“I was on a world tour”: Jack Nicholson’s 1985 odyssey to find Germany’s “perfect brothel”
They didn’t call Jack Nicholson Hollywood’s ultimate hell-raiser for nothing, with the actor every bit as legendary for his off-camera antics as he was for the performances he gave in front of it.
Some stars have been defined more by their hard-partying ways than the onscreen legacy they left behind, not to mention any Charlie Sheens in particular, but Nicholson was so good at his day job that his quest for the ultimate hedonistic experiences the world could offer didn’t overshadow his work.
That’s saying something, both about his generational talent and his proclivity for sex, booze, and cocaine-fuelled partying, with the three-time Academy Award winner having been woven into industry folklore as one of cinema’s most prolific womanisers and over-indulgers, as well as one of its greatest-ever performers.
Generally speaking, you wouldn’t expect an A-list superstar to pay for sex, especially one with Nicholson’s reputation. After all, fame has a funny way of making someone more desirable than usual under certain circumstances, but one co-star distinctly remembers him actively seeking the finest house of ill repute that he could hope to find in Germany.
Then again, there is a sordid side to the star’s escapades. In 1996, he was sued by a sex worker who alleged that he physically assaulted her when she asked for payment, which was settled out of court, and the same sex worker would sue him again four years later, claiming the injuries she suffered had caused lingering damage, so maybe Debra Winger’s anecdote isn’t all that surprising at all.
“Once, back in 1985, when I was on a world tour with Jack Nicholson for Terms of Endearment (how the two of us swung that, looking back on it now, I’ll never know), we were on a plane bound for Germany,” the actor wrote in her memoir. “I had never been there and was relentlessly joking with Jack about how I, as a Jew, would be treated.”
He did his best to put her at ease on her maiden visit to the country, but Winger drew the line at becoming his wingman, or Winger-woman, in this case. “He finally told me to stop,” she continued. “And these paranoid fantasies had little to do with modern Germany, and that I should relax and enjoy the trip, perhaps join him on his search for the perfect brothel.”
That’s the sort of behaviour you’d expect from a famously mad shagger, to be honest, but since Winger wisely opted against joining one of the most famous actors on the planet as he scoured Germany for the greatest bordello he could possibly hope to find, nobody except Nicholson will know if he ever managed to find it.
Based on everything else we know about him, though, you’d probably wager that he did. It’s nothing if not a strange way to spend a press tour in support of a film that had already won five Oscars by then, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Nicholson, but each to their own.
