`Sopranos' star ready for show to end

The time has come for HBO's "The Sopranos" to be rubbed out. And Michael Imperioli is ready for the end.

The 41-year-old actor returns as Christopher Moltisanti for the final season of the Emmy-winning mob drama, which premieres Sunday (9 p.m. EDT).

"I love the show," Imperioli told AP Radio in a recent interview. "It's gonna be sad to leave it. I think the timing is right to end it."

What's in store for his character?

"I would like to end it in the psychiatric hospital with Uncle Junior," he joked. "It's probably gonna end, I would imagine, not the way people expect."

Imperioli said he hopes Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, won't allow Christopher to take over as mob boss.

"If it ends with me as the boss then what's the point, it's over, right? Then I don't get to enjoy it," he laughed. "I don't have any desires in that how it ends. I mean, I know however it's going to end, it's going to be interesting and appropriate."

He said it would be funny if Christopher's fiancee, Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo), got revenge on him.

"Maybe (she) comes from beyond the grave, makes him a zombie and brings him to the netherworld. I don't know, I always thought he could be killed by Adriana but that's not gonna happen," he said.

___

HBO is a division of Time Warner Inc.

___

On the Net:

HBO:

http://www.hbo.com