GoneTrending

As more and more artists commit to podcast appearances as part of their usual media relations duties, more and more tensions have begun to arise between interview subjects and the more-or-less unregulated space. While podcasts have been notorious for sparking viral moments like the tet-a-tet between Kanye West and Big Sean on opposing episodes of Drink Champs, sometimes these interviews touch on broader issues like the double standards between men and women, resulting in moments that highlight just how podcast hosts can violate boundaries.

A recent example arose today, as Ari Lennox trended on Twitter due to her response to a recent podcast interview that left her vowing to eschew any future appearances in South Africa as a result of a host’s disrespect. During an interview with Johannesburg-based show, Podcast And Chill With Mac G, Ari was visibly distraught by the host’s question, “Is somebody f*cking you good right now?” “That’s a wild question,” she responded. “Why ask it that way?” While Mac G advised her that he was quoting one of her own songs, she was less than enthused about it in hindsight, finally responding two days later with her unfiltered thoughts on her treatment.

“I’m just like… why was I alone on a call full of people?” she wondered on Twitter. “Why didn’t anyone intervene? And why wasn’t parts of the interview destroyed like the team promised? Why did it happen to begin with? I just feel slow and ambushed and blindsighted. Just because I happily and freely sing/write about sex don’t make any kind of creepy disrespect warranted. I clearly was in immense shock and hate that I didn’t react differently.”

Although she pointed out that she doesn’t “want anyone feeling sorry for me,” she was quickly bombarded with messages blaming her for the line of questioning. When one reply read, “If you hate being treated like a piece of meat then stop marketing yourself as a butchery,” Ari expressed her wish never to visit the country. “South Africa! Y’all got it!!! Heard you loud and clear. This won’t be a place I will ever visit. Really got grown men justifying rape and predatory culture. Disgusting.” As responses kept coming in, she shut down the number-one criticism she’d received. “No rebranding necessary you misogynistic bitch!” she said. “I enjoy how I express myself in my music.”

Ari’s no stranger to misogynistic tweets. In 2020, she sparked another debate about the treatment of Black women and obnoxious beauty standards when a commenter compared her to a rottweiler. Fortunately, she’s got new music on the way in 2022, which should give people something else to talk about.

Hey all!

Welcome to Upworthy’s weekly round-up of delights from around the internet. This week’s list features a little of everything—gorgeous music, cute kids, adorable animals, hope for the planet, and a brand new video message from the late and great Betty White.

That’s right, Betty White left us one last message of gratitude shortly before her passing. It’s brief, but how lovely to see and hear her speak to her millions of fans one last time. Few celebrities are as universally beloved as Betty White was, and though we knew she couldn’t live forever, it would have been fun to see her celebrate her 100th birthday. Now at least we get to experience her joy and warmth one last time with a few last words.

Hope these 10 things make you smile as well:

Kid’s parents have a stuffed toy made from his drawing and his reaction is everything.

His parents had a stuffed toy made from one of his drawings, so cool. pic.twitter.com/vQfdYb2uBS

— Fred Schultz (@Fred Schultz)
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Kids’ artwork is precious. There’s nothing like seeing the unique imagination of a child take form in the real world, so having something they created in 2-D be transformed into 3-D is so cool.

This puppers desperately wants this statue to play fetch, and now I need a puppy.

Come on man….throw it. pic.twitter.com/Urs980U6r0

— Laughs 4 All ud83eudd1f (@Laughs 4 All ud83eudd1f)
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I’m a cat person, but I want to take this dog home and give them all the peanut butter and let them sleep on all the furniture all the time, thankyouverymuch.

Cellist plays a 12-part cello piece solo, and it’s absolutely stunning.

Music already seems like magic. But the things people can do with technology these days is incredible—and so very appreciated during the pandemic, when playing in groups isn’t always safe. This performance is just beautiful in every way.

Surfer offers to write the names of strangers’ lost loved ones on his surfboard so they can ride ‘one last wave’

See on Instagram

I loved writing this story and hearing about what made Dan Fischer decide to do it. Such a great example of the power of one person doing what they can, using what they have, to bring whatever comfort they can to their fellow humans. Just wonderful. Read the full story here.

Nurse treats patient’s Big Bird stuffy, illustrating how nurses really are superheroes.

This patient has Cohen syndrome—a genetic disorder that can cause developmental delay, intellectual disability, small head size and weak muscle tone—and his nurse taking the time to treat Big Bird to comfort him is so compassionate and caring.

6-year-old cheerleader breaks down in tears, but the crowd’s support helps her rally.

See on Instagram

Oh, this sweet baby girl. She was so nervous and overwhelmed, but she stood her ground and–with the help of a supportive crowd—gathered her wits about her. Well done, everyone.

Zoologist captures 1,000 fin whales in one spot—a ray of hope for the endangered species.

We found about 1000 fin whales over a 5×5 mile area off South Orkney. Blue and humpback also mixed in. Mind completely blown @LindbladExp #NationalGeographicEndurancepic.twitter.com/xtdvexXwI5

— Conor Ryan (@Conor Ryan)
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Conor Ryan describes himself as a “whale nerd” which is literally true. He’s a zoologist, photographer and expert on whales, and even his mind was blown upon seeing this many fin whales in one spot. The endangered species nearly went extinct last century, so this is a hopeful sight. Read the full story here.

Bird researcher turns herself into a human bird feeder. (Wait for it.) 

See on Instagram

Oh, when her patience and stillness paid off! Her face tells the whole story.

TSA dog gets a perfect surprise on his final bag search before retirement.

After more than eight years of service, this TSA airport sniffer dog officially retired..nnThis is how they surprised him on his final bag search.. pic.twitter.com/sPyRzLee5U

— Buitengebieden (@Buitengebieden)
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It’s doggo happiness raining down from the heavens.

Betty White’s publicist shared her final message to her fans this morning.

