The Sopranos (The Sopranos episode) Michael Santoro play Irina and Father Phil respectively. For future episodes, these roles were recast with Oksana Lada and Paul Schulze. Drea De Matteo was originally simply cast as a restaurant hostess for this one episode only. The filmmakers liked her performance, and her character was developed into the role of Adriana La Cerva in future episodes. The pork store used as a meeting place is Centanni's Meat Market, a real butcher shop in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, because the shop had a steady business and because local business owners were annoyed with the incidental effects of having a television
Adriana Russo Adriana Russo Adriana Russo (born 4 February 1954) is an Italian actress and television personality. Born in Rome, Russo started acting at the university, then she joined the stage company "Teatro insieme Emilia Romagna". In the second half of the 1970s she entered the cabaret company "Il Bagaglino" and had her first film roles, notably appearing in Ettore Scola's "Down and Dirty". After working on stage with Vittorio Gassman, her career was launched by the RAI variety show "La Sberla". Russo then appeared in several dozens of films, stage works and TV-series; she was also playmate in the Italian edition