DAMON: Armandale.

LEELEE: Instead of "Pass the Courvoisier," it's gonna be "A shot of the Armandale?"

DAMON: Every time I get the chance. Everything's product placement.

GOTHAM: Where's it made?

DAMON: Armandale's a Scotland town.

GOTHAM: What do they make it out of?

DAMON: I don't know, I just got the business. I'll learn it. Come back to me in a year, I'll know everything. Every business we get into, I kind of hands-on have to learn the shit because I think someone's always trying to jerk me. [Damon's son, Damon Anthony Dash II, i.e., "Boogie," calls to complain about his nanny. Then the nanny calls to complain about Boogie. Damon patiently consoles both of them.]

GOTHAM: How many movies have you made?

DAMON: Five. I produced Backstage. Before that Street Smarts went straight to vid but it went platinum. I produced this movie Paid in Full with the Weinsteins. It opens in September. I directed and produced Paper Soldiers, a comedy, it might come out in January. State Property I produced for Lion's Gate. That was supposed to be a straight to vid, 600 grand, but we put it out in 50, 60 theaters and it averaged like 9,000 per screen. Made a lot of money on that one. I didn't use any actors. Just people from the office and artists.

GOTHAM: People give you scripts?

DAMON: I develop them. They're mostly personal experiences, things that I've witnessed, or knew about. Ghetto legends and shit.

LEELEE: So we might find this experience tonight in a film one day?

DAMON: Definitely. Every emotion.

LEELEE: I reserve the right to play me.

GOTHAM: Damon, where do you live?

DAMON: I have a place in TriBeCa, a place in Jersey, and I do East Hampton on the weekend.

STRANGER NO MORE Two hours ago these guys had never met. Left to Right: Soheil, Leelee, Isca, and Damon.

GOTHAM: Who designs the Roc-A-Wear line?

DAMON: We have a team, but I approve every sample, every skew.

GOTHAM: What did you gross last year?

DAMON: Last year, we did 80. This year, we'll do a buck-60. The year after, we're gonna do about 300, because we added our juniors line, girls.

GOTHAM: Soheil, for your information, a "buck" is 100 million dollars.

SOHEIL: Wow!

DAMON: The thing about the clothing business is like you build equity but you still get profit. In the music business, you have to build equity and be consistent then you sell but there's not too much profit because it costs so much money marketing.

GOTHAM: Isn't it a terrible thing that the music industry discriminated against Michael Jackson because he's black?

DAMON: I don't know what that's all about. Like, he's not even black. He had another problem that people are addressing.

LEELEE: They didn't discriminate against him before. Now his new record comes out and it's discrimination?

DAMON: Mike's the best that ever did it, man, and I guess that sometimes it's hard to just give that shit up, going from being The King and getting all that attention, to just being normal. And he can't be normal. If he's not Number One, he probably doesn't know how to feel. He's been Number One since he was eight.

GOTHAM: Soheil, aren't you playing a concert at the U.N.?

SOHEIL: On September 11, a concert for peace sponsored by UNESCO and the Virtue Foundation.

DAMON: So do you get a lot of money for doing a concert?

SOHEIL: I'm not getting paid for the U.N. concert.

DAMON: A lot of money for other concerts?

SOHEIL: Not by your standards. I don't even know what a "buck" is.

ISCA: How often do you play, for money?

SOHEIL: Seven to ten concerts a month.

DAMON: So what would one make per concert if one were a pianist of your caliber?

SOHEIL: Four digits, in the middle part of that range, depending on how big your name is. Itzhak Perlman would make $50,000 per concert.

GOTHAM: Placido Domingo makes like 50 million a year.

DAMON: Fifty million a year? Doing shows? Ohmigod. [To Soheil] So you're gonna get "kicked out," make a lot of money; "kick" meaning money.

SOHEIL: I'm really not interested in money [raucous laughter]. I'd like more people to share the love I have for classical music.