There will never be the hoped for “Sopranos” reunion movie now. Sadly, it can’t happen ever as the star, James Gandolfini, is gone. But there was a “Sopranos” reunion of a sort, and it’s just available on DVD. “Nicky Deuce” aired on Nickelodeon last month, based on a children’s book by one of the show’s stars, Steve Schirripa. The movie features Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Schirripa, Vincent Curatola and Tony Sirico as cute mobsters. A high school kid is sent to live with his uncle (Schirripa) who may be involved in mob activities. It’s like a light hearted version or a send up of “The Sopranos.” Curatola, who played Johnny Sack, told me yesterday that the gang got together at the end of May to promote the film. “We had a great time. Jimmy was in a great mood,” he said. “Nicky Deuce” is available on DVD now, although Nickolodeon hasn’t said a word about it. But it does mark the one and only “Sopranos” reunion on film, a nice footnote to the famed series.
Kanye, Kim Take Wrong Direction with Baby Name: North West Could Have Twin Peaks
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian (only claim to fame: her father was OJ Simpson’ s lawyer and best friend) have taken the wrong direction with their baby’s name. It’s North West. No kidding. According to reports, and of course, how wrong can they be? Someone had suggested Kaidence, which would have been preferable. But this may be a pre-arranged tie in with Northwest Airlines for an endorsement since K’s mother is clever at getting those deals done. Southwest Airlines doesn’t even have seat reservations. And Northwest does fly to some key cities.
Of course they could have named the baby Honey West, after the TV series which starred the late great Anne Francis. I liked Wild West, but that would be emphasizing the obvious since the baby is already said to be guaranteed coverage in 12 years on TMZ and other tabloids.
One suggestion was Mid West, but that seemed too bland, and the K’s were afraid people would just fly over her.
Another choice was Sho West, because you know she’s going to be a movie star. Many get their starts at Sho West, where clips of new films are played for distributors.
But North West it is, which means many summer vacations in the Pacific Rim. And what if this young lady develops like her mother? North West could have Twin Peaks.
“White House Down” Screens, and Twitter Reacts Unfavorably
Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down” screened on both coasts tonight. It premieres next Tuesday but the damage may have been done. While critics are embargoed from writing about it now, the audience has taken to Twitter in droves. The consensus isn’t very good. One Tweeter called it “hillarible” and may have coined a new word.
One thing that surprised me about “WHD” is that after the initial set up, it plays like a comedy. The audience laughed a lot. Early on, a White House staffer refers to a room in the building as the one we saw in Emmerich’s “Independence Day.” That was a tip off that the tone was changing from dead serious attack on the nation’s capitol to something more like the recent “21 Jump Street.” The movie gets jokier as it goes along.
One thing to watch: 13 year old Joey King is a breakout star from this film. She looks so much like a young Patty Duke, I think they should remake Duke’s famous 1960s series immediately with Joey as twin cousins. No kidding.
I didn’t think Sony was marketing “WHD” as a comedy. But it surely isn’t at all as serious minded as their Oscar nominated drama, “Zero Dark Thirty.”So far the Twitters are calling it “dumb” and “silly.” But there’s obviously a high interest in seeing Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx in a movie together. And I am always happy to see James Woods. Michael Murphy, another favorite, plays the Vice President.
Emmerich has made some terrible movies like “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow” and a great one in “Independence Day.” “White House Down” clocks in at two hours and twelve minutes. It cost well beyond $150 million.
PS Tatum plays a cop named John Cale. Is this a tribute to the great musician? And another character is named Ted Hope, which got laughs in the screening. Ted is a popular indie producer.
Here’s the real John Cale:
“All My Children,” “One Life to Live” Union Dispute Resolved
Just got back from screening of “White House Down” and learned the union dispute between Prospect Park and IATSE has been resolved. “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” will resume production on August 12th after all. The shows shut down more than a week early when IATSE complained the shows’ budgets were higher than expected.
Another announcement from Prospect Park today, too: their use of foul language in the shows will end beginning with June 24th episodes. This is great news. Gratuitous use of all sorts of four letter words (and others) was grating and offensive. The writers for these shows have enough problems. Thank goodness that will end.
Now that the union mess is done, Prospect Park can figure out how to get Susan Lucci back onto “All My Children” and how to straighten out some other problems. Right now they’ve got veteran actress Cady McClain, who’s maybe 40, grandmother to a guy who looks like he’s 20. And her “Son” is 30. It’s very weird. Something about “All My Children” feels inert and canned. I think it’s missing Lucci’s gift for stirring stuff up.
The better show is “One Life to Live.” You can see they’re doing the best they can with a limited budget. But the show moves better, has a focus and feels like it has a purpose.
