Veteran actor Tony Lip has died at the age of 82.

The star, who was best known for his portrayal of mob kingpin Carmine Lupertazzi in hit TV show The Sopranos, passed away in a hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey on Friday.

The exact cause of his death is unknown but family members told local newspaper The Record of Woodland Park that Lip's health had been failing in recent years.

Born Frank Anthony Vallelonga, Lip played minor league baseball in North Carolina with the St. Louis Browns organization, then served in the Army from 1951 to 1953 in Germany.

During the 1960s, he worked as ge...

Former The Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano has confessed he was once hooked on the high he would get from stealing clothes from posh department stores.

The actor, who has struggled with depression and eating disorders, admits his shoplifting habit was something that gave him an awful lot of joy.

Appearing on Access Hollywood Live on Thursday to promote his memoir Asylum, Pantoliano said, "I got into dressing up, and when I couldn't afford the clothes I wanted, I started stealing the clothes. That was a tremendous high - to walk out of Barney's and you've got this stuff on you and you make ...

The Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano has opened up about his fight with depression, revealing he once took up to 20 prescription pain pills a day to stabilize his mood.

The 60 year old had a challenging childhood - he was dyslexic, obese and bullied at school - and his mother Mary left his father Dominic for her third cousin, crime family associate Florio Isabella.

He admits his past took its toll after a close friend committed suicide, and the actor began self-medicating with alcohol, sex, and prescription drugs, at one point swallowing more than two dozen Vicodin pills a day.

Pantoliano...

Steve Schirripa was forced to wear a fat suit for the first two seasons of hit crime series "The Sopranos" because his body type didn't fit the role.

The star auditioned for the role of mobster Bobby 'Bacala' Baccalieri during the late 1990s, when he wasn't the big guy he became.

But, because the show's script included several jokes about the character's burgeoning waistline, producers asked Schirripa to don a thick bodysuit to keep the storyline in check.

The actor reveals, "I got the role, and I got the script, and then I saw all these references, that Tony (Soprano, lead character) wo...

Last week, I introduced you to Jesse Macht - a talented musician you should be listening to. If you're not convinced yet, I recently sat down with Jesse to get his story in his own words.

I've spent the past year on a journey of musical discovery, and Jesse - not just his music, but who he is as a person - is everything that I've come to love about the art. He's simply great at what he does, relying on hard work and passion rather than a gimmick or a technological advantage. In this world of lip-synched concerts and pyrotechnics, there's something to be commended about a musician comfort...

May sweeps is coming to an end and many TV shows are concluding the season with shocking and unexpected finales. Season finales are best known for their dramatic moments and thrilling cliffhangers, making them memorable episodes for many viewers. But sometimes they are so disappointing and unbearable to watch, viewers would rather forget about them than to remember their horrible plots or storylines. Here are a list of season finales that have left viewers scratching their heads and trying to figure out what they just watched.

The Sopranos: "Made In America" (Season 6)

C...

Former The Sopranos star Drea De Matteo has given birth to a baby boy.

The actress and her musician fiance Shooter Jennings became parents for the second time with the arrival of Waylon Albert 'Blackjack' Jennings.

The rocker announced the happy news in a post on his Twitter.com page on Thursday, writing, "Waylon Albert 'Blackjack' Jennings has arrived folks!... Thanks for all the kind words..."

The baby is the latest in a long line of family members to carry the name Waylon - Shooter was born Waylon Albright 'Shooter' Jennings after his father, country crooner Waylon Jennings.

De M...

Amber Heard dazzled at the "Drive Angry" Los Angeles screening in a strapless sequined dress. The actress is gearing up to star as a sexy pin-up in a new TV pilot about Hugh Hefner's famous Playboy Club.

The blonde beauty will star as a Playboy bunny in the forthcoming drama "Playboy," which is set in the Chicago, Illinois hotspot in the 1960s.

However, Heard insists her character will be no ordinary model.

She says, "It's going to be like Mad Men meets the Sopranos meets Moulin Rouge! I've never been to the Playboy Mansion and it does sound wild but this is set in the 1960s so it's a di...

Former Journey frontman Steve Perry has rubbished reports he asked to rejoin the group in the wake of the rockers' recent revival.

Rumors swirled last week that Perry, who quit the Don't Stop Believin' hit-makers for a solo career in 1998, wants to return to the band.

However, a spokesman for the singer has blasted the gossip, insisting it is untrue and that Perry is happy for Journey to continue without him. The rep tells the RockAAA website, "It's just not true... Steve is enjoying his retirement."

And a spokesman for the band adds, "Journey is recording an album with (current singe...

Kristen Stewart had no problems working with James Gandolfini in Welcome To The Rileys - because she had never seen him portray a tough mafia boss in The Sopranos.

In the new drama, Stewart plays a troubled stripper, Mallory, who is befriended by Gandolfini's lonely character, Doug. Stewart insists she wasn't frightened by her heavyweight co-star - famed for his role as mobster Tony Soprano - because she hadn't seen an episode of his hit show.

