Stern's `Parts' More Pathos Than Punch  March 07, 1997|By
Michael Wilmington, Tribune Movie Critic.  Howard Stern, shock-
jock supreme, the face, voice and backside of '90s radio, is the
guy who was once advertised on a huge Hollywood drag-queen
billboard ad with the caption, "We apologize for Howard Stern
this morning."  Unfortunately, there's not much to apologize for
in Stern's first starring movie, "Private Parts." Or should we
say "Not enough"? "Parts," the movie bio of radio's baddest boy,
tries to prove that underneath the scandal, Stern is a pussycat.
Or, as he says at the end, "I grow on you, like a fungus."
Stern's movie doesn't sacrifice all grossness in the pursuit of
big grosses. No movie with a cast list that includes "The
Leather Weather Lady" and "Orgasm Woman" could be all "good."
But this wise-cracking R-rated semi-bio of the wildly popular
dirty-mouth radio and TV talk jock -- based on his bestselling
tongue-in-cheek confessions -- tries too hard to peddle Stern as
the misunderstood common