Soaps get laughed at a lot, but they are launching pads still for lots of talented people (and home to those who stay too). Billy Magnussen is Tony nominated from “Vanya and Sonia” — he came from “As the World Turns.” Jesse Soffer from the same show just got an NBC series. Plenty of soap grads are on every show and in plenty of films and theater. Judith Light, who’s just won Tony Awards back to back, started on “One Life to Live.” If only the soap could her to come back for a cameo…
Exclusive: Joey Pants on James Gandolfini: “We Joked About Getting Older, Our Health”
EXCLUSIVE: One of our favorite people is Joey “Pants” Pantoliano. He played Ralph Cifaretto for two seasons on “The Sopranos,” from 2001-2004, 23 episodes in all. Joey does not want to be interviewed about James Gandolfini right now. He hung up on Greta van Susteren live last night on Fox News after her producers ambushed him and started asking what he thought were inappropriate questions.
Today, Joey told me after, believe me, a lot of prodding: “Our first scene together, we were blocking for rehearsal. Jimmy grabbed my hand, we were nose to nose. He said, ‘It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with you.'” He took a breath. “He had those sad eyes. If you looked deep inside them, you could see your soul.” He added: “I’m so sad for his family. His sisters, his son. I got to meet his father [who died in 2005]. He was such a small man, physically, compared to Jimmy…”
Pantoliano says they used to joke about their health and getting older. “We were shooting a diner scene, in a real diner. Jimmy was eating steak and eggs. I think he had like four breakfasts. I said, “Hey, we gotta be careful now. We’re getting older.” Jimmy said, “I love steak and eggs. Anyway, 25% of my arteries are blocked.” I said, What? He said, “That means 75% aren’t.”
Joey is keeping to himself for the next few days. “Jimmy was very private. He didn’t like publicity, you know that.” He added: “I loved him.” The only other Soprano he’s talked to so far is Edie Falco. “She’s the same way. We’re in shock.”
Jett Travolta Foundation Donating More Money to Scientology Organizations
It’s no surprise, and I’ve written about it before: but John Travolta and Kelly Preston are continuing to donate tax free money from the non profit charity they started for their late son to Scientology. Of course, this is a little strange since Scientology’s beliefs may be what cost Jett Travolta his life, in the end. For years until the day Jett died the Travoltas insisted Jett was not autistic but suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome. He was not treated for autism as Scientology doesn’t allow treatment of mental or brain issues. Jett’s “manny” when he died wasn’t a trained nurse but a wedding photographer.
Nevertheless, the Travoltas remain devoted to the cause. According to the website for the foundation, www.jett-travolta-foundation.com, contributions have been made in 2013 to several different places. But one of them is Scientology’s questionable group in Haiti that’s recruiting poor people. And the other is the group that performs bogus “detoxification.”
The Haiti group is called GROup Dynamic for the Survival of Haiti. http://www.grodysh.org. This group is run two prominent Scientologists, Leslie Hobbs and Claude Reginald Jean. There’s no mention on their website about Scientology, of course. But their address is in Clearwater, Florida, where all the other Xenu businesses are clustered.
The Form 990 filed by Jett Travolta Foundation omits any detail of where their money went last year. Charities are mandated to list their gifts and grants. But this foundation simply didn’t. The foundation just says it gave grants totaling $120,800.
But on their form 990 for 2012, GRODYSH acknowledges a recent $40,000 donation from the Jett Travolta Foundation. Their total revenue claimed in 2012 was $95,000 so that’s nearly half of what they took in.
And then there’s the International Detoxification Academy. The Jett Travolta Foundation has already donated money to them in 2013 and did so in 2011. Also in 2011, Jett Travolta Foundation donated funds to Narconon, and to Will Smith’s New Horizon School in Calabasas, California which teaches Scientology Study Tech curriculum.
Gandolfini Suffered Heart Attack in Hotel, Died in Ambulance
From all accounts including NBC’s Today show interview this morning with the manager of the Exedra Hotel in Rome: James Gandolfini suffered his heart attack in the hotel. His son called an ambulance but it was too late to revive him. Gandolfini was traveling with his son, as I told you first last night, and one of his two sisters. They were still in Rome and planning to travel to Sicily for the Taormina Film Festival. A press conference was held this afternoon in Rome as well, reiterating all of this.
Initially I was told last night that everything had happened in a restaurant with the son. But my scoop from last night stands. http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/06/19/james-gandolfini-dies-at-age-51-in-italy He collapsed in the bathroom and the door had to be knocked down. Either way. it’s a tragedy.
