MEDIA ALERT:
UPDATE 8/31/08
Wedding Bells for Gandolfini
A big kiss concluded a wedding ceremony Saturday for James Gandolfini and Deborah Lin.
The star of The Sopranos and his new wife gathered their friends and family for the event in Lin's hometown of Honolulu at Central Union Church.
One of the guests described Lin's attire as a white gown made of Italian lace. Music included the "Hawaiian Wedding Song" played by a harpist. Gandolfini's son, Michael, 8, served as best man.
A guest said the ceremony lasted 20 minutes, after which the newlyweds wore "long green leis" at the reception held at a nearby resort.
Gandolfini's previous marriage ended in 2002. He and Lin, a former model, have been engaged since late 2007.
The couple first appeared in public together in March 2007 at the New York premiere of the second half of the finale of The Sopranos.
UPDATE 8/25/08
Get in the Game
NFL Films' America's Game offers another gem, narrated by James Gandolfini and starring Michael Strahan (excellent as always), Eli Manning and Coughlin (both more animated than usual).
It includes the first public look at some remarkable video, such as Coughlin's first team meeting in '04, his Super Bowl eve talk and David Tyree's famously awful practice two days before the big game and the big catch.
Find a friend with the NFL Network and invite yourself over.
UPDATE 7/18/08
Sopranos Painting Scores Big—$175,000
A painting of "The Sopranos" lead actors replicating the 15th century pose of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino has sold for $175,000, said to be the highest price paid for memorabilia from the hit TV series.
James Gandolfini and Edie Falco, who played mob boss Tony Soprano and his wife, Carmela, in the HBO series that ran from 1999 to 2007, stare at each other in profile just as the Duke and Duchess of Urbino do in Piero della Francesca's original, which was painted around 1465 to 1470.
Sopranos supporting actor Federico Castelluccio, who played the Italian hit man Furio Giunta who fell in love with Carmela, painted the work after coming up with the idea during a trip to Florence when he saw della Francesca's piece at the Uffizi.
"I saw that particular painting in person and it kind of gave me a fleeting thought of, wow, it would be interesting to do a painting of James Gandolfini and Edie Falco as the Duke and Duchess of Urbino but call it the Duke and Duchess of North Caldwell," Castelluccio said, referring to the New Jersey town where the Sopranos lived.
"They're actually looking at each other but kind of have that 1,000-yard stare, looking past each other. The idea came in the fourth season, when they separate," Castelluccio said.
He said he recently sold it to Toronto oil executive Robert Salna for $175,000. The broker of the deal, the collector Keya Morgan, told Reuters that was the highest price ever for a piece of Sopranos memorabilia.
In June, Gandolfini sold his personal costume wardrobe from The Sopranos in 25 lots, fetching $187,750 for charity, four times the forecast by auction house Christie's.
Gandolfini and Falco sat for a photo shoot off which Castelluccio made drawings and then the portraits.
Painted in oil on poplar wood, the piece is mounted in a replica Renaissance Tabernacle frame custom-made by specialists. It has the same blue sky and rolling hills in the background that give della Francesca's work tremendous depth.
"I never even thought of it as a Sopranos thing," Castelluccio said. "Painting is my life. I love acting and creating characters, but if acting left tomorrow, it would be OK because I still have my painting."
UPDATE 6/30/08
Batter Up!
It's usually risky putting baseball bats in the hands of The Sopranos crew, but James Gandolfini and his former co-stars refrained from bloodshed when one of the winners of a CharityFolks.com auction presented them with Louisville Sluggers to sign at a cocktail party Tuesday at Fiamma. Gandolfini even gave his ultimate gesture of affection to a priest there— putting the reverend in a headlock...
UPDATE 6/26/08
Tony Soprano's Bloody Good Show for Charity
Those Tony Soprano fans sure love the big jerk, inside and out.
One avid fan—or a very sloppy dresser—paid a whopping $43,750 for the fake-blood-stained outfit James Gandolfini's iconic mob boss was wearing when his dementia-addled Uncle Junior shot him in the gut in The Sopranos' season-six opener.
The red-spattered pants, undershirt and black and gray-striped button-down was the top-grossing lot auctioned off Wednesday at Christie's in New York to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, a cause close to Gandolfini's heart that helps out soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Overall, Tony's garb brought in $187,750.
UPDATE 6/24/08
Massive Sopranos Get-Together
When you consider the body count The Sopranos racked up over six spread-out seasons, you figure 10 pounds isn't too much dead weight to store in your living room.
