Russell Sprague, the pirate (left) and Carmine Caridi, the actor.
In its ninety -five -year history, only five members have been expelled by the Hollywood Academy. All men. Four committed sexual abuse and/or harassment; one was removed for hacking The Last Samurai. Carmine Caridi in this group what fish to four insects in typical children’s games to identify the animal or object that does not match.
In Memoriam of the Oscars 2020 removed Caridi’s figure and announced the Academy’s position on his case. The only one who publicly protested his eviction was Jimmy Kimmel. “Carmine got the same penalty as Harvey Weinstein for lending his neighbor a VHS copy of Seabiscuit,” the host joked at the 2018 awards.
The actor’s wanderings in the film industry have been as successful as painful and, ultimately, his sad appearance on the aforementioned blacklist is certainly consistent with what his life was like.
Carmine Caridi was one of 5 expelled from the Academy.
Caridi is not exempted from evil. Francis Ford Coppola chose him to play Sonny Corleone in The Godfather but Paramount boss Robert Evans removed him from the cast due to excessive stature. It can also be said that he had a short time in jail. Or he almost ended up in the mob because of his friends. Or that he put his life on the line in the Korean War.
But he also has the good: he found his true vocation in theater when he returned from Korea -and received the support of his family, which is no small matter-; Coppola called him to play two different characters in The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather: Part III because he felt guilty that they didn’t get Sonny; He participated in dozens of well-known series and films in the seventies and eighties, such as The Gambler, The Prince of the City, Starsky & Hutch and Taxi.
The craziest moment of his career, the VHS and the Academy, it has good and there is bad. Good because thanks to his mischievous demeanor he will always be remembered by everyone and bad because nothing relates to him in his performances but in his silly “crime”.
It all started because one day Caridi’s VCR broke down.
Carmine Caridi died in California at age 85. (Twitter/Hollywood Reporter @THR)
Crime
Large studios send their potentially nominated films to Hollywood Academy members so they can see them before they are released, think about whether they like them or not, and, by voting, give them an Oscar. or, at least, a nomination. First they were VHS, then DVDs or Bluray and now they are links.
So that these films do not revolve around “ordinary people”, the Academy asks the partners who receive them to sign a document ordering them not to share them. Caridi is obviously signing.
And Carmine knows, as characters in the Coppola film trilogy where she often plays the protagonists, that there are rules that can be violated.
“I made a lot of people happy,” he said in his 2017 defense, referring to people who watched movies before everyone thanked him.
One day in the early 2000s like everyone else, Caridi immediately needed someone to fix her movie reader. To do this, he turned to a young man named Russell Sprague. He knew him because a companion from The Godfather: Part III told him about him. Sprague also passes through Los Angeles and it can be arranged for free.
Russell Sprague, the cinephile who pirates movies. Photo: AP
Said and done, Russell happily went to the celebrity’s house and fixed the VCR, but before that it surprised the actor’s massive video library.
Noticing Russell’s happy amazement, Caridi assured, in a gesture as dear and innocent, that he would reward his good work with films. Sprague did not hesitate to accept and thank him and asked Carmine to send them to Chicago, his hometown, if he could.
Punishment
It was January 2004, the month before the 76th Academy Awards. The Academy identifies on the internet as illegal copies of Someone has to admitthe famous comedy with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton; Last warrioralong with a great Tom Cruise; Mystical riverby Clint Eastwood; The big fish, the great work of Tim Burton; Y Captain of the sea and warwith Russell Crowe in a state of grace.
The FBI tracked down the source of the leaks and found Sprague’s home in Illinois. Here is the moment of intense revelation: investigators discovered that Caridi’s bias technician was the one who made the leaks.
Apparently, Russell uploaded and distributed about 60 fake movies on the internet in three years. And when the cops arrived at Sprague’s house, they also easily understood that Caridi had given him those impossible titles..
When scrapped, the two were sued by Sony and Time Warner for copyright infringement. This crime would end Sprague in three years in prison. No one can handle Carmine.
Caridi participated in two The Godfather films playing different characters.
The actor always assumed Russell was a film enthusiast and made sure he didn’t receive a peso for Sprague’s business. “I thought he was just a guy who really likes movies,” Carmine said when testifying in court.
Caridi said she always sent films to him in good faith via FedEx and she would not even be allowed to pay shipping charges.
The prosecution wanted to fine him $ 300,000 but he didn’t want to pay it because he didn’t have dollars. He waited for the court to carefully study his situation and acquit him in all cases because he did not receive benefit from his wrongful move. And that is what happened.
Caridi stood out in the 70s and 80s in American series and films.
Sprague, who tops good quality torrents, pleaded guilty but did not serve his sentence, as he died in jail before the end of his prison term.
“I did him a favor and he screwed me over,” Caridi told a reporter from The Hollywood Reporter a few years after he was acquitted and the Academy deemed him unspeakable.
Kimmel’s joke at the 2018 Oscars no one wants to know. Why? Because he doesn’t want to be associated, even jokingly, with the horrible criminals who are blacklisted.
Source: Clarin