Party still going for LaLanne

Jack LaLanne keeps going and going, and so do the parties celebrating his 90th birthday.

On Saturday, nearly a month after the fitness guru turned 90, friends gathered to honor him near Muscle Beach on Venice Beach, Calif., which LaLanne and his bodybuilding colleagues made famous in the 1940s.

“I’m so flattered and honored,” LaLanne said before a luncheon began at the Hotel Casa Del Mar. “Who the heck am I? I’m just a guy trying to help people.”

LaLanne later became a household name by hosting a television exercise show that ran from 1951-85, and by performing outrageous feats such as towing boats while swimming across Long Beach Harbor handcuffed.

“This was an incredible place,” LaLanne said of Muscle Beach. “I was living in San Francisco and would drive all night to get here for the weekend, then perform acrobatic tricks on the beach. People would come from all over to see us; we were teaching kids how to get their bodies and minds active.”

The party was attended by celebrities such as David Carradine and Lou Ferrigno, and followed similar celebrations in recent weeks in New York and San Francisco, where LaLanne was born Sept. 26, 1914.

“You’ve got to work at living because dying is easy,” he said.

Schirripa no longer singing ‘Soprano’

Another cast member of “The Sopranos” is headed to a prime-time comedy.

Steve Schirripa, who plays Bobby “Bacala” Bacallieri on the HBO series, has signed a deal with Disney’s Touchstone TV to star in a comedy based on his book, “A Goomba’s Guide to Life,” reports The Associated Press.

The production company is currently searching for a writer to adapt the book for television. The book is about stereotypes of Italian-Americans, or “goombas.”

“The Sopranos” is scheduled to end its run after its next season.

Earlier this year, Drea de Matteo left the mob drama to star opposite Matt LeBlanc in his “Friends” spin-off, “Joey.” De Matteo’s character, Adriana, was killed last season on “The Sopranos.”


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