Leslie Bega of The Soprano's has James Marster to thank for winning the role of Valentina in the hit mob show.

Unable to attend the New York audition in due to a sever bout of flu, Bega was told to submit it by video.

"They asked me to put my audition on tape in one day and sent me 25 pages of the script," Bega told Entertainment Weekly. "I asked my friend whose boyfriend is a cameraman to help me. But then we couldn't get the VCR to work to transfer the audition onto tape."

Luckily, Spike was on hand to save the day. "James lives across the street. I told him how I was sick and I'd poured my heart into this audition tape and now we couldn't use it. He said, ‘No problem! I'm always taping Buffy for my mom. We can do it on my VCR!’

"Then it was off to FedEx in the nick of time. I got the job and started a few days later. And I haven't gotten sick since, knock on wood."

If you’re reading James, the Cult team were wondering if you could tape Firefly for us please? We’d pay for the postage…