Daniel McVicar and Max Tortora

I am working on another prime time feature film here.  I started a couple of weeks ago playing “Omar de Luigi”, a mysterious character in the light hearted mystery miniseries “Innocenti and Buonadonna”.  This film is directed by Giulio Manfredonia, with Max Tortora and Antonello Fassari.  Produced by Publispei, it should be on the air in early 2010.

This is my third Italian language film project in just over a year.

Cooking American Style

With my fiance Dr. Virginia De Agostini, I am putting together a benefit Thanksgiving dinner here in Torino…you can see more at http://thanksdinner.org/en .

I’ve found myself in Italy for at least five Thanksgivings, and was always searching for a good pumpkin pie.  This year, I thought that I would put together a dinner that would be authentically American, with Italian flavors.  I thought it would be a great idea to share the abundance of Thanksgiving with the less fortunate.  We will be raising money for the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who provide 800 meals a day for the hungry here in Turin.

Marc Lanteri and Amy Bellotti

We are blessed to have an incredible chef, Marc Lanteri, who along with his  wife Amy Bellotti, a sommelier,  will lend their talents to the evening.  Chef Lanteri is creating a menu that is taking the traditional American Turkey dinner to new levels.

We will hold the event at Eataly, the premier gastronomic venue in the world, where you can find the finest foods from Italy.  I got lost there yesterday in the cheese and sausage rooms (yes rooms!) and was in heaven.  Thanks to the kindness of Oscar and Francesco Farinetti we will have a great evening in their private upstairs event room.

Usually I am a little jealous when it comes to Thanksgiving, as I would like to be at home in America eating pie.  This year, I am looking forward to some tasty slices here, and am so pleased that it is benefiting a great organization that is feeding people on a regular basis.

I’m proud to be a part of the show, and enjoyed doing many episodes this year.

It takes a village to make a program like this, and everyone was thrilled.  The happiest one of all, and rightly so, is the executive producer, headwriter, and my friend Bradley Bell.  Bravo Brad!

Bradley Bell enjoys the moment

The cast, producers, and production group savor the Emmy win

 "Pardon me sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" He replies, "Practice, practice, practice."

I was recently with Brad Bell, Ronn Moss, Ashley Jones and Katherine Kelly Lange in Monte Carlo for the Television Festival. The Bold and the Beautiful took home the International TV Audience Award Golden Nymph.

Also attending was my long time friend and great actor Bryan Cranston, who won an Emmy for his work in"Breaking Bad" and is nominated again this year. Bryan and I used to work together, back in the day, at Rodeway Express. Loading trucks all night was a great way for a hungry actor to make ends meet between classes and auditions.

The work was very hard, the docks were tough, it was a hostile environment with noise, dust and foremen screaming "High and Tight" and "Let’s Get Hot!

The pay was great, and in around 10 days a month, I could pay for rent, classes, gas, and the all important telephone waiting for the big call. It didn’t come until 10 years later, but I was ready.

Bryan worked down at the docks as well (as did my friends Raymond Fitzpatrick and Andy Garcia).

When we see each other, we easily call out the name for a forklift on that particular dock: TOWMOTOR.

This time in Monte Carlo, Bryan was enjoying the time with his daughter. We got to think how difficult that work was, how lucky we are now, but also we had a chance to acknowledge of how hard we worked to be so lucky.

I hope we get to work together sometime on a set, and we will bring the same determination that we had on the docks of Rodeway Express.

TOOOOWWWMOOOOTOR!

Craig has been doing his show for several years now, and I am always enchanted by his creativity and how he has made this form his own.  He is compared sometimes to Jack Paar but his experimentation with the show reminds me of Ernie Kovacs.

following are three videos…two from the show last night and an Ernie Kovacs classic.

A McVicar Sketch:

The cold opening that makes me laugh like crazy:

And an intro to an Ernie Kovacs special by Jack Lemmon

Happy New Year!

Some folks have made some shoe games, or you can always see my previous post for some shoe antics on my appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”.

Have some fun and games:

Of course all this fun and games brings attention to the serious response of many people in Iraq, who yearn for real freedom.  This journalist brought our attention to this, and we need to listen.

Also here’s the late nite round up of shoe jokes

Hopefully we’ll find a video that we can post tomorrow