Entertainment
How Viggo Mortensen's Other Iconic Character Became A Movie Star In Real Life
By TeeJay Small
| Published
Sometimes you check out your favorite movies on IMDb and realize that the same great minds are behind everything you love. Other times, you can make surprising behind-the-scenes connections that improve the viewing experience behind movies that you thought were already perfect.
If you’re a fan of the 2018 Best Picture winner Green Book, for instance, I’ve got a fun fact that might just blow your mind. The real-life man Viggo Mortensen portrays in the movie, Tony ‘Lip’ Vallelonga, went on to become an actor himself, starring in several episodes of The Sopranos.
In case you don’t recall, Green Book centers on the true story of Don Shirley’s 1962 concert tour across the deep South. Shirley, a black man, knew that this undertaking could be extremely dangerous and sought to hire a chauffeur with a background in conflict resolution.
After asking around town, he heard about Bronx bouncer Tony Lip, who was out of work while his nightclub underwent significant renovations. As the film shows, Lip was initially hesitant to take the job, though the two grew extremely close over the course of the tour.
By the time the credits roll on Green Book, Tony has effectively invited Dr. Shirley to become a member of his family. The two remained close friends all their lives, even as Tony returned to bouncing at the Copacabana nightclub shortly thereafter. Years later, Tony Lip would meet Francis Ford Coppola and Louis DiGiaimo at that very club. The pair quickly came to admire Vallelonga’s authenticity and hired him in a small, uncredited role in The Godfather.
From there, Tony Lip began taking small roles in numerous films, including Dog Day Afternoon, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Donny Brasco. His Italian-American heritage and lived experience as a nightclub bouncer in the Bronx made him an ideal candidate for mob movies, though his most memorable role was on the small screen.
In 2001, Lip began portraying New York mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. in The Sopranos. The character was known for his shrewd business acumen and ability to carefully speak in code to dodge the feds. Lip’s scenes playing off James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano and Vincent Curatola’s Johnny Sack feature some of the show’s most memorable moments.
Today, both Tony Lip and Dr. Shirley have passed away, but their friendship has been immortalized through Green Book. The fact that Tony went on to act in The Sopranos years down the line may not have a direct effect on the movie, but it may add some color to your viewing experience.
Furthermore, this behind-the-scenes fact reminds us that the era of Jim Crow and segregation is not as distant as we like to remember. It should be jarring that a person could be a grown adult man during that period of American history, and still be alive to perform in a show that ran through 2007.
Unfortunately, Green Book isn’t currently streaming anywhere, but it’s well worth the price to rent or buy a physical copy. All six seasons of The Sopranos are available to stream on HBO Max.
Entertainment
Stuff Your Kindle Day is live now — score 150+ free ebooks for 1 day only
FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on April 23. The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, isoffering cozy mystery books for free.
This has been such a huge month for Stuff Your Kindle Day. We’ve already been blessed by a number of free giveaways, and we’re not done yet.
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, is offering participants the chance to download 150+ ebooks without spending anything. Everything that you download is yours to keep forever, so take this as your sign up to stock up ahead of the summer reading season.
Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We’ve lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.
When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast takes place on April 23. This free giveaway only lasts 24 hours, so you will need to act fast to download everything you want to read. Clear your schedule, make a list of priorities, and add to your TBR list with this limited-time promotion.
Which ebooks are free?
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast has a helpful hub page with everything on offer organized by sub-genre:
You can find these free ebooks from the Kindle Store and other popular retailers. There really is something for everyone in this latest book blast.
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Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?
Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there’s no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don’t count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time, so don’t hold back.
The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal
Why we like it
These popular e-readers let you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. Plus, you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase for a limited time.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 23
We’re almost at the First Quarter which means the Moon is almost half illuminated. Each night it gets a little brighter, and this will keep happening until the Full Moon when the reverse will then occur and each night it will appear less.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Thursday, April 23, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 41% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.
If you’re looking at the Moon with just your naked eye, you should be able to catch a glimpse of the Mares Serenitatis, Tranquillitatis, and Fecunditatis. If you have binoculars, the Mare Nectaris and Endymion and Posidonius Craters should also come into view, appearing from halfway up the Moon to near the top. And, finally, with a telescope you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 11 and 17 landing spots, and the Rupes Altai.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.
What are Moon phases?
NASA says that the Moon completes a full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it passes through eight stages. Although the same face of the Moon is always turned toward us, the portion illuminated by the Sun shifts as it travels along its path, producing the familiar cycle of full, half, and crescent shapes. These variations are referred to as lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
Tinder responds to viral video about tricking facial scan
Earlier this month, journalist Christophe Haubursin published a YouTube video called “Something very weird is happening on Tinder.” In the video, which has over 1.5 million views as of this publication, Haubursin described a way to workaround to Tinder’s Face Check feature — the facial recognition that is now required for all U.S. users as of Oct. 2025.
What Haubursin and his interviewees discovered is a bunch of profiles that appeared normal, but the last photo on each profile was…off. It was usually a digitally-altered image of a different person in a weird scenario, like on a billboard or in a Victorian painting. And if someone matched with this person and asked about the image, they dodged the question. Instead, they asked to move the conversation to WhatsApp, where it became clear they were romance scammers.
But how did they evade Face Check? Haubursin found that Tinder and Hinge, both owned by Match Group, only need one photo for the facial recognition software. So these people may be the actual person in that odd image, and able to pass the face scan. Then, they could grift images of other people from the internet to use for the bulk of their profile.
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Tinder didn’t respond to Haubursin’s request for comment, but it did respond to Mashable’s.
“We’re aware of the concerns raised about our Photo Verification and Face Check features. In recent weeks, we’ve taken action to strengthen our Photo Verification badging logic, including requiring greater consistency across profile photos and additional reviews to achieve higher confidence in cases that warrant extra scrutiny,” a Tinder spokesperson told Mashable. “Face Check, our more recently launched verification system, builds on Photo Verification to help confirm accounts belong to real users. We are committed to continuously improving and investing in our systems to keep Tinder safe and authentic for our users.”
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Mashable also recently spoke with Hinge’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ben Celebicic, about this, as Haubursin also replicated this on Hinge (which began implementing Face Check after Tinder). Celebicic hasn’t seen Haubursin’s video, but he did say that there’s a constant battle between trust and safety teams and policy-violating actors.
“They’ll find new ways,” he said. “We’ll find ways to prevent them from accessing the platform.”
There’s not going to be a single product the team builds that will fully prevent people from bypassing our solution, Celebicic continued. He said they have a big team working on these issues, and they’re in tune with new ways bad actors try to penetrate the platform and work to fix them.
Around one-third of Hinge’s workforce is dedicated to trust and safety, the app told Mashable, and Match Group invests $125 million annually in this area.
Trust and safety is a major concern for dating apps. In Sept. 2025, two senators sent a letter to Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, urging him to do something about romance scammers on the platforms. In Dec., a class-action lawsuit against Match Group claimed that a serial rapist was allowed on Tinder and Hinge after several women reported him.
Facial recognition scans have boomed recently thanks to the influx of age-verification laws, which require a robust method of proving someone’s age in order to access certain content, usually explicit content. These methods include uploading a government ID to a platform, using a credit card, or in other cases, scanning your face. But, like with Face Check, people have found workarounds to evade the scan and see the content they want to see.
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