However, the Twilight star admits she now understands why her colleagues were so terrified of Gandolfini after finally sitting down with a Sopra...

Kristen Stewart's portrayal of a stripper in new movie Welcome To The Rileys was so realistic she was offered a job in the lap dancing club where she shot her scenes.

The Twilight actress plays a teenage runaway in the new film opposite The Sopranos' James Gandolfini and her character resorts to taking her clothes off at a seedy bar. Stewart admits she felt uncomfortable stripping on camera, but she was so good at it the manager of the venue where they were filming offered to hire her full-time.

She tells MTV.com, "Doing this movie... one shocking thing was to find how easy it is (to fl...

Actor Michael Imperioli was so determined to pull off his portrayal of a police detective in new police drama Detroit 1-8-7, he enrolled in a training course to learn proper interrogation techniques.

The former The Sopranos star plays Detective Louis Fitch on the TV series and he reveals he turned to the professionals for tips on how to perfect the character.

Imperioli says, "He (the teacher) was a veteran detective, teaches law enforcement people interrogation (techniques). One thing he said was... when someone commits a crime, it's normally a cry out for something, for need, out of lo...

Former Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler has split from footballer Mark Sanchez after three months of dating.

The actress was first romantically linked to Sanchez in April after meeting the New York Jets quarterback at a party in the Big Apple.

The sports hunk attempted to play down the rumors in May, insisting he was just friends with Sigler, but the couple failed to put a stop to the rumours and walked the red carpet together at the 2010 Tony Awards.

But Life & Style magazine claims the Sigler and Sanchez have now called time on their relationship and have gone their separate ways.

A so...

Season three of HBO's gothic drama "True Blood" promises sex, danger, violence, scary werewolves, and even scarier new vampires. One of the most buzzed-about series since "The Sopranos" is premiering on June 13 to some hungry fans. Last summer, the show really began to boil, registering with both critics and audiences: At 4.3 million viewers an episode, it doubled its season 1 ratings. "It was a breakthrough season in terms of feeling like it became part of pop culture," says Michael Lombardo, HBO's head of programming. "It was the sort of show I started hearing people talk about on Mon...

While ABC’s claim that Sunday’s LOST finale is “the Television Event of the Decade” may be a bit hyperbolic, there’s no denying the excitement... and anxiety… that surrounds the final episode of a beloved TV show. Rabid fans of any series demand not just closure, but emotional resonance. After all, we’re saying goodbye to good friends here, not just clearing space off the DVR schedule. With that in mind, here’s our list of the Six Most Satisfying TV Finales of All Time.

SEINFELD “The Finale” (1998)

Granted, the much-maligned two-part ending to the legendary show about nothing is not the f...

"Lost" star Evangeline Lilly wore a blue & green Emilio Pucci dress at the "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" premiere during the International Cannes Film Festival in France on Saturday. If you look closely, you can see the dress is made up of a lot of fringe. We're on the fence about this look. What do you think?

Evangeline recently talked about the end of her TV series. When asked by David Letterman last week if the show would simply fade to black, as "The Sopranos" did in its final episode, the actress would only reveal that the finale "holds true to our 'Lost' traditions' and 'repre...

Football player Mark Sanchez has played down reports he's dating former Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, insisting the actress "could do much better" than have him as a suitor.

Sigler, who split from her Entourage co-star Jerry Ferrara in December, was alleged to have struck up a relationship with the New York Jets quarterback after meeting at a recent movie event in the Big Apple.

The pair has also been spotted catching Broadway play Race together - but Sanchez is adamant they are just friends.

He says, "I met her at an event at the Tribeca Film Festival and we... both happened to be...

Jamie-Lynn Sigler has scored a love touchdown - she has reportedly found romance with New York Jets quarterback and model Mark Sanchez after meeting the hunk at a party.

The former "Sopranos" star split from her "Entourage" co-star Jerry Ferrara in December and now she's dating again, according to sources.

The pair made no secret of their feelings for each other at a recent Tribeca Film Festival party in New York City, according to Us Weekly magazine.

A partygoer says, "They met Monday night at the LG Infinia premiere of 'Keep Surfing' for the Tribeca Film Festival and really hit it off....

It’s almost May sweeps time, which means an end to another TV season. Unfortunately, it also means an end to many of our favorite shows forever. Here are five shows that we will say, or have said, farewell to this season, and five shows that we wish would come back.

Lost: Trying to sum up this wonderful piece of small screen enigma is a challenge. But let’s give it a try: Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on a mysterious island, passengers are stranded, passengers deal with unknown creatures and the “Others”, passengers partake in time travelling, somebody gets kidnapped, some passengers are resc...

For those of you too young to remember what it was like to have a video collection in the pre-digital days of VHS, lemme tell ya… It was a pain in the butt. Bulky, inconvenient plastic blocks of ridiculously fragile tape that usually held a mere two hours took up tons of shelf space and took forever to navigate. And if you wanted to own a TV show on video, the few that were commercially available would clear your bank account and fill an entire media room!

And then came DVDs. Squishing all those ones and zeroes into small, manageable, resilient discs made the concept of a video library fa...

