Why Joe Manganiello And Sofia Vergara's Trip To Ireland Was So Important
For the longest time, Joe Manganiello was pretty sure that he knew exactly who he was. Sure, the Pittsburgh-born actor has been one of the biggest names in the film and television industry, who also happens to be married to small screen siren Sofia Vergara. But, when it came to his heritage and his roots, he was pretty certain that his "true blood," so to speak was as Italian as it gets. While accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th annual 2018 L.A. Italian Film Festival, the actor said (via Showbiz 411), "I'm so grateful to be in a room where people can pronounce my last name. Manganiello has many meanings, but one of them means the bully stick that the cops use," he quipped. "You know the kind they beat people up with. But we were on the right side of the law. Then my family came to America and married into the Bonanno crime family. So the criminal and police married and came up with me."
Vergara, meanwhile, explained to ABC News in 2016 that her husband was more than just your typical Hollywood Italian Stallion. She said, "Italians and Colombians, they have a lot of things in common. He's not completely, completely Italian. He's also Armenian and German. He has a lot of mix. So I'm more pure." And, while very few people would argue that Manganiello isn't a stallion, he's not as Italian as he once thought he was. A trip to Ireland told him why.
Joe Manganiello can add Irish hunk to his résumé
Joe Manganiello discovered on a trip to Ireland that he might have the creamy, black taste of Guinness running through that "true blood" of his, as the actor's actually more Irish than he originally knew. The handsome actor shared several photos of him in Ireland on Instagram and captioned them with, "In a surprise turn of events, I found out last year that my brother and I were significantly Irish and then serendipitously, I wound up getting offered a great job in Ireland. Well, this past weekend I had some time off from the show and flew Sofía over to join me in exploring the land of my ancestors..." From the carousel of images, "you can see we ventured out to Schull and Mizen Head stopping by to pay respects to the 3,000 year old Drombeg stone Druid Circle," he added.
Manganiello added that the entire story will air during an episode of the PBS series "Finding Your Roots." And while it's doubtful that the L.A. Italian Film Festival will ask Manganiello for his Lifetime Achievement Award back, he can always add "Irish hunk" to his already impressive — and growing — résumé.