Lately I've become addicted to Sons of Anarchy. Basically the show is The Sopranos, on motorcycles. You get bikers instead of mobsters and sometimes, a mix of both.
The characters are great. Katey Sagal is awesome as matriarch Gemma; Ron Perlman is equally scary and seductive as SAMCRO club President Clay; and Charlie Hunnam, well, as Jax Teller, he turns a great show into a sizzling hot morsel of tv goodness.
Then there's the secondary characters, quirky bikers who steal your heart: Tig with his humour and his perversions, Chibs with his sing-song Scottish accent and his ravaged beauty.
But wait. Wait a minute.
Yesterday, while reading about Tommy Flanagan, who plays Chibs on Sons of Anarchy, I was surprised and horrified to discover that the scars that split Chibs' wonderful face are, in fact, real scars inflicted upon actor Tommy Flanagan during a violent attack.
In the brutal practice known as a giving someone a Glasgow Grin, cuts are made on either side of a person's mouth, splitting the victim's face from mouth to ear to create a permanent grimace.
On many people the Glasgow Grin would be seen as a disfigurement, but the scars only add tenderness to Chibs' tough-as-nails biker persona, and character to Tommy Flanagan's own rugged good looks.
