James Lipton isn’t ashamed that he was once a pimp, said Dotson Rader in Parade. When the host of TV’s Inside the Actors Studio was a young man, hemoved to Paris, and found the French capital brimming with prostitutes. “It was only a few years after the war. Paris was different then, still poor,” says Lipton, 86. “The women couldn’t get work at all. It was perfectly respectable for them to go into le milieu [prostitution].” He struck up a platonic friendship with a young prostitute called Regine, and one day told her that he had to return to the U.S. “She said, ‘You’re broke, aren’t ya?’ And I said yes. And she said, ‘The problem is solved. You’re going to be my mec.’” Mec is French slang for pimp. Lipton decided to give it a try, approaching tourists and asking them if they’d “like a personal tour, a sexual exhibition.” He proved to be good at the job, and ended up representing a whole bordello. “I did a roaring business, and was able to live for a year [in Paris].” Despite that success, Lipton admits he still looks down on people who pay for sex. “I think if you can’t earn it on your own, then you don’t deserve it.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
5 highly educational cartoons about student protestsCartoons Artists take on apolitical camping, the National Guard, and more
-
French schools and the scourge of teenage violenceTalking Point Gabriel Attal announces 'bold' intervention to tackle rise in violent incidents
-
On the trail of India’s wild lions at Sasan Gir National ParkThe Week Recommends The sanctuary is a 'roaring' conservation success
