James Lipton was a Pimp?

James Lipton, the behind that delicious tea…just kidding. James Lipton is known for his hosting gig on, “Inside the Actor’s Studio’ on Bravo. He’s put together some of the greatest interviews of celebrities, if you haven’t watched any of his shows, you should really go check some of them out. He seems to bring out some of the best stories in celebrities.

But today we’re talking about what appears to be one of his best stories from his past. In an interview with Parade magazine, James revealed that he once made a living as a “pimp.” We’re not making this up, folks! You can read what he said down below…

“It was only for a few years after the war. Paris was different then, still poor. Men couldn’t get jobs and, in the male chauvinist Paris of that time, the women couldn’t get work at all. It was perfect respectable for them to go into le milieu.”

And by “le milieu” he means prostitution.  Lipton told the magazine,

“Young women desperately needed money for various reasons. They were beautiful and young and extraordinary. There was no opprobrium because it was completely regulated. Every week they had to be inspected medically. The great bordellos were still flourishing in those days before the sheriff of Paris, a woman, closed them down. It was a different time.”

However, Lipton doesn’t necessarily agree with the whole thing. He said,

“I think if you can’t earn it on your own, then you don’t deserve it.”

Spoken like a true pimp.