It’s definitely the spring of James Gandolfini.

Famously known far and wide as Tony Soprano, Gandolfini used to worry that he’d always be typecast as a lurking Mafia chieftain or just a plain brute.

But look what happened: Tony has a Tony nomination for Best Actor in the play ‘God of Carnage.’ On Sunday, it’s possible he could surprise everyone and wind up taking the gold statue home.

And next Friday, June 12, Gandolfini really wipes the slate clean. He plays the Mayor of New York City in the remake of ‘The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.’ His mayor, accompanied by a put-upon deputy (John Benjamin Hickey, cheated out of a Tony nomination this season, by the way, from ‘Mary Stuart’), is quite the modern creation. He’s a billionaire who’s not seeking re-election’sort of Bloomberg in reverse.

Gandolfini’s mayor also gets off a good line about Rudy Giuliani that’s already met with laughter in advance screenings. The former mayor and would-be governor/senator should take heed of this in-theatre referendum.

But good for Gandolfini: his mayor’who has no character name’is no Tony Soprano. He’s smart and sophisticated. He even comes up with a key revelation that kicks the movie into its next phase. In most movies the politicians come off as idiots. Not so this time. If only our real-life mayor were this quick on his feet, we wouldn’t have people sitting on plastic garden chairs in the middle of Times Square!

All of the new ‘Pelham,’ by the way, is cast with top-notch character actors in the tradition of the original film. That cast looks like a championship team in retrospect: Walter Matthau, a pre ‘Jaws,’ post ‘Sting’ Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick (Matthew’s father), Jerry Stiller, Doris Roberts, Kenneth McMillan, and Tony Roberts as that assistant mayor.

Director Tony Scott has at least the same depth in his new cast. He’s got stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta totally reinvented as characters. Denzel either gained a bunch of weight or put on a chub-suit to become a convincing subway motorman. It’s Travolta’s best character work since ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Michael.’ And then Scott has the great John Turturro, Michael Rispoli, Luis Guzman, Frank Wood, Brian Haley, Ramon Rodriguez, Aunjanue Ellis, and a terrific find from ‘The Wire’ named Gbenga Akinnagbe. Denzel and Turturro, by the way, are great together, and trump the memory of their other picture together, Spike Lee’s ‘Mo’ Better Blues.’

Just wait and see if 20 years from now, this cast doesn’t look a championship team.

Mandy Moore is just 25 years old. Doesn’t it seem like she should be around 40 by now? She’s been around for eons, starting as a teen star. Originally she was lumped in with Britney, Christina Aguilera, and that gang. Moore had one semi-hit called ‘Candy,’ (co-written by none other than Denise Rich), got into acting, but has never been totally focused.

Her bid to be taken seriously took her into an album called ‘Coverage’ where she random shuffled hits by the likes of XTC, Carole King, Joan Armatrading, and Cat Stevens. Then, just to add to the confusion, she married not a pop-star like Justin Timberlake, but went anti-Britney with the decade older indie star Ryan Adams. Weird, huh?

What does Mandy Moore want? Last night she hit Joe’s Pub to showcase her new album. ‘Amanda Leigh,’ and a Kelly Clarkson-ish catchy single ‘I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week.’ Adams was there. So were a cross-section of fans from girls who loved ‘Candy,’ to newer enthusiasts of Moore’s Joni Mitchell-esque persona.

From these songs, it sounded like Moore is actually going through an Aimee Mann phase. She’s got a producer/co-writer/musical director named Mike Viola who’s her own Jon Brion. Add this to the Clarkson single, a lot of Joni Mitchell, and a pinch of Stevie Nicks, and Moore brings new meaning to the word ‘eclectic.’

Still, in all, she can sing. And on stage she’s completely personable. There’s no doubt she wants to be taken seriously, which is fine. But her best number of the night was a reworked more adult version of ‘Candy,’ that lifted her from tortured 40 year old artist to really cool 25 year old pop singer. Call it smart pop. When Moore finds that groove again, she’ll have hits. Until then, we can just sit back and appreciate a work in progress.

Trumpet player Chris Botti has finally bought a house. For the last few years, the blond horn man has lived only out of suitcases, staying in hotels and crashing on friends’ couches.

No more.

He told me yesterday, right before a New Hampshire gig, that he caved in a few months ago and took advantage of lower interest rates.

His new home is in the Hollywood Hills, of course. And it came completely furnished. “I walked in and I’ll take it, with everything. From the ash trays to the soap dishes.”

Apparently the house had just been “staged” for a magazine photo shoot. The new buyer liked what he saw. “It was done very tastefully.” Friends Sting and Trudie Styler came over to see the place–probably thrilled to get Botti out of their guest room.

“They couldn’t believe how nice it was,” he told me.

Now Botti swings through New York tomorrow for a sold-out show at the Beacon Theater, and then on to more shows, and more shows, and more. He’ll get a chance to live in the house in August, during a rare break from touring.

