Report: Tony Danza Yells At Priest During Funeral

By Jett Wells Posted Nov 17th 2010 01:46PM

Funerals are never easy for anyone, but on Nov. 11, Tony Danza was apparently very tense at the ceremony memorializing writer Philip Carlo. In the middle of the eulogy, a dissatisfied Danza allegedly flipped out on the priest at the Peter C. La Bella Funeral Home in Brooklyn, a witness told the New York Post.

"Tony, who was one of Carlo's closest friends, walked right up to the priest and said angrily, 'Excuse me, but this is not about you. It's supposed to be about my friend, and if you can't do that, maybe you should let someone else speak!'" the source claimed.

According to the report, the priest was a substitute from a federal prison and was visibly disturbed by Danza's outburst.

"People were stunned, while the priest was visibly shaken," the source said. "He tried talking about Carlo before quickly wrapping things up. Danza took over and eulogized Carlo with memories from their younger days."

Guests included big names like Mickey Rourke, Chuck Zito, Danny Aiello and John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia.

Carlo died of Lou Gehrig's disease on Nov. 8 at age 61. He was best known for his bestselling biographies of mobsters and killers, including Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez and Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski.

Tags: tony danza

Comments

(112)

Wednesday 17 November

By Ken

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Danza's dead wrong. The funeral service is exactly that--a service. It is about the message of salvation and eternal life, and as appropriate, thanks for the life of the deceased. It is not a generalized, sentimental trip down memory lane. Do that at the wake; do it at the funeral dinner. Let the service be the service.

By Kent Dean

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Ken is right. The time for eulogies is otherwise, perhaps at a wake or a special gathering. We do know that funerals do bring out unusual behavior, though. Peace to them all.

By Sheila

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Eulogy = "Speach in praise"

By heather

I clearly states, this icident was at the funeral home, a service would be held in a church, clearly your not catholic or you would know the difference. And their are also ulogies in the church service if the family wants to have one, someone always speaks at the church service about the departed. So it's a wake thing and a church thing. But again , the catholic service is 99 out of 100 times in a church!!

By S

We weren't there but I know at my Aunt's funeral, the old minister got everything wrong and mixed up. I wish somone would have ushered him out but we were stunned and trying to give her some dignity. It was awful.

By Michael

You go Tony!! I hope somebody puts a sock in the mouth of anyone who tries to preach at my funeral. I want Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil and AC/DC Dirty Deeds played at mine and I hope everybody gets up and dances their esses off!!!

By Eddie

ken--sorry, a funeral usually takes place in a church -a funeral home gathering is just a wake sometimes with a service and sometimes without. This obviously was a wake at a funeral home with a eulogy, not a homily typically done in a church funeral, since this was a memorial of life, I really believe Tony was right to speak up and add words and memories from their childhood, probably appreciated by the family.

By gchad2003

As a minister, I have done a lot of funerals. The "service" can be at either a funeral home or a church, but the ONLY people that should speak are those invited by the family to do so. If Danza was not invited to speak by the family, he was wrong.

By shary

No,it is about spiritually soothing loved ones. This is a private funeral, it is about this person!

By meimti

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Tony Danza (born April 21, 1951)=> 59 years old. So what you're saying is he looks really good for his age?I love this , So does My boyfriend .he is almost 11year older than me .i met him via age'lessmate.c'om a nice place for seeking age le ss love.which gives you a chance to make your life better and open opportunities for you to meet the attractive young girls and treat you like a king. Maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends..

Thursday 18 November

By Brains

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I DONT think so ms KEN. Salvation and eternal life, what if the guy WASNT whatever religion the idiotic priest was. Then those statements are IRRELEVANT. The service is to memorialize the person NOT to talk about something else. You too gchad who do you think you are ? Tony was the man's 'closest friend' if you DONT know what that means that tells ME you DONT have one. Go rot. Should any moron blather on at my 'service' I PRAY someone shuts them up and goes on with great memories as I have LOTS

By cambier lingua

I think you're wrong Ken. Priests sometimes say the same "pat" biblical stuff at funerals which have nothing to do with the person that died. It was very disconcerting at my husband's funeral that the priest said nothing about my wonderful guy, only nonsense. The presiding funeral priests gets huge tips. The least they can do is find out who they are talking about.

By Tony

Good for Tony Danza. It's disgusting to turn someone's funeral into a service. It should be about the person who died and nothing and noone else.

By skimsoco76

Tony was dead wrong to do that!!!! Almost every funeral home service I've been to asked the family what they wanted mentioned in the service. Had they have done that maybe it would have been about his friend.

Saturday 20 November

By KD

Totally right about that. Unfortunately many people can't relate or their grief overshadows their sensibility.

By OLDERBLUE

I think that if he can pretend to be a Teacher,he can go and pretend to be a Priest. What's next.. A Talk Show Host..? an Actor..?? a Dancer..? A Sinatra Wannabe..? Nah.. He's above all of those.

By joe

Tony Danza is a moron... a terrible actor who had to use the name Tony in everything he did probably because he couldnt read something that had another name on it.... what a disgrace this guy is... he was a terrible boxer.. next was a terrible actor..then tried to sing and dance and was brutal at that.. now he doent even repect a priest at a wake... what a loser

By Ian

And yet, he's still so much more successful than you will ver be. Imagine that...

By Ray Ellis

The only losser is you joe you are such a moron it was not a funeral it was a tribute to the man at a funeral home. Leave it up to catholic priest to make it about him and the church. Typical of the catholic faith, hope you know they we friends to the nazi's and a lot of priests now dead and some today are still nazi's. That be the faith I want.

By Hep

Yay, Tony! I wish I had done that during my father's funeral. We spoke to the priest for hours about my father, whom the priest had known for years, and I gave him a copy of my father's biography. This jerk kept going on about my father being a "curmudgeon." It didn't even make sense. I'll never forgive myself for not going up on the altar and grabbing the microphone from him.

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