Betty White’s publicist shared the video on White’s official Facebook page this morning. “When we recorded her special message to fans who attended the movie, we also recorded one that we had planned to put on social media on her birthday,” she wrote. “She was using the occasion of her 100th birthday to celebrate YOU – her fans. She knew how lucky she was; she felt the love, and she never took it for granted.”

Hope that brought some joy to your heart! Come back next week for another round-up of timeline cleansers.

There was a massive snowstorm in Canada on Monday that blanketed southern Ontario. In a report on the storm’s aftermath, CTV News interviewed young Carter Trozzolo to see how it was affecting everyday Canadians. Trozzolo had the day off from school so he was put to work shoveling snow in his neighborhood.

When asked how his monumental task was going he said, “Tiring,” with a large sigh. “I really wish I was in school right now,” he continued. He added that he wasn’t just shoveling snow for himself but “neighbors, friends, probably people I even don’t know,” he said in an exasperated tone. “I am tired,” he reiterated.

The clip was of a young man shoveling snow, but his overwhelming sense of exasperation feels like it was about a lot more than just the task at hand. It’s how most of us feel after almost two years of dealing with the pandemic.

In fact, a recent poll by Monmouth University found that six in 10 Americans feel worn out by pandemic-related changes they’ve had to make. Thirty-six percent feel “worn out a lot” and 24% feel “worn out a little.”

The lower thirds in this @CTVToronto piece are amazing.nn- Carter Trozzolo: Exhaustednn- Vishnu Jaynathan: Needs a Bigger Shovelnn- Miles Keller: Dog Ownerpic.twitter.com/emFO58aTG4

— tea, like the beverage (@tea, like the beverage)
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To take things a step further, the next interview in the clip feels like a metaphor for the futility of trying to get through the day with no end to the pandemic on the horizon. Toronto resident Vishnu Jayanthan attempts to dig his car out of the snow with nothing more than garden hand tools.

Vishnu Jayanthan “needs a bigger shovel” the chyron reads.

We could all use a bigger shovel and to be less exhausted.

Ozark: Season 4, Part 1 (Netflix series) — The bad news is that Marty Byrde and fam will only be with us for one more season. The good news is that this is a supersized season that will arrive in two halves, so let’s pretend that it’s two more seasons. Jason Bateman’s baby has been good to us all, even if it’s been bad for Marty, Wendy, and the kids, and so-so for Ruth (Julia Garner’s set to rule the world). This season, we’ll see what happened after the blood-spattered tarmac happenings. One can bet that this new beginning won’t be any more relaxing than the Byrdes’ money-laundering U.S. life.

Servant: Season 3 (Apple TV+ series) — M. Night Shyamalan wraps up his current showrunning and directing duties with his cult-focused series that should wrap up what’s going on with that spooky nanny. Baby Jericho’s returned, and the tension’s all the way up to eleven, but the horror still has another round to go before either releasing or destroying this entire cast of characters.

Here’s some regularly scheduled programming:

Saturday Night Live (Saturday, NBC 10:29pm) — Host Will Forte and musical guest Maneskin.

Billions (Sunday, Showtime 9:00pm) — God only knows how the Powers That Be plan to shake things up and carry on after Damian Lewis’ Bobby Axelrod has left the building. This week, Chuck is upstate and clearing out his noggin while Prince is reworking the whole joint to his liking. Or not.

Euphoria (Sunday, HBO 9:00pm) — The sad pancakes are all gone, and Rue and Jules have touched base again. Rue’s now into a new business venture while she’s helping to arrange a new friendship while Lexi and Cassie are onto new ventures in their own right.

The Righteous Gemstones (Sunday, HBO 10:00pm) — Judy’s not having a great time with the in-laws, Baby Billy’s not having a great time with his growing family, and Eli is not having a great time while Kelvin and Jesse conspire against him. Not great!

Somebody Somewhere (Sunday, HBO 10:35pm) — Sam’s bonding with members of the choir group while she and Joel find their friendship tested already.

Here are some more streaming picks:

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV+ series) — Get ready for this reboot of the 1980s Jim Hensen series that would never let the theme song leave your head. This is a half-hour series with more original songs, and expect these puppets to sound like Patti LaBelle, Ed Helms, Kenan Thompson, Cynthia Erivo, Daveed Diggs, and… The Foo Fighters? Yes.

Single Drunk Female (Freeform) — A 20-something alcoholic (portrayed by Sofia Black-D’Elia) must sober up and move back in with her mother, leaving her New York media career behind. This series is created by Simone Finch, and Jenni Konner executive produces this irreverent series about how a young woman must rebuild her life while being surrounded by constant alcohol triggers, including a formerly close friend who’s moved in on her ex. Not great, but you can’t let the world get you down forever.

Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye (Disney+ special) — Clint Barton and Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova in one show: the final product was better than most MCU fans dreamed possible. Here’s a look behind the scenes to see how the magic (and those stunts) happened.

La Fortuna: Season 1 (AMC+ series) — Stanley Tucci’s a rogue treasure hunter attempting to track down a sunken ship from the 1800s, and he get embroiled within a government conspiracy in the process. What more do you need to know?

The Royal Treatment (Netflix film) — A hairdresser in the Big Apple ends up making heads pretty for a charming prince’s wedding, and then, like, they end up having a thing? This sounds sketchy as heck, and of course, he’ll find himself torn between duty and love in the process. Bridgerton this ain’t.

The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman (Netflix series) — True crime fans can get a fix with this stunning story about Robert Freegard, who fleeced and conned several women and one man. These victims ended up believing that they were in, uh, operations for the secret service, and that they must comply for the safety of their families. Yikes.

Too Hot to Handle: Season 3 (Netflix series) — If you want to watch a bunch of beautiful people who are also sexually frustrated, then this is the dating show for you. Netflix is officially describing them as “horned-up hellraisers,” and yes, that sounds perfectly accurate. They’re all banking on being able to abstain from both sexual contact and solo gratification while playing this game for prize money…. and maybe some love? And yes, this one was inspired by Seinfeld. Watch out for those Costanzas.