The pioneering HBO series—every second of it—is headed to DVD later this year in the form of a 30-disc box set (which, incidentally, weighs 10 pounds).
In addition to all the Family drama, HBO Video is offering a host of extra features on two bonus discs, including an interview with Sopranos creator David Chase conducted by Alec Baldwin, 16 deleted scenes, commentary from cast members (except for James Gandolfini, who didn't participate) and various making-of features.
To further appease those who already popped for each individual season, three soundtrack CDs compiled by Chase, who handpicked the music that closed out each episode, are also included.
The collector's edition goes on sale November 11 and will set you back $399.99, which hopefully you've got stashed out in the yard somewhere in anticipation of this moment.
UPDATE 6/19/08
James Gandolfini Scares Grim Reaper
Morgue workers are sure to have a light day when James Gandolfini is visiting, for people seem to die less when the Sopranos star is around.
The reason: once when the actor was researching for a role in a New York City morgue, he couldn't find any corpses.
In fact, the following two days saw only one dead body of an elderly man in the morgue.
Seeing the effect, people started called Gandolfini "Jesus Christ."
At the retirement party for Lt. Jay Fagan, former head of the NYPD's TV and Film Unit, the "Sopranos" star thanked Fagan for giving him access to the morgue, but complained that the first night there were no dead bodies, and the second night, just one elderly man who had died on the toilet.
The third night, he struck out again.
"They [the cops] started to call me Jesus Christ because no one would die in New York City," The New York Post quoted him, as saying.
UPDATE 6/4/08
Dress Like a Soprano
If you are looking to add a little more bada bing to your wardrobe, you might want to check out Christie's Auction House on June 25th, they're holding an auction of Sopranos clothes and assorted goodies.
The 24 Tony Soprano auction items come from James Gandolfini's personal collection, and contain such gems as the button-down shirt that Soprano wore over the opening credits, the bloodstained clothes that he wore when he was shot in Season 6, and the garish geometric shirt that he sported in Season 5. The clothes will come with certificates of authenticity and are expected to fetch between $500 and $3000, depending on the item. Overall, experts are anticipating that Gandolfini's items will generate over $36,000. If you decide to hold off on wearing your Sopranos swag, you might just wind up with a nice investment!
UPDATE 5/28/08
James Gandolfini Sells Sopranos Wardrobe
James Gandolfini is selling 24 of his outfits that he wore on the show. We don't know too many people that fit into them, but it's still for a good cause.
The proceeds will go to the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit group that assists severely wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan.
The collection is expected to raise $36,500. Unfortunately, there's blood on some of the items. Tony was a mobster, after all! The auction is on June 25th at Christie's.
UPDATE 5/7/08
James Gandolfini Gets into The Thick of It for Armando Iannucci Movie
There has never been a television villain quite like Malcolm Tucker, the fierce, foul-mouthed and breath-takingly cynical spin-doctor at the heart of The Thick of It.
He stalked furiously through each episode of the cult BBC satire on the Blair Government, leaving ministers, journalists, civil servants and the truth trampled and broken in his wake.
Now this monstrous creation, played by Peter Capaldi, is to make his big screen debut in In the Loop, a feature-length film from the team behind the original television series.
The Times revealed in October that Armando Iannucci, the Director, was working on a film about the diplomatic horse-trading between Britain and America on the eve of a war. Iannucci said at the time that the aim was not to make The Thick of It, The Movie. Yesterday BBC Films announced that shooting had now begun and revealed a cast and tangled plot that bore all the hallmarks of the award-laden television show.
Capaldi is joined by Chris Addison, who played the smart-aleck special adviser Ollie in The Thick of It, as well as Steve Coogan, a regular collaborator with Iannucci, and James Gandolfini, of The Sopranos. The story hinges on the determination of a British prime minister and American president to start a war. General Miller, of the U.S. Army (Gandolfini), does not think this is a good idea, nor does Simon Foster, the British Secretary of State for International Development (the British actor Tom Hollander).
UPDATE 5/1/08
Gandolfini, Coogan Are in The Loop
James Gandolfini, Steve Coogan and Tom Hollander have joined the cast of Brit satirist Armando Iannucci's feature directorial debut In the Loop.
Pic, which also stars Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi and Gina McKee, is a black comedy about the attempts by a U.S. general, played by Gandolfini, and British politico, played by Hollander, to stop the U.S. president and British prime minister from launching an ill-advised war.
BBC Films, the U.K. Film Council and Aramid Entertainment are producing with sales outfit Protagonist Pictures; the joint venture launched by Film4, Vertigo Films and financier Ingenious Media earlier this year, handling worldwide sales.
