Quote of the Day: James Gandolfini

I was never a regular viewer of The Sopranos when it was on, but, I saw enough episodes to know that it was, like Twin Peaks or The X-Files before it, totally game-changing television. And though I loved James Gandolfini on the show, I think I loved him even more in some of his smaller supporting roles in movies.

For instance, I don’t remember one goddamn thing about that piece of crap Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts movie The Mexican except that I loved Gandolfini in it. I also loved him in more recent stuff like Zero Dark Thirty and that crazy-good TV movie Cinema Verite with Diane Lane. He was one of those guys who just walked in, read a few lines and totally stole the movie. But, even better than that, I liked watching him on interviews where he seemed like a genuinely humble regular dude who just happened to fall into massive Hollywood fame. Guys like that don’t come around too often, and when they leave us at such a young age, man, it makes the loss even greater.

So, for that and for the fact that I totally agree with what he says about people who like to meet up for breakfast (unless it’s a late breakfast at noon, can’t stand em!), I salute the late, great James Gandolfini in his own words. RIP, Mr. Soprano.

“I read [The Sopranos pilot]. I liked it. I thought it was good. But I thought they would have to hire some good-looking guy, not George Clooney but some Italian George Clooney, and that would be that. But they called me and they said can I meet David [Chase] for breakfast at nine a.m. At the time I was younger and I stayed out late a lot, and I was like, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake. This guy wants to eat breakfast? This guy’s going to be a pain in the ass.'”

Location:Los Angeles

2013 Golden Globe Nominees

Seeing as I was already up working, I figured I’d stay up a few minutes more to hear this year’s list of Golden Globe Nominees. Despite some really great movies in contention this year, I haven’t been exactly thrilled (or, more accurately, surprised) by any of the movies being nominated by critics groups and such so far.

The Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) announced their nominations yesterday and it was a total snooze, nothing new on the TV front (Glee for Best Comedy Ensemble?! Have you watched that show lately? Yikes!) and nothing too totally unexpected on the movie front either. Although, it was nice to see Naomi Watts score a SAG Lead Actress nomination for her superb work in The Impossible, even if they left poor Ewan McGregor off their list (again!). I swear to God, if McGregor goes totally empty-handed again this award season after his career-best (which is saying a lot!) work in The Impossible, I’m gonna be really pissed. He has been overlooked for too long, man, give the Jedi his due!

Ooo…hot damn! Someone’s ears must have been burning. Megan Fox (!) just announced that Ewan McGregor snagged a Golden Globe nomination, not for The Impossible, but, for Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. Haven’t seen it yet, but, hey, I’ll take it. Good on you, Ewan! Also congrats to Emily Blunt for her nomination for the same film. I love her in anything, so, even if the movie sucks, glad to see her getting some award season love!

Also happy to see Argo score a bunch of major nods (although I wish there was room for both Alan Arkin and John Goodman on the Best Supporting Actor list) but was a little surprised that they completely snubbed The Hobbit and that Matthew McConaughey was overlooked for his sleazy perfection in Magic Mike. That dude made the movie and he seemed like a lock for some Hollywood Foreign Press love, but, hey, there’s always the Oscars!

Anyway, the entertainment reporter on NBC just called Kathryn Bigelow “Karen” like, three times and the L.A. Times website misprinted Rachel Weisz’s name as “Richard Weisz”. So, either I’m really sleepy or these people are all total morons. Either way, I need some sleep.

To see the complete list of this year’s Golden Globe Nominees, click here.