How Gay Is Vo om The Sopranos? | Observer

Contents:

• "GAY VO" GETS BTED
• HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?
• MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST
• JOE GANNASLI DISCS HIS LIFE DURG AND SCE PLAYG GAY MOBSTER VO SPATAFORE ON ‘THE SOPRANOS’
• PRIDE – VO REMEMBERED: GAY ACTIVIST AND HERO VO RSO – “WHY WE FIGHT”
• GAY VITO GETS IT IN THE END – AT HOME WITH BROKEBACK MOBSTER

"GAY VO" GETS BTED

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. 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.

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.

HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?

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. ” But really was a life cut short: Rso, a film scholar and gay-rights activist, was 44 when he died of AIDS 1990.

The likable, energetic gadfly who emerg here would have been a great voice to have on hand today, providg an rmed perspective on the sweepg chang Amerin culture has seen the last few wasn’t an stigator at the Stonewall uprisg of 1969, but he immersed himself gay-rights issu soon after, beg a proment voice on the New York scene.

In a clip early the film he mak clear what separated him om generatns of gay people before him. “I don’t know what was different about the way I was raised or the way I reacted, ” he says, “but I never once, not for a send, believed that was wrong to be gay, that was a s, that homosexualy was evil.

MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST

“He was fully equipped wh ias and arguments, and he was ready to take you on, ” David Ehrenste, a wrer and fellow member of the Gay Activists Alliance, rells the ’s versn of gay liberatn wasn’t one that mastream Ameri uld endorse, then or now, but was of urse a pre-AIDS view. “And Vo was of a generatn when havg sex wh as many men as you possibly uld was a way of exprsg gay pri.

” His telligence and fearlsns put him at the center of the gay-rights movement, but he was also by tablishg himself as a televisn host and a film scholar, creatg a popular lecture which he showed how surprisgly open movi before Hollywood’s Productn Co were about homosexualy and then how gay people were subtly monized the films that me after. Schwarz’s film is nothg fancy — the ual mix of historil imag and terviews wh acquatanc and experts — and Rso, perhaps, was not so different om other gay activists who were silenced by AIDS.

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

But the smooth tellg of Rso’s story juxtaposed agast the prent day, when gay marriage is sanctned some stat and gay characters are all over prime-time televisn, driv home how different the cultural landspe is om the one Rso knew. Not wh all the discrimatn and homophobia that rema. Cast & crewUser reviewsVio2005Not Rated1h 31mA llectn of shorts that explor the relatnships between gay men and straight men.

Read allA llectn of shorts that explor the relatnships between gay men and straight men.

The llectn clus Espac Dos (Spa) In the Name of the Father (Brazil), My Straight Boyiend (US), Tth or Consequenc (Brazil), Coffee Date (US), Poprn & Coke (UK), and productn, box office & pany PhotosMore like thisReview Half hearted llectn of gay short filmsThis is by far the poort llectn of gay shorts that I've seen marketed. Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia2011Not Rated1h 33mThe story of Vo Rso, foundg father of the gay liberatn movement, thor of "The Celluloid Closet, " and vocifero AIDS activist the story of Vo Rso, foundg father of the gay liberatn movement, thor of "The Celluloid Closet, " and vocifero AIDS activist the story of Vo Rso, foundg father of the gay liberatn movement, thor of "The Celluloid Closet, " and vocifero AIDS activist the productn, box office & pany Vios2More like thisReview Good and rmative bgraphy doc on a man who stood and fought for what he believed wh urage! Jt recently watched this HBO doc lled "Vo" and I mt say was touchg as was rmative and tnal to show how one man a gay one Vo Rso stood up and fought for his rights along wh thoands of other gays durg the 1980's at the height of the AIDS dawn.

PRIDE – VO REMEMBERED: GAY ACTIVIST AND HERO VO RSO – “WHY WE FIGHT”

Intertg is seeg how Vo started film night wh his gay buddi as he showed films that were classic and they volved gay characters! His doc even would go on to the art ho and gay cema.

This man will be remembered as a lear and a voice of urage for the gay muny as really anyone n take his spiratn his image and words of urage and eedom rights still rgs long after his 1990 ath! JUNE 18--Actor Joseph Gannasli--bt known for his role as the gay mobster Vo Spatafore on "The Sopranos"--was arrted early this morng for dnk drivg Florida. 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.

GAY VITO GETS IT IN THE END – AT HOME WITH BROKEBACK MOBSTER

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. 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.