Backstage Report: Sopranos Cast to Burn Los Angeles to the Ground?

By Joal Ryan Jan 28, 2008 2:34 AMTags
Edie Falco, The SopranosCraig Blankenhorn/HBO

5:36 p.m.:  The power's still out in the pressroom but not in the lobby. So, I'm watching Tina Fey's win on a wall-mounted Olevia flat screen that, I'm guessing, is not indigenous to the Shrine.

5:38 p.m.:  The power's also not out in the photography room, where the cast of The Sopranos is being blinded by the lights. (Well, I don't know if they are, but I'm standing off to the side, and I'm being blinded by the lights.)

5:43 p.m.:  A SAGs flack has just announced Fey's win to the still-without-power pressroom.

5:44 p.m.:  Oh, I get it, the power outage isn't a snafu, it's an attempt to faithfully recreate the 1947 Oscars.

5:45 p.m.:  Jack Benny would have killed on a night like this.

5:46 p.m.:  In a nod to the 21st century, the power strips and the TVs are back on.

5:50 p.m.:  And the cast of The Sopranos is back here, even if James Gandolfini, standing as far away from the mike as he can without actually standing in the lobby, doesn't necessarily looks like he wants to be.

5:51 p.m.:  A special moment. For the last time, the women of The Sopranos are asked that burning question: "What are you wearing and why?"

5:52 p.m.:  Dominic "Uncle Junior" Chianese, who being a man, was not asked, answers anyway: "We're wearing our hearts on our sleeves."

5:53 p.m.:  Is that like a new Calvin Klein line, or something?

5:55 p.m.:  This being the last hurrah for the show, the cast is asked if Los Angeles will still be standing once they finish partying tonight. Lorraine Bracco, for one, has a bold prediction: "The city, not the hotel."