Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Irony blows: Walker crash site known for street racing

Alsoin Tattle: A street for Gandolfini, Insane Clown Posse moving

Kate Moss / Playboy Cover
Kate Moss / Playboy CoverRead more

POLICE say the Valencia, Calif., area where "Fast & Furious" star Paul Walker died in a car crash is known to attract street racers.

Walker and his friend and financial adviser Roger Rodas died in the one-car crash Saturday. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department already has said speed was a factor.

The street where the crash happened forms a loop amid commercial buildings that is isolated from traffic, especially on weekends.

Fans of Walker continued to gather yesterday at the site, leaving flowers and memorabilia from the movie franchise about fast cars that made him famous.

Universal Pictures has not said what it plans to do with "Fast & Furious 7," which is slated for release in July.

Gary Thompson's look back at Walker's career is below.

Around the city

* Local publicist Monica Montalvo invites you to attend "Phila for Manila," a fundraiser for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. The event is from 7 to midnight tonight at Cavanaugh's Headhouse (421 S. 2nd St.). Cover charge is $30, with an open bar from 7 to 9 p.m. Drink specials start at 9. A portion of the proceeds will go to the All Hands Volunteers for Project Leyte and Project Bohol. Monica will also return to her Philippines homeland after Christmas to help with the rebuilding.

* Producer Brian Yang is trying to arrange a screening of "Linsanity," the story of Jeremy Lin, for the Ritz 5, on Dec. 10 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., but he needs a certain number of seats to guarantee the screening. If you're interested in seeing the film about a most interesting and unique basketball star, go to tugg.com/events/6848.

TATTBITS

* On Sunday, the busy intersection by the Park Ridge Diner, in New Jersey, was closed off to dedicate a stretch of Park Avenue to James Gandolfini, the "son of Park Ridge," as Mayor Terence Maguire called him. Gandolfini died in June of a heart attack.

Park Ridge residents remembered him as a skinny kid who performed at the Little Theater at Park Ridge High School and who later became a humble star, but remained devoted to his family.

Joining Gandolfini's wife, Deborah Lin, and son, Michael Gandolfini, were "Sopranos" director Timothy Van Patten and cast members Steve Schirripa, Vincent Curatola, Tony Sirico, Dominic Chianese, Vincent Pastore and John Ventimiglia.

"We thought maybe we were going to get a mob," the mayor joked. "It looks like we did."

* Organizers of an outdoor festival headlined by Insane Clown Posse are finding new digs for the event after six years in southern Illinois, and Sheriff Jerry Fricker couldn't be happier.

The five-day concert, which each year has drawn tens of thousands of people, also has developed a reputation for unruliness marked by drug overdoses, fights, arrests and deaths.

In 2010, fans pelted reality-TV actress Tila Tequila with stones, bottles and feces.

Sounds like Black Friday.

- Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Twitter: @DNTattle