Private Parts

PRIVATE PARTS tells the story of the nerdy, high-voiced Howard Stern who fell in love with radio when he was a boy and grew up to become one of the most recognized radio personalities in America through his irreverent attitude toward authority and rules. He pioneers candid discussion of explicit sexual acts on the air, inviting a woman with unusual fellatio skills (think 13-inch kielbasa) and others who strip in the studio and give him on-air massages, all while Stern provides detailed commentary. He makes merciless fun on-air of his bosses and the corporation that pays him, defying restrictions they set for him as well as FCC rules about language and sexual content. Breaking free of those restrictions earns him many listeners, almost as many who hate him as who love him, according to polls conducted by his bosses. He doles out equal-opportunity mockery, denigrating racists and also black militants who want to "kill the white man," at the same time that he gleefully passes gas into the microphone. As long as his show produces advertising revenues, the bosses give up on reining him in. Married to wife Alison (Mary McCormack), he spills intimate details of their lives on the air for millions to hear, which angers Alison and puts a strain on the marriage. In one episode, he gets into a bubble bath wearing only his underwear with a naked actress, protesting unconvincingly all along that he can't do anything because he's married. He finally jumps out of the tub when she fondles his private parts, which are unseen under the water. He boasts that he can have the beautiful woman sitting next to him on an airplane, but passes up the opportunity because of his faithfulness to Alison, with whom he has three children. The movie ends as he leaves the seatmate and goes off with Alison. (They separated two years after the movie came out.)