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Thursday, March 13, 2003
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James Gandolfini
What started out as a contract dispute has now found its way to the "Sopranos" set and the rest of the cast is now caught in a behind-the-scenes war.
Last season on "The Sopranos," Tony's crew managed to get paid for not working and not even showing up for work. Now in real life, because of James Gandolfini's bitter contract dispute with HBO, all the Sopranos have no-show jobs as the cable network is officially delaying production of season five, which was to begin a week from Monday.
High-powered attorney Bert Fields says, "He thinks he has a gun to our head, but he has a water pistol and it doesn't have water in it."
Fields is representing HBO in its $100-million countersuit against Gandolfini, accusing the actor's camp of holding a gun to the network's head in an attempt to get Gandolfini a bigger slice of HBO's pizza pie. It’s a tactic Fields believes will backfire in the actor's face. He says, "I'm not sure that HBO is ready to still put on the table the fantastic offer they made him."
HBO has reportedly offered to more than double Gandolfini's current salary of $300,000 per episode, but insiders say the award-winning star is demanding nearly $2,000,000 per show. That would make him the highest paid actor in television.
Filming of the fifth, and perhaps final season of "The Sopranos," has already been pushed back several times, allowing Gandolfini to shoot a movie with Ben Affleck. Now insiders predict it will be at least a year before "Sopranos" fans get to see the next episodes, if ever.
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