‘Sopranos’ actor Imperioli directs his first film

‘Sopranos’ actor Imperioli directs his first film

NEW YORK — “Sopranos” actor Michael Imperioli has taken on a new role: first-time film director.

“The Hungry Ghosts” — packed with the kind of gritty passions found in the hit HBO series — will premiere Sept. 15 in New York.

The evening will be something of a cast reunion for actors from “The Sopranos.” Steve Schirripa and Sharon Angela star in the film, and Vince Curatola, Lorraine Bracco and Vincent Pastore are expected as guests. The TV series ended in 2007.

“Ghosts” won’t have the usual red-carpet opening.

Ticket sales for what’s billed as “a private screening” at the Rubin Museum in downtown Manhattan will benefit Tibetan refugees and elderly Buddhist monks led by the Dalai Lama.

“Buddhism is an antidote to the characters in the film,” said the 43-year-old director, who studies Eastern philosophy and practices the tae kwon do martial art with his wife and children.

His movie’s characters float like ghosts through an intense 36 hours of New York life, wrestling with drugs, alcohol and sex in what Imperioli calls “the human struggle for completion.”

In this ensemble psychodrama, a cocaine-fueled radio host drives away his teenage son, who ends up in a park at night. A couple offers him alcohol and drugs, and the woman has sex with the youth while the man watches. In another narrative, a man fresh out of detox searches for his ex-lover, a woman who once taught yoga.

The various linked lives are saved by “a sense of compassion for each other, a sense of going beyond yourself,” said Imperioli, noting that the yoga instructor tells the destructive radio host, “remember all the good that you’ve done.”

In January, “Ghosts” opened the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Eighteen cast members, including Angela and Schirripa, have worked at the 67-seat Studio Dante theater that Imperioli and his wife, Victoria, run in Manhattan’s Garment District.

He wrote the screenplay for the film he calls “a family affair.”

With his wife co-producing and designing the sets, plus the actors’ modest fees, the 105-minute movie was shot on a mere $600,000 budget.

Imperioli is now aiming for distribution of his independent silver-screen debut.

Tom Selleck wins Calif. court battle over horse

DEL MAR, Calif. — Actor Tom Selleck has been awarded more than $187,000 after a California jury found the actor was duped into buying a lame horse.

Selleck accused Del Mar equestrian Dolores Cuenca of trying to pass off a show horse with a medical condition as fit to ride in competitions.

The defense had argued that Selleck didn’t check the veterinarian records of 10-year-old Zorro.

The bulk of the San Diego County jury’s award is for the price of the horse. The rest is to cover boarding costs. A second trial this coming week will determine how much Selleck should be paid in punitive damages.

Selleck is best known for his role on TV’s “Magnum, P.I.” in the 1980s.

Today’s birthdays

Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins is 79. Singer Alfa Anderson of Chic is 63. Singer Gloria Gaynor is 60. Singer Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders is 58. Actress Julie Kavner (“The Simpsons”) is 58. Keyboardist Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is 56. Actor Corbin Bernsen is 55. Actor Michael Emerson (“Lost”) is 55. Pianist Michael Feinstein is 53. Singer Margot Chapman (Starland Vocal Band) is 52. Actor W. Earl Brown (“Deadwood”) is 46. Model Angie Everhart is 40. Actor Tom Everett Scott (“ER,” “That Thing You Do!”) is 39. Drummer Chad Sexton of 311 is 39. Actress Shannon Elizabeth (“American Pie”) is 36. Actor Devon Sawa (“Slackers,” “Final Destination”) is 31. Actress Evan Rachel Wood (“The Upside of Anger,” “Thirteen”) is 22.