Rolling Stone glitter twin Keith Richards, who happens to be a big fan of The Sopranos, couldn't help noticing that the band's famous lip and tongue logo was prominently displayed on the series. It's right where you'd expect him to find it -- on Janice Soprano's ample left breast.
Aida Turturro, the voluptuous actress who plays Tony Soprano's mouthy kid sister, was in Toronto last week to promote the acclaimed HBO series for The Movie Network. The third season of the ground-breaking mob drama premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on the pay TV service, with a second episode following at 10 p.m.
Turturro says she met the skeletal guitar god in New York a few weeks ago at a special screening of the two new episodes at Radio City Music Hall.
"He was disappointed when I told him that the tattoo wasn't real," she says, tugging her top down just enough to prove that her breast is indeed bare.
Flirty Turturro says the lips tattoo, along with another one down on her ankle, are painted on, and require an extra hour in the makeup chair. Both tattoos were picked out specifically for her character by the show's very hands-on executive producer, David Chase. "He even told me exactly where they had to go," says Turturro.
For those who only saw Season One of The Sopranos when it was showcased late last summer on CTV, Turturro's character doesn't arrive until Season Two. If you haven't seen Season Two, skip the next paragraph.
A true Soprano, Janice eventually shoots and kills her trigger-happy fiance who was always holding a gun to her head while they were making love. She was last seen boarding a bus to Seattle in search of her mother's hidden fortune.
Turturro, the first cousin of actor/directors John and Nick Turturro, lives in New York, where the series is shot. Are people there intimidated by her character?
"Are you kidding?" she says. "People think Janice is so cool. All I hear is, 'Nice shooting,' and 'Keep up the good work.' "
Like the rest of the cast, Turturro is sworn to secrecy about plotlines for the coming season. She does admit that she's not in all 13 of the new episodes.
In tonight's second hour, her character's flaky West Coast ways drive Tony up a wall at the tense funeral for their manipulative mother, Livia, memorably played by the late, great, Nancy Marchand.
In fact, through the miracle of digital effects, Marchand has a scene in tonight's second hour, even though she died in real life six months before the scene was shot. Producer Chase wanted to keep Tony's disgust and frustration with his mother fresh right up to her death.
To that end, Chase had Marchand's face from old scenes and outtakes digitally inserted over another actress's body in a minute-and-a-half long exchange with Emmy-winner James Gandolfini.
The results are a bit bizarre, to say the least. Marchand's hair changes colour in the scene more often than Lloyd Robertson's. It's even parted differently as the scene cuts back and forth from a fuming Tony.
Turturro admits there was a buzz about the scene at the Radio City screening. She hopes people will see past the effect and simply see it as one last glimpse of a great actress.
