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Clearly he's not ready to start opening up his veins in public just yet. When asked if he's been seeing anyone romantically after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend Shoshanna Lonstein last year, Seinfeld--after ribbing the reporter who dutifully if reluctantly posed the question--responds only with an old joke from Larry David's stand-up act: "I'd like to start a family, but you have to have a date first." Having already sold his L.A. home, he's planning to move back to New York City and open up a small production company, more about which he won't reveal. Beyond that, the tour and the HBO show, his post-Seinfeld plans are vague. He variously claims that he'd like to do a movie someday; that he'd be open to returning to television, not in another sitcom but maybe a talk show; that he plans to pretty much take the next couple years off and just recuperate from the rigors of producing, writing and starring in Seinfeld.
"I don't really live here," he points out, gesturing around his spacious kitchen. "I get home at 10. I'm asleep by 10:30. I get up at 6, have a little exercise, then I'm back at the office." Though he's famous for his love of cereal, a peek at his pantry shows the dates on his cereal boxes--health-food brands, by the way--to be nearly expired; he eats at the office. He claims never to go to restaurants, to have no time to watch television or read the papers (except for reviews--he claims he's read them all), and to have seen only one movie last year (Titanic). "I'm not out in the world," he says. "I missed the whole '90s. I don't know what happened."
Given the fact that it seems to be his entire life, will he be sad when Seinfeld is all over? No, he says, then reconsiders. "I was sad the last few days. I saw an old Odd Couple rerun, and it was all yellow. You know those old shows--why are they all yellow? And then I thought, this is what my show is now--a re-run. It's not going to be a living thing anymore." No. Welcome, Jerry, to the land of TV's undead. One senses there's a routine there somewhere.
--With reporting by Jeanne McDowell and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles