Will from Toronto
The Arnold Schwarzenegger origin story is well known: He immigrated to this country from his native Austria in the late 1960s to train for bodybuilding competitions and to seek a better life. The rest is history.
Actor and voice-over artist Will Arnett (“Arrested Development,” “The Lego Batman Movie”) brought up his own journey to America on a recent episode of the “Smartless” podcast that he co-hosts with actors Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes.
The “Terminator” star and former California governor was a guest on the episode.
“I’m curious about earlier. You keep talking about coming here to America. I did, too,” Arnett said dryly. “I drove 90 minutes to Buffalo from Toronto.”
The native of Canada is, sadly, a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan. But we have another reason to like him: He snuck a reference to Tonawanda into a commercial for chocolate candy.
This happened back in 2021, as Off Main Street previously reported.
The ad that name-checked a fictional “Artie from Tonawanda” as someone who wrote a letter to Hershey’s praising Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups aired nationally. Arnett was the narrator.
“The town name Tonawanda was an improvisation when the actor was running through lines,” Anna Lingeris, a Hershey’s spokesperson, said then. “There was a different town name written but, upon hearing Tonawanda, the Reese’s team loved the way the name sounded and stuck with it.”
Will, if you see this, we appreciate every local reference you slip into your work.
Next time you take the drive down, wings and weck are on us.
A fitting farewell
December’s Buffalo Planning Board meeting was the last for Horace Gioia Jr., who has served on the panel for 39 years. That’s not only under the multiple terms of current Mayor Byron W. Brown, but several other mayors as well.
Gioia, a real estate attorney at Rupp Pfalzgraf who sometimes had to abstain on votes because of conflicts of interest, has been a constant presence on the board,…
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