Mira Sorvino’s movie opens tomorrow. It’s called “Union Square.”
So where’d it film?
“Union Square.”
Right.
“Actually five locations like dance clubs, apartments. It’s an independent film, and we shot really cheap and dirty with 5-D still cameras. In public. In front of people who didn’t know. Unaware passersby jumped into the scenes. Like me shopping for a Thanksgiving turkey at a farmers market, saying ‘No’ to Brussels sprouts. Then my character’s crying her eyes out, and someone passing our unseen camera asks, ‘You OK?’
“The look of the nonpros was terrific. A vendor selling honey allowed us to shoot his stand. They didn’t always recognize me, but that’s why New York — so full of extreme people — is terrific.
“This is about opposite sisters estranged for years who meet and hash out differences. My character’s bipolar. The other’s calm. Different. A vegan.
“Response at screenings made it seem we’re doing social work because it shows the other side of a breakdown and the brevity of life. As though, ‘If you can’t shoot ’em, you have to live with ’em.’
“Audiences left saying, ‘I understand now . . . I think I’ll call my brother.’ The film has a big heart.
“I think it has potential. It’s my best work. Lately I’ve done small independent movies which had no money for p.r.”
About her 1995 “Mighty Aphrodite” Oscar: “That was a terrific high. But life must continue.”
About her life: “I have a bunch of children — one only a few months old. My husband’s an actor. We had to give up our small New York apartment, and every day I mourn living in California. I must find a place here. I can’t stand being away.”
About her father Paul Sorvino: “He makes real Italian ragout with homemade meatballs. I see him every Sunday.”
TRY 13th Street’s Redhead restaurant. Southern grits, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, fried everything, corn on the cob. Delicious — $75 for two . . . Speaking of grits, longtime grits eater Aretha Franklin says best she ever ate were at Al Gore’s house. Gore’s great grits? Gosh! . . . Druggy dudes who prove clean? When their system passes the stuff they take the test and come out negative. I mean, please.
WILL the Restaurant Opportunities Center stop harassing high-end eateries? Shelly Fireman of Fiorello’s, Trattoria Dell’Arte, Bond 45, tells me: “Cost a fortune five years ago to handle them. It’s over. It’s strictly labor activist issues.” . . . And let’s stamp out junque-y reality shows. Comes now a Silicon Valley one. Oy. Some survivor or fear or whatever series with contestants on an island is so tiresome that when the tide went out those stranded refused to come back.
OBAMA thumping to raise taxes on earnings more than $250,000 per year. Neat idea. Same issues that drowned in midterm’s 2010 election when Dems had a strong majority in the Senate and in the House and he couldn’t grab even his people’s support.
THE High Line. In case you’ve been in the stockade and don’t know, this railroad line became a mile-long Meatpacking District park in 2009. Here are the figures: 3.7 million visitors, 12,000 jobs, 2,500 new residences (all over 300 feet, the size of one of its bushes), 1,000 hotel rooms (all over 300 feet, the size of its johns), 425,000 square feet of offices (all over 300 feet, the approximate size of some jail cells).
Co-founder Robert Hammond: “Our next final section’s construction, which will house a branch of the Whitney, begins this fall.”
Note to Tom Cruise: The place is popular with weddings.
RUSSIA’s rich Leonard Blavatnik, who owns Warner Music Group, bringing HBO to Israel . . . Former Rep. Harold Ford to make a senate run . . . Rumor is climate change blamed for citrus crop failure in Mexifornia and Floruba . . . More rumor is Tiger Woods dropped a large few in West Virginia’s Greenbrier Resort casino.
TRAINER Jillian Michaels, whose car was just burglarized: “I was a humiliated overweight kid. People made cow sounds at me. That’s when I got into martial arts, and nobody did me wrong since.”. . . Canada’s former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s son Ben, who hosted TV’s “Canadian Idol,” is ABC’s newest newscaster.
FREESTYLE Barber Shop. Customer arrives with bruises. Barber Eddy asks: “What happened?”? The unrecognized face explains he’s hockey star Brandon Dubinsky of the New York Rangers.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.