Heavenly Bites (Netflix series) — Settle in to watch this series about all the food that Mexicans love to eat but hate to digest. Bring on the ghost peppers, baby.

Munich – The Edge of War (Netflix film) — This film, which is based upon Robert Harris’ international bestseller, takes place as Adolf Hitler’s gearing up (in 1938) to invade Czechoslovakia. Negotiations are also set to begin between a British civil servant and a German diplomat, who seek a peaceful resolution on behalf of Neville Chamberlain’s administration. The history books can tell us what happened next on the larger scale while this story also revolves around two men, also friends, who put themselves in danger while attempting to navigate political subterfuge.

Variety is reporting that Ex-Machina director Alex Garland’s latest project, an action film titled Civil War, to be distributed by A24, will star Kirsten Dunst. Civil War will also star Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Cailee Spaeny. Very few details of the film have been shared, other than the fact that Garland will direct and write the story, which takes place in the near future.

This marks Garland’s third collaboration with the studio, following the critically-acclaimed 2016 sci-fi thriller Ex-Machina starring Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson, and this year’s upcoming horror drama Men, starring Jesse Buckley. Garland also received praise for his 2018 sci-fi/horror thriller, Annihilation.

Dunst received buzz last year for her stellar performance in The Power Of The Dog alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and her longtime partner Jesse Plemons. Dunst was nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG award for her role as Rose Gordon in the western drama. This also marks the second time Garland will be working with actor Stephen McKinley Henderson, who starred in his science fiction miniseries Devs in 2020.

A24 has a handful of films in the works for this year, including Disappointment Blvd, Ari Aster’s newest horror-comedy, Ti West’s latest horror film, X, and Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World.

The Sopranos was a show with some wild twists, but arguably its most shocking revelation was that Vito Spatafore, the portly capo of the Aprile crew and one of Tony’s best earners, was actually a closeted homosexual. Initially spotted by Meadow’s boyfriend Finn DeTrolio going down on a security guard, Vito’s proclivities remained a secret to the rest of the crew from season five until a few episodes into season six. Vito gets spotted at a leather bar, mid lasso dance, and is forced to flee his closeted life, building up to a sort of “lost weekend” in New Hampshire in possibly my favorite episode, “Johnny Cakes.”

We’ve been discussing all of these episodes in-depth on our Sopranos podcast, Pod Yourself A Gun. Recently, we got in touch with Joe Gannascoli, the actor who played Vito. Actually, he emailed us out of the blue. As it turns out, Gannascoli’s story is as compelling as his character’s. Gannascoli, who had originally appeared as a bakery customer named “Gino” in season one (one of only three actors to play more than one speaking character on the show, the other two having both played twins), was partly responsible for the entire Vito storyline. He’d pitched it to one of the writers after learning about a real-life gay mobster from a book he was reading, called Murder Machine.

Gannascoli managed to parlay that anecdote into one of the show’s most memorable storylines. Of course, Gannascoli wasn’t always an actor. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he originally trained as a chef, working in Manhattan and New Orleans, dabbling in theater along the way. He says it was actually a gambling debt that spurred him to pursue acting full time. “Cody Carlson is responsible for my acting,” Gannascoli told the AP back in 2006. Carlson had started in place of injured Hall of Famer Warren Moon back in 1990, in a game that cost Gannascoli $60,000. Gannascoli ended up selling his stake in a restaurant to pay back his bookie and he moved to LA.

Since finding fame on The Sopranos, Gannascoli has published a novel, gotten married (“I got married late, and I said ‘I gotta get married quick here because people are really going to think that I’m gay,’ so it was a rush job.”), cooked for frontline workers, and hosted $125-a-head private dinners in New York. After his hip replacement surgery in 2006 (which was his real life, not just a Vito storyline) Gannascoli says he golfs every day (walking) and when we caught up with him, was just about to cook dinner for his 12-year-old daughter.

We enjoyed talking to Joe on the podcast so much we wanted to share the interview in print as well, so below is a written version of our conversation/interview. Enjoy.

—

JOE GANNASCOLI: How are you? What a pleasure. I’m so glad *I* made it happen.

UPROXX: You did. You did the legwork. We did nothing. But we have an email address, so that’s something.

That’s true…. I can’t tell you how many podcasts I get asked to do and I don’t do them…. There was another one by cast members that seemed to be pretty popular but I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t do it. I refused.

Is there a reason why you won’t do the other Sopranos podcast, with Steve [Schirripa] and Michael [Imperioli]?

Well, first of all, it’s over. Second of all, I had a falling out with one of them. It got nasty and then they seem to have forgotten and they asked me to come on. I’m thinking to myself, “Are you kidding me?” So I said, “No, I’m not interested. Thanks.”

So the first question that I always ask every guest of this podcast is, are you a fan of The Sopranos?

The show?

Yeah.

Yeah, I became a fan. I don’t watch it now like so many people watch. People email me and direct message me all the time that they’re rewatching it. I don’t, for several reasons, but when it was on I watched it like millions of others.

Do you not watch it now because it’s hard to see an other version of yourself or…

Two reasons, one is… Well, maybe three. I don’t like seeing Jimmy [James Gandolfini] on the screen. And my hips, that walk, it brings back painful memories. As soon as they killed me I had my double hip replacement done.

In the show, you said multiple times as Vito, “I was supposed to have hip surgery.” That was a real thing? You actually had that hip surgery?

Yes. And many times, if something was happening in your private life they would incorporate it into the show.

So are the hips good now?

Well, that happened in maybe ’06. And I play golf almost every morning now and I walk the course. I carry my clubs. Before I couldn’t take a step without unbelievable pain so compared to that and now where I am it was the best move ever.

