Opinion: He showed respect for this thing of hers

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The phone rang late Saturday night in Johnny Sack’s home. The caller wanted a sitdown the next morning at a diner in Mt. Kisco, N.Y.

But this was no mob hit. Johnny had already died of lung cancer in prison. And the actor who played him on The Sopranos, Vince Curatola, is just fine, thank you. The caller wanted him to play a cameo in a Hillary Clinton campaign video that spoofed the long-running HBO gangster show to announce her new theme song.

Curatola, a Republican who voted twice for Bill Clinton, was only too happy to oblige. And for no fee, just a roundtrip car ride. Curatola told the N.Y. Post, ‘I like a lot about her. Guts, first of all. A lot of guts, a lot of staying power.’ But no endorsement just yet. Curatola, who’s on the board of the Hackensack University Medical Center, tells the Washington Post, ‘If I see her platform leaning more and more toward a national health care plan, I would be very interested in her for president.’

As described in yesterday’s Top of the Ticket item, in the video Curatola is sitting at the diner counter malevolently eyeing Bill and Hillary in their booth. ‘I have a great time staring them down,’ says the actor, ‘which they know did not come from my heart. It was only my acting.’

According to the actor, neither Clinton was a natural performer, missing their marks often during the shoot and apologizing each time.

‘Sitting with a former leader of the free world and a senator is a nice way to spend a Sunday morning,’ says Curatola.

But as for that inconclusive ending of The Sopranos, no disrespect intended to series inventor David Chase, but neither Vince nor Johnny liked that at all. We’re just saying.

--Andrew Malcolm