No, You Still Can't Get A Reservation

At first the local news talking heads were saying it was a mob rub-out. But, as always, truth is much stranger than fiction.

Every singer wants to knock 'em dead, but not the way it happened at Rao's. After Broadway songbird Rena Strober sang to applause at the East Harlem hangout Monday night, one patron dissented loudly. For that, Albert Circelli, 37, paid the ultimate price - he was gunned down by a low-level hood.

Gunman Louis Barone, 67, told cops he shot Circelli "to defend my honor" in a battle over the performance. Barone said Circelli had been heckling Strober and started cursing him when he asked Circelli to cool it.

"I lost face. I had to defend my honor," he told cops. "I had no choice but to shoot him. I had no choice but to kill him."

Circelli was at the bar paying his tab when he began to trash Strober, a patron who was singing "Don't Rain on My Parade" a capella, according to Barone's account to police.

I think they used to brag that they cut their red sauce with blood.

File under Current Events.

12:55:31 PM