Sopranos actors end pay dispute

The interested parties had a sit-down and worked things out, so no one's going to get hurt.

Sopranos actors Steven Van Zandt and Tony Sirico, who play Dante Silvio and Paulie Walnuts, respectively, have ended their standoff with HBO over salary issues. The two actors had been holding out for a pay bump going into the final season of the acclaimed mob drama.

Originally, HBO offered a 10 percent across-the-board salary increase to all supporting cast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network agreed to double Van Zandt's and Sirico's current salaries, which are around $85,000 per episode. The two actors had initially demanded an increase to $200,000 per episode, and Tony Soprano himself (James Gandolfini) is reported to have intervened and attempted to help settle things.

In June, most of the supporting cast of the show had delayed signing their contracts for the eighth and final season, demanding a pay increase. Lorraine Bracco, Aida Turturro, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, and Robert Iler eventually re-upped after negotiating their own pay bumps. In March, Gandolfini had negotiated a salary of $1 million per episode for himself.

The first table read for the new Sopranos season is scheduled to take place this week. The pay scuffle had threatened to alter the storylines of the show--since it is a mob drama, any of the characters can presumably be whacked.