“About two years ago, Steve Guttenberg walked into the showbiz haunt Crustacean on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. ‘I walked in and the maitre d’ made a big deal for me,’ said Mr. Guttenberg. The Goot — as he’s known to his friends — appreciated the show. To hear him tell it, eating in public in Los Angeles is a dangerous business for an actor whose last box office hit was Three Men and a Baby in 1987.
“All of a sudden, the maitre d’ says, `Get out of the way!'” said Mr. Guttenberg. “And they literally threw me to the side and Tom Cruise came in. And he sat Tom Cruise and said, `I’m so sorry, but you know, Tom Cruise.’ And I’m like, `Holy fuck.’
“So after three decades in L.A., he bought a place on the Upper West Side. ‘I came to New York to find a better life,’ he said. Uprooting took some time. The 15-year-old golden retriever he loved dearly was old and sick; the golden died a month ago. So two weeks ago, the wavy-haired, Brooklyn-born 49-year-old actor, who describes his career as a ’32-year-overnight success,’ finally made it back to New York City.
“‘In L.A., I think about what I don’t have,’ he told me. ‘In New York, I think about what I do have. And I’m really tired of comparing myself to Tom Cruise.” — from Spencer Morgan‘s 7.15 N.Y. Observer article, “Look Out, New York Ladies — The Goot Is Loose.”