Judge Judy recommends ammo, not amour.
A TV producer says that she was stunned when she asked the legendary TV judge to set her up with a man — but Her Honor had a better idea.
Former “Entertainment Tonight” producer Fran Weinstein tells Page Six she interviewed the judge countless times throughout her decades-long career at the leading entertainment news show. “I was as familiar to her as a waitress you see all the time,” Weinstein told us in an exclusive interview.
Weinstein says she once interviewed her at her weekend home in Connecticut “at the height of her fame.”
“The cameras stopped rolling. We’re walking in the woods… [I said], ‘Judy, don’t you know anybody you can fix me up with’,” Weinstein recalled.
Judy, who divorced Jerry Sheindlin in 1990 only to remarry him a year later, replied, “‘Franny, you don’t need a man. I’m going to show you what you need,” Weinstein told us.
As the pint-sized duo walked back to her house, Weinstein told us she was thinking: “Please don’t let this be like a weird sex toy.”
Judy climbed up a step stool to reach for a “shoebox-sized medieval receptacle” that looked like a safe.
[She] plops it down, and pulls out a .32 caliber pistol!” Weinstein said. “She then proceeds to say, ‘Franny, Jerry was gone last night. I put this under my pillow, and slept like a baby.’”
Judge Judy told us, “”I have no recollection of the event Fran Weinstein references. However, if I did remember it, I would like to take credit for it–It’s brilliant!
Weinstein’s Judy tale is included in her upcoming memoir, “Tortured Soles: High Heels, Low Expectations and the Hollywood Gossip Mill,” out April 28.
The book is chock full of stories from the red carpet and behind-the-scenes celeb gossip, such as the time Anne Heche allegedly stole her tape and the time Kelly Ripa stopped speaking to her.
She also reveals her favorite interviews.
“Robin Williams was amazing. George Clooney is a guy who gets it. Jamie Lee Curtis is the best on earth,” she said.
Her least favorite interview? Harvey Keitel. “He ripped off his mic, walks out the door, and said ‘I don’t want to talk,’” she revealed.
Weinstein even opens up about the time “ET” almost fired her for breaking and entering at the Culkin family’s New York apartment, after a fire in their home left four of their neighbors dead in 1999. But the one story that may take the cake is the time, “I was imprisoned by [“Gunsmoke” actor] Jan-Michael Vincent for three days,” she said.
“[‘ET’] assigned him to me because… he was a massive drunk, and they wanted me to babysit him to make sure he showed up for the interview. They wanted me to sleep over in his hotel. There were three days of him yelling at me, ‘I want white whiskey!’ I didn’t know what it was. Ultimately, it’s hooch — like homemade stuff,” she said.
Weinstein retired from the biz in 2013, and has since relocated to St. Croix and her home in Upstate New York. “I did all of this reporting in six-inch designer heels and I’m ecstatic to say I now exclusively wear flip flops!,” she concluded.
