“Rescue Me's” tough guys mix it up

Last night on “Rescue Me” (SPOILER ALERT), Jerry Reilly (Jack McGee), after losing his job in the firehouse because of his recent heart attack, blew his brains out.

(Guess I should’ve given you more warning. Sorry.)

Anyway, McGee is none too happy about it.

"My own true feeling is, I think the wrong character killed himself," he tells Matt Seitz (a friend of Your Mayor’s), who provides a sympathetic ear in exchange for a story at TelevisionWithoutPity.com. McGee thinks Denis Leary’s character, Tommy Gavin – or perhaps Leary himself – should’ve broken out the Quietus®.

Seitz says that McGee says that Leary “cultivates a public image as a bold, blunt, hands-on actor-writer-producer who loves collaboration, but is actually an insecure, controlling person who hogs the spotlight.” “I'm actually happy to be away from 'The Brilliant Bully,'" McGee concludes.

Leary’s collaborator, Peter Tolan, told Seitz that Jerry’s death had "very little to do with Jack McGee and everything to do with the fact that ‘Rescue Me’ is a dark show," yet went on to complain a little about McGee anyway.

I find it shocking to think that a guy who is so brilliant at playing an @sshole might actually be one in real life. And I find it equally flabbergasting that an actor might be bitter about getting written out of a show and lash out at his former employers. That never … oh, yeah, right; Isaiah Washington (herewith, the latest on his continuing self-immolation).