Blog Archives

Over at Variety our good pal Jon Weisman celebrates “Diner”.

Check it out:

Though studio execs had their own vision problems for the film 30 years ago, Levinson’s audition process had laid solid groundwork. Given how dependent the pic was on naturalistic chatter, he had to look not only at how the actors would play the part, but how they would play against each other.

“Ellen Barkin, oddly enough, is the only person I met for (the role of) Beth,” Levinson says. “She came in, I met her, that was it. Five or six hundred guys, one person for Beth.”

Rourke, who was coming off a memorable supporting turn in “Body Heat,” probably had the highest profile at the time, but future “Mad About You” star Reiser wound up playing a key role as well, even though his was the smallest part among the guys and his casting was fairly accidental.

Reiser came to the auditions not in hopes of a part but just to keep a friend company. Levinson says that casting director Ellen Chenowith noticed Reiser in the hallway and called him in. Arguably as much as anyone, Reiser raised everyone’s game.

“When we got to the improv-y stuff, we had a professional comic in our midst who was going to eat us alive if we didn’t stay on our toes, Stern says. “There was a line that Reiser had. Somebody said, ‘You think she’ll go down for the count?’ Reiser, out of nowhere, said, ‘No, but I heard she blew the prince.’

“We had to stop shooting that day, because we got so hysterical. Tried for half an hour, and they finally shut us down.”

I first watched “Diner” on VHS when I was in junior high. I loved it and the next day I was told my mom about it at breakfast. My step father said, “It’s just a boring movie about a bunch of jerks sitting around wasting time.” I was convinced that my step father would never understand me.

More Blue Note goodness.

If the shoe fits…

[Painting by Allen N Lehman]

Yeah, I know it’s Monday but who says we can’t have waffles today? Check out this recipe for sour cream waffles over at the tasty site, 101 Cookbooks.

I’m seeing big grins all around this morning.

Gints won it by this much. That’s four Super Bowls for them, eight championships all told. Impressive.

Goodness, Eli and the Giants break New England’s hearts once again.

Eat well and enjoy the Super Bowl everyone. Hope nobody loses too much money.

[Photo Credit: A Spoon Full of Sugar]

As a kid I couldn’t wait for Super Bowl Sunday when ESPN would play a marathon of the NFL Films recaps. This bit was, by far, my favorite:

Game Day.

[Photo Credit: Tea Safie]

Man, how I loved Kenny Easley back when.

[Photo Credit: Rick Stewart/Getty Images]

Funny football stuff over at These Fries Are Good.

Word to Don Cornelius.

Ben Gazzara died today. He was 81. I was friendly with his daughter Liz for a while in the 1990s when she worked in film editing. She was a smart and funny lady–still is, I expect.

I met the old man on the set of “The Big Lebowski.” It was night and I was on crutches. I hopped from my car down to the set. The Coens filmed  Treehorn’s pad in a fantastic and weird house in the Hollywood Hills (a location that has been used many times in movies and TV commercials). As I approached the house, Gazzara came out, wearing his white suit, and holding a drink. He walked to his trailer, accompanied by two production assistants. There was nothing about the drink that looked like a prop.

Gazarra was the real deal, the original Brick in the Broadway production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and best known for his work with John Cassavetes. He was a New Yorker.

Rest in Peace.

[Featured Image by Jeremy Pollard]

There is a long profile on Nick Nolte by Chris Heath in this month’s issue of GQ magazine.

Nolte is one of my favorite actors. “48 Hours,” “Under Fire,” “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,”  “Lorenzo’s Oil,” “Life Lessons,” “Q&A,” “Affliction.” He’s been strong is so many movies. I thought he was restrained and gave a moving performance in “Warrior.”

Happiness is…this:

[Collage by Louis Armstrong]

Angelo Dundee passed away yesterday. He was 90.  Robert Lipsyte remembers the legendary trainer today in the New York Times.

Over at Grantland, here’s a terrific piece by Dave Kindred.

And at SI, dig what Richard Hoffer has to say:

Lest you think Dundee was merely a stagehand, a lucky accomplice, somebody fortunate enough to latch onto a rising star, consider the rest of his career. Having taken Ali to the top, in the middle of that ruckus for 21 years, he then joined another Olympic phenom, Sugar Ray Leonard, and helped pilot him to multiple championships. Once more, Dundee adapted himself to the fighter’s natural abilities, allowing Leonard’s stardom to develop. But in at least one fight, just as he had with Ali, it was Dundee who may have saved the day. With Leonard flagging in his back-and-forth fight with Tommy Hearns, Dundee got in Leonard’s face after the 12th round and, in no uncertain terms, called him out. “You’re blowing it, son.” Leonard famously rallied.

There were others as well: De La Hoya for a while, and even George Foreman when the big man regained his heavyweight title in his comeback. There was always somebody, though. Dundee was a boxing man, destined to carry a bucket, happiest when he was swabbing cuts or taping hands. Long after the line of champions had ended, he was still in his gym, his bubbling optimism creating contenders out of anybody who walked through his doors. He was training until the end.

But it was those years with Ali, that incandescent time when boxing was last important, that we remember him for. What a time. What a pair! They would have been an odd couple in any case, the young fighter’s flamboyance and braggadocio in outlandish contrast to Dundee’s puckish demeanor. But they were more simpatico than most would have guessed, sharing their love of boxing, but also a capacity for hijinks. Ali recognized in Dundee a kindred spirit, after all, and was not above rigging the hotel curtains with a long rope, pulling them back and forth in a spectral fashion, until the little trainer exploded from his room in fright. They were a pair.

Would Ali have been The Greatest without Dundee? Maybe, though probably not. Would he have been as much fun without Dundee, certainly an enabler, if not quite a co-conspirator? Absolutely not. Ali’s tendency toward meanness, his inexcusable treatment of men like Floyd Patterson or Frazier, was an innate and probably important part of his personality. But that meanness was alloyed by Dundee’s presence, had to have been. Dundee’s influence, his unabashed sweetness, was its own kind of smelling salt in Ali’s career, the sort of freshener that cleared his head from time to time, restored his goodness, if not his greatness.

Click here for an interview with Dundee at East Side Boxing.

Serious Eats builds an edible stadium in preparation for the big game.

Yikes.

More Blue Note Covers.

Back in the saddle.

Let’s celebrate with this unlikely meeting of great talents–Astaire and Smith:

Seen on the 1 train.

A boy and his mom reading a Tintin comic book.