Brit distrib Optimum Releasing has already snapped the U.K. theatrical rights.
Principal photography began Thursday. Lensing will take place on location in London, Washington D.C. and New York.
Iannucci is best known in Blighty for his politically biting work on TV skeins such as The Thick of it and The Day Today. He was also one of the creative brains, along with Steve Coogan, behind the hit Brit laffer Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge.
"We hope that In the Loop will make you cry with laughter—and possibly fear—as it takes you behind the scenes in the heart of the global political village," said producer Kevin Loader.
UPDATE 3/26/08
Gandolfini bites at 'Oxy'
John Hickey's life used to be a holy mess. Between the ages of, say, 17 and 23, Hickey was busted repeatedly by police and spent more time in jail than out of it. But that was then and this is now. The hard-bitten kid from Charlestown is going Hollywood. Hickey, who's 29, has turned his life story into a screenplay, and it's attracted the interest of Tony Soprano himself. Actor James Gandolfini has met with Hickey and says he wants to produce his bruising biopic, called "Oxymorons." "It's all coffee and handshakes at the moment," says Hickey, who lives in the North End. "But for someone like Gandolfini to eat a pu pu platter with me at the Kowloon . . . It was unbelievable." The idea to write a script emerged after Hickey got into a brawl on the roof of the Marriott hotel in Quincy and fell 80 feet to the ground. "I woke up seven days later at the Boston Medical Center," he says. "I needed to do something or I was going to end up dead, overdosing on drugs, or in jail." Hickey's North End pals Paul and Nino Pepicelli eventually got the script into Gandolfini's hands. "He's like a street guy, totally down to earth," says Hickey. "And he really wants to do this."
UPDATE 3/24/08
James Gandolfini joins The Taking of Pelham 123
James Gandolfini has signed to join Denzel Washington and John Travolta on director Tony Scott's upcoming remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 for Columbia Pictures.
Variety reports Gandolfini is set to play the mayor of New York City who is under pressure to end a crisis after a crowded subway car is held for ransom by a criminal (Travolta) and his gang.
Gandolfini has been keeping busy since The Sopranos finished its run on HBO. The actor was involved in the Spike Jonze-directed Where the Wild Things Are. He is also producing an untitled drama through his Attaboy Films label that will see him taking on the role of legendary author Ernest Hemingway's for director Philip Kaufman.
Gandolfini is also scheduled to return to HBO to play Sonny Vaccaro—the godfather of grassroots basketball. Vaccaro developed a camp which went on to launch the careers of several NBA superstars.
UPDATE 3/18/08
Famous Soprano Visits Saugus
Actor James Gandolfini, who everyone knows as the 3-time Emmy Award-winning character Tony Soprano, recently dined at the Kowloon Restaurant on Route 1.
Kowloon owner Donald Wong said he had a chance to chat with the famous movie star, who is planning to shoot a movie in Boston. "He told me they'll be looking for extras, but I said I wasn't interested," joked Wong, who is currently serving as the chairman of the Saugus Board of Selectmen.
UPDATE 3/11/08
James Gandolfini Hospitalized!
The former Sopranos star is recovering at home after an abdominal operation. Dr. James McGinty performed the keyhole surgery at St. Luke's Roosevelt hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday.
His rep called the operation on the 46-year-old star a "minor procedure," adding, "He is already home."
UPDATE 3/7/08
Sopranos Coming to the Big Screen?
The manager of Lodi, N.J.'s Satin Dolls strip club—converted in HBO's The Sopranos to the infamous Bada Bing Club—says Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his crew could be smoking cigars at their favorite gentleman's club once again, to film a Sopranos movie.
Nick D'Urso, the manager, said renovations at the Bing were put on hold after the club received a phone call about plans for a feature film version of New Jersey's favorite crime family. D'Urso refused to say who contacted him, but he insists the information is legit.
The Emmy-winning series cut to black to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" playing in the background in June after 86 episodes with an anticlimactic ending that had Tony, his wife, Carmela, and children, Meadow and A.J., in a diner as a suspicious character in a Members Only jacket lurked at the counter.
An HBO spokeswoman and representatives for cast members Lorraine Bracco, Dominic Chianese and Edie Falco did not respond to phone calls.
UPDATE 3/5/08
Meals You Can't Refuse
The wine. The macaroni. The meatballs. The family. All essential ingredients to a traditional Sunday Italian dinner.
"Gravy and lots and lots of love," added actor, author and full-blooded Italian Tony Lip, who played New York mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi on The Sopranos.
