After All, It Does Have The Ring-A-Ding-Ding Of Truth
While the new HBO movie “The Rat Pack” doesn’t air until Saturday, Tina Sinatra is already complaining about the depiction of her father, Frank, as a hard-drinking, mob-connected womanizer.
But Joe Mantegna, who plays Dean Martin, says the film wasn’t meant to denigrate Sinatra (played by Ray Liotta) or the other Pack members, whose style and attitude defined the postwar nightclub scene.
“I thought it was almost like a love letter to these guys, though it did show blemishes,” Mantegna says in TV Guide.
“In 10, 20 years from now, we may be nostalgic for the time when you could actually smoke at all or actually talk to a woman without making an appointment. To my mind, these guys are still the personification of what’s cool and happening.”
Loose talk
Actor Alan Arkin, on his profession: “Making a film is like making a chair. It’s just craftsmanship. You try something, if it does not work, so what? You just do it over again.”
Wish him happy birthday in a hoarse whisper
Robert Redford turns 61 today.
Like they say, regular is as regular does
Then again, cool isn’t quite what it used to be. Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting”) says regular guys are making a comeback in Hollywood. “Maybe there has been some kind of cultural shift, I don’t know,” Damon says in Details magazine. “I think a lot of young actors today model themselves after Tom Hanks. He’s a great professional and such a decent human being, too. He’s pretty much the guy.”
Just playing Penn the tail on the paparazzi
Sean Penn, no stranger to physical altercations, was accused of throwing a rock at a photographer who was videotaping the actor and his father, director Leo Penn, walking together on Monday, the younger Penn’s 38th birthday. Said a sheriff’s deputy: “They exchanged some words and there was a brief altercation. At this point, both sides are accusing each other of assault.”
Another chance to see Grieco roamin’ around
Bad boy Richard Grieco just acts naturally, more or less, in “A Night at the Roxbury,” the new film from Amy Hecklerling (“Clueless”). “I play a caricature of myself,” Grieco, who previously starred in TV’s “21 Jump Street” and “Booker,” tells Cosmopolitan magazine. “I wear my hair really big, and I have an earring, a tight chain around my neck, the leather jacket and pants - bigger than life.”
And that’s why the beating him up went on
Dozens of droopy-mustached imitation Sonnys and willowy would-be Chers showed up at Times Square to try out for an upcoming TV movie “And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story.” Said one hopeful: “The way she always dumped on him, and he always took it, that was really cool. It’s why everybody liked him.”