How Gay Is Vo om The Sopranos? | Observer

Contents:

• HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?
• GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME
• SOPRANOS‘ GAY CHARACTER ‘JOHNNY CAK’ KILLS HIMSELF
• THE GAY MOBSTER ‘SOPRANOS’ WRERS USED AS THE BASIS FOR VO SPATAFORE
• WAS PHIL LEOTARDO GAY?
• ‘THE SOPRANOS’ BELONGS TO THE GAYS NOW

HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?

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.

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.

GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME

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. 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.

SOPRANOS‘ GAY CHARACTER ‘JOHNNY CAK’ KILLS HIMSELF

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.

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

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.

WAS PHIL LEOTARDO GAY?

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. ”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.

But even amid all the recent gay buzz, Gannasli knows the reactn to Vo won’t be all posive.

‘THE SOPRANOS’ BELONGS TO THE GAYS NOW

“The actor who portrayed the gay lover of a closeted mobster on “The Sopranos” has died of a self-flicted gunshot wound New York, police said.