Dateline Movie Spotlight: Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei was recently hitting the limelight again.  First, when she was cast by Marvel to play the role of Aunt May in the Spider-Man reboot again. She is the youngest star set to play the part of Aunt May being at age 50 to Peter Parker which will be played by young actor Tom Holland.  She will replace the two previous Aunt May's in the Spider-Man movies, namely Rosemarry Harris who was 66 when she became Tobey Maguire's Aunt May and Sally Field who became Aunt May to Andrew Garfield at aged 75.  

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Secondly, when we saw her in the hit television series Empire, now on the start of its second season.  She plays the role of billionaire Mimi Whiteman.  She is set to face it off against Taraji P. Henson's character Cookie Lyon, for control of Empire Records. 

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Marisa Tomei was born on Midwood, Brooklyn, one of the Boroughs of New York City on December 4, 1964.  Her mother was an English teacher named Patricia Adelaide Tomei and his father was a trial lawyer named Gary Tomei.  Being raised in Brooklyn, she became interested and was fascinated in Broadway plays.  Her parents would usually watch new and upcoming shows with her and she was thrilled to see most of them.

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Her film debut was the 1984 comedy movie - The Flamingo Kid which also stars Matt Dillon, Richard Crenna, Hector Elizondo and Jessica Walter.  It was directed by Garry Marshall.  Marisa Tomei plays the role of Mandy who works for an exclusive club and she only spoke one line throughout the entire film.  But that didn't stop her to fulfill her passion. She would go on to make several dozens more, not only for the big screen but also for television, a number of stage plays, an audio book, a fitness video, etc.  She also has made an episode in The Simpsons, episode number 304 to be exact, the 13th episode of Season 14 which was aired on March 2, 2003 with the title of - A Star is Born Again. Marisa's character was named Sara Sloane, a Hollywood star, who falls in love with Ned Flanders.

She has won numerous awards, most notably of which is the 65th Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her movie with Joe Pesci, My Cousin Vinny. She was also nominated for 2 more Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in the movies In The Bedroom and The Wrestler.

Just a Fun Fact

Did you know that Marisa Tomei was previously the love interest of Robert Downey Jr. and that they have made 2 films together?

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The first film was the comedy-movie about the life of the great British actor Charlie Chaplin and directed by Richard Attenborough with the title of Chaplin...

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...and the 1994 romantic comedy movie, Only You which was directed by Norman Jewison.

Now that Marisa Tomei is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being cast as Aunt May and so is Robert Downey Jr. being Iron Man, being in the same universe, would they become attracted to each other again.  Hmmm, just me thinking out loud!