The Daily Stern
: FIGHT BACK: Howard Stern called the Daily News’ alleged gossip columnist, Lloyd Grove, an f’ing scumbag last night.
He told the story this morning on the air, still “on fire” from the confrontation. Stern dropped into a party for a friend, not knowing that it would be swarming with press, but he’s used to that. As he was talking to a friend, he said, some stranger was hanging on his shoulder listening to every word. Stern — having been told in a what-bugs-you-about-Howard game on his show that morning that he turns his back on people in conversations — didn’t want to interrupt the conversation but he was bugged at this guy eavesdropping. Finally, he turned and the guy introduced himself. Howard puts on his stuck-up, poker-up-the-ass voice: “Lloyd Grove.”
“You’re an f’ing scumbag,” Stern tells him. Grove is taken aback. Stern says Grove wrote something bad about him. Grove says he doesn’t remember what he wrote, even though it was only a week or two ago. Yeah, right. Stern yells at him and tells him to get away. Finally, Stern’s girlfriend, Beth O, gets him to leave.
But he’s still on fire. Back home, he tries to find what Grove wrote. He calls his producer, Gary Dell’Abate, who tells him that Grove called Stern a “thief” for having a similar answer to Johnny Carson’s 30 years ago when asked what he wanted on his tombstone: I’ll be right back after these messages. A nonitem, as I used to call such things when I was a gossip.
Stern was heading back to that party to confront Grove with what he wrote but his model mate stopped him with tears and sex. He got his revenge on the air this morning.
