Set <i>The White Lotus</i> Season 3 In Michael Imperioli's Apartment, Cowards

January 27, 2023 ndowd

Somebody call Mike White, and tell him to reschedule his flight to Kyoto. We can all agree an upcoming season of HBO hit The White Lotus belongs in Asia. But while we’re still in the location scouting stage, might I suggest the showrunner hunt a little closer to home? I assure you, season 3—or, hey, a spin-off?—belongs in actor Michael Imperioli’s apartment.

Imperioli, the Sopranos star who played sex-addicted dad Dominic Di Grasso in the latest White Lotus season, recently granted Architectural Digest a tour of the 1920s-era New York City home he shares with his wife, the interior designer and set designer Victoria Imperioli. And, boy, it is something to behold.

The space appears conjured from White Lotus season 2 concept art, or perhaps replicated directly from the San Domenico Palace hotel, where Dominic, his father, and his son run afoul of Skims models Mia and Lucia. Either way, it’s the ideal setting for a new White Lotus story. Better yet, Mike, make it home to a glamorous spin-off: one following the apartment’s temporary tenants, there thanks to an overpriced Airbnb listing Dominic posted after his wife finally let him move back into their family home. The opportunities are endless!

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Can’t you imagine Jennifer Coolidge’s anxious ghost floating between those thick golden curtains, stashing macarons in the birch-papered kitchen cabinets? I bet there’s a treasure map scrawled on the other side of that 19th-century German painting! Any one of those porcelain busts could make for a great murder weapon—should White get Imperioli’s permission to use it as a prop, of course. And that art deco dining table is practically begging to host an outlandish dinner party, featuring cameos from real-world and fictional Manhattan glitterati. (Surely HBO would be on board for a Succession crossover. Think of the ratings!)

There’s even a secret “safe,” Imperioli says, inside a Santa Caterina bust he bought in Taormina, Sicily, where season 2 of The White Lotus was filmed. I can’t possibly imagine White using that to any devious narrative ends.

Finally, peek inside the glowing meditation room, which Victoria refers to as the “Buddha space.” We already know White wants to make season 3 about “eastern religion and spirituality”—what more could he want out of a singular set? In the immortal words of Bill Hader’s Big Apple tastemaker Stefon, this place has everything.

“I like modern art, but I don’t like living with it,” Imperioli told AD. “I like being transported to another time, in a way, in the home.” In that case, we’ll also need a time-travel subplot. It’s the only way to bring back Tanya in the flesh!