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Published May 20, 2015
'The Sopranos' | Dana Reeve | Celebrity Security
More Sopranos? Top Star Says Maybe
Will there be another season of "The Sopranos" after the next one?
The show's creator and producer, David Chase, has said in the past that he wanted to stop after the upcoming sixth season.
But now, the Emmy-winning star of the show, James Gandolfini, says it's possible there will be more.
"You never know with David," he told me last night at the American Museum of the Moving Image dinner for John Travolta. "We don't start [filming the next season] until May because Edie [Falco, who plays Carmela] is doing a movie. I am, too, I guess, with John [Travolta]. It starts in March. But nothing is definite about ending."
Gandolfini says he's made a lot of story suggestions to Chase, including beefing up Michael Imperioli's role as Christopher and maybe involving that character with Lorraine Bracco, who plays Tony Soprano's shrink, Dr. Melfi.
"But he didn't listen to me, David Chase. He does what he wants," Gandolfini said.
Gandolfini has made four movies with Travolta, including "Get Shorty."
Plenty of other stars showed up to toast and roast Travolta, including obvious choices such as his wife Kelly Preston, Oprah Winfrey and Oscar-winner Kathy Bates.
There were some strange choices, too: Didi Conn ("Frenchy") and Jeff Conaway ("Kenickie") from "Grease," Jeremy Piven (who seemed to know Travolta from his gym) and Ron Palillo, who played Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter."
Barbra Streisand and Jay Leno each sent taped messages, which were played for the audience. Samuel L. Jackson did too, but it was saved for the USA Network airing of the show scheduled for Dec. 12.
Palillo, in one of the odder moments of the night, recalled for the audience that on "Welcome Back, Kotter," Travolta used to "put a banana in the zipper of his pants. That banana became a cast member for the next four years."
Conaway, wearing a paunch, a tight white shirt, tux jacket and jeans, didn't do much to encourage any "Grease" reunions in the near future.
Travolta should have been reeling from the ambush he got in Friday's New York Times, which pretty much dismissed his career and 75 percent of his movies.
As such, clips from few of his films were shown last night — "Pulp Fiction," "Saturday Night Fever," "Urban Cowboy," "Grease," "Primary Colors," "Face/Off," "Get Shorty" and "Phenomenon" were highlighted, as well as Travolta's new one, "A Love Song for Bobby Long."
There was no mention of "Michael" (and no appearance by Nora Ephron, who directed Travolta in that one and in "Lucky Numbers"), "Look Who's Talking," "Battlefield Earth," "A Civil War," "The General's Daughter," "Ladder 49," "Swordfish," "Domestic Disturbance," "Basic" and "The Punisher."
And there were no appearances by his old pal, Rolling Stone magazine's Jann Wenner (I guess he wants to forget "Perfect") or Travolta's frequent co-star Olivia Newton-John — I can still remember them holding hands on talk shows when the god-awful "Two of a Kind" came out years ago.
"Pulp Fiction" director Quentin Tarantino was said to be "abroad."
Nevertheless, Travolta rose to the occasion when Winfrey called him onstage to speak. He turned out to be the most engaging of the night's toasters, doing dead-on imitations of James Cagney, Marlon Brando and even Barbara Stanwyck.
He recalled conversations with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and an encounter with Elizabeth Taylor, and told about the best advice he ever received from a star.
"It was at Oprah's house in Santa Barbara, and I was sitting on a couch with Julia Roberts. I told her I was worried that, now that I was 50, on TV they kept saying it was bad if you got up three times in the night to tinkle," Travolta said. "And she said, 'Don't drink water before you go to bed.' And I used to drink a pitcher of water before I went to bed. But then I realized, that's why she's Julia Roberts. It made that much sense."
John and his wife told me before the show started that they've each signed on to become commercial endorsers. Preston is now working with Neutrogena and Travolta is talking for Breitling watches.
"We'll be very clean and on time," they said.
Chris Reeve's Widow Makes an Appearance
It was her first night out since her husband's death, but Dana Reeve was as composed and stalwart as ever.
Christopher Reeve's widow was stoic when I spoke with her last night after the premiere of Billy Crystal's one-man Broadway show "700 Sundays."
At the big dinner at Tavern on the Green, Dana Reeve turned up along with Robin Williams (with wife Marsha) who did shtick all night and gladly took photos with all the Tavern on the Green waiters until a weasely manager broke up the fun.
Williams had several people in hysterics, talking about how he knew a deaf man he once met was drunk "because he was slurring his words" with sign language gone awry.
Also at Tavern for Crystal: our favorite director Barry Levinson, actor/director Rob Reiner, Yankee manager Joe Torre, Robert De Niro and wife Grace Hightower, record company honchos Ahmet Ertegun (with wife Mica) and Peter Asher, Forbes FYI editor Chris Buckley, former HBO chief Michael Fuchs and comedienne Caroline Rhea.
There was also a large quantity of the star's family members, so much so that table after table had cards reading "The Crystals."
I thought it was a reference to a girl group from the Phil Spector era. But no, it was Billy's large and voluble family, including his famous wheelchair-bound Uncle Berns, about whom Billy's daughter Lindsay made a documentary this year.
There were also tons of HBO and International Creative Management types roaming about, congratulating each other for Billy's success.
As for Dana Reeve: She really is a miracle.
For nine years, she and Chris went forward with their lives after his horrifying accident, until his death in early October. She's just now starting to come out of it, but she conceded, "I've been sleeping a lot."
She deserves it.
One thing in common between last night's classy premiere for Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" — which I will tell you about tomorrow — and last week's Alicia Keys charity show: Security for the events was provided by Chuck Garelick's crack team at GSS.
In the competitive world of security for show business events, GSS and Mike Zimet's self-named company has become the favorite of all of us who have to cover these events for a living. Some other groups, like Lou Palumbo's Elite Agency, could take a lesson from GSS' friendly, courteous and helpful staff.
If only award shows like the Golden Globes and the one at the American Museum of the Moving Image would get the message: Celebrities don't like muscle and rudeness. I'm told that Vanity Fair replaced Elite with GSS for its Oscar party a couple of years ago. Smart move.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/gandolfini-more-sopranos-may-be-on-tap