Shaq is pretty much everywhere, but was that Shaq in Rockland? It sure was.
Shaquille O’Neal, Pro Basketball Hall of Famer, NBA legend and analyst, was in Rockland County on Tuesday, filming a show, a cast member confirmed.
O’Neal was at the Blauvelt Sons of Italy Rockland Lodge, where season 3 of the Amazon Prime show, “Gravesend,” is being filmed.
Shaq was cast as a regular for season three of “Gravesend” after expressing his love for the show. His role will be a character named Mustafa.
“Gravesend,” now in its third season, is directed by and stars William DeMeo as Benny Zerletta, an Italian American man in 1980s Brooklyn who struggles with being in a crime family. The show’s third season is scheduled to be released in 2025. The show premiered in 2020 and past seasons are available on Amazon Prime
Fellow “Gravesend” actor and Rockland local, Paul Borghese, who plays chief FBI Agent Morano and is a longtime member and board member of the Blauvelt Sons of Italy, emphasized how “gracious” O’Neal was on set.
“I’ve never met anybody so famous that was so generous with his time,” Borghese said. “Even though he was working -— had a lot of responsibility — he was taking pictures with everyone.”
According to Borghese, there were times when people snuck onto the closed set to see O’Neal. But, Borgehese said, “Instead of him having an attitude, he’d just grab the kid and go, ‘Come here,’ (and) ‘Let’s take a picture.’ And he’d laugh, and he’d smile, and he’d kid around with them.”
Another example of O’Neal’s generosity: Borghese said O’Neal gave flowers to a woman on set, a big fan of O’Neal’s, who is dealing with stage 4 cancer.
“He sent out for red roses to be brought to the set,” Borghese said. “Then he brought them over and presented them to her himself, just to tell her that he cared what she was going through.”
Other highlights included Armand Assante, who was in town for the shoot, and a scene at the Lodge’s Nunzio Borghese Bocce Ball Park, where some of the members of the Blauvelt Sons of Italy got to play extras.
“I’m always happy to shoot in Rockland County,” Borghese said. “By us filming at the Sons of Italy, it’s attracting a lot of other production companies to come and say, ‘Hey, I want to see your location.’
“So, a lot of bigger shows, bigger movies are coming to us,” Borghese continued.
O’Neal was not the only big-name actor in town for the shoot. Other cast members on set included Chazz Palminteri, Andrew Dice Clay, Tony Darrow, William Forsythe, Fran Drescher, Mario Cantone and Vincent Pastore from “The Sopranos.”
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Shaq in Rockland NY: NBA legend shot episodes of Gravesend
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