Cold Turkey (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Benza was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, though he moved with his family to West Islip, New York on Long Island shortly after his birth.
• He has two sisters, Rosalie and Lorraine.
• After graduating from West Islip High School in 1980, Benza majored in journalism at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University on Long Island.

Career

A. J. Benza got his start in journalism as a college student writing for Newsday, which quickly turned into a full-time gig as a gossip columnist for that paper and later the New York Daily News. His column work led to on-air appearances in the mid-1990s on E! Entertainment Television's The Gossip Show, and from there he popped up on talk shows like Geraldo, Hard Copy, The Montel Williams Show, and The Maury Povich Show. Editor Pete Hamill eventually fired him from the Daily News. Not long after leaving, Benza landed a hosting job on Mysteries and Scandals, a show about celebrity crimes and scandals that required him to move to Los Angeles. During his time on that program, he coined the catchphrase "Fame, ain't it a bitch," which later became the title of his autobiography. Mysteries and Scandals ran for three seasons from 1998 to 2000. In 2001, Benza hosted a short-lived late-night E! talk show called A. J. After Hours, which was canceled due to low ratings and poor reviews. That same year, while appearing on The Howard Stern Show, Benza punched Stern staffer "Stuttering John" Melendez in the face, claiming Melendez was blocking positive listener calls about him. Melendez then made a prank call mocking the failure of After Hours, which further provoked Benza. As a result, WXRK general manager Tom Chiusano temporarily banned Benza from the show. He returned in October 2004. In 2002, Benza starred in the comedy film P.S. Your Cat is Dead!, which was directed by and also starred Steve Guttenberg. In 2006, he hosted the reality series Cold Turkey II on ION Television. He later served as a co-host alongside Gabe Kaplan for the first five seasons of High Stakes Poker on GSN. For the sixth season, poker pro Kara Scott replaced him. Benza expressed his frustration with GSN executives in an open letter on his blog titled "Flop, A Turn, and a River of Shit." In 2020, PokerGO revived High Stakes Poker and brought Kaplan and Benza back together in the commentary booth for the first time since Season 5. Benza also played the role of L.C. Luco in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, and appeared on the sixth season of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club, where he lost 12 pounds.

Controversy

In 2003, A.J. Benza learned that Harvey Weinstein was having an affair with Georgina Chapman while still married to his first wife. Benza then offered to supply Weinstein with distracting gossip to shield the affair from public view, launching a collaboration aimed at protecting Weinstein's reputation. When news outlets began reporting sexual harassment accusations against Weinstein in 2017, Weinstein contacted Benza for assistance. He proposed paying Benza as much as $20,000 each month to probe the allegations. Weinstein never followed through on that proposal.