Lip is co-author of Shut Up and Eat: Mangia with Family Recipes and Stories From Your Favorite Italian-American Stars.
"I've been wanting to write a cookbook for quite some time," Lip said during a phone interview. "It's a good gimmick."
Think The Sopranos, cooking up schemes over fine food, now dishing their family secrets, personal and edible, to you straight up.
Contributing chefs include fellow Sopranos cast members James Gandolfini, Drea de Matteo, Lorraine Bracco and Edie Falco, as well as other Italian-American actors such as Chazz Palminteri, Joe Mantegna, Danny Aiello and more.
Co-written by Steven Prigge with a forward by Aiello, the book earned its title from a dinnertime expression coined by Lip's mother, Nazzerena Vallelonga.
"My house was always filled with friends and family, sitting around the table, eating my mother's cooking," he said. "Of course, we would always start talking and that's when my mother would always say, 'Shut up and eat.'"
As Carmine, Lip headed up the New York mob. His 10-episode stint ended with him dying on the golf course.
"I didn't die of natural causes, I had a stroke," he said.
A man of few, but funny words, Lip's film credits include an appearance as a wedding guest in "The Godfather." The uncredited role shared by his young son Nick also served as a springboard to appearances in films such as Crazy Joe, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Year of the Dragon, Honor Thy Father, Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco, as well as The Sopranos.
"They called me and offered me the job," he said.
It was an accidental career path. "I never had any dreams," Lip said.
Before his film career, Lip worked as a supervisor and maitre d' at The Copacabana nightclub in New York, hobnobbing with Frank Sinatra—"a great tipper, but so were the mob guys"—Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin, he said.
The opportunity to work at The Copa resulted from a simple, matter of fact phone call.
"I called a friend of mine and said I needed a job," Lip said.
That job introduced him to director Francis Ford Coppola, who extended "The Godfather" invite to him.
Born Frank Anthony Vallelonga to immigrants from Calabria, Italy, Lip grew up in an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx. He earned the nickname "The Lip" from his younger brother Rudy, who admired his ability to "out-talk everybody."
In the introduction to Shut Up and Eat, Lip refers to his mother as "the best cook who ever lived," and his late wife, Dolores, "as a close second."
"Now my mother made a great meatball. But when I met my wife, Dolores, she didn't need any cooking lessons. Her meatballs were out of this world."
Lip credits the meatballs as the "first and most important ingredients to a happy marriage."
He has two sons, actor/writer/director Nick Vallelonga and actor Frank Vallelonga, and a grandchild.
He is currently working on two books, one on diabetes and the other documenting his experiences at The Copacabana.
Unexpected fame and the outcome?
"I don't know about famous, but successful," he joked. "I think things turned out just fine."
UPDATE 3/4/08
Cast Divided Over Sopranos Film
Former stars of TV hit The Sopranos have suggested that a big screen version of the show could be on the cards.
But it seems cast members are split into two camps about the possibility of a future movie.
Michael Imperioli, whose character Christopher was suffocated by mobster boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) last season, thinks it's all over.
"I'm dead. I think we're done, man," he told the New York Daily News. "I think we had our day, unless David (Chase, creator) comes up with something great."
However, Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Jennifer Melfi), Steve Schirripa (Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri), and Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior) wouldn't mind seeing their characters in a prequel.
"I'd be game. Uncle Junior could jump out of his wheelchair," said Dominic.
Lorraine, who escaped the series unscathed, added: "I would love it. I'm up for it! Call me!"
The award-winning show, which revolved around the DiMeo crime family, ran for six seasons and ended last June.
UPDATE 2/1/08
Gandolfini's in for Some Healing
James Gandolfini has come aboard to star in and produce "Sexual Healing," a biopic about singer Marvin Gaye.
Jesse L. Martin already is set to play Gaye in the film, which will be directed by Lauren Goodman.
The film focuses on the last years of Gaye's life. Gandolfini will play Gaye's manager, Freddy Cousaert, the promoter who guided the singer through the recording of his biggest-selling album, Midnight Love. Goodman wrote the script loosely based on Steven Turner's book Trouble Man.
Gandolfini will produce via his Attaboy shingle with his partner Alexandra Ryan. Also producing are Ayo Davis, Efuru Flowers and Roger Haber.
Gary Hamilton's Arclight Films will executive produce and handle international sales for the $15 million production. Principal photography is scheduled to begin April 15 on locations in Massachusetts, Ostend, Belgium, and Los Angeles.
Victor Syrmis is Executive Producer with Hamilton.
Arclight Films is handling sales at Berlin's European Film Market next week.
