By the time you read this James Gandolfini will have finished filming The Mexican and have left Las Vegas. Production on the Brad Pitt/Julia Roberts film, which began shooting in Las Vegas on June 5th, was scheduled to wrap on June 25th. Described as part road movie and part mob flick and reportedly filled with danger, betrayal and double-crosses, The Mexican, directed by Mouse Hunt's Gore Verbinski, has been compared to Pulp Fiction.

While Gandolfini was in Las Vegas he also recieved the key to the city from Mayor Oscar Goodman. The picture to the right is crummy at best, but that's what they ran in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper (just click on it to see the whole image). I'm still trying to get a better one, if possible.

For starters, here's what I've learned about the storyline. Jerry Welbach (Pitt), a bumbling mob guy is sent to Mexico to retrieve a supposedly cursed, antique pistol. His girlfriend, Samantha Barzel (Roberts) has been pressuring him to end his criminal lifestyle and when she finds out about his latest assignment she leaves him and takes off for Las Vegas to become a casino dealer. A philosophical (shades of True Romance?), homosexual hitman named Leroy (Gandolfini) hijacks her on the road as insurance that Jerry will return from Mexico with the pistol. If he doesn't, Leroy is under orders to kill Samantha. As they spend time together, Leroy and Samantha become friends and help one another to better understand romantic relationships. Somewhere along the way Leroy has an affair with a postal employee and I think the movie ends back in Mexico.

On a tip from a friend, I grabbed two other willing comrades and ventured over to McCarran Airport late Saturday night or very early Sunday morning (depending on how you look at things) to find out about this movie making stuff firsthand.

First of all, I have to give actors a lot of credit, if it was me doing their job I think I'd be bored out of my mind. The mood on the set seemed good spirited even though it was 1:30 am, everyone was probably thrilled to be working in air-conditioned comfort. James and Julia had spent their first week in Vegas in over 100 degree heat being pulled along highways and byways by a camera truck. Other Las Vegas area filming locations included Goodsprings, the Belz Factory Outlet Mall, a downtown casino and The Regent Las Vegas in Summerlin.

Anyway, it took over an hour and about 50 extras toting suitcases along the moving walkways to shoot what appeared to be three 10 second zoom shots of Julia and James standing in the vicinity of a Mexicana Airlines check-in desk. If there was any dialog, it couldn't have been more than five words. James looks sinister as mob hitman Leroy with his very short hair and a dark goatee (no crazy 8mm-esque sideburns though, thank God). He was dressed like a mobster, I guess, in a white shirt and black jacket and pants. It appears Julia's character, Samantha, might be a bit sassy and trashy, she was wearing a bright pink short-sleeved sweater, a pale lime greenish skirt and carrying a beige handbag. If you're interested, she has also cut her hair (photo from Dark Horizons).

I spied my opportunity to get closer when it came time to move everyone to the next set, located at the top of the D gate escalators. James was talking with some of the crew and then started walking alone down the concourse. Actors must feel pretty safe in an airport, after all everyone did have to pass through a metal detector. I started walking in the same direction and suddenly I was walking right next to him, about two feet away, trying to figure out what to say and not sound like a complete dork. Unfortunately, all that kept flashing through my mind was the interview where he said he was just a guy doing a job, and didn't understand what the big deal was about him. I realized that I didn't have it in me to bother him while he was working. Some of you might be disappointed and perhaps if you had been there you would have ran right up to him. It's possible that I respect people's privacy too much, but I'm a pretty private person myself and it's something I can relate to. When I was a DJ and local punk persona, strangers used to think they knew me because they listened to my radio broadcasts and would come up to me at shows to chat. It can be nice and flattering, but it's also intrusive and slightly unnerving. I stopped and realized James had also stopped to speak to someone else on the crew and I was now about 50 feet in front of him, plus my friends were nowhere to be seen. So what did I do? When he walked past me a minute later, I just smiled and he smiled back and kept on walking.

At least The Sopranos cast will never have to consider me a threat to their safety.