You mentioned Jim Gandolfini, I never had seen him in real life, just in the show. But I’ve noticed that he has these giant catcher’s mitts for hands. What was his presence like in person?

He was just a big bear of a guy, 6’3″. I don’t know what his weight was, I’d venture to say 240, 260 maybe. I’m not even sure. He was pretty much in shape. He was just a big man. He was very low-key. He didn’t come off as imposing. He was funny. He was affable. He didn’t come off as intimidating off camera.

You talked about them incorporating real-life things with the actors into the show, but the whole Vito arc where he’s gay, that was your idea, right? That was something that you’d pitched to David Chase?

I didn’t suggest it to David Chase himself because I never really interacted with him. But one of the writers was always on set and probably the writer that wrote that episode — you gotta do it sort of on the down-low. You don’t want to show like, “Hey, I got this idea and I think it’d be great so I could get more acting in scenes in stuff.” You don’t want to come off like a douchebag.

Right, like you don’t want to go in there and be like, “What if I killed Tony and then now the show’s about me?”

That’s exactly right. So I had to do it on the down-low and I was reading a book called Murder Machine, a true story about a crew in Brooklyn and I’m from Brooklyn. And one of the characters in it was gay and I thought that was… I was like, “Wow, it was a gay mobster.” And I said, I’m in a mob show and that’d be kind of interesting. Maybe I’ll bring it to their attention and say I’d be willing to do it. Well, it took them about two years for it to come to fruition but it changed my life. Thank God they did it. It’s not what I had in mind, the way they portrayed it, but I’m glad they did. It made him a little more sympathetic. And the scene with the security guard, I was on the wrong end of that scene.

Is that how you found out, they passed out the script and then all of a sudden you read that scene?

No, no. They stopped giving the scripts to the actors. One of the actors got a little tipsy, so to speak, left the script in a cab and they freaked out because everything was so highly secretive. So they just gave us our sides. I’m sure Jimmy and Edie got their scripts but they just gave us our sides, the ones that we were in the scenes. And the crew got the scripts because they had to prepare for it, hair, makeup, props, and so forth. So we all had our little moles and we’d ask them, “Hey, what’s going on next episode? Am I in it? Do I have some good stuff?” And my guy would say, “No. You’re in it. You’re not in it.”

So this one time I ask him and I said, “What’s going on?” And he said, “Oh, you got some good stuff going on.” “You read it? Do I get killed?” “No, you don’t get killed.” I said, “Oh, good. I can’t wait to read it.” He goes, “Oh, but by the way, you’re going to be blowin a guy.” So I go, “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” I go, “What?” Because now I’m thinking 1), “Holy shit, they’re doing it.” And 2) “My fuckin’ friends are going to torture me in Brooklyn.”

Yeah.

I get the sides and sure enough I am. I get to the studio for the read-through and everybody was waiting downstairs and Sirico, Paulie Walnuts, says, “Hey, you guys know my friend? Joe, the cocksucker.” And Stevie Van Zandt says, “Joe, they’re going to break your balls in the neighborhood.” And Jimmy took me aside and says, “Listen, if you’re not comfortable with this, we don’t have to do it. We’ll go talk to David.” So I said, “I kind of asked for it. Not what I had in mind but as long as they don’t treat it like the Russian, I’m okay.” And so they said, “Look, we’re going to do that scene, nothing else on it, but the next year’s going to be a big year for you.” So that’s how that all came about.

Later, towards this arc that we’ve been talking about in these latest episodes, when you’re actually in a relationship with this guy, did they audition different guys for that firefighter role?

So John Costelloe, as you know, passed. May he rest in peace. He was a well-known New York actor. He was a firefighter and I actually knew him through a mutual friend and we actually worked together on something small and he was really respected. And we figured that (casting directors) Georgianne Walken and even Sheila Jaffe would know him because they knew the New York actors. So when I walked in they told me, “At lunch we want you to come upstairs and read with who’s going to be whoever it is.” I was relieved to see it was John Costelloe. It was someone I knew so it wasn’t sort of awkward and stuff.

I will say that there was one scene when we are rolling around in the hay, with the bikes, and I said, “Johnny, you got to do something with the f*ckin’ mustache because it’s going in my mouth and I’m about to vomit.” So hair and makeup fixed that. They tried to f*ckin’ brush it up as much as they could. I said, “Just let’s f*ckin’ do this and let’s get it over with.”

Did you tell them you have to shampoo it or something because I can taste last night’s dinner on it and it’s just too much?

It had a funky taste, I’ll tell you…

Did you end up getting as much shit from the guys in your neighborhood as you imagined that you would after these episodes aired?

You know, guys in Brooklyn, just like The Sopranos, just like Italians in the neighborhood, they like to break balls. If I had a f*ckin’ argument with somebody they’d say, “So what are you going to do now, blow me?” But for the most part, they knew it was acting.

Sure.

And I had some “real guys” [connected guys] in the neighborhood, but I know real guys, and they started giving me dirty looks when I was in a club or a restaurant. I was like, “What the f*ck is up with them?” They go, “Ah, the part. [They] don’t like the part you’re playing.” I go, “What the f*ck, it’s acting.” … And then they go, “Yeah, but they don’t like it.” And I go, “Ah, what the f*ck do they want me to do? It is what it is.” And so those are the guys that are knuckleheads but they were real guys and so yeah, they broke balls for a while, but for the most part it was good fun.

They’re so homophobic that even the portrayal of a gay man on TV they’re like, “I don’t like it. I just don’t. I don’t agree with this.”

Yeah. Sometimes if it really bothers them, I think they’re maybe… I mean I’m not f*ckin’ Freud here but I think they’re on the fence. Now, as far as me, I was in the restaurant business. I lived in New Orleans. I worked in a gay restaurant. I worked in Manhattan restaurants. If you have a problem with gays you shouldn’t be in the restaurant business. So I’m the type of guy who lives and let lives as long as it doesn’t interfere with me.

