Ben Silverman chats with W Magazine about his move to NBC.

The October issue hits stands nationwide on September 21st

On his move to NBC… “I think I am the audience, you know what I mean? I viscerally respond. I am conceptual and a dealmaker,� he says, sitting in his new office at NBC. (The place is undecorated but overflowing with congratulatory gifts that include a T-shirt declaring I’M A GENIUS!) “Those are things that usually don’t all come in the same package. I am the perfect storm for making a television executive.�

On the rumor that the delay on starting his job at NBC was due to GE’s corporate drug testing policy…“No, no, no. I did not quit smoking pot to take this job. I’m still single, and I go out with my friends, but it was a nonissue for me. I think it blew out of proportion because I have nice Lucien [Pellat-Finet] sweaters with pot-leaf embroidery and I have some hemp sneakers. The day my deal was done, I said, ‘I want to get this freakin’ piss test out of the way.’ All these people are, like, accusing me of s---.�

On whether he had anything to do with the premature leak of his move to NBC… “Oh, God no. It ruined my weekend.� He was spending the holiday at the Montage, a resort in Laguna Beach that was crowded with Hollywood types. “People were all over me, shooting me e-mails, circling me. I literally had to go in my room and pace on the phone the entire time.� The email leak, Silverman gripes, foiled his publicity plan. “I wanted to be the cover of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal,� he says with characteristic immodesty. And, he adds, he would have liked to be the one to break the news to Reilly. “I love Kevin and wanted to, at the right moment, tell him about it firsthand.