These are busy times for Tony Sirico.
The former “Sopranos” star (Paulie Walnuts) has been booked to play the recurring role of Vinnie the Dog on “Family Guy” — and, beginning next season, he’ll also be crooning the show’s theme song, along with star Seth MacFarlane and other cast members.
Sirico, who’s repped by Bob McGowan, has also landed the lead in the Adult Swim series “Colonel Wallace,” where he’ll be playing Tony “Peanuts” Sirico (it’s from “King of the Hill” writer Greg Cohen). And he’s also wrapped two back-to-back feature film roles, in “Zarra’s Law” — co-starring Brendan Fehr, Renee Taylor and Burt Young — and “Nicky Deuce,” based on the book co-written by his “Sopranos” castmate, Steve Schirripa — which also features appearances from ex-“Sopranos” family members Vince Curatola, Michael Imperioli and James Gandolfini. series. Schirripa is also producing and starring in the movie.
Meanwhile, actress Ellen D. Williams returned to “How I Met Your Mother” in this past Monday’s episode, “Lobster Crawl,” after first appearing as Patrice last season. She’s now caught the eye of womanizing Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and is scheduled to return for more episodes this season as Robin’s (Cobie Smulders) co-worker/arch-nemesis.
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Starting the season 13-4 has been great for the Knicks — and even better for their TV ratings on MSG.
Season-to-date, Knicks games are up a whopping 68 percent in households and 118 percent in adults 25-54, compared to the same number of games last season. That’s also spilled over into MSG’s Knicks postgame show, which is up 105 percent in households and 177 percent in adults 25-54 thus far compared to the same timeframe last season.
And, five of the last six Knicks prime-time games were tops in the New York market among men 25-54. Can’t beat it with a stick.
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Fans of “The Bachelorette” will want to keep an eye out for singer/songwriter Matt White, who performed at the wedding of “Bachelorette” stars Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum — airing as a prime-time special Sunday, Dec. 16 on ABC (9-11 p.m./Ch. 7).
White, who was chosen by the couple to sing at their shindig, performed his 2009 hit, “Love,” during the first dance; during the couple’s cake-cutting ceremony, he sang his new single, “Love and Affection” off his EP, “Campfire Songs,” which will be out shortly on iTunes and amazon.com. He’s currently signed to Warner Music.
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Last, but not least:
* ABC News launches “GMA Live” on Monday — a 15-minute Web-only show featuring “GMA’s”Josh Elliott, Lara Spencer, Sam Champion and Amy Robach that will stream after the live show on goodmorningamerica.com (Yahoo) and abcnews.com . . . Lois Robbins (“All My Children”), Billy Baldwin (“Gossip Girl”), Kathy Najimy and Fat Joe were in Brooklyn yesterday (Carroll Gardens) filming the movie “Blowtorch” . . . Former “SNL”er Cheri Oteri — who starred in the “Liza Life Coach” Web series and interstitials on AMC — headlines three New Year’s Eve shows (5:30, 8 and 10:30 p.m.) at the Laughing Devil comedy club in Long Island City (4738 Vernon Blvd.).