So since you were someone who was familiar with the world of gambling and whatnot, and you’re someone who grew up in Brooklyn, did you actually have run-ins with a lot of these mafioso characters? Were you able to look at The Sopranos and go, “Oh, this is true to the people I knew,” or kind of an exaggeration?

No, it was true in a lot of ways. Like I said, I grew up in Brooklyn, I know real guys. I’m talking about sons of heads of families, the real five families and who they’re with and you read about them and you know about them. And you know how it works. Not that I was around killings and stuff like that, but guys I know were these loan sharks and these shylocks, guys that are made, and guys that are connected, guys that wannabe. Guys that caught beatings or even killed for messing with someone’s daughter or wife. That happened growing up.

The show was pretty much on the money and certainly the lines — like sometimes I read so many things that people have said I’m doing a mob thing and I go, “Nobody talks like that. Nobody says ‘Capiche.’”

Right. Nobody actually goes around saying, “That’s-a spicy meatball.” That’s just not something that the mafia says.

Yeah, exactly. They didn’t go with the old contrived dialogue.

You talked about the secrecy of the scripts and them trying to keep those under wraps. Was there a lot of trepidation among the cast when you’d get the new scripts? Were people always sort of worried about their characters getting killed off and losing out on the future paydays?

Oh, 100%. That was everybody’s biggest fear. You’re in a mob show. What’s a mob show without guys getting killed? You’d know it was someone at the end of the year and it was Pussy, it was Jackie Junior, and I guess that was the big hit. Richie Aprile got it.

Were you ever around any of the actors when they found out that their character was getting killed off?

No, I think that David might’ve called them in and told them, depending on the actor. I know when I found out I went in and talked to him. I was trying to get to season six, the second part… and I said… “it’d be great if he could live and still earn, that Tony has evolved, you live and let live.” He let me speak for about five minutes and when I was done he said, “You’re going.” And I said, “Okay, thank you.”

Has anyone ever successfully talked themselves out of getting script whacked?

I don’t know. I think that once it was set, it was set. And because in his mind he’s got a way things are going to happen and fall into place.

One thing that we noticed or maybe suspected about David Chase in the course of making this podcast is that he seems to really like fat jokes, even to the point of, you wonder whether certain people were cast specifically so that he could write more fat jokes into the script. And then you ended up losing a bunch of weight towards the later seasons. When you’re reading scripts and there are fat jokes about your character, did you ever get your feelings hurt or was that ever a thing?

Yeah, it bothered me. It actually bothered me. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s why he kept me around… That’s a fuckin’ good point. I never fuckin’ thought about it. Good job there, Vince. I was always breaking the chair, that was one.

Ginny Sack, there was a whole arc about her being fat. Bobby [Baccala] being forced to do Santa Claus.

Yeah, now that I think about it, that’s a good point. I wonder. But yeah, it bothered me because I was always in shape. I had pictures when I was younger with my wife and I was an in-shape kind of guy and I took pride on that. Then when I became a chef, I stopped going to the gym and you start eating like an animal, drinking. That’s the lifestyle, for me anyway. Gambling. I’m just living like a real animal. So yeah, it just went all downhill after that.

In the episode where they discover that Vito’s gay at the leather bar, do you remember what you were thinking the first time that they came in and showed you the wardrobe that you were going to have for that?

I had to go up for a fitting and I said, “I’m wearing that?” They said, “Yeah.” And I said, “I’m not doing this without dungarees on. Nobody wants to see me in assless chaps.” And those people in that scene were real guys that they went out and got from the West Village, or the East Village, so that was interesting.

Did you improvise that move where you were doing like, a cowboy with a lasso?

Yeah, yeah. I don’t know how to dance. I’m very happy that I have my own GIF. When someone’s happy that they got a raise, they send them that GIF.

That a great GIF.

That was a move like I didn’t know what to do, so I did the old lasso move.

It’s a great move. It’s iconic.

And I think it was Buscemi directing or maybe Terry Winters. They said this is the last take, you do what you want to do. And I didn’t know what they were implying… but I gave him a kiss just because I said, let me just go for it, you know what I mean? And he was a real guy. He was a personal shopper at Barneys.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

The last two-plus years of Zach Collins’ life have been filled with surgeries, rehab, and basketball games that are consumed from the bench while wearing street clothes. Collins, then a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, hasn’t played in a game since Aug. 15, 2020 due to injuries to his ankle and foot, and before that, he spent months on the sideline with a labrum injury that required surgery, too. Now with the San Antonio Spurs, Dime sat down with Collins to hear from him about his road back to basketball.

That labrum injury, the one that you suffered in 2019, do you remember when that happened? What ended up leading to it, and as a guy who had never had that kind of really serious injury, what goes through your mind the moment you suffer it, and the moment you hear you’re going to be out for a while because you need surgery?

So the way it happened was, it was in our third game into the season, we were playing Dallas. And me and Luka [Doncic], were going up for a rebound. He had the position on me, so I was just trying to, like, jump on top of him without getting caught. And I put my arm on his shoulder, and for some reason, when he jumped up, I don’t know, I guess my shoulder was really slacked or something and it just popped out. After that, I was like, damn, I can’t move my shoulder. And I figured once I was locked in this position, I figured that something was wrong and I figured that it popped out.

My first thought was, damn, now they got to pop this thing back in, this is gonna hurt. But I didn’t really know what the recovery was gonna be like, I wasn’t familiar with those injuries. I didn’t automatically think, oh, I’m gonna be out for the rest of the season. I had a lot of questions, I was like, what do we do now? Now that it’s popped, can I go back and play now that it’s popped back in, like, what do we got to do? When I got back there, it was X-rays, and then putting it back in, which, them putting it back in actually felt a lot better than I thought it would. I was really thankful for that, I was really nervous. And once it popped back in, I felt like I was ready to go play.

