With all the horrors and atrocities we see on TV and in the papers, it's always rewarding when people unselfishly rise to the occasion to help strangers -- be they in New Orleans, Haiti, Chile ... or in a TV show audience.

A man in the audience on Monday's 'The Bonnie Hunt Show' (weekdays, syndicated) is in need of a double lung transplant and during a commercial break people start donating money directly to him to help raise money for the operation. Guest Joe Pantoliano digs deep into his pocket and comes up with a wad of money for the man.

Watch the video after the jump.

Joe Pantoliano does not want his infamous The Sopranos character to be remembered as "a head in a bowling bag". Access Hollywood obtained a letter that "Joey Pants" wrote to Sopranos creator David Chase, expressing his anger over a photo spread appearing in the April edition of Vanity Fair (see the photo here).

The photo, taken by Annie Liebowitz, features the legendary characters who've been whacked over the years, including actors Drea de Matteo, Vincent Pastore, Annabella Sciorra, and Steve Buscemi. Pantoliano refused to appear in the photo, so Liebowitz improvised by having a headless mannequin hold one of the actual head molds used from the episode where Tony kills Ralphie and puts his head in a bowling bag.

Joe Pantoliano is not letting the canceled CBS drama Waterfront die an anonymous death.

Pantoliano and other members of the Waterfront crew, including the girl who plays his daughter on the show, showed up at the Tazza Cafe in Providence, RI the other night to show two episodes of the series for the crowd. The show was about the mayor of Providence and a lot of it was filmed on location. CBS pulled the series without even showing a single episode, saying it was too expensive and that there were creative differences.

But Pantoliano says its more than that, and uses as an example CBS' decision to put 3 Lbs in the slot vacated by the now-canceled Smith. 3 Lbs is a Paramount show. Paramount is owned by the same company that owns CBS, Viacom. Waterfront is a Warner Brothers show, and Pantoliano thinks that CBS wants to air one of their own shows instead of another show.

He wants to finish the episodes they were working on and show them to the public and see if they like it or not.

[via TV Tattle]