It’s no secret that this week’s Democratic National Convention is a political schmooze fest, but it’s also a chance for Rhode Island politicos to hobnob with the power players from Hollywood.

Among them, Emmy award-winner Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano of HBO’s The Sopranos fame is headed to Denver to screen his new documentary on mental illness, Hope’s Messengers.

And who will introduce him at the big screening party tonight?

None other than Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch.

“Joey is a big fan of Rhode Island and he loves Patrick Lynch,” Pantoliano staffer Lauren Millner tells Political Scene. “They’re really good friends.”

The attorney general and the man who played the mobster on TV met and became fast friends when Pantoliano was in the Ocean State two years ago filming the never-quite-launched CBS drama Waterfront, in which he played the morally ambiguous mayor of Providence.

The two soon learned that they also shared an interest in mental illness and how it relates to children. Lynch sits on the national board of the Jason Foundation Inc., a youth suicide prevention organization, and Pantoliano started No Kidding, Me Too (NKM2), an organization helping to destigmatize mental illness.

In recent months, Pantoliano has been hard at work on Hope’s Messengers. Filmed partly in Boston, the documentary examines the lives of a group of people who suffer from mental illness.

Pantoliano is featured in the film, reflecting on the generations in his family with undiagnosed mental illnesses and his own experiences with clinical depression.

Since Lynch would be in the mile-high city for the convention, it seemed a perfect fit to have him introduce Pantoliano and his work-in-progress footage at a screening party.

And apparently it’s also a chance for the unlikely friends to catch up.

“I know Joey adores him,” Millner said.

Carcieris packing for GOP convention

With Rhode Island’s Democrats hopping planes to Colorado, Governor Carcieri is packing his own suitcases.

Next week, the governor will head to the Republican National Convention, in Minneapolis.

Carcieri’s administration tells Political Scene that he and his wife, Sue Carcieri, will travel to the convention on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and stay through Friday, Sept. 5, the morning after the nomination acceptance speech.

While there, the governor will host a breakfast for the Rhode Island delegation and has been invited to speak to the Massachusetts delegation.

A spokeswoman reports that Rhode Island’s first couple will pay for their own trip. Carcieri will use campaign funds to pick up the tab for the breakfast.

On Sept. 15, the governor will travel to Bar Harbor, Maine, for the 32nd Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers.

According to Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe, the conference recognizes “the special bond” between the six New England states and the five Eastern Canadian provinces.

Guv’s paying his own legal fees in ethics probe

And speaking of Governor Carcieri …

The state’s top Republican has an answer for Democrats who last week demanded to know who is paying for his legal defense as the state Ethics Commission investigates whether he broke nepotism rules in hiring his niece for a state job.

He is.

Having initially relied on his chief legal counsel to represent him, Carcieri last week hired private lawyers Christopher S. Gontarz and Thomas M. Dickinson.

Carcieri’s office assures Political Scene that the governor is footing the bill himself.

“No state funds are being used to pay for the legal fees,” spokeswoman Amy Kempe reports.

State Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch last week accused the governor of using state-financed lawyers.

The commission is looking into Carcieri’s hiring of Stephanie Accaputo, the daughter of his wife’s brother and a staffer on Carcieri’s 2002 campaign for governor. Accaputo was hired shortly after the campaign wrapped up in late 2002 to work in the governor’s constituent affairs office. She is now an administrative support specialist in that office, making $52,119.

No word yet on when a ruling is expected.

Sundlun joins board of 8th Air Force group

Former Rhode Island Gov. Bruce G. Sundlun was elected a director of the Eighth Air Force Historical Society at the society’s recent annual meeting in Savannah, Ga.

The society was founded in 1975 to preserve the legacy of the “Mighty Eighth” and the part it played in the Allied victory in World War II.

Sundlun was a B-17 pilot with the 384th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force in England during World War II. He was shot down on his 13th mission and evaded capture in Belgium and France for six months before he crossed safely into Switzerland. He later worked for the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency) at the U.S. Embassy in Bern.

Sundlun was a lawyer and corporate executive who was elected governor in 1990, reelected in 1992 and defeated in the 1994 Democratic primary. After leaving office, Sundlun taught political science at the University of Rhode Island.

Bergstrom takes Stamford position

The former head of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council has landed the top spot in the Urban Redevelopment Commission for Stamford, Conn., the city from whence he first came to the Ocean State a decade ago.

Christopher “Kip” Bergstrom began work in Connecticut as the commission’s executive director in mid July, to fill a $120,000-a-year position left in limbo since March after the federal indictment of Constance “Gerrie” Post. Post has pleaded not guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy charges connected with a previous job, in Mount Vernon, N.Y. She has been on unpaid leave since March 29.

Bergstrom served as Stamford’s first economic development director from 1993 to 1998, when he was instrumental in the relocation of UBS to the city, according to the Stamford Advocate.

Bergstrom left his Rhode Island post earlier this year after Governor Carcieri merged the policy council with the Economic Development Corporation, a second agency responsible for growing the state’s economy:

The reorganization eliminated the council’s four staff members at a time of anemic job growth and falling real estate values in Rhode Island. Bergstrom did not take a job at the EDC.

He has master’s degrees in city and regional planning from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Graduate School of Design.

kgregg@projo.com