Aidan Quinn’s new movie is “If I Were You.” So, in his early days, who was Aidan Quinn?
“Acting student. Taking lessons in Chicago, where I’m from, at 19. My teacher was Jeremy Piven’s father. And this movie, like with me, takes us to the unexpected places life can take us.
“Marcia Gay Harden, with whom I’d worked 10 years ago, is funny in it. The story’s about her husband having an affair. She follows the sexy young mistress. They begin a conversation. The mistress wants to kill herself. The wife saves her. The mistress doesn’t know her saviour is the husband’s wife. And then it goes into different directions.
“I play a man Marsha meets in a funeral home. I’m waiting for my deceased parents. We share our grief, telling stories about our families. What happens next, we’re all over each other. Fall for each other madly. The director mercifully cuts before something interesting happens.
“I love movies. I see them even when friends aren’t in them. Of course, with the academy you get sent everything. And I watched the awards. Some choices were great, some terrible, some I hadn’t seen.”
About his TV show “Elementary”:
“With my supporting role, I get three days off periodically. Fortunately, Lucy Liu and I like each other because it’s a tough 17-hour-a-day grind. Sometimes, filming in a great neighborhood we can pop in and have a nice lunch.
“My life is kids and family. A Teamster drives me home in a van. I go to bed early. My daughter’s up 5:45, and you hear everyone walking around. The family doesn’t watch my TV show. My 14-year-old’s in bed. I’m on at 10 p.m., and she has no interest. She’s not enamored of a movie or TV star father. I like it that way.”
His film opens Friday.
JACK Nicholson, allowing he’s maybe too old for athletic romps, now prefers “the inverted missionary position. I’m less rambunctious. Still have the same libido, but that part of your life changes.”. . . Fans, complaining NBC’s picking on their “Tonight Show” star, say: “Jay Leno is not old. Just because his writers are feeding him jokes intravenously?”
WITH the economy tanking, problems mounting, taxpayers supporting felons, so much damage and difficulty globally, why can’t prisoners — under proper police custody — work paving roads, rebuilding flooded houses, feeding the poor, helping civic projects? If not mandatory, possibly some commutation of their sentence as a reward?
FRIENDS of the Israel Defense Forces raised $27 million at the Waldorf.
Gen. Yitzhak Gershon to a suggestion Israel may not always be around: “Those who suggest that are the ones to disappear. Our country, never. What happens with Syria or Lebanon, who knows? Tension’s beneath the surface. We watched the Arab Spring with hope and apprehension. Iran is a region of instability to the world, not just Israel. Radical terrorists speak in code. The threat’s worldwide.
“We’ve dealt with challenges 65 years. Our people returned to their homeland — and we will stay there forever.”
Capt. Ziv Shilon: “Oct. 23, 2012. Gaza’s border. An explosion. They helicoptered me to the hospital. I didn’t lose my two hands for nothing.
“Our nation is not aggressive. We are not ones to attack. But if our enemy harms us, we’ll do our best to see they don’t hurt our people. No matter what, I am ready to go back to service.”
Gen. Shaharabani and Col. Meier: “We’re teaching the GIs about battle fatigue and suicide. Watch your buddies for signs. Heavy drinking. No friends. Spending like there’s no tomorrow is because a potential suicide’s a dead man. He has no tomorrow. Caught in time, we are teaching your Army they can save 95 percent of the cases.”
That ballroom was filled with brass, stars and decorations. More metal than a Hummer showroom.
BEING 50 years since we lost JFK, comes “Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination” by John Munch of “Law & Order” a k a Richard Belzer. Publisher is Skyhorse . . . Yesterday I wrote Woody Allen’s producer sister Letty Aronson won’t drive through tunnels. Today p.r. lady Peggy Siegal says Woody won’t travel through tunnels, either. I don’t know why. I don’t care. I just report.
HARVARD University is No. 1. Harvard Club isn’t. Clinton’s Defense Secretary William Cohen and wife Janet Langhart had a function there. The doorman said no such event’s scheduled. Wrong day. Back to my car to check the invite. Right day. Right place. Right time. Wrong, said the doorman.
A receptionist finally directed me, but the elevator malfunctioned. A whistle sounded. Twice. I waited interminably. The doors wouldn’t close. Finally, another elevator. At Floor 3, I was directed around a corner down a hall. At the appropriate room, Cohen left to get Mrs. Cohen. Arriving exactly on time, I waited 25 minutes. Neither returned. I left.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.