But they said that there’s a lot more tests that need to be run to just make sure that nothing else is wrong with it. I just didn’t know, and then somebody told me that even if there’s no damage or anything, it might take a couple of weeks just to rehab it and keep an eye on it, make sure that you don’t come back too early, when everything’s kind of weak in there, and still, for lack of a better word, flustered from getting popped out. That way, we can make sure that nothing bad happens to it. And then we got MRIs and a bunch of different pictures and it showed that I had a labrum tear. And that was, like, two or three days after it happened.

Once I found that out, then there was a couple options. You could not do surgery and just take some time off and then come back and wear some type of brace or something like that. You could just go about it that way and deal with the risk of it possibly popping out again. Or you could do surgery, and then it’s like, however many months it was. I was faced with that decision, basically. I talked to a bunch of doctors, and talked to my agent, and people around me, and basically said that the shoulder’s gonna pop out again at some point, and we all just agreed that it was better to take care of it now to make sure that it wouldn’t pop out again, and then be fine the rest of my career.

What goes through your mind when you’re told you’re going to go under the knife? And if my math is right, you got the surgery in November, you would have come back in April. And with no pandemic, I’m guessing this was a move done with being ready for the playoffs in mind.

I remember being in a sling for my birthday. I remember where we were at. It’s funny, because we were actually in San Antonio when it happened, I just thought about that. We were in San Antonio, we’re in the locker room, and our trainer brought me into a room, just me and him, basically told me the results of the MRI was like, you got a torn labrum, so you got some decisions to make and broke it down for me. At that point, I still had questions, I still needed to talk to my agent and see what he thought and talk to multiple doctors and get more opinions. But obviously, I did not want to do surgery. I didn’t, it was a very hard decision. It’s not really a gamble if you do surgery, it’s more of like, it just takes away a lot of your season. And then the other one was a gamble.

I felt like if I did do surgery, I’d be letting my team down. That was the year that I was a starter, that’s my first year as a starter. I didn’t want to give that up. After two years of being with them and coming off the bench, that third year was my year to start and be solidified as a starter in the NBA.

So all those things are on my mind, it was just very frustrating to have that opportunity and then to have it go south within three games. It was just very frustrating. But ultimately, I got the right information from a lot of people and we decided to go surgery. And once that happened, I’ll repeat it probably throughout all the talks about surgeries, but once you have a plan and you decide what you’re going to do, then it was much better for me. I just kind of was like, okay, get surgery now, it sucks, but it’s not gonna help me being sad and upset all the time. So now we just got to attack the rehab, and that’s what we did.

Were there any guys on the team who, either while you were making the decision or while you were going through rehab, were really good listeners, and gave you really good advice and guidance on how to go about things?

Everybody was really cool about it. When you talk to players, it’s always look out for yourself and be smart about it, and don’t get pressure from other people, and don’t make a decision based off that stuff. You got to make an educated decision based off the facts and what your doctors and your agents are telling you. Everybody pretty much gave me that same advice.

I think guys were kind of upset. I think guys were kind of like, ah crap, we lost our starting forward, now what do we do — so early in the season, especially the way we were going, it was just going to be a good, like, getting into a good spot. I don’t know, it was just kind of bad timing, so I think a lot of guys were kind of upset, and not upset at me for going to do the surgery, but just upset that it happened. But a lot of guys were very open to talking to me, and they were just like, at the end of the day, you got to look out for yourself and what’s best for your career. That was pretty much the consensus from everybody I talked to.

If the timeline is about four months, and you got it in November: December 2019, January, February, March of 2020. Do you remember when you were supposed to return and how long after the league shut down that was supposed to be?

I’m pretty sure I was supposed to be back in March. I don’t think I was back … I don’t remember if I was back playing yet. I think I was back doing some contact. But I don’t think I had been playing against players. I think the plan was for me to go down to a G League team. Portland didn’t have one, so we would have had to pick one. So I think I was coming back in March. And then everything shut down, and then we had to deal with that. It’s a horrible situation, but it gave me a lot more time to really get ready, get my body right, and get the shoulder right. Guys weren’t allowed in the facility, but the NBA, because I was injured and going through rehab, they allowed me to be in the facility like three times a week. So, I just had a lot more time to get my body ready for the comeback instead of, I wouldn’t say rushing into it, but it was just a luxury of having more and more time to get ready. But yeah, the plan was to come back in March, and then it just got extended.

At that point, like you said, there’s all the unfortunate stuff that comes with it, but from your perspective, it’s, “Wait, now I know I’m not going to be coming back until my body is 110 percent ready.”

Exactly. It was all that. It’s terrible that that’s the way it happened, but I definitely feel like it’ll help in the long run with my shoulder and it being stable for the rest of my career, we just were able to put a lot more time into it and really just focus on that and getting it more than ready. I think it’ll be a good thing looking back on it that we just kind of waited, because when you cut back, I probably would have continued to do the rehab on the shoulder even though I was playing, but it wouldn’t have been as focused, it would have been more about basketball.

Collins did, eventually, get a chance to play basketball again during the 2019-20 NBA season. At the time the league suspended operations on March 11, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Portland was 29-37, good for ninth place in the Western Conference. For that reason, they were one of the 13 squads from the West that earned an invitation to the league’s Orlando Bubble at Disney World.

They announce the Bubble, you’re going to be coming back during that. What do you remember going through your head when they announced the Bubble, both from the perspective of being an NBA player and also being an NBA player for whom this is going to be your first chance to play basketball since November?

I was very excited. I was excited that the NBA was going to come back, I think it was important for everybody to get that going. And the fact that the NBA found a way to get that all set up was pretty big time. And I hadn’t played in so long that I was just very excited to finally get back out there. And considering where we were as a team, in the rankings and all that, it was kind of like we had to really go out there and focus, and every game was just of monumental importance when we went up there. So, the intensity of our team, the focus we had to have, it made everything really fun.

