bedheadchicken

Ok

Time for a new update.

The wing is healing nicely, thank you to those who asked. I'm still in this fucking brace. In the summer. Sweating like Patrick Ewing on the foul line. But It's healing.

It's been a crazy few weeks. It's been in the news that James Gandolfini from "The Sopranos" died last week. I worked on the show for 9 years. A lot of you know that. And Jim was a great guy and a good friend. He was incredibly generous with his time, with his money and with everything. Working together for 9 years, often for 15-16 hours a day, we got to be a really tight knit group. Those cast and crew members are my family. For life. That's how we refer to each other. That's how it is. And Jim was sort of the patriarch of the Sopranos "family", just like he was on tv. Big-hearted, generous, fucked-up, troubled, kind and sweet. He was an overgrown lost boy in a man's body. I'll never forget him.

A lot of people told me to write a book based on my time at Sopranos and I always resisted because I don't want to be dishing on people's private moments. But since Jim died this story has been told a few times, mainly by David Chase in the eulogy. So I'll tell you guys since it happened to me:

Jim used to go missing a lot. He had some substance abuse issues, for one. And two, being Tony Soprano took a LOT out of him. Jim just didn't like being that cruel to people. And since when he got into character he WAS Tony Soprano, he often hated himself later. So some days he would just not show up to work. He would pay the fine HBO levied at him and move on.

Well this one time was different. 3 days went by and Jim was missing. Not a word. His family didn't know where he was. His fiance (at the time) hadn't heard from him. Nothing. We were able to shoot without him for 2 days, but after that we ran out of non-Tony scenes to shoot. So we shut down and sent the crew home.

Our producer, Ilene, hired private detectives. HBO execs flew out to discus maybe shutting the show down all together. It was about 8PM. Ilene, the detectives, Jim's family, and the HBO execs were all meeting in Ilene's office. Myself and Ilene's assistant were the only other people there. My phone rings. I pick up

"Chris?"
"yeah?"
"It's Jim"
"Oh! Hey! Where are you? Everyone is worried!"
"I think... I'm in a beauty salon"
"Say what?"
"Looks like a beauty salon. I just woke up"
"Joey is ready to go pick you up. Where is it? I'll call him"
(Joey Fay was Jim's driver. He was worried sick. And literally sitting in his car waiting for a call to pick him up whenever he turned up)
"No. I don't want Joey to see me. How much is a subway these days?"
"$2"
"Ok. I think I can borrow that from someone"
"Where are you?"
"Brooklyn. I think. Looks like Brooklyn"
(I LOVE the idea of Tony Soprano walking up to some hipster in Brooklyn and asking to borrow $2 for the subway)
"I gotta tell Ilene you're on the phone"
"Oh fuck"
"I have to. She's got a private detective here. Your sister is here. Michael Hill (the HBO exec) is here!"
"Ok. Go ahead"
"Wanna stay on the phone?"
"Yeah. Sure"

I go to Ilene's office. I knock. She gives me the "Go away, this is important" gesture". I open the door anyway.'

"We're talking about Jim", she tells me. Annoyed.
"Jim's on the phone"
"WHAT?"
"He's on my phone. Right now"

They all look at each other in stunned silence. Then run in circles around the office for 10 minutes. Then run out to my phone. By this time, of course, Jim has hung up. Ilene looks ready to kill me.

"I swear. He was on the phone. He was calling from a hair salon. In Brooklyn"
"Excuse me?"
"That's what he told me"

So everyone sits down by my desk. And waits. And waits. Staring at me. Waiting for him to call back. Finally a HALF HOUR LATER my phone rings. They're all silent. I pick up. It's him.

"Hello?"
"Sorry. I just couldnt' talk to them"
"It's ok. They're all gone now" (I lied)
"I think maybe you better call Joey. I think I got on the wrong train"
"Where are you now?"
"I have no idea"

And that's how that night ended.

I'm gonna miss him a lot. Really. He was a kind and generous guy. I once brought a girl I was dating to set. I really liked her. She wanted to meet Tony Soprano. I introduced them. Later he called me over. He told me he had called Mario Batali and made a reservation for myself and the girl at one of his restaurants. It was on him. The amount of food we got must have come to $500. No kidding. And it was just because. Just on a random Wednesday. Just something he did.

Oh, and when I thanked him the next day he said "I hope you had fun. But watch that girl. She's got about 8 different personalities in that head of hers"

He was right.

Thanks Jim. For everything.



And, in other news, I just got tickets to see my all time favorite band, The Replacements, play in Toronto on August 25. They haven't played together since 1991!!!!!!!!



This hot, fucking summer isn't all bad.