Everything’s Coming Up Sideways: Cult Wine Country Film Turns 15
Little known fact about the 2004 cult film, Sideways: if George Clooney and Brad Pitt had gotten their way, the heartthrob pair would have seen their own names on the movie’s marquee. Director Alexander Payne turned them down, though, opting instead to cast lesser known names that wouldn’t steal the spotlight from the story or its characters. In the end, Payne’s calls paid off, reeling in five Oscar nominations and one win for Sideways and launching a funny little film about two bachelors fumbling their way through Santa Barbara wine country – often with a fair amount of raunch tossed in – into Tinsel Town immortality. Me, actor Paul Giamatti and chef-winemaker Frank Ostini at a Sideways 10th anniversary party in 2014 Indeed, here we are, 15 years later, still talking about Sideways and counting down the days to its crystal anniversary on October 22 nd , the date of its official U.S. release. In fact, preparations for "Sideways Fest" are already underway – a thre