I jumped ahead there, but when I first heard of the NBA starting up, I was shocked. And I was very excited. It kind of felt like we were getting back to a little bit of normalcy, even though the Bubble was far from a normal situation, it was just cool to have sports back. It was cool, and obviously, the fact that we were one of the teams that were able to make that cut and go was big time as well.

You start playing, the team does pretty well while they’re in there, getting that spot in the playoffs, and then you end up getting hurt again. What happened the moment you got hurt, and again, like the last time I asked this, what goes through your head when it now has this added thing of “I just got back” on top of it?

So it wasn’t really a moment where I got hurt, it was just over time, the fracture was caused from a bone spur that just kept getting bigger and bigger and causing more agitation to the ankle and to that spot. The first time I felt it, it was either the Dallas game or the Brooklyn game that I started to feel it, and it just kind of kept getting worse. We kept getting pictures on it and nothing really showed up. I think we were getting X-rays and MRIs and they were all looking good, we were cool with that.

And then I think going into Memphis, the last game, I was not practicing, I was just kind of laboring the ankle, I was not doing anything. We were just hoping that I could just be ready for game time. I think before the Memphis game, I didn’t even do a pregame workout, just because we wanted to save it. All I did was mobility in the weight room, and I felt good. I hadn’t ran yet, I can’t remember if I did a workout, I don’t think I did. But I hadn’t ran yet, and I hadn’t really jumped that day. And walking around, the ankle actually felt pretty good.

And then, I go out for warmups for the Memphis game, and I take my first few strides, and I’m like, this is not good. I took my first few strides and it was just painful as hell. I remember telling one of the guys, one of the other power forwards, I think Wenyen Gabriel, like, “Be ready today, bro, because I don’t know if I’ll be able to go.” The game starts and I’m limping from the first possession. Again, there was no I went for a dunk, or I went for a rebound and I came down and twisted it. None of that happened. It just, over time, it got worse and worse and worse. I think towards the end of that first quarter, the trainers just noticed that I wasn’t right. And if you watch the film on that game, you can clearly tell that I’m just laboring up and down the court, trying to get stuff done, but I just couldn’t do it. I could have labored my way through the game, probably, but I would have been really slow and kind of a liability, so they just pulled me.

After that, that’s when we got better images of the thing, and we saw that there was a fracture — I think a couple practices into the Lakers preparation, we found out. They had shut me down, I wasn’t practicing, I was just doing cardio on a bike. I did my CT, I think before practice, I came in, I did cardio, and then after practice, I was sitting down and they told me there was a fracture. And then after that, everything went how it went.

You’re a basketball player, you’ve surely done things to your ankle a million times in your life. Was it in that warm-up against Memphis where you were like, “Oh, no, this is something different from the ankle rolls I’ve had”? Or did you feel before those other games against Dallas and against Brooklyn that something might have been up?

It was weird, because we didn’t know what exactly it was. It wasn’t really keeping me up at night, it wasn’t super swollen. There was a little bit of swelling, but it wasn’t blown up. And it wasn’t really on a typical ankle spot. You know what? Now that I’m thinking about it, it was the Clippers game that I felt something. And it was after the Clippers game, I had taken my shoe off and the area of the fracture, I didn’t know at the time, it was just really achy and really sore. I remember for a while, I was just telling the trainers and we would treat it, we’d stretch and they would do massages on it and all that.

I didn’t think there was anything crazy, like a stress fracture. But I definitely knew that something wasn’t right. I’d walk around and it was fine, but the moment I started pounding on it, and you know, jumping and running, that’s when it was really, really painful. So, I don’t know, I think at the time, I was just like, something’s definitely wrong, maybe there’s something wrong with the tendons in there, or the ankle’s just really inflamed for some reason. Maybe being back and playing again, the ankle’s kind of shocked and it’s just telling me to relax, I don’t know. But I definitely didn’t think it was a fracture or anything.

Collins originally underwent surgery in Sept. 2020 after the Blazers were eliminated from the postseason by the Los Angeles Lakers. That ended up being the first he’d receive on his foot and ankle, and nearly three months later, he’d get his second. Collins underwent “a refresher” on Dec. 30, 2020, four games into the Blazers’ 2020-21 campaign. He was ruled out indefinitely and would not play again that season.

The season started on Christmas in 2020. You just missed however many months the year before, you came back and you get hurt. And now this entire next season, nothing’s gonna happen. What’s it like getting that bomb dropped on you?

It was definitely a low point. It was tough, because I felt like I had put in a lot of work to get back. It’s frustrating with this thing because I didn’t do anything. It was just a bone spur in my ankle that was continuing to grow. So it just felt very much out of my control. I thought that during the rehab process, I did a decent job of eating correctly, and working out, and taking it seriously, and it just didn’t work out. It is a tough area for blood flow, and that’s why it’s such a bitch to get to heal.

But it sucked, man. You put in a lot of work, and the team is waiting on you to come back. I don’t think our team was struggling at that point, but I know that I could have helped them. So, that plays into it as well.

And then you feel like you’re the guy who’s just always injured now, and you feel like that’s your narrative around you, and that just pisses you off, too. And then there’s the thought of, well, damn, now we got to get another surgery, and then we got to start over again. I got to be non-weight bearing for a while, I got to be rolling around on a scooter, all that plays into it. It was just a shitty situation.

You talk about all that hard stuff that comes with it regarding what you feel, the feeling you’re letting your team down, actually dealing with the injury and feeling like you have that reputation around you. How do you push on and persevere and convince yourself “I’m gonna come back stronger than ever” when you’re in those really dark places? Like, is that a light when you’re surrounded by all that darkness?

I always come back to it, and I’m probably gonna repeat it a lot, but you can either be a sad sack and just not work hard and just give up and give up on your career and just say, “You know what? I’m done rehabbing, it’s too much, I don’t want to continue to push.” You could do that. Or you could turn it into a positive and say, “Well, I have all this time to work on other stuff. I’m still in the NBA, I still have a job, I’m still getting paid lots of money to do a job, and there are people out there whose problems are a lot worse than mine.” And I think perspective helped with that.

