Sopranos guest-star Peter Riegert says James Gandolfini stuck up for him over a last-minute nude scene

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Riegert, who recurred as Assemblyman Zellman on Seasons 3 and 4 of the HBO drama, was stunned to learn at a table read that Tony Soprano was going to pull off his character's underwear and spank his buttocks with a belt. "I was going to be naked. As far as I'm concerned, I would have liked a heads-up on that," Riegert said in Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli's new book Woke Up This Morning. Riegert says that when Gandolfini learned that he was unhappy, he talked to David Chase, who reluctantly agreed to let him remain semi-clothed.