WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...

Matt LeBlanc no longer has to worry about his new TV sis sportin' mafia ties. On last night's Sopranos, Drea de Matteo's long-suffering alter ego, Adriana, got tapped three times by the whack stick shortly after coming out as a friend of the Feds. For months, viewers have been buzzing that de Matteo's mob days were numbered — speculation that only intensified the moment she signed on to play Joey Tribbiani's hairdresser sib on this fall's Joey. But in a recent interview with TV Guide magazine, the actress dismissed the rumor, insisting that she was under contract with The Sopranos "for one more season... Why are they gonna kill her? She doesn't even know anything!" As Apprentice reject Tammy Lee would say, "We were duped!"

TV GuideNews May 24, 2004 at 1:00 a.m. PT