Sideways

Paul Giamatti, the actor, was born on D Day plus 23 (June 6, 1967) in New Haven, Connecticut where his father, A. Bartlett Giamatti, was a professor of English Renaissance Literature at Yale University.  From December 1978 until June 1986 (Paul was a student at Yale within this period), the older Giamatti was president of the University.  In 1986, Paul's father left Yale to become president of the National League of professional baseball.  

In April 1989, A. Bartlett Giamatti became the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, a position he held for only five months until his untimely death from a heart attack at 51 years of age.  Shortly before his death, he gained fame or infamy because of his banishment from baseball of Pete Rose, a great player, because of his involvement in gambling. 

In 1998, Paul Giamatti appeared in supporting roles in such big budget films as The Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan.  In 2004, he starred along with Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh in the film Sideways.  It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture (lost to Million Dollar Baby).  It won one Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor).  The following year, Paul was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the film Cinderella Man (lost to George Clooney in Syriana).

Sideways is one of my favorite films.  It is the story of two friends, Miles (Giamatti) and Jack (Church), who decide to spend the week before Jack's wedding visiting the California wine country.  Miles is a wine connoisseur who attempts to educate Jack, a man who only knows he likes to drink wine.  Paul in real life knows little of wine, nor really likes it that much.  In the movie, besides drinking wine, there's also a lot of eating, playing golf and having sex with Maya (Madsen) and Stephanie (Oh), who don't know about Jack's upcoming wedding.

Early in the film, while on their trip, Miles and Jack visit the home of Miles' mother.  In a touching moment, Miles looks at a picture which in reality is of Paul and his father, A. Bartlett.    

There's a funny line in the film where Miles, about to enter a restaurant on a double date with Jack, Maya and Stephanie, says, "If anybody orders merlot, I'm leaving."  When I saw the film for the first time, I knew little of wine and never heard of merlot.  Since then, Cristina and I have grown to love wine, especially merlot.

Another of Miles' issues is getting his manuscript (The Day After Yesterday) published.  He has an agent but his publisher declined.  When Miles heard this bad news while at a winery, he got depressed and attempted to drown his sorrows by "tasting" as much wine as possible.  When I failed to sell my story of Ben and Rita either as a novel or as a screenplay, my reaction was to start my own blog in December of 2014, about which I am very happy.

In 2013, Paul appeared in one of our favorite television series, Downton Abbey, as the brother of the American wife/mother (played by Elizabeth McGovern) of an aristocratic British family during the early part of the Twentieth Century.  He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. 

Beginning in 2016, Paul starred, along with Damian Lewis, in the television series Billions, the story of a crusading federal prosecutor (Chuck Rhoades) who goes after those (like Bobby Axelrod) who bend or break the law regarding potential financial crimes.  In one scene, Paul, the prosecutor, is eating lunch with one of his associates at Keen's Steak House in Manhattan.  In the background is a painting of a tiger.  Last June, Cristina and I had dinner in the same room right next to the same painting of a tiger.  Maybe one day we'll all three have dinner together in the same room at the same time.