Gandolfini, repped by Endeavor, won the SAG Award on Sunday night for outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series for The Sopranos.
UPDATE 1/28/08
Sopranos Sweeps TV Drama Prizes
Though its last episode aired several months ago, The Sopranos nabbed all three TV drama categories to open the ceremony, with James Gandolfini and Edie Falco taking both lead-acting prizes and the entire ensemble joining them to accept the award for overall cast performance.
"You're not supposed to get this attached because it's a transient business," Falco said. "I have fallen in love with these people and I don't know how you walk away from that."
Minutes before, Gandolfini took the first trophy of the night.
"This is our last official act as Sopranos together," Gandolfini said. "Here's to you guys. Thank you very much. It's been 10 years. It's been an honor. That's all I can say."
UPDATE 1/27/08
Crime Spree at SAG Awards
There were a few fleeting references to the striking writers who have disrupted Hollywood's awards season. But for the most part, it was awards show business as usual at the 14th annual SAG Awards on Sunday.
No Country for Old Men, the violent, modern-day Western about a drug deal gone bad, took two awards: best motion picture cast and a supporting nod for Javier Bardem. The other film honors went to Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Julie Christie (Away From Her) and Ruby Dee (American Gangster).
HBO's The Sopranos made it a full circle, ending its awards journey the way it started it: with a sweep of the drama series categories at the SAG Awards.
UPDATE 1/26/08
Sopranos Star Returns for Film Project
James Gandolfini, the Emmy Award-winning star of HBO's The Sopranos, cracked jokes with crew members and sneaked peeks at his lines Thursday at a Monmouth County bar while filming a new independent movie called Kiddie Ride.
Filming will continue through the end of the month.
"It's so cool seeing James Gandolfini just walking around like that," said Steve Catena, a firefighter with the Keansburg Fire Company.
"He just looks like he'd be in a place like this, doesn't he?" Catena said.
Kiddie Ride will be Gandolfini's first film-acting project to be completed since The Sopranos ended last year.
Filming of Kiddie Ride has taken place on the beach and pier in Keansburg, as well as at the Atlantic Cinema 5 movie theaters on First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands.
Catena showed a photo taken with Gandolfini on the beach Wednesday for a shoot that had begun at 4:00 AM.
Gandolfini, a New Jersey native and Rutgers University graduate, is "earthy and very real," said Sandra Jennings, the movie's screenwriter.
"After sitting on the freezing beach and getting pelted with sand and the wind, James certainly just wanted to get back inside to warm up. But when he saw parents with their kids and firemen waiting at the fence to talk to him and shake his hand, he went right over to them, rather than warming up," Jennings said.
Production will continue at the amusement park and at Keansburg's Tiki Stadium Bar into next week, said Jesse Davidson, production and location manager for the production, the first film for New Jersey Shore Films.
Bar owner Bill Slover has a small part, as a pool player in the bar frequented by Gandolfini's character, Bailey. Edoardo Costa co-stars as a stranger whose arrival from Paris reunites high school sweethearts portrayed by Gandolfini and Famke Janssen. She has married someone else but Gandolfini still carries a torch for her, Jennings said.
Davidson said the film is scheduled to be completed by February. Davidson, whose husband, Asbury Park native Harold Guskin, is directing, said the production company hoped to have the film ready for competition at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May.
Jennings said she, Guskin and Gandolfini were thrilled that they had found places in Keansburg that perfectly embodied what she had visualized in her writing. A native of upstate New York, Jennings said she visited the Seaside Heights area and Asbury Park in the summer. Keansburg also will be the name of the town where the movie takes place, Davidson said.
Slover said he will celebrate the first year of his ownership of the bar in February, so it was a double kick to have a movie made there. His son, William Slover, 3, was on hand to help run errands and take in the slow process of filmmaking.
The scene being shot on Thursday features a live performance by the Orange County Choppers band. In the scene, the band stops playing in mid-song as an argument spiced with expletives breaks out between Gandolfini and his friends.
Gandolfini checked his lines on a sheet of paper, then a half dozen rehearsals took place, followed by a taping. About 30 crew members hustled quietly in and around the bar, setting up lights and sound equipment and yelling, "Quiet, this is a rehearsal!"
UPDATE 1/11/08
James Gandolfini Engaged
Former The Sopranos star James Gandolfini has reportedly proposed to his longterm girlfriend Deborah Lin.
The couple are said to have become engaged over the Christmas period after Gandolfini, 46, whisked the former model away on a romantic vacation.
A source tells celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, "James popped the question while in the Bahamas over the holidays. They're thrilled."
