i saw "THE MACHINIST" last night with Christian Bale
lord
i'd heard he'd lost so much weight for the role
that he had to be monitored by a doctor
daily
but my god that can't be good for the guy
first he beefed up for batman
then he went to concentration camp form for the machinist
but i gotta say
this boy can really act
i had a sliver of an opportunity to interview
christian
when he did Velvet Goldmine
a movie early in his career and early in jonathan rys myers too
and a movie that i found to be incredibly brilliant
i wrote a column in NYC's The Flatiron News
called "MY Dinner with Rossi"
it was a fun column
i would take out mostly b celebs
to dinner and ply them with booze and interview them
what i felt especially talented at
was finding celebs before they were about to explode
sometimes so closely that they would be A list celebs
as my column was coming to print
i had the pleasure to interviw Edie Falco early in the Sopranos
run
she was a doll
though i never met anyone who drank so much diet coke in my life
but sweet and polite
and respectful and
honest
she said she'd modeled the mom soprano character
after the women she grew up around in her neighborhood
that she'd see in the beauty parlors
i had a fun interview in a mexican joint
with Aaron Eckhart
just after his first flick
In the Company of Men
had a fab night with Kevin Corrigan
who went on to the drink the night away with my photographer
actually in the 4 years i wrote the column
the only interview i hated
was the one with Philip Seymor Hoffman
he picked The Chat and Chew
as his food destination
this was shortly after he'd done Boogie Nights
and he was defensive
and edgy
and condescending
and basicaly everything i thought this
sweet seeming guy would not be
so you can't judge a book by its cover
of all the interviews i did the one i loved best
was with Quentin Crisp
sweet odorable 90 year old Quentin
was so happy to be taken out to dinner
so thrilled to be treated nicely
and after all that
he was going to take a bus home
because the darling man
after all that fame
didn't have a dime and
lived in an old rooming house in the east village
i put him in a cab and gave him 20 dollars for the fair
he died within a year of that interview
and i will always be grateful to have had the chance to treat him
like the royalty he was for one night
but Christian
i missed by a day
his flight ran late
things happened
and the next thing you know
came American Psycho
and he was too big for The Flatiron News
ah well
i gave up the column
when a new editor stepped in
who trimmed my interviews down to nothing
and dumped an interview i'd work with much love
on a movie i beleived in
because he felt the movie wouldn't go anywhere
the movie was
Boys Don't Cry
damn shame they didn't run the interview
