When Lillian DeFilippo kisses her hand and touches it to a painting of Bobby Orr, she does so for every Bruins fan out there hoping for an exciting playoff run.
DeFilippo and her son, Dave, both have a bit of a part in the new Bruins playoff commercial that has been airing on NESN for the past two weeks in preparation for the Bruins playoff run that starts tomorrow, April 12, when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round.
The DeFilippos run the long-time Woodlawn Memorials monument company on the Revere/Everett line and have provided services for thousands of Revere and Everett families at Woodlawn Cemetery and beyond.
Most of the time, the services they provide are rather sad, dealing with the loss of loved ones, but over the past month they’ve had quite an uplifting experience in helping promote the Bruins.
Dave, who has had several brushes with fame through making headstones for movie sets and having his unique headstones featured on television, said he got a call in January from a producer asking if he had any unique Bruins headstones around.
“They wanted to know if I’d done a Bruins monument or logo and I said I had done plenty of them,” he said. “I sent them some pictures and they picked one, and the family (the Russo family) was thrilled to be included…It’s a rare thing, but this is actually the third time my work has been in a commercial. I’ve just been lucky with that and they called at the right time because it was winter, and I had all the time in the world…It’s just really a fluke.”
The commercial was done by the Bruins to pump up the playoffs, and the producers used a blend of actors and regular “die hards” from the area. And, as it happened, when working with Dave, they decided that his mother, Lillian DeFilippo, was a perfect candidate to be in the commercial as well.
“I have really gotten a lot of feedback from it,” she said this week. “Even my nephew in California has seen it…After talking with Dave, it sounded like a fun thing to do. I just lost my husband, so I’ve been going through a bad time. When something like that happens to you, doing a commercial like this is great – a real exciting diversion to pick you up.”
Lillian’s part in the commercial is a scene where she’s walking in her home and goes up to a painting of Bobby Orr on her wall, straightens is, and then kisses her fingers and touches it to Orr’s face on the painting – with all the sentimentality as if it would have been her own child.
The scene was actually shot in Lillian’s home, and she said they did it all on a Sunday, with producers, directors and about 12 staffers coming in to assist.
“They were everywhere,” she said.
And now, seemingly, she is everywhere as excitement builds for the Bruins playoff run.
Lillian said she’s gotten many notes from friends, and Dave said when she’s in the grocery store, people will stop her and comment on the commercial.
“It’s been pretty cool; my mom’s enjoying it a lot,” he said. “Most of what we do is kind of sad stuff, but this was the occasional fun thing that was a good break.”
As for Lillian, she admitted she’s a big Bruins fan, especially of Orr.
“Of course I am,” she said. “Everybody is. Bruins, Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots. We love them all, but this is a Bruins town. I’m old too, so I go back to the Bobby Orr days. That’s how far I go back. He was an icon in this area. I was really excited to be able to do this and be in something he was involved in.”