Articles :: Talia Shire

FOR THE COPPOLAS, IT'S A FAMILY BUSINESS

By James Verniere

Boston Herald :: 10/8/04

They have more Oscars than the Barrymores, and, like another famous showbiz family, they like to dress in funereal black. But they're not creepy, kooky, mysterious or spooky. What they are is altogether more talented and successful than you and I.

They are the Coppolas, the - dare I say it? - capo di tutti capi of Hollywood dynasties, and this week, another member of the Coppola family will leave his mark on a movie.

Jason Schwartzman, one of the ensemble cast of David O. Russell's offbeat comedy I Heart Huckabees, is the son of Talia Shire, known worldwide as Constanzia "Connie'' Corleone of The Godfather films and as Francis Coppola's sister.

Talk about an incestuous business - in I Heart Huckabees, Shire has a small role as Schwartzman's . . . mother.

Schwartzman, who made a splash in Wes Anderson's 1998 sleeper Rushmore, is the son of Shire and late film producer Jack Schwartzman (Being There, Never Say Never Again). That makes him multiple Academy Award winner Francis' nephew and Academy Award winner Sofia's cousin, as well as the cousin of Academy Award-winning Nicolas Cage (ne Coppola).

Cage, who took his stage name from Luke Cage, an African-American Marvel superhero, is the son of Francis' brother, August, a former Cal Tech literature professor, and dancer-choreographer Joy Vogelsang.

This Thanksgiving, Cage will play an Indiana Jones-like adventurer in the action film National Treasure. Sofia Coppola, Cage and Schwartzman have other siblings who are working in the film industry. Got all that?

Not since the myriad offspring of Johann Sebastian Bach has a single family spawned so many major artists working in the same art form. In Hollywood, the Coppolas are arguably rivaled only by the Barrymores and the Huston clan.

Like Vito Corleone of The Godfather films, Francis' grandfather August arrived at Ellis Island from Sicily in 1904.

August's son, Julliard graduate Carmine, was first flute under Arturo Toscanini at the NBC Symphony Orchestra and an Oscar-winning co-composer with Nino Rota of The Godfather, Part II score. Francis and Talia's mother, Italia Pennino, who died in January, was an actress in Italian films.

Sofia, who received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for Lost in Translation, is reportedly dating Quentin Tarantino (talk about a gene pool). Some readers may remember that Sofia made her screen debut not in The Godfather, Part III in a widely panned performance, but as the infant being christened in The Godfather in the famous Baptism of Blood sequence.

Sofia's now in preproduction on Marie-Antoinette, a French Revolution-era historical pageant based on a 2001 biography by Antonia Fraser with Kirsten Dunst in the title role and - hello - Schwartzman as Louis XVI.

Pop quiz: Why would Sofia, princess of the Coppolas, find Missy let-them-eat-cake Marie Antoinette so fascinating? Hmmm.

Even Sofia's older brother Roman, whose debut film, CQ, was not exactly universally admired, has other projects in the works, including shooting second-unit for his little sister's new movie. The Coppolas, their values are just better than ours.