Craig Blankenhorn/HBOJames Gandolfini got choked up, and Kanye West finally showed up! That's the scoop from yesterday’s Emmy rehearsals at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium.
I hear that Gandolfini showed his softer side during a run-through of the Sopranos tribute. Not only will the stars of Broadway’s Franki Valli and the Four Seasons musical Jersey Boys sing before about two dozen or so castmembers of HBO’s mobster hit appear onstage but clips from the series will run on giant monitors.
"The Sopranos rehearsal was so cool," an onlooker tells me. "Gandolfini teared up when watching the footage behind them."
While no one was crying about Kanye, producers, I'm told, were not too pleased with the hip-hop star yesterday.
Why? Because he was supposed to be at the Shrine for a meeting with them at 6:15 p.m., followed by a rehearsal at 7 of the comedy skit in which he is taking part with Wayne Brady and The Office’s Rainn Wilson.
West was almost two hours late, according to an insider. "Wayne and Rainn were there and started rehearsing without him," the insider says.
— Filed by Marc Malkin