“It might be nice to have a break,” he joked. Reminds me of the Gang of Four song: “At home he feels like a tourist.”

About 200 lucky fans got a great wish granted last night: they saw Elvis Costello play an acoustic set of songs from his newest album in a downtown New York Irish pub.

Costello’s “secret show” was an excellent way to promote his new collection, produced with T Bone Burnett, called “Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane.”

The show — at Jim Brady’s on Maiden Lane, near Wall Street — came after Costello’s performance on NBC’s “Today” show, where he played what’s turning into a smart little hit, “Sulphur to Sugarcane.”

During the set, fans learned that Costello — whose eclectic career runs from power pop to punk to opera, Burt Bacharach and more — was influenced this time by stories about Hans Christian Andersen, Jenny Lind, and P.T. Barnum.

Lind, the Danish opera star of the 1800s, Costello declared was “the Celine Dion of her day.”

Andersen, he noted, who died in 1875, was “extremely ugly.”

Costello also told deejays from New York rock station WRXP FM, 101.9, which sponsored the event, that the one collaborator he was sorry he’d missed working with was Shakespeare. “He had some good lyrics.”

In that regard, Costello — newly svelte and ready to hit the road for a summer tour — revealed that he and country legend Loretta Lynn were working on a song tentatively titled, “Thank God for Jesus.”

“It’s incredible that no one thought of that song before,” he said.

Costello, thirty-plus years into an astonishing career, is clearly not aiming his music toward the Britney Spears set. As usual, his songs are urbane and catchy. He’s still challenging his audience even as he’s sweeping them off their feet with sweet pop melodies, justaposed with complex lyrics.

My favorite, from “My All Time Doll”: “In the far flung cry of a closing saloon/On the blank back side of that poisonous moon/I tried not to think about you/I thought I was immune.”

Take that, Spears fans.

She only plays a nurse on Showtime’s new series, “Nurse Jackie.” But last night at the show’s premiere party, Edie Falco was just about the first person summoned when a guest fainted.

It wasn’t clear what she was being asked to do, but Falco rushed over.

The guest was the eldlerly mother of a theatrical agent. At first, the word went out in Nicola’s restaurant at the Parker Meridien hotel that someone had had a heart attack.

That didn’t stop the crowd, which had just seen two episodes of the wonderful new Falco series, from chowing down and drinking. It was late, after all.

Ironically, the party room had been totally redecorated to resemble an ER. There were actual hospital beds, medical cabinets stocked with bandages and the like, and heavy plastic curtain dividers.

Someone had even set up a machine for guests to try oxygen at a bar in flavors like lemonade and tangerine.

Read the rest of the story

The biggest night in the music year is not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinner. It’s the Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner in New York on June 18th. Phil Ramone is the musical producer; Hal David and Linda Moran put on a show of shows year in and year out.

This is the 40th anniversary, which means a blowout at the Marriott Marquis. Bon Jovi, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Rascals, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Tom Jones, Andy Williams, the composers of ‘Hair,’ and ‘Godspell,’ are all getting awards, along with pop song crafters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway are getting awards.

Ramone’s showcase of these stars should be monumental. He’s already got James Taylor, Rob Thomas, Berry Gordy, Clint Black, Chris Daughtry, John Ondrasik (of Five for Fighting), and Paul Williams to either present or perform. Jason Mraz is getting the award for new generation songwriter. I’m excited because legendary Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. of the Fifth Dimension are coming to salute the ‘Hair’ writers. They had the #1 record of 1969 with ‘Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In’ from that show.

The SHOF dinner and show is a hot ticket. Call Buckley Hall Events, (212) 573-6933 for info. And here’s something for FREE: a master class at Merkin Hall with Lamont Dozier, interviewed by Nelson George, on June 16th for members of the SHOF. Don’t worry: I will be there, and report back every word that’s said by the co-writer of all the Four Tops and Supremes hits.

Jennifer Hudson may or may not be pregnant. But listen: she’s not ready to say either way, for her own reasons. And still, friends’so called’are betraying her confidence.

Yesterday the Chicago papers claimed they’d uncovered a baby shower. They talked to a guest, Felicia Fields, who yakked away until her jaw hurt. She told the papers Hudson was seven months along, that she wanted to keep it quiet, and so on.

Other friends of Hudson say the Oscar winner and hit singer is very upset with Fields. Suffice to say, Fields will not be on the list of wedding guests when and if Hudson marries her fianc’e.

More importantly: if Jennifer is seven months pregnant, that means she conceived right after the terrible tragedies in her family at the end of October 2008. If’if, meaning if’this is the case, she has her own reasons for keeping the whole thing private until she’s ready.

Whatever’s happening’everyone wishes Jennifer Hudson the best at this point. She deserves peace and privacy. Not every human event in a celebrity’s life is ready for primetime exposure.