‘I don’t have any particular talent, and that’s what’s so weird.’
Life is good for Jerry Springer.
The 67-year-old talk show host recently began taping the new season of “Jerry Springer” — still going strong as it enters its 21st season — and just shot his 300th episode of “Baggage,” the GSN dating show he hosts which is now in its third season.
The Post sat down with Springer recently while he was in Manhattan on a typically whirlwind media stopover, where he talked about everything from Casey Anthony, his 500-pound “foster pig,” Bella, and his grandson, Richard.
Q: There were rumors that, after her acquittal, Casey Anthony was headed to “Jerry Springer,” before the show put out a press release that this was absolutely not going to happen.
Springer: It was totally fabricated. I don’t want to interview her, and I have no interest in what she has to say. You can’t even be on our show if you’re known, ever.
Q: Tell me about Bella the Pig.
Springer: Several years ago, a girl in junior high school in Sarasota, where we live, wrote us that she was in a 4H Club and was going to show her pig, Bella, at the county fair. Bella was 1 year old, so we went to the county fair and Bella wins the blue ribbon . . . and suddenly the girl starts crying, because they’re taking Bella to the next tent where they’re going to auction her off for $4 a pound, or whatever. She fell in love with this pig she was raising and they’re going to turn it into bacon.
I said I would bid on the pig, but I told her that if I get the pig, she has to raise Bella and can never sell her. I win the bid at $1,000, and now here’s the worst part — Bella is saved, everyone is happy, but they gotta feed Bella, so I send them $100 every month to feed Bella, and now I found out that Bella could live 25 years. I’m not gonna live 25 years. I gotta put Bella in my will. Then I get a call from my rabbi who says, `What are you doing? You’re buying a pig?’ And I said, `Look, rabbi, by buying Bella I saved her from becoming pork — I’m making America kosher one pig at a time.’ ”
Q: How old is your grandson Richard now?
Springer: He’ll be 3 years old next month and he still doesn’t have a job (laughs). He’s wonderful. He’s gorgeous, a lovely kid, and tall. [He whips out his phone to show off some photos of Richard]. Now that’s a good-looking kid.
He calls me `Opa.’ Everyone says that until you have your own [grandchild], you don’t realize it really is the best thing in the world. It’s like it’s absolute, true love.
Q: How much longer can you keep doing “Jerry Springer”?
Springer: I told the company I’m gonna stop when I’m 104. It’s a fun show and I love doing it and I can’t find a reason to stop doing it. It has no redeeming social value whatsoever — it’s one hour of escapism. I enjoy doing it, but it doesn’t define me. I go home and I’m like everybody else — a basic schlub who happens to have a show that a lot of people watch. I’m no better than anybody else. I don’t see myself retiring, but I do see myself getting out of show business.
Q: You remind me of Regis Philbin in that you just keep on going and going with no end in sight.
Springer: I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I don’t have any particular talent, and that’s what’s so weird, so if there’s a guilt feeling it’s that you have all these young people who are singing, dancing, acting, musicians — this is their life — and here I come along with no discernible talent and get lucky in this business. So it’s a real life lesson — life is luck and I got lucky. I can’t explain it.