I just got back from assisting on an interview shoot with Sonny Grosso. The shoot was for an electronic press kit for the A&E movie Kings of South Beach. It's being wrapped up right now. For those of you unfamiliar (as I was), Sonny was the basis for the Roy Scheider character in the French Connection, and Gene Hackman played his partner (Grosso had a part in the film as well). The man has some amazing stories. He had a part in The Godfather playing one of the guys who shot James Caan, and it was his personal gun which was used in the restaurant scene where Michael (Al Pacino) shoots Capt. McClusky (Sterling Hayden). He still keeps this gun on his desk and was happy to show it to Andrew and I. And I was both awed and scared. He counts Robert Duvall, William Freidkin, and Nicholas Pileggi (who wrote Goodfellas) as friends. His office was a museum of film posters, photos from sets, awards from police departments and community organizations, cheesy Italian knicknacks, antiques, and over-the-hill gag gifts. But the most valuable piece in his vast collection rested upon his desk, and was shown to Andrew and I as we were about to leave. Framed in tarnished silver, facing him as he sat, was an 8x10 black and white photo of the lovely Marilyn Monroe. She was mid-laugh, perched on what looked like a stage, and surrounded by several people obscured by the tight cropping of the photo. She filled the frame. But taped to the bottom of the photo, outside of the glass was another photo of a man, woman and Joe DiMagio from much later. Sonny explained that the framed photo represented the moment that Joe left Marilyn. We couldn't see why, considering she looked so happy in the shot, until he took off the taped photo on the bottom to reveal: Marilyn Monroe's vagina. Yes, an upskirt shot of the woman who may have been responsible for the fall of the house of Kennedy; who was named "Sexiest Woman of the Century" by Time Magazine; who became an inadvertant icon of the Pop Art movement. Andrew and I were of course speechless, a reaction which I'm sure Sonny never gets tired of. He explained that Marilyn never wore "bloomers." It was a landmark moment in my life.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Dinosaurs Still Roam The Earth
I just got back from assisting on an interview shoot with Sonny Grosso. The shoot was for an electronic press kit for the A&E movie Kings of South Beach. It's being wrapped up right now. For those of you unfamiliar (as I was), Sonny was the basis for the Roy Scheider character in the French Connection, and Gene Hackman played his partner (Grosso had a part in the film as well). The man has some amazing stories. He had a part in The Godfather playing one of the guys who shot James Caan, and it was his personal gun which was used in the restaurant scene where Michael (Al Pacino) shoots Capt. McClusky (Sterling Hayden). He still keeps this gun on his desk and was happy to show it to Andrew and I. And I was both awed and scared. He counts Robert Duvall, William Freidkin, and Nicholas Pileggi (who wrote Goodfellas) as friends. His office was a museum of film posters, photos from sets, awards from police departments and community organizations, cheesy Italian knicknacks, antiques, and over-the-hill gag gifts. But the most valuable piece in his vast collection rested upon his desk, and was shown to Andrew and I as we were about to leave. Framed in tarnished silver, facing him as he sat, was an 8x10 black and white photo of the lovely Marilyn Monroe. She was mid-laugh, perched on what looked like a stage, and surrounded by several people obscured by the tight cropping of the photo. She filled the frame. But taped to the bottom of the photo, outside of the glass was another photo of a man, woman and Joe DiMagio from much later. Sonny explained that the framed photo represented the moment that Joe left Marilyn. We couldn't see why, considering she looked so happy in the shot, until he took off the taped photo on the bottom to reveal: Marilyn Monroe's vagina. Yes, an upskirt shot of the woman who may have been responsible for the fall of the house of Kennedy; who was named "Sexiest Woman of the Century" by Time Magazine; who became an inadvertant icon of the Pop Art movement. Andrew and I were of course speechless, a reaction which I'm sure Sonny never gets tired of. He explained that Marilyn never wore "bloomers." It was a landmark moment in my life.
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