It’s Wednesday! We’re halfway through the week, and it’s time for another edition of Only in Jersey!
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
Who would've thought of West Orange as "status symbol land"?
In the wake of Davy Jones’ untimely death last week, I’ve discovered at least two connections The Monkees have to the Garden State. First, I was very surprised to learn that one of their hit songs, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,’ was written about life in West Orange, of all places. Yup, that’s right: the tune, penned by Carole King and her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, was inspired by their time living on Pleasant Valley Way in the township’s Watchung Mountains. Kinda gives new meaning to the lyrics, huh?
The local rock group down the street Is trying hard to learn their song Serenade the weekend squire Who just came out to mow his lawn
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday Charcoal burning everywhere Rows of houses that are all the same And no one seems to care
See Mrs. Gray She’s proud today Because her roses are in bloom Mr. Green He’s so serene He’s got a TV in every room
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday Here in status symbol land Mothers complain about how hard life is And the kids just don’t understand
Creature comfort goals They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see My thoughts all seem to stray to places far away I need a change of scenery
The second Monkees/Garden State connection, which I recall but had forgotten, is that the band filmed the video for its ’86 comeback hit, “That Was Then, This Is Now,” at Great Adventure’s arena in Jackson. The song and video only feature Monkees Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, although apparently Davy was part of the tour.
It’s Tuesday! Time for another edition of Only in Jersey!
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
The Vanity Fair spread includes new images of the cast (some of those last seen alive, above, and dead, below) by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz./Photo credit Vanity Fair
This year marks five years since HBO’s brilliant, Jersey-immersed series “The Sopranos” ended. And the April issue of Vanity Fair commemorates the anniversary with a look back at the show, which includes new interviews with all of the principals, including Clifton/North Caldwell-raised creator David Chase and stars James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) of Park Ridge, Edie Falco (Carmela Soprano), Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Jennifer Melfi) and more. Among the interesting tidbits:
Steven Van Zandt (Silvio Dante) talks about the infamous (off-camera) scene in which he kills Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo): “So for – whatever – six hours, you have to beat this girl up, drag her out of the car, throw her on the ground. That was really difficult. I felt so exhausted at the end of that day. I said to Drea, ‘You better win the damn Emmy after all this, you know, make it worth it.’ And she did.”
David Chase originally wanted Steven Van Zandt for the role of Tony Soprano.
Tony Sirico (Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri) and Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo) auditioned for Corrado “Uncle Junior” Soprano, but Dominic Chianese got the part.
Steven Schirripa (Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri) wore fat suits for the first two seasons of the show: “And then I guess, in Season Four, David thought I was fat enough on my own, so he let me get rid of it.”
Steven Schirripa talks about the pay dispute between James Gandolfini and HBO, which delayed filming: “After Season Four, Jim called all the regulars into his trailer and gave us $33,333 each, every single one of us… That’s like buying everybody an SUV. He said, ‘Thanks for sticking by me.'”
Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) on the series controversial ending: “I thought it was a great ending. A lot of people hated it and thought it was a cop-out, but I thought it was the proper way. Knowing David Chase, he never liked to wrap things up neatly. I never expected it to be either a cliffhanger so people would wait for the movie or wait for another season or just some like really final thing. But I think he’s (Tony) dead, is what I think. David was trying to put us in the place of the last things you see before you die. You remember some little details and something catches your eye and that’s it. You don’t know the aftermath because you’re gone.”
You can see more of Annie Leibowitz’s images here. If you are a big “Sopranos” fan, you will definitely want to pick up Vanity Fair this month!
Contrary to prior reports and her outright denial, The New York Post says that “Jersey Shore’s” lead meatball, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, is in fact pregnant with boyfriend Jionni LaValle’s child. The newspaper says Snooki has been shopping exclusive rights to her offspring story to various tabloids, and Us Weekly won the bidding war. There is no word on when Us Weekly will go public with Snooki’s story, or how MTV plans on handling this bit of news since Snooki and Jenni “JWOWW” Farley are currently filming their untitled spinoff in Jersey City. “MTV went into crisis mode after they found out,” the Post quotes its source as saying. “They’re trying to hide it because it would greatly affect the creative direction of the show.” Will a pregnant, sober Snooki make for interesting television? That remains to be seen…
It’s already Thursday, and it’s time for another edition of Only in Jersey!
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
Hugh Laurie and the "House" cast: Say farewell./Photo credit Fox
Fox has pulled the plug on its hugely popular series “House.” The show, currently in its eighth season, takes place at the fictitious Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. According to Entertainment Weekly, the series will wrap up the end of this season. The mag also reports that star Hugh Laurie said in November that he planned on retiring from television acting once the show ended. Meanwhile, the real Princeton-based hospital is flourishing: it is scheduled to move to a new, state of the art facility in May and officially be renamed University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. Who says life doesn’t (at least partly) imitate art?
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
Bobby Cannavale: I'm not sure that handgun existed in the 1920's.
While “Boardwalk Empire” is technically filmed in New York, the Atlantic City-based series is Jersey, through and through.
This terrific HBO series is so dedicated to the Garden State that it’s replacing one Jersey actor with another! The departure of West Orange-born Michael Pitt, whose much beloved character Jimmy Darmody bit the bullet at the end of the second season, is tempered by the announcement that Union City’s Bobby Cannavale is joining the third-season cast. Entertainment Weekly reports Bobby will be a major stick in Nucky Thompson’s (Steve Buscemi) craw as far as the bootlegging business is concerned. Bobby also starred in the 2003 film “The Station Agent” alongside fellow New Jerseyan Peter Dinklage (star of fellow HBO series “Game of Thrones”) and was filmed in Newfoundland and surrounding N.J. areas.
Ava Gacser is a freelance writer in Central New Jersey. She is a former television columnist and features writer for several Gannett-owned daily newspapers in New Jersey.
Ava is an avid couch potato with a special affinity for reality TV, and she can't believe how many shows feature New Jersey residents!
She was a member of the Television Critics Association from 2005 to 2010.