Producers of hit TV drama Desperate Housewives have confirmed actress Drea De Matteo will not be returning to the series - but deny reports she was fired due to falling ratings.

The former Sopranos star joined Eva Longoria, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman on the program as the matriarch of an Italian family who moves to Wisteria Lane. Reports surfaced in November suggesting De Matteo had been fired after just five episodes following poor TV ratings.

However, producers insist they've merely granted her request to quit the show to spend more time with her fiancé, singer Sh...

"Sopranos" star Vincent Pastore is planning a New Year's Eve reunion to say a special thank you to 30 wounded New York servicemen. The show's Big Pussy has co-organized the get together, which will culminate with a party beneath the glittering ball drop at Times Square in New York, which signals the New Year in America.

He tells Blogtalkradio.com's Let's Do Lunch show, "On New Years Eve we're putting together an event with 30 wounded warriors - policemen and firemen - sitting under the ball in Times Square.

"I've got a police escort picking me up in the Bronx to take me down to New Yo...

This week, we've brought you the Ten Greatest TV Shows, Songs, Albums and Movies of the Decade. Now it's time to roll it all into one with the Ten Greatest Entertainers of the Decade.

This was a decade where entertainment became increasingly fractured. With 500 channels 500 bazillion websites and every medium on-demand, bringing together any significant chunk of people to one thing was a true sign of greatness. In an era when nobody had to agree - making them agree took something beyond the level of entertainer we saw in the past.

With that in mind, here are the Ten Greatest Entert...

Yesterday, we brought you the Ten Greatest TV Shows of the decade. Now it's time to turn up the tunes a bit. During this decade, music kind of went back to the way it was fifty years ago. That is, the single became more important than the album. With the rise of mp3 downloads, and the ultra-convenient iPod for playing them back, singles were now the most common way of buying or listening to music. We're on the verge of again seeing artists simply releasing singles, rather than padding them with an additional ten tracks.

With that in mind, here are the Ten Greatest Songs of the decade...

As the decade reaches its conclusion, you'll undoubtedly come across many lists. Lists that purport to tell you the best, the top, the cream of the decade as they relate to pop culture. You're also certain to come across many lists that claim to rank the "greatest" of the ten year period from 2000-2009. But what does that really mean?

"Greatest" should be something entirely different from what we usually associate with these lists. Mostly, these lists claim to rank the best - something that is only truly possible were a listmaker to, say, see every single movie in a given decade. If...

NEW YORK (AP) - The biggest shows of 2009 couldn't always be contained by the TV screen. There were breakout tabloid scandals with Jon and Kate Gosselin. A wannabe reality TV star crashed the White House. David Letterman's hanky-panky seized headlines. Oprah Winfrey grabbed the nation's attention as she began her long goodbye. This was TV run amok.

But in 2009 other shows proved outstanding on more manageable terms: as excellent TV shows. They include:

- "Breaking Bad" (FX). Here's the cruelest premise on series TV: a high-school teacher with terminal cancer gets into the crystal-meth...

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Kanye West's "The College Dropout" album have been named the Best Movie and Best Album of the past decade in a new magazine poll.

Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic beat Brokeback Mountain, Gladiator and The Dark Knight to top Entertainment Weekly's end-of-the-decade film hit list, while the rapper's 2004 debut landed at number one ahead of Jay-Z's The Blueprint and Kid A by Radiohead.

The Sopranos beat Lost and comedy news show The Daily Show to claim the Best TV Show honor.

But boy wizard "Harry Potter" topped them all in the pub...

The Sopranos star James Gandolfini has been caught on camera allegedly threatening a paparazzo.

The actor is said to have taken exception to a videographer taping him as he shopped with his son Michael in New York City on Halloween.

In footage posted on the Huffington Post website, Gandolfini can be seen lunging for the photographer, who tells the star to "Relax, man!"

The hard-man then pushes away the camera before shouting, "I'm gonna break your f**king face!"

As WENN went to press it was unknown if the snapper had filed charges against Gandolfini.

- Click here for mor...

Whitney Houston's ex-husband Bobby Brown is shedding the pounds as he prepares for a return to the limelight - with the help of professional trainers on the reality show Celebrity Fit Club.

The former New Edition singer has reportedly signed up to the next season of the boot camp weight-loss program, which sees the stars being put through vigorous exercise routines in a bid to slim down, reports TMZ.com.

Previous competitors on the American version include Hollywood star Daniel Baldwin, model/actress Mia Tyler and Sopranos actor Joe Gannascoli.

The seventh season of the hit show...

M.C. Gainey has made a career out of being the tough guy that you don't want to mess with. His voice is unmistakable, and his face tends to scream danger. You may know him for playing Tom (Mr. Friendly) on Lost or as the crazed naked man who chased after Paul Giamatti's character Miles in Sideways.

We recently sat down with M.C. and talked about his roles in the new film All About Steve, Lost, Sideways and his upcoming series Happy Town - due out mid-season on ABC.

Eric Stromsvold: I'd like to talk to you about the new film "All About Steve." I heard that you're playing a trucker...