Brokeback ‘Soprano’

Now the question for viewers of “The Sopranos” is: Will Vito eat the barrel of his gun? Or will he lack the guts, then get whacked by his appalled paisans?

Fans could be overheard waging bets this week. “Five bucks, he doesn’t have another line,” said one.

“Not counting flashbacks?” wondered another.

Wearing appropriate leather-bar attire, Vito Spatafore – the heretofore closeted gay mobster – was sighted in last Sunday night’s episode (stop reading now if you haven’t watched it yet) by a couple of wiseguys who came by the sweaty S&M joint to collect their protection money.

“It’s a joke,” Vito tries to explain about his presence. Finally he begs: “Don’t say nothin’!”

By the end of the show, the crestfallen Vito, played by Joseph R. Gannascoli, has checked into a motel, looking suicidally at his gun on the nightstand.

Fans of the HBO series were stunned last season when Meadow’s boyfriend, Finn, saw a security guard sitting in the driver’s seat of a truck – and then Vito’s head popped up.

This season, Vito has hung around the hospital while Tony Soprano was recovering from a gunshot wound, trying to ingratiate himself with Tony’s wife while plotting with Paulie Walnuts to grab her cut of a big score.

And he’s chomped on carrots while prattling on about all the weight he’s losing. (In real life, he’s down to 260 from a high of 400 pounds.)

Now that the gay story line is heating up, Gannascoli is immensely pleased, in part because it was his idea to make Vito homosexual.

“I saw him as, like, a cross between Mike Tyson and Liberace,” the 47-year-old Brooklyn-born actor says. “I wanted to make him sort of in self-denial, self-loathing, a real gay hater.”

The idea was inspired by the book “Murder Machine,” about the Gambino family, which had an openly gay member also named Vito.

“They didn’t bother him about it, because I guess he was good at what he did, which was chopping up bodies,” Gannascoli says.

He concedes that he had a self-serving motivation for making the suggestion: Breaking out of the pack.

“I thought that was a way of separating myself from the other actors, because I would have been in the background most of the time. You know, line here, line there, and nothing really substantial,” says Gannascoli, whose character previously was best known for whacking Jackie Aprile Jr.

“To really make an impact is all I can ask for.”

He also thought it would create an interesting acting challenge. But even in a year that has seen “Brokeback Mountain” become a cultural phenomenon and Philip Seymour Hoffman win an Oscar playing Truman Capote, Gannascoli knows the reaction to Vito won’t be all positive.

“I’m a Brooklyn guy. I was just in Brooklyn last night. And, you know, I had some real wise guys that look at me and they give me dirty looks,” he says. “I’ve had guys, like, come after me in clubs.”

He just hopes the “cerebral people” will appreciate his performance.

Gannascoli had considered becoming a lawyer, like his older brother, but dropped out of college following his sophomore year. He bounced around, working at various New York restaurants and even heading to New Orleans to learn Cajun cooking in the ‘80s.

It was during one of his numerous food-service jobs when a waiter-friend (who, like so many in New York, also was an aspiring actor) urged him to audition for a play. Gannascoli got the role and started taking acting lessons.

But he soon found himself pushing an ice-cream cart on Wall Street before eventually opening another eatery. He got burnt out from working 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. and started gambling heavily.

On the last day of the 1990 pro football regular season he was in a hole. Like any desperate gambler, he tried to win it back fast.

“Cody Carlson is responsible for my acting,” Gannascoli joked, able to laugh about it now.

The backup Houston Oilers quarterback started in place of injured Hall of Famer Warren Moon and had a great game against betting favorite Pittsburgh. The Steelers lost, and Gannascoli was out $60,000.

Gannascoli paid off his debts with equity from his restaurant, thus avoiding a real-life leg-breaking – or worse – and then decided to head to L.A.

On the West Coast, he met actor Benicio Del Toro. That led to an audition and small role in the 1993 feature “Money for Nothing,” and a meeting with casting directors Georgianne Walken (Christopher Walken’s wife) and Sheila Jaffe, who work with “The Sopranos.”

Gannascoli says “The Sopranos” has changed his life “in so many ways.”

“Recognition, I’d say, the most,” he says. “It allowed me to get married.”

It’s also allowed him to buy his house (“which coming from a rent-controlled apartment all my life was a huge step up”), get his novel published (“A Meal to Die For,” loosely based on his life in the restaurant business) and develop a signature line of food (olive oil, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, salsa and wine).

“While I’m not going to be cheffing anymore, I’m going to be still involved in food,” Gannascoli says. “Which is one of my passions.”

He dreams of developing a hybrid cooking/sports show where he’d have a famous athlete as a guest and they’d cook up one of the player’s favorite dishes while talking about his career and showing clips.

He’d like to call it “Food Bowl.”