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They hobnobbed with the mob

A couple are thrilled to rub elbows with men who immortalized key Sopranos characters.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published June 17, 2007

Tony Soprano and Paulie Walnuts were onstage at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., just minutes before The Sopranos finale aired on big-screen televisions throughout the ballroom last Sunday night.

James Gandolfini and Tony Sirico, the actors who played the two characters, had been sitting on a big red velvet sofa, posing for photos with about 600 people attending the official Tony's Swan Song party.

Bob and Eileen Mattioli were guests at Table 55.

"All of a sudden, Tony Soprano and Paulie came down and got me, " Bob Mattioli says, recounting a weekend he will never forget. "They practically carried me to the couch. They came and got me and Eileen. They put us where the couch is and took our photo. Tony had his arm around me. Paulie was right next to me, holding my hand."

Bob Mattioli, 67, is retired; Eileen, 65, still teaches in the family business, the Mattioli School of Music, in St. Pete Beach. They live in Gulfport.

The couple are frequent visitors at the Hard Rock in Tampa, where they like to play the slots. Don't count them among the big players, Bob Mattioli says. The people are friendly; the staff attends to guests and makes them comfortable, and that's important to him. He has had multiple sclerosis for 44 years and uses a mobility scooter to get around.

Neither seems to know why they were invited to rub elbows with Sopranos stars at the red-carpet wrap festivities last weekend, but they accepted the all-expenses-paid trip. Some of the guests drove to Hollywood. Some went by air.

Bob and Eileen chose to ride to Hollywood on Saturday in a luxury bus supplied by the casinos, a four-hour trip each way.

"Sunday, the hoopla started, " Bob Mattioli says. "We met a lot of entertainers, ballplayers and fashion designers." And press people and casino workers and scalpers offering as much as $1, 000 for credentials to get into the VIP party.

"It was real impressive. Just a tremendous thing, " Bob Mattioli says.

"Very elegant, " Eileen Mattioli reports. "If my husband's excited, it's amazing. It takes a lot to get him excited."

The Mattiolis have been regular viewers of the HBO hit.

"It's not that I carry a banner, but I enjoy the show every Sunday, " Bob Mattioli says. The ending, in which the television screens went black - and silent - left a lot of viewers confounded and angry.

Not Bob.

"It was finely done because it leaves the people hanging, " he said. "It leaves the imagination open, leaves a lot of possibilities. If it was the so-called whackout, it wouldn't have been as good."

The Mattiolis are no strangers to celebrity: Chuck Mangione is a cousin of Bob's, and Liberace once visited their home. That was in 1979, when the entertainer was in St. Petersburg to perform at the Bayfront Center. Back then, the Mattiolis lived in Bahia Shores. Their house had a swimming pool shaped like a musical note, and they hosted a catered lobster dinner for the star.

Their trip to the Sopranos party now a memory, Eileen says, "I think it's right up there with Liberace's visit to our home."

[Last modified June 16, 2007, 21:15:44]