A 'Wisegay' Among The Wiseguys

NEW YORK – Call him the Brokeback Mobster.
"My character in The Sopranos would say, 'It's the year of the queer,' " says Joe Gannascoli, who plays gay mobster Vito Spatafore in the HBO mob hit. "But then he's a real wisegay."
The Brooklyn-born actor, who for five seasons was one of the semi-regular wannabes in Tony Soprano's crew, had his biggest moment on the series last season when it was revealed that he was a closeted gay. It was never addressed again, opening yet another unanswered story line in the show, along with the Russian gangster who got away in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the fate of Lorraine (Dr. Melfi) Bracco's rapist.
But Mr. Gannascoli is suddenly prominent in the opening episodes of the new season, jockeying for Tony Soprano's position while overcompensating for his secret state.
How does a knockaround heterosexual guy from the streets of Brooklyn feel about playing a gay character in the ultramacho TV show?
"I have no problem with it," he says. "I had read about a couple of real-life gays in the mob and suggested the idea to one of our writers, in the hopes of getting more work. Eventually it was incorporated. Some real macho guys on the set asked how I could do the role. But it was something I wanted to do.
"I used to work as a waiter in an all-gay restaurant named Company on Third Ave. in Manhattan," he says. "It was a great job. I got along great with the gay customers. I'm secure in my own sexuality, recently married, and I'm an actor. An actor acts."
He says playing a gay gangster made him more sensitive. "I was rooting like crazy for Brokeback Mountain in all the awards shows," he says. "And after five seasons in the background of one of the greatest shows in TV history, it was sure nice to get some recognition."
It's not as though Mr. Gannascoli isn't busy, though. In January, St. Martin's Press published his first hardcover novel, A Meal to Die For , a comical mobbed-up murder mystery set in the restaurant business of his native Brooklyn, where he founded the popular restaurant known as 101 in the shadow of the Verrazano Bridge.
"All the pieces of my life – food, gambling, Brooklyn – all come together in this semi-autobiographical book," says the once-obese Mr. Gannascoli. Especially food.
His friends call him "Joe Soup" because he once owned a restaurant in New York called Soup as Art. He recently lost 200 pounds with stomach surgery, down from more than 400. (He appeared on the TV show Celebrity Fit Club, in which stars try to lose weight competitively – but he gained 12 pounds.)
"I grew up on Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue U," says the actor, who now lives with his wife, Diana, on Long Island. "My brother became a lawyer, so I went to St. John's for a couple of years, following his footsteps into law."
But Mr. Gannascoli loved food more than school and dropped out of college after two years to work in restaurants, apprenticing under the great chefs of Manhattan.
"And I wound up working in Commander's Palace in New Orleans," he says, "considered by many as the best restaurant in America."
In 1986, Mr. Gannascoli was back waiting tables at Jack's restaurant in Manhattan, where he met an actor-waiter who suggested he audition for a play called The Juicemen. "I got the role. I got bit by the acting bug."
Mr. Gannascoli landed small stage and film parts. But food always beckoned. In 1990, Joe Soup opened 101 and in 1992, 101 Seafood.
"But the most expensive thing on my menu was my gambling," says Mr. Gannascoli. "To pay off debts, sometimes I'd move cases of shrimp that fell off the back of a truck. Or expensive wine. Or olive oil. I was a food fence.
"Those experiences formed the autobiographical character in my novel. But the day I lost $60,000 on four football games, I made a deal for my partner to buy me out and I flew to LA to become an actor."
Mr. Gannascoli spent three years in LA, hustling film roles. He came back to New York, landing small parts in films such as Two Family House, Mickey Blue Eyes and Money for Nothing, where Benicio Del Toro introduced him to Georgianne Walken, who was casting The Sopranos.
He was cast as Vito, whose biggest moment was "whacking" Jackie Jr. in the season three finale. Until, that is, last season, when we learned that Vito was a closet homosexual, a capital crime inside the mob.
from WFFA 8