, a.fi:er what
Karo did to his friend Nicole? After all,
Nicole Brown Simpson might very weU be
alive today ifKaro bad followed mrough on
his agreement to rem a room in her condo
on Bundy, insread of accepting a bercer
offer from O.J. She never really spoke ro
Karo again after that, and you can understand her feeJjng of becrayal, given that
Karo was nor ju''t her roommate bur a confidante with whom she shared her fears
abour her ex-husband. Karo, of course,
was surprised at her ani rude, because as far
as he was concerned. no snub to Nicole was
Kato's father
thought he needed
to find some
profession, some
tradesomething other
than 'Class
Clown" to put on
his resume.
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contributors
amy pagnozzl