Journalist-author-screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi was picketing on behalf of the WGA yesterday at the Time Warner center where he ran into Artie Lange of the Howard Stern show. The two got to talking about Henry Hill, the protagonist of the extremely violent coming-of-age film ''Goodfellas,'' which is based on Pileggi's book. From Marksfriggin:

''Artie said he got to talk to Nick Pileggi about Henry Hill. Howard actually had Henry on the phone so he put him on with Artie. Artie said Nick was speaking highly of Henry and told him some stories about how he got to talk to Henry when he was in the witness protection program. He said Nick was kind of surprised that Henry calls into the show and doesn't worry about getting killed anymore. Artie said that Pileggi and his friend are all impressed by Howard's interviewing skills and how he's managed to get stuff out of Henry that no one else could.''

(image via movies.yahoo)