Edie Falco was one of my first celebrity interviews.

After The Sopranos, Edie starred in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.

At the time, I'd been writing for The New York Times, contributing to their Sunday Routine column about New Yorkers and what they did on a typical Sunday.

I thought Edie would be a fascinating New Yorker to spotlight in NYT, so I asked her publicist at Showtime if she'd like to do it. The publicist said, "No, she's too private. She'd never do a piece like that."

So I asked the Wall Street Journal, who I also wrote for, if they'd be interested in a profile or Q&A with the woman also known as Carmela Soprano.

They said yes. So did her publicist. And boom, I was off to Edie Falco's New York City home for an intimate sit-down.

I loved it. Edie's about as real as you can get. I met her kids. We talked about her family, her relationship with James Gandolfini, money, cancer, the whole thing.

As I was leaving and she was opening her front gate, I said, "Are you sure you don't want to do Sunday Routine?" And she said, "What do you mean?"

That's when I realized her publicist never ran it by her.

I explained it to Edie. And she said, "Sure. I'd love to do it with you."

So we did. And there's another story that follows. It involves competition and one-upsmanship. But I'll save that for another day...

In the meantime, here's the piece I wrote for WSJ, with a photo taken by their photographer just before we sat down.