timdown said:
yea thats awesome. also that body guard guy got in trouble
'Sopranos' tough guy in
bad-boy rap
BY BARBARA ROSS
and SCOTT SHIFREL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
'Sopranos' actor Louis Gross
He plays Tony Soprano's muscleman on television - and he seems to be having trouble leaving the tough-guy act on the set.
Actor Louis Gross was arrested Sunday on charges he broke into a Queens home on April 18.
The 23-year-old ex-fitness model also is accused of roughing up a Manhattan merchant in February.
"I don't know nothing. I'm innocent. I'm always innocent," Gross said as he was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court last night.
His attorney said Gross is nothing like the hotheaded driver and bodyguard he plays on the HBO series.
"Is he a bad guy? No," said lawyer Samuel Bernstein.
"As an actor, he plays up to the camera. But people have to differentiate between his job persona and his real-life persona. He seems like a nice guy, a gentleman."
That's not how Trinny Hill - the woman who called Queens cops on Gross - sees it.
"It was a break-in," she said. "He came and took some stuff from the house. Now I've received threats from his family."
Gross is pals with Hill's brother and allegedly broke a doorframe and lock to her St. Albans home so he could retrieve some belongings.
Gross was arrested for burglary, but prosecutors downgraded the charges to criminal mischief. In the Manhattan case, Gross was stopped Feb. 3 as he allegedly set off an alarm while leaving a trendy .SoHo clothing store, Michael K., with a bagful of clothes.
"He ran out, he punched me," said store manager Fane Mamadou, who suffered a sprained wrist. "He was very big and very strong."
Gross faces a year behind bars if convicted in the Queens case and 15 years for the Manhattan robbery.
His big scene as mobster Perry Annunziata came when Tony Soprano beat the bodyguard to show he was still a strong leader.