Shaquille O'Neal: Video Shaq

This leads to a conversation about an evening that O'Neal spent on the town with the notorious carouser Sheen. "Charlie's cool," O'Neal says, insisting that they had a quiet dinner and discussed sports memorabilia.

"Me and Dirk," he says, gesturing toward the trainer, "we drove around Sunset Boulevard, checking out ladies wearing fur coats in the heat. He'd see them, and yell out the window, 'Animal killer!' They just looked at him and got into their cars." He considers this for a moment, then quietly adds, "L.A.'s nice. I have my attorney's house on the beach and a gym to work out in when I'm there. But it's different from any other city. Everybody acts like a star."

Back in the house, O'Neal leads me past the rubber Alien, which I now notice is bookended by a Superman mannequin and a life-size, black-caped character from Predator. We head for a second-floor trophy room, which is filled with memorabilia of acquaintances ranging from Michael Jackson to Hulk Hogan. "I want to turn this into my own Planet Hollywood," O'Neal says.

"What objects are you after?"

"I like Herbie from The Love Bug. I'd get Herbie the Love Bug out here and set him down right in my living room, I'd also like to ge some of the robots from Star Wars."

Now we head into O'Neal's home theater. Standing around, appearing unsure of what he needs to do in order to satisfy the final requirements of this oddly sports-free interview, O'Neal tells me that he has only a few more minutes to chat. He points upstairs, yawns, and explains that he had a long practice session this morning and needs to nap, In a minute. "Do you invite people over for video-viewing parties?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "I don't want a bunch of people in here, tearing my house up."

Noticing a high ratio of kung fu flicks in his collection (as well as Reservoir Dogs, Dr. Giggles, Total Recall, Mobsters and Rapid Fire), I ask O'Neal who he turns to for his regular doses of martial arts kicks. "Here's one that I like: Jackie Chan in Five Deadly Venoms. I prefer the Asians 'cause they do things that the Americans can't do. They get real high when they jump, they talk funny, act funny. What more can you want?"

Just as O'Neal is beginning to show me the techniques he's learning for pulling punches for the movies, a whining alarm begins to reverberate through the house, perhaps saving me. Annoyed, O'Neal steps back from the fight lesson and strides out of the video room into a hallway. He faces a wall-mounted, button-festooned box that controls his home's alarm system. As if attacking a minibackboard, the basketball star crashes all of his fingers upon every button. But it's to no avail. Finally he shouts, to no one in particular, "Turn the fuckin' alarm off!"

Ayatollah Dirk De Niro materializes and asks what's wrong, as if he can't hear it himself. "Yo, man, unplug that shit," O'Neal says coolly. "You can't just unplug it." Dirk De Niro tells him, a hint of pleading in his voice. "You got to cut the wire."

O'Neal tells him to cut it, and Dirk walks off slowly, sullenly muttering, "I don't want to electrocute myself."

Over the annoying screeeee-screeeeee, I ask Shaq if he ever loses his temper.

"Never," he tells me, clearly preoccupied, "It lakes a lot to get me angry." Clearly.

"You have such an amazing life here," I say, gesturing around the room.

"My life?" Shaq says, over the din. "It's OK. I'm just lucky."

Then without another word, he hustles off--to cut a wire or pull a fuse or whatever it takes to stop the infernal wail of his burglar alarm. A moment later there is silence. O'Neal doesn't come back. He's gone off for his afternoon nap.

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Michael Kaplan interviewed Pamela Anderson Lee for the Jan./Feb. '95 issue of Movieline.

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