Despite going off the air in 2007 there are plenty of fans who would love to see more of The Sopranos, but perhaps few could have expected the COVID-19 epidemic to bring us a new script for the HBO drama.
Vulture pointed out on Tuesday that the latest episode of Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa’s Talking Sopranos podcast included a dramatic reading of a new coronavirus-inspired script written by David Chase. The show’s creator of The Wire was part of the Sopranos writing staff and apparently was inspired by the pandemic to flesh out how the cast would handle life in quarantine.
Vulture has the whole thing transcribed, but please enjoy a brief snippet heard on the podcast, which is a lot of Tony complaining about a lack of sports gambling.
PAULIE WALNUTS: Man, people call me a germaphobe. Big laugh. Now all I’ve got to say is: See, motherf*ckers? And I knew some f*ckin’ thing like this was going to happen. I saw the Holy Mother at Bada Bing.
TONY SOPRANO: Sports betting? F*cking gone with the wind, along with professional sports. Me and my friends are dying over here. The president might have a point. Let’s get business and manufacturing going again — by Easter, May Day, whatever the f*ck.
Does this confirm that Tony is still alive despite the mysterious ending the show gave us more than a decade ago? Maybe, though some other dead characters are in the script as well. But it definitely confirms that folks are finding some interesting projects to take on while in isolation. Including David Chase.
[via Vulture]
The Last Dance has given us so much over the past three weeks that it’s hard to keep track of all its many joys and wonders. For those of us who grew up idolizing Michael Jordan, it’s both a trip down memory lane and revealing look behind the scenes of one of the most compelling sports figures of all-time.
Sure, the petty beefs and bitter rivalries that are still simmering all these years later are endlessly entertaining, but there’s also all sorts of random historical ephemera that adds so much texture to it all. Take, for example, the stunning curly-mulleted security guard that has popped up a few times in the archival footage from inside the Bulls locker room.
The man in question, John Michael Wozniak, has now become a viral sensation after episode six, after an incredible scene in which he took Jordan’s money in a game of quarters, then hit him with the shoulder shrug.
This security dude hit Michael Jordan with the Jordan shrug after winning at quarters! #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/yxFs2kcVnm
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 4, 2020
Sadly, Wozniak died earlier this year after a battle with colon cancer, but his son Nicholi says his father would’ve loved all the attention its garnered him.
Via Matt Fortuna of The Athletic:
The 35-year-old Nicholi never stopped giving his old man grief for his eccentric hairstyle. If father’s responses to son over the years were any indication, then John had a good laugh Sunday night up in heaven.
“Dad, why don’t you cut your hair and wear it like Pat Riley? Your hair is like 20 years old,” Nicholi recalled of his pleas. “I was a kid in grammar school, and he was like, ‘Nick, it’s my mark. It’s my brand. It’s my emblem. It’s like a lion’s mane.’ And I was like, Dad, you’re gonna get roasted one day. And I swear to God if he knew (about Sunday) he would be doing the same thing to me, ‘I told you!’ It was his mark. Everybody is playing into exactly what he wanted.”
Wozniak was a long-time narcotics officer in Chicago who quickly endeared himself to Jordan after once accidentally busting out the back window of his SUV while parking it at Chicago Stadium. He worked on Jordan’s security detail for more than 20 years after that.
