''The Sopranos'': Tony's gay issu |

Contents:

• GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME
• HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?
• THE GAY MOBSTER ‘SOPRANOS’ WRERS USED AS THE BASIS FOR VO SPATAFORE
• JOE GANNASLI DISCS HIS LIFE DURG AND SCE PLAYG GAY MOBSTER VO SPATAFORE ON ‘THE SOPRANOS’
• WAS PHIL LEOTARDO GAY?
• ''THE SOPRANOS'': TONY'S GAY ISSU

GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME

In 2004, the Season 5 episo "Unintified Black Mal", is disclosed to viewers Vo is fact homosexual after he is seen performg fellat on a secury guard early one morng at the Esplana nstctn se by Meadow's boyiend, Fn De Trol.

Vo at the gay bar. Later, that eveng while makg a llectn at a gay bar, two Lupertazzi Fay associat, one named Sal Iaccuzzo, saw Vo dancg provotively wh a gay man.

HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?

The Iaccuzzo character was based on real-life Gambo Crime Fay po Matthew Lanniello, who was known to extort and own several nightclubs New York Cy that tered to homosexual clientele. Vo claimed that his homosexual behavr had been ed by meditn.

Lupertazzi crime fay boss Phil Leotardo, a vilent homophobe, mand Vo's ath, so Tony quietly arranged for Carlo Gervasi to make a h on Vo.

THE GAY MOBSTER ‘SOPRANOS’ WRERS USED AS THE BASIS FOR VO SPATAFORE

It was later revealed that Vo was found wh a pool cue stick his rectum, a msage that he was killed bee of his homosexualy. Phil Leotardo later told Vo's wife, Marie, that her hband was probably killed by two homosexual transients Vo had picked up at a bar. ”Drsed appropriate leather bar attire, Vo Spatafore — the heretofore closeted gay mobster — was sighted by a uple wiseguys who me by the sweaty S&M jot to llect their protectn money.

)Now that the gay story le is heatg up, the 47-year-old Brooklyn-born actor is immensely pleased, part bee was his ia to make Vo homosexual.

“I wanted to make him sort of self-nial, self-loathg, a real gay hater. ”Gannasli’s suggtn was spired by the book “Murr Mache, ” about the Gambo fay, which had an openly gay member also named Vo.

JOE GANNASLI DISCS HIS LIFE DURG AND SCE PLAYG GAY MOBSTER VO SPATAFORE ON ‘THE SOPRANOS’

But even amid all the recent gay buzz, Gannasli knows the reactn to Vo won’t be all posive. Gannasli is known to Sopranos watchers as “Gay Vo” (or even GaVo, certa exotic circl). Gannasli dancg gleefully a biker’s p a leather bar, or gog on the lam to a gay Shangri-La ( this se, “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire) and fallg love wh the handsome mtached ok om the der—“Johnny Cak”—that have given TV viewers that rare feelg that they are watchg somethg new.

Sure, there have been plenty of gay characters on televisn before: wacky Jack om Will & Grace, or David, the fsy unrtaker wh the hot p boyiend on Six Feet Unr.

But the plight of Gay Vo has stirred up siar feelgs to those viewers felt when they first tuned on Sunday nights 1999 to see a Prozac-poppg Mafia boss spill his guts to his therapist.

WAS PHIL LEOTARDO GAY?

Gannasli’s character, Vo Spatafore, was revealed as a closeted gay man when, at the end of last season, viewers spied his head e bobbg up om the lap of a secury guard.

GANNASCOLI who had ially brought up the ia of a gay mobster to the show’s wrers durg the filmg of season three, after he’d read Murr Mache by Gene Mta and Jerry Capeci, about an openly gay member of the Gambo crime fay who was allowed to live bee he was a good earner. Early this season, the stage for tragedy was set when Vo was spotted by mobsters as he gallivanted full leather regalia a gay bar. Gannasli was recently asked to serve as grand marshal at an Atlanta Gay Pri para, and he’s received letters om openly gay and closeted men appldg his portrayal.

“Beg the rtrant bs, you’re wh a lot of gays, ” he shgged. In the seri when they fd out that Vo is gay Tony says to the whole crew "we all know h not the 1st" and they all get very quiet so I started to wonr if that was a real thg. Gannasli had read a book about a gay mobster who was an associate of New York’s Gambo crime fay.

''THE SOPRANOS'': TONY'S GAY ISSU

Gambo associate Vo Arena had survived as a gay mobster the ’80s.

There’s a mobster who’s gay and you don’t really see that.