Gone Hollywood

I grew up on television.

As a kid it never ceased to amaze me how technology could beam the best, and the worst, of Hollywood right into my living room. Nor did it ever occur to me that one day my living room would be the setting for all this movie magic.

But it has.
And it did.

Two weeks ago a car pulled up in front of my house. An older guy got out and made a beeline for my front door. I thought for sure he was serving me papers for some random act of political disobedience I might have committed while under the influence of Makers Mark.

Turned out he was a location scout for a new Zach Braff TV show called Alex, Inc.

I'd been through this drill years before when the cast and crew of Vegas showed up to shoot for two days. I also know that having a film crew pick your house for a shoot is akin to winning the lottery. They pay serious money. And you never have to lift a finger.

You can imagine my glee when, a few days later, the scout called to tell me that among four possible choices they had selected my house.

The day before the shoot, the art department showed up to remove everything the Siegels had in place and redecorate the house to look like the home of an older Italian (Roman Catholic) woman from Queens, NY -- a little ironic since I spent my formative years in Jackson Heights and in Flushing.

The next day, Zach and the cast showed up. Here they are captured in rehearsal on my handy dandy Nest camera. Excuse the poor lighting.

Zach is in the blue T-shirt. 

And the gentleman in white is none other than Michael Imperioli, who you might remember from The Sopranos. 

I didn't stick around for the shooting. I had a gig that day. 

And, to be completely honest, watching a shoot, whether it's TV, film or even a commercial, ranks up there with the least interesting pastimes known to man. It's more boring than this blog.

Nevertheless, it did occur to me that with Micheal Imperioli (also seen is Goodfellas) showing up last week and James Caan (The Godfather) showing up ten years ago, I've now had two characters from two seminal Mafia movies in my living room. 

I just need Bobby DeNiro for the trifecta.