Talk Bronx New York

                                 Rubén Díaz Jr., a Democrat, succeeds Adolfo Carrión Jr.

Assemblyman Rubén Díaz Jr. easily captured a special election for Bronx borough president on Tuesday, and will succeed Adolfo Carrión Jr., who is now director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs.

Mr. Díaz, 35, a Democrat, defeated his lone opponent in the race, Anthony J. Ribustello, a Republican district leader best known as the actor who played Tony Soprano’s driver on “The Sopranos.”

“You don’t run to lose, so of course I’m disappointed,” Mr. Ribustello said in a phone interview. “But I’ll be back to fight another day.”

With all the precincts in, Mr. Díaz had 28,301 votes, or 87 percent, to Mr. Ribustello’s 4,081 votes, according to the City Board of Elections.

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                                   “We couldn’t get less popular,” said Anthony J. Ribustello

RONALD REAGAN did it. So did Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. And in the Bronx, there can be added to the list of actors turned aspiring politicians (albeit on a smaller scale in terms of the office sought and the acting credits) the name Anthony J. Ribustello.

“He’s in, what’s that program?” said Darkoo Jaccoi, a 75-year-old from Pelham Bay who was playing cards one morning last week at the Northeast Bronx Senior Citizens Center in Throgs Neck, where a flea market was held. Mr. Ribustello was attending the flea market to promote his run for Bronx borough president, a post left vacant last month when Adolfo Carrión Jr. departed for Washington to serve as the president’s director of urban affairs.

“He’s in that program ‘The Sopranos’! ” Ms. Jaccoi said moments later, after having been prompted by another player at the table.

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Chazz Palminteri retraces his long, tough road home

If Chazz Palminteri had never met Irving “Swifty” Lazar, none of it might have happened.

The encounter between the actor and the late career-making talent agent took place in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Palminteri, a native New Yorker, had recently moved to California and landed small parts in Hill Street Blues, Dallas, Matlock and several other television series. Lazar was a powerful force who could boost him to the next level.

As it happened, the two did not convene in an office or over lunch on some sun-splashed Beverly Hills terrace. Instead they crossed paths outside a Los Angeles nightclub, where Palminteri, whose luck had gone south, was working as a doorman. Not recognizing Lazar, he barred the agent from entering.

“He said on the spot he would get me fired,” Palminteri recalled recently, “and he was true to his word. I left and went home to my apartment in North Hollywood and sat on the edge of my bed. ‘What the hell,’” he wondered, “‘am I going to do?’” He had $187 to his name at the time. Read more..

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                                                     Streep plays a strict nun who suspects a priest of abusing a child

 With a cast headed by Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman and another Oscar winner in the director’s chair, it is hardly surprising film drama Doubt has been showered with accolades.

Even more so when you consider the 2004 stage play on which it is based won four Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Small wonder, then, that when Streep, her co-star Amy Adams and director John Patrick Shanley were in London last month, the words “Academy” and “Award” were never far from journalists’ lips.

Their arrival in the capital coincided with the news that their picture had received three Bafta nominations to add to the five Golden Globe nods it received in December.

Since then Doubt has been shortlisted for five Oscars, with both Streep and Adams among those in contention.

Streep was also named best actress at the Screen Actors Guild awards on 25 January.

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A Bronx Tale

Written by and starring Chazz Palminteri

TO APPEAR IN EXCLUSIVE SOUTH FLORIDA RUN FEBRUARY 10-15 AT

FT. LAUDERDALE’S PARKER PLAYHOUSE
PRESENTED BY RRA Broadway Across America - FT. LAUDERDALE

AND FLORIDA THEATRICAL ASSOCIATION

Chazz Palminteri Recreates his tour de force Broadway performance

Directed by Tony winner Jerry Zaks

A BRONX TALE, the funny and touching memoir written and starring Academy Award®-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri comes to the Parker Playhouse in Ft. Lauderdale for eight performances only beginning Tuesday, February 10 through Sunday, February 15, 2009 presented by RRA Broadway Across America - Ft. Lauderdale and Florida Theatrical Association.

A BRONX TALE, launched this National Tour, September 2008 to rave reviews.    Phil Gallo, of Variety said it is “Masterful!  It occupies 100 minutes but it feels like five … it’s been almost 20 years since Palminteri’s one-man show, in which he plays 18 characters, first catapulted him to fame, but after two decades with this wonderful material, Palminteri’s story still seems as fresh and insightful as ever.”

In A BRONX TALE, the celebrated play on which he based the movie, Palminteri vividly depicts a young boy’s rough childhood in the 1960s-era Bronx and the unforgettable people he encountered. A classic coming-of-age story about reaching one’s true potential and trusting one’s heart. Read more..

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