'Sopranos' Actor To Plead Guilty

Vincent Pastore, who played gangster Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on "The Sopranos," has agreed to plead guilty to a charge that he attempted to assault a former girlfriend last spring.

The plea bargain, which has yet to receive final approval from a judge, calls for Pastore, 59, to perform 10 days of community service and attend a counseling program for batterers, lawyers involved in the case told a judge Monday.

Leaving a Manhattan courthouse after the brief hearing, Pastore said he was satisfied with the deal.

"I want this to go away. What do you think, I want to die of a heart attack?" he said. The meaty actor, who has slimmed down some from his barrel-bellied "Sopranos" days, added that he is recovering from an emergency triple bypass heart surgery performed about two months ago.

"I can't do nude scenes now because of the scar," he said.

Pastore was originally charged with two counts of assault, attempted assault and harassment for allegedly attacking Lisa Regina, 44, in April.

Prosecutors alleged that he punched her in the back of the head, grabbed her hair, and forced her head down on a car's gear shift during an argument.

Pastore has remained free on bail while the case is pending on the condition that he refrain from contacting Regina in any way.

If convicted, he could have been sentenced to as much as a year in jail. The plea bargain will likely be finalized in November, when the case is scheduled to be back in court, said Pastore's lawyer, Dominic Barbara.

Pastore's "Sopranos" character was killed early in the series as payback for snitching on the mob.