Some more statements today– from Edie Falco: “I am shocked and devastated by Jim’s passing. He was a man of tremendous depth and sensitivity, with a kindness and generosity beyond words. I consider myself very lucky to have spent 10 years as his close colleague. My heart goes out to his family. As those of us in his pretend one hold on to the memories of our intense and beautiful time together. The love between Tony and Carmela was one of the greatest I’ve ever known.”
Exclusive: James Gandolfini Finally Had His Life In Order
FROM LAST SEPTEMBER’S HBO AFTER PARTY FOLLOWING THE EMMY AWARDS:
James Gandolfini is a happy man, I can report. He came to HBO’s big gala last night with not one but two wives. Yes, the once and always Tony Soprano has movies, projects, a baby about to be born and a happy family. He also told me he’s living in Los Angeles because his 13 year old son loves it. “We’re making it all work.” And indeed they are as first wife, Marcy, had just stopped his table to say hello and was leaving as I arrived.
Gandolfini and second wife, Deborah Lin, are expecting a baby girl in about three weeks. So that’s excellent news. They haven’t quite settled on a name yet. but both of the choices they mentioned sounded pretty good.
On the career front: I can tell you exclusively that Gandolfini is working on a comedy project with Steve Carell, from Carell’s production company. It’s called “The Bone Men” right now. The pair play paleontologists from the late 1800s. “It’s very funny,” says Gandolini. There are rumors that Fox2000 is interested, as well as HBO.
Meanwhile Gandolfini is working with HBO on a pilot called “Criminal Justice,” announced last week. And he’s about to be seen in “Killing Them Softly” with Brad Pitt. After a couple of tries, this is the first film the pair will have worked in together that’s an actual hit. He laughed when I reminded him that he said long ago every time the two actors were in a movie together, it bombed. No more.
The motto: to paraphrase “The Sopranos”: “Don’t stop believin”…Gandolfini always played being Tony Soprano the right away, shying away from becoming so intertwined with his character that he’d be stuck forever doing “Sopranos” conventions. He can do anything. And will.
David Chase, Steve van Zandt on James Gandolfini: “Genius,” “Brother”
“Sopranos” creator David Chase and co-star Steve van Zandt have each released statements on the passing of their friend, James Gandolfini. Even though you can read them other places, I’m reprinting them here. (Naturally, THR makes it seem like they’re exclusive to them.) Anyway. I think most of “The Sopranos” extended family is in shock. And van Zandt is just starting a tour from Scotland with Bruce Springsteen. His email came from there. So that’s not easy. More to come. And there are plenty of reactions on Twitter from all kinds of people. I just ran into Alec Baldwin on my walk home and he was beside himself. I keep thinking of Gandolfini’s constant ups and downs with weight, and joking about it. And now it seems he died in a restaurant in Sicily. From heaven to heaven.
Chase:
“He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, ‘You don’t get it. You’re like Mozart.’ There would be silence at the other end of the phone. For Deborah and Michael and Lilliana, this is crushing. And it’s bad for the rest of the world. He wasn’t easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can’t explain and never will be able to explain.”
van Zandt:
I have lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all time. Maureen and I send our deepest sympathy and love to Deborah, Michael, Lily, and all of Jimmy’s family.
Stevie Van Zandt
Loch Lomond, Scotland
James Gandolfini Dies At Age 51 in Italy
“Sopranos” star James Gandolfini has died of an apparent heart attack today. He was 51 and attending the Taormina Film Festival in Italy. Gandolfini was supposedly in a restaurant with his son. He went to the rest room and when he didn’t come out, the door had to broken down.
This is a tragedy for his friends and his fans. Chris Albrecht, who ran HBO during the heyday of The Sopranos, told me “He was a member of our family. He was a great guy. He had his demons like everyone else, but he was a great guy.”
In the last year I had a long talk with Gandolfini. He was very excited because he’d resolved all his family issues– his wife and his ex wife made peace, he was close to his son, and had a baby on the way.
Even though Gandolfini was shy in person and not at all like Tony Soprano, he and I had many conversations over the years about fame. He didn’t care for it, and tried to remain low key as possible.
He was always worried about being typecast as Tony Soprano, so he took roles that were small, or unusual. He appears right now in a movie that I think is available on VOD called “Violet and Daisy” and he’s wonderful in it. Some of his other key movie roles were “Welcome to the Rileys” and the Coen Brothers’ “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”
More recently he starred in Sopranos creator David Chase’s “Not Fade Away” as a frustrated father. It was excellent work. Chase and he were bonded, as were most of the show’s cast, as a family.
Gandolfini was also incredibly loyal. He worked over and over with friends who were actors. One of his favorites was Aida Turturro, who played his sister Janice on “The Sopranos.” He also showed up every time Steve van Zandt had an event in New York. Gandolfini was so low profile that sometimes people didn’t recognize him.
More to come… Condolences to his family, who must be beside themselves..