Clinton spoofs Sopranos to unveil campaign song
By Jeremy Pelofsky Tue Jun 19, 8:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton spoofed the final episode of the hit series "The Sopranos" in a video telling supporters the winning anthem for her 2008 U.S. presidential campaign was Celine Dion's "You and I."
Canadian Dion's song had been a write-in idea but received the most votes out of the more than 200,000 cast, beating out "I'm a Believer" by Smash Mouth, "Beautiful Day" by Irish rockers U2 and Canadian Shania Twain's "Rock This Country!" among others.
In a scene reminiscent of the HBO television show's unresolved ending, the candidate's video shows her sitting in a diner as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, joins her and the song "Don't Stop Believin"' by the rock band Journey plays from a jukebox.
Actor Vince Curatola, who played a mob boss named Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni on "The Sopranos," makes a cameo appearance, too, glaring menacingly at the couple as he walks past them in the restaurant near the Clinton home in Chappaqua, New York.
"So what's the winning song?" Bill asks.
"You'll see," the New York senator responds.
"My money is on 'Smash Mouth,' everybody in America wants to know how it's gonna end," he says.
The candidate puts a coin in the music player on the table and says, "Ready?"
But instead of the Dion song belting out of the machine, the video released on Tuesday cuts to a black screen -- like the Sopranos. It then lists a page on her Web site (www.hillaryclinton.com/song) to reveal the song and make a fund-raising pitch.
Some fans were unhappy with the last Sopranos episode because the final scene cut to a black screen, leaving viewers uncertain as to whether the TV mobster had been rubbed out in a diner as his family gathers for a meal.
"It shows a little bit of humor," said Carol Darr, director for the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.
"I don't think it's going to get the play of 'Obama Girl,"' Darr said, referring to the "I've got a crush ... on Obama" song that swoons for Clinton's rival, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, and has received more than 1 million views on YouTube.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)