Mainstream actor, porn actor, talk show host James Bartholet calls the late Dom DeLuise a good friend and a mentor.

“I’ve known him for many, many years,” states Bartholet. “He’s been a guest on my show a whole bunch of times.”

Bartholet was dropping Estrella Flores off at the airport, when we had our chat. Flores was on her way to the Bunny Ranch where she’s going to work for a couple of weeks.

Bartholet who also runs the Galaxy P.R. agency which reps porn performers, mentions that he had clients set up to do interviews at a TV station in Burbank which was shut done because of the swine flu.

“They had a worker that came in from Mexico and the Center for Disease Control closed down the whole studio which is part of a big Mexican network,” explains Bartholet.

“They told me they’re shutting down the whole country- the borders, the airports, everything.”

On the subject of DeLuise who died in his sleep, Bartholet says he was very sad to hear the news.

“I’ve known him for so many years. He was just the greatest guy,” comments Bartholet who met the comedian about 20 years ago.

“I was still working in mainstream. I went to this picnic out by the Hollywood Bowl. There were all of these old stars there like Mitzi Gaynor and Johnny Ray. I was there with my late aunt and Dom was there with his wife. We did some dance performance thing where I did a scene from Gypsy with some of these old actors.”

“So I went back to my table because I forgot my sun block,” Batholet recalls.

“And Dom was sitting there at the table and he was eating everybody’s food out of the picnic baskets, like Yogi Bear. [Or Ron Jeremy.]”

“He was going please don’t tell anybody. I go, noooo, that’s okay. It was funny because he had a chicken leg in one hand and a sandwich in the other. But we had met and we talked and I would see him years later at other events and this was our running joke.”

Bartholet would do an event called the Best of L.A.

“It was a big food festival that we would do every summer and Dom was there with the cookbook which he wrote. So we did this whole big cooking thing and he was teaching me how to make Italian food and the right way to make pasta al dente. He gave me a whole bunch of these books which he signed and I was able to give them out to family and friends.”

“Every time I would meet him I’d pick his brains about comedy,” Batholet goes on to say.

“There were so many things he taught me about timing which I still use to this day when I do all those porn parodies. It’s stuff that I still carry and I just feel this big emptiness with this guy gone. He was really a good guy and always had advice to give about cooking – that was a huge passion in his life. And he always had a joke to share.”

Bartholet also recalls how DeLuise would have cooking parties.

“It was like those cooking shows- he’d sit there and tell stories and be tasting the food. The guy could make anything. He was really a great chef.”

Bartholet seems to think that people probably forget how versatile an actor DeLuise actually was.

“He could do comedy on one hand, and drama; he was so beloved by everybody in the industry. And I know Hollywood’s a lot sadder today because he isn’t with us any more. I’m sure Burt Reynolds must be devastated.”

[Reynolds and DeLuise were in a number of pictures together including the great black comedy, The End.]

Bartholet says he always gives advice to actors in the porn community, that they should watch performers like DeLuise to learn acting, characterization and comedy timing.

“He always could nail character, and his films were gems,” Bartholet adds.

“I’m just proud that I got to know the man, and I’m honored to have been able to share a little bit of life with this guy and learn things from him. He was just incredible.”

On another note, Bartholet mentions that it looks like there will be a Three Stooges porn comedy especially with the fact that mainstream is proceeding with a project involving Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro.