Go For Sisters

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How many times have you had a celebrity sighting?             

Who were they?

Sandy and I saw Pam Dawber of Mork & Mindy with her husband Mark Harmon of NCIS at Logan Airport years ago picking up their luggage from a flight from Paris. We heard her ask, "We are eating at Legal Seafoods?"  

Doc Severinsen came up to me at the Phoenix Airport to say hello. I was wearing the cowboy hat that I had just purchased in Tombstone. I never did figure out why that happened.

We got to know John Stewart of the Kingston Trio through our daughter Kezia, really well.

In Venice we sat across from John & Bo Derek in that famous square of Saint Marks where the classical music is played while you dine. Piazza San Marco. They were drinking $100 bottles of Don Perignon champagne. I think I was drinking a Bud Light. Every one knows Bo Derek but few know John from his cowboy movie days except me and Tom Egan.

Sandy's clients at her Alexandra's European Skin Care Salon were from Aerosmith. Last year on Isla we ran into Billie Perry, the lead guitarist Joe Perry's wife.

Sandy saw Alan Alda, Ellen Barkin and Joe Pesci on her own in Boston.

Speaking of Isla, one year Alan Cumming was relaxing in the sun on Playa Norte. He is in those Masterpiece Theatre TV shows and has been in many movies including Eyes Wide Shut. He threw away a script that he was just reading and we retrieved it. I guess that was an odd thing for us to do.

I had a fairly lengthy conversation with Chris Cooper at a Kingston, Massachusetts Hess gas station a few years ago. I asked him among other things if Lone Star was his first movie. He smiled at my dumb question. He laughed when I told him that he looked like my cousin Jack in the movie Adaptation, for which he won an Academy award and a Golden Globe. It was with Meryl Streep. He loves Meryl Streep and he said so. Seabiscuit and American Beauty and Horse Whisperer with Redford were three other memorable ones. Quite impressive, don't you think? He played a part in the greatest TV series of all time, Lonesome Dove. I should have asked him about Robert Duvall. In my cowboy boots we are the same height. Cooper looks way taller in movies. He lives with his wife Marianne Leone Cooper of Soprano's fame in Kingston, just two towns over from us.

Oh gee, I almost forgot that we went to a luncheon and book signing with Lauren Bacall.

Does writer Nathaniel Philbrick count?

Sports-wise, I sold a fence to Ken Hodge of the Bruins. Johnny Pie McKenzie was just leaving and he said something about Espo. It was in the early 70s and the Bruins were never hotter. I also had an appointment to sell a pool to the Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner.

Saturday night with Kezia and friends, we went to the Plimoth Plantation for a screening of John Sayles’ latest movie, Go For Sisters. He has done over forty movies. Have you seen any of his movies? Some notable to me were Lone Star, Casa de Los Babys, Passion Fish, Eight Men Out, and Matewan.

The reception was in the same room where our friends Lisa and Willie were married. There were round tables set up and you could order drinks. I had a feeling that I would have an opportunity to chat with John Sayles and with Chris Cooper again. How would I start the conversation?  I thought that I would start by asking Chris if he was Matt Damon. I told him when we first met. It was big for me. He didn't seem to remember it. Shocking! He was in the Bourne movies with Damon. Cooper is very laid back and shows absolutely no pretense of the movie star that he is.

How would I start a conversation with John Sayles? I read up on him and learned that he graduated from Williams College near our hometown of Adams, Massachusetts. So when I met him I told him that we had just climbed Mount Greylock and that started the ball rolling. He was really down to earth and well spoken, and hardly talked about himself. He lives in Guilford Connecticut on the Long Island Sound.

After speaking with Sayles and Cooper, no photos or autographs, I struck up a conversation with Cooper’s wife. One of the things we spoke about was the movie Lone Star, my all time favorite movie. She said, "Well, Maggie was the producer of that movie" as she introduced me to Maggie Renzi. File this under small world. Maggie went to college with John Sayles at Williams. She is from North Adams. On Google she is listed as John's partner. Kezia says that they are married. Her Mom & Dad owned a bookstore in Williamstown. She knows Jack's Hot Dogs and saw movies at The Mohawk. She has been to and loves la Isla Mujeres. I am not sure how that came up. Both Lone Star and this brand new movie have a lot of Spanish in them and were both filmed on the Mexican border. Go For Sisters in Tijuana and Mexicali. Lonestar in Laredo and Eagle Pass. She is interested in coming to Marnie’s yoga retreat this Febrero on Isla.  ycmts up! She and Cooper’s wife have had bit parts in many of Sayles’ movies. Sort of like what Alfred Hitchcock did.

“Go For Sisters” is a good movie. Three stars from the New York Times. The two principal stars are terrific unknown black women. To me the movie really takes off when Edward James Olmos comes on the screen.

You remember him from Stand and Deliver? The movie about the true story of dedicated teacher from Los Angeles. In “Go For Sisters” there is a scene where he walks into a dark dusty empty cantina and meets up with an old bartender friend in Tijuana. The bartender is non other than Hector Elizondo.

Of course you remember him from the movies Tortilla Soup, The Flamingo Kid, American Gigolo and Pretty Woman, where he was the concierge of the hotel and helped Julia Roberts with her manners and clothing. The movie audience recognized him and sighed when Hector came on the screen.

Olmos tells Elizondo to pour both of them a tequila "but not the crap that you serve your other patrons." Elizondo reaches up for the Don Julio. There are many wonderful scenes in this movie. The up-close character studies are just as fabulous as they are in Lone Star.

There was a question and answer session with John Sayles at the end of the flick. Flick is what we called movies in the Navy. He is a very tall man. Maybe six foot five. He has long arms and legs and looks as thought he could be a Navy Seal or cage fighter. Schenectady, New York is where he was born. He is an excellent speaker.

Please see “Go For Sisters” and rent “Lone Star” and call me in the morning. You could make it a two-for and rent the feel good movie “Casa de Los Babys” also. Just do it !

They’re gonna put me in the movies,

They’re gonna make a big star out of me.   

(My part would have to be that of a worn-out pool salesman. HEY! It could happen.)

We'll make a film about a man who's sad and lonely

and all I'll have to do is act naturally.

It just flew out of my brain. Many thanks to Buck Owens and Ringo Starr for the inspiration.

I have to go now. They want me on the set. Thanks for paying attention.               

-Don Roberto Tocino