vito spatafore

Capitalizing on the way his character was whacked on The Sopranos, actor Joe Gannascoli recently launched his own line of pool sticks. Gannascoli played Vito Spatafore, who was on the show since 2000 but really got noticed earlier this year when he became known as "gay Vito". He was killed by Phil Leotardo and two thugs, who duct taped his mouth shut and beat him to death with pool sticks. They apparently sodomized him with those pool sticks too, indicating Vito's death was at least partially a hate crime.

Gannascoli's line of pool sticks are being made by Rockwell Billiards in Southern Oregon. They're called "A Cue to Die For: The Badda-Breaker." Gannascoli jokingly told the New York Daily News that he wanted to call them "The Brown-Tip Special." Ewwwww.

. . . twelve killed-off characters

Nothing says Christmas like the mention of a dozen (or so) characters that met their maker this past year. Here they are, in no particular order.

• Ellen Tigh, Battlestar Galactica -- Ellen meant well, of course . . . sleeping with one of the Cylons occupying New Caprica to ensure the safety of her husband Saul. But, she went too far to keep her husband safe and paid for it with her life. To make it even worse, Saul was the one who killed her by having her drink a beverage filled with poison.

(S06E06) And to think that I was worried that the whole Vito plotline would be left out in the cold for too long. As it turns out, it came right back into play this week, with the word from Sal and the boys after seeing Vito in the gay bar making the rounds and back to Christopher, at his addict's meeting, no less. (Did anyone else find it comical that the guys went outside to smoke a cigarette to decompress from talking about drug addiction?) Chris quicky relays the story to the guys back at the Bing, and his sponsor clearly was finding this whole thing way too amusing, because he was mighty full of jokes.

Instead of "Live Free or Die," we could have titled this episode "Family Problems" because they were all over the place. Tony's got issues with the "family," Carmela and her fam are getting into it over the building materials on her spec house (and the missing bundt cake pan, apparently), Vito's wife and Phil Leotardo - Vito's wife's cousin - are discussing Vito a bit, and the word is out that they are now "separated."