When brothers Matt and Kevin Dillon convinced former club owner Vincent Pastore that he should think about a career in acting, the future "Sopranos" star never knew how much the role of Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero would change his life. But Pastore credits a simple audition for the all too familiar, crude name-calling that has become his life.
“Let me tell you something, what happened is you go in the audition and you say I’m up for the part of 'Big Pussy' but there was a lot of guys up for the part of 'Big Pussy,'” Vinny told me. “And then finally I became 'Big Pussy' and everything was fine until you’re walking down 5th avenue and someone yells out, 'Hey pussy.' And then you start thinking 'Did I make the right career choice?' The show took off -- of course, we know that -- and the name stuck."
Now you can see Pastore in a new reality show, "Famous Food,” on VH1 -- a show whose cast was assembled not unlike a group blind date, the network refused to reveal to any cast members who they would be working with.
“The premise originally was we're all gonna go and try to open a restaurant together but as you watch the show, that don’t happen," Pastore explains.
"It’s me, Three 6 Mafia, what’s her name ... Heidi [Montag]. She looks great, looks great but she’s got two bodyguards all the time. You can’t go near her," Pastore divulged. "I didn’t know who she was. I don’t watch "The Hills." She’s a sweetheart but I had no idea who she was. My favorite person was Ashley Dupree [Elliot Spitzer’s famous friend]. She calls me Uncle Vinny."
One person on the show who Pastore refused to even mention was former "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" cast member, Danielle Staub. The show's stressful situations, most likely magnified by Staub, even forced Pastore to turn to a little herbal medicine.
“We smoked a lot of pot together, but you don’t see it on the show. They cut those scenes. We used to go down to the walk-in box and tell everyone from VH1 we were taking a break and then we would come back laughing and sh*t. And they didn’t know why,” Vinny tells me.
But Pastore and the gang's "breaks" may have been the reason they had such a tough time with the task at hand.
"It took us three weeks to decide that macaroni and cheese was gonna be on the menu," he admitted. "They don’t ask me to cook on the show. They made me the garbage man. You know why? 'Cause I’m Italian. They go like this: 'you are in charge of the labor' ... That’s racist man. I’m in charge of labor?”
To see my entire interview with Vinny tune into my talk show "Naughty But Nice With Rob" on HDNet, Saturdays at 1:00pm and 7:00