Sopranos Cast Reunites For Charity Event....

The cast of The Sopranos will reunite on Saturday (22Dec07) to raise money for two former crewmembers' cancer battles.Six months after the final episode aired, the Soprano family - James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Jamie-Lynn Sigler; Robert Iler and Michael Imperioli - will join up to 20 other castmembers at a benefit in New York.The team is reuniting at the Mirage in Westbury, Long Island, to help raise money for two former employees, one of whom is fighting terminal cancer; the other who has beaten the disease but faces crippling medical bills.Organiser and backstage assistant Jeff Marchanti says of the two anonymous crewmembers, "(One is) one of our most beloved prop guys, who's been on the show from the beginning. His name is Anthony B., but he wanted to remain nameless."He's battling lymphoma and nobody knew about it, until a month and a half after we wrapped. Everybody loves the guy because we are absolutely a true family and we're gonna support him in every possible way we can."The other crewmember, who is in cancer remission, also asked to remain anonymous.Meanwhile in the continuing legal case against show creator David Chase its reported he almost broke down in tears when he discovered a former judge was suing him, claiming he helped to create the hit show.Robert Baer alleges he spent three days with Chase, introducing him to people with mobster connections and taking him for tours around mob sites.

He claims Chase based characters and much of the Sopranos pilot on information he had helped him obtain - and is suing for a share of profits.

On Tuesday (18Dec07), Chase told a Trenton, New Jersey, court he was left devastated by Baer's claims, saying, "You're a man, you're a grown-up, you're not supposed to cry. But I felt like crying. Mr Baer was going to sue me for half of everything I had made.

"The Sopranos was me. That was my mother, my uncles. Here he was saying he took credit for half of it.

"All I ever wanted was to be original, and for someone to claim I stole his idea, it made me sick - it was an anathema."

The court must decide if Baer's services should be compensated, and if so, by how much.

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