Here’s the late James Gandolfini accepting a Golden Globe award for “The Sopranos” in 2002 — sans the Tony Soprano accent. You get a hint of why he was so well liked. As I’ve noted before, as a former fulltime journalist I can usually tell when reporters truly like a celebrity. And it was clear they liked Gandolfini — something that was stated openly upon his death but was so evident in articles on him.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.