At the end of the day, I was just like, this basketball stuff is what I want to do. This whole situation just feels like somebody’s got like these chains on me, and they’re holding me back from doing what I want to do. And in my head, I’m just like, I’m just gonna keep showing up, I’m gonna keep doing the work, and eventually, this whole painful situation, it will subside, and I will be a basketball player again. So, that was my view, just keep showing up, keep being positive, and make the most of this situation and make the most of your life, and that was it for me.

What’s it like rehabbing and going through all of that when you’re basically doing it with the understanding that, “I’m just going to be sitting here watching this season”? What was it like being a spectator who has pretty good seats to Portland Trail Blazers games for a year?

It sucks, bro. You get to watch basketball all the time, but you don’t get to be out there and have that competitive spirit, that competitiveness with your teammates. You’re now the clapper on the bench. You can try to hype your guys up and talk trash, but now you’re that guy who doesn’t play and just talks trash on the sidelines. It’s just not fun, there’s nothing great about it. It’s fun to be out there and watch, I tried to take advantage of it and tried to learn from a lot of guys out there, and tried to watch the game from a different perspective, being on the bench — again, take advantage of the negative situation.

But it’s not what you want to be doing. You want to be out there playing. It gets boring — you don’t want to just go to the gym and just watch more basketball, you want to actually play. I say that, I was like, “I’m gonna keep showing up, keep being positive.” But every day wasn’t sunshine and rainbows. That was my mindset, but I don’t want to be that guy that was just always positive all the time, because it wasn’t the case. You just got to push through a little bit of that stuff.

As far as being a fan of the game, I’ve had my time of watching it on the sideline. More than I’ll ever need, I think.

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas got married towards the end of 2018, and now the celebrity couple is celebrating a new addition to the Jonas family: They announced today that a surrogate has given birth to their first child, making them first-time parents. People reports the baby was born on January 15.

Jonas and Chopra made the announcement by sharing the same image of text on Instagram and tagging each other in their posts. The posts read, “We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate. We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family. Thank you so much [heart emoji].”

Around this time in 2021, Chopra described how many children she wanted to have, telling The Times, “A cricket team! [laughs] I do want children, as many as I can have. A cricket team? I’m not so sure.” Soon after that, she spoke to E! News and said, “Family is a big part of my life. It’s always been a part of my dreams, and I’ll take what I get, you know? Leave it up to the God almighty.”

Shortly after Chopra’s soundbites, Jonas told Extra, “We’d be blessed with any child, son or daughter or anything. I’m sure [Chopra’s] mother will want to weigh in [on the baby’s name] and my family would want to weigh in, too… But just knocking wood that it happens.”

As the world mourns the death of Meat Loaf, perhaps best known for his 2008 AT&T GoPhone commercial, many are looking back on the actor/rocker’s career and uncovering his most iconic stories,

In a recently unearthed 2003 interview with The Guardian, Meat Loaf, who’s real name is Michael Lee Aday, recalled a time when he got into an argument with (formerly royal) Prince Andrew on the set of an ill-fated charity event called, It’s A Royal Knockout in 1987. According to Aday, Prince Andrew wasn’t comfortable with the rockstar talking to his then-wife, Sarah Ferguson.

“Fergie wasn’t exactly flirting with me, but she was paying attention to me, and I think Andrew got a little — I could be wrong, I’m just reading into this — I think he got a little jealous. Anyway, he tried to push me in the water. He tried to push me in the moat,” Meat Loaf recalled.

“So I turned around and I grabbed him and he goes, ‘You can’t touch me. I’m royal.’ I said, ‘Well you try to push me in the moat, Jack, I don’t give a shit who you are, you’re goin’ in the moat.’” Despite this, it doesn’t seem like Prince Andrew went in the moat.

Meat Loaf was loved by many for his rockstar roles in Tenacious D, Fight Club, and, of course, his hit tracks, “I Would Do Anything For Love,” and “Bat Out Of Hell.” No cause of death was named, though was reportedly was ‘very ill’ with COVID earlier this week.

Following the death of his dear, longtime friend and Full House co-star Bob Saget, actor John Stamos has shared the raunchy, but touching tribute speech he gave at Saget’s funeral. After starring together on the hit ’80s sitcom, Stamos and Saget, along with co-star Dave Coulier, have remained close friends for over 30 years. Saget and Stamos recently reunited for the Full House revival series, Fuller House, and it was evident on the screen why they’ve had one of the most enduring friendships in Hollywood.

In a special to The Los Angeles Times, Stamos shared the complete eulogy that he delivered at Saget’s funeral, and it’s full of all the heartfelt moments and crude jokes that the late actor/comedian enjoyed in life. Alongside memories of Saget helping Stamos deal with the loss of his parents while filming Full House and performing together with Coulier after all of these years, Stamos did the best to capture what it was like to have Saget by his side.

Here are just some of the excerpts that capture the bawdy, but again, touching tribute:

He should still be out there challenging himself creatively, stripping down all the Hollywood bull—, traveling to small towns around the country, giving the people raw, wild, unpredictable, and uncensored Saget. “Tonight’s specials are cake and cock … and we’re out of cake.”

Personally, I hope to die after a beautiful night of lovemaking with my wife, but I’m glad Bob didn’t go that way. As I said, I rather he dies after doing what he did best. (Sorry, Kelly.) That’s the kind of joke Bob loved.

He loved hard and deep. (Cue Bob to make a joke out of “hard and deep.”) He would do that during tragedies and honestly, it would piss me off sometimes. That’s how he got through the darkness, and sadly he had a lot of it in his life. Now that I’m dealing with him dying, I sort of get it.

You can read more of John Stamos’ eulogy for Bob Saget here.

(Via The Los Angeles Times)