Laurie Metcalf and I met somewhere in Manhattan to discuss her new film “Somewhere in Queens.”
“I play Ray Romano’s wife, Angela. It’s a takeoff on his own life. He created this movie.
“Humor solves a lot. We filmed in his Queens hometown. I’m from southern Illinois, which helps with different accents. Like there’s his very overprotective mother. Our lives were relatable, but people are complicated. To learn from the cast I had to study everyone around me.
“They maybe all didn’t know me, but everyone around knew Ray. Like with extras brought in to populate the sidewalk everybody knew Ray. Fun to watch their expressions.
“In one party scene I gave him a slice of cake. We had to reshoot several times. He moved. Once I got it in his ear. Some even fell out of that ear.
“We shot this two years ago. I stayed in Brooklyn. We were still dealing with COVID, testing and masking up.
“This is his triple threat. He wrote, stars and is directing it. Great being directed by him. He’s in tune with us. It’s a path he’s envisioned. Not difficult to feed his actors the right information.
“At this same time, I’m working with director Joe Mantello on the Broadway play ‘Grey House.’ We open May 30. I hope to be here in New York all summer.”
Cynthia Nixon showed for state Supreme Court jury duty in sweatpants and mask. Not picked. Had nothing to do with her outfit . . . Chelsea Clinton at downtown coffee spot Seven Grams . . . “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire plus baseball cap and a lady friend at Barbuto Saturday night. Ate cake. A giant slice . . . At Due on the weekend, Katie Couric and a gent. She inhaled salad. Over canaletto pasta there was gossip. Lynne Cheney and Sen. Joe Manchin had babbled about creating a third political party. Nice. Anything to disgorge the current squatter, his consigliere brother and that Jesse James son, Hunter.
In Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film “New York, New York,” Liza Minnelli first sang John Kander’s now-superfamous NYC anthem. Now it, and the show, is reprised at B’way’s St. James Theatre. Kander, 96, attended, and Joel Grey said: “A lifetime ago he also played auditions for me back when I was looking to get a job.” Kander: “My son suggested I do the song. Took me three years to write it.”
Online survey: Only 7% talk to a stranger in a waiting room, while 24% talk to a stranger on a train. Psychology Today magazine: “Converse with others you don’t know well. On a bus, in line at the pharmacy, you might learn something.” . . . Commentator Jeffrey Toobin, an Upper W. Side food pantry volunteer, checked if all’s OK and they needed anything . . . Michael J. Fox’s documentary discusses his 30-plus years of sobriety. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s 1991, he didn’t reveal it till ’96. Substack writer Jim Fragale witnessed him smoking cigarettes near West 63rd’s YMCA which housed substance abuse meetings.
New York, New York. Greatest city in the world. It’s where you park your car, walk two blocks and then find your hubcaps for sale.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.