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Stallone visits his former home in the Northeast

Also: Matthew McConaughey signs on to star in Philly writer's book; Marky Ramone to read at the Free Library.

FOR SYLVESTER STALLONE, you can go home again.

Stallone, back in town after a jaunt to the UK, on Tuesday stopped by the house in Holme

Circle where he lived as a teenager with his mom.

Stallone is in Philly filming the "Rocky" sequel "Creed," starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed's son, Adonis.

"We were just finishing dinner with my chicken half-consumed and the dishwasher open," said Patty Burke, who lives in Stallone's old haunt with her husband, John. The Burkes' seven kids used that as a point of pride growing up in the house, and Frank Stallone made his own sojourn a couple of years ago.

The Burkes bought the house in 1971 from Stallone's mother, Jacqueline, and stepfather, Anthony Filiti.

Stallone told Patty Burke that he would like to take a look around the place. He remarked, to Burke's surprise, that it hadn't changed much.

Burke was impressed with how low-key Stallone was.

"He just did it for a bit of nostalgia," she said. "That was nice. There wasn't a big to-do."

Burke's daughter asked if she had thought to get any memorabilia autographed, including their "Rocky" boxset or Stallone's old speed bag that she still had in the garage. Alas, no.

"I'm lucky I could remember my name!" Burke said.

* Stallone didn't just hit up the Burke house, he also took time for some hoagies, hitting up Primo's (2703 E. Clearfield St.) for two Italians and a ham-and-cheese. Sly posed for pics with the excited staff, and I hear he entered like a regular.

McConaughey runs to Philly author

All right, all right, all right!

Matthew McConaughey is slated to star in an adaptation of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Philly-raised author Chris McDougall, according to Deadline.com

McConaughey will star in the project based on former Philly Mag contributor McDougall's book on Mexico's Tarahumara Indians, who are able to run long distances without injury.

The book stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 178 weeks and sold 2 million copies in the U.S., igniting the barefoot running trend. McDougall now lives outside of Lancaster.

Rock 'n' roll & Ramone

Marky Ramone, drummer of the Ramones, knows firsthand the unifying powers of passing gas.

Ramone, who will discuss his memoir Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as Ramone tonight at the Free Library of Philadelphia, put it upon himself to defuse the contentious relationship between bandmates Johnny and Joey Ramone, who went decades without speaking to one another.

"The van would be quiet and I would make a fart and everybody would laugh, but I did my job," Ramone said. "Did that bring them together? No. But at least it was an attempt."

Ramone's book is full of attempts to make being in a band of very dysfunctional faux brothers that much better, even if that meant pranking anyone in their vicinity.

"Our tour manager was the victim. We'd put water over the door and the water would fall on him, or we would piss in someone's beer. We did that to Johnny Rotten, from the Sex Pistols. Or there would be pizza and we would spit on it and give it to anyone who came into the dressing room. I'm sure it was done to us a lot, too."

For Ramone, signing books is the least of his worries; he's had quite a bit of practice signing other things. "I sign my name to skin, and [the fans] make them into tattoos," Ramone said. "It's pretty hard because sometimes when someone sweats, the Sharpie doesn't work too well."

Icon's local flick

South Philly filmmakers Tony Trov and Johnny Zito are enlisting Bill Moseley ("The Devil's Rejects," "House of 1000 Corpses" and "Army of Darkness") for their next cinematic endeavor, "American Exorcist," about a skeptical scientist who learns the hard way that she should have bought into the supernatural leanings of her family.

Trov and Zito tell me they plan to film outside of 400 N. Broad St., the building that formerly housed the Daily News, Inquirer and Philly.com. "We tried to shoot inside but there's no running water anymore," Zito told me.

They are currently raising money for post-production funds through their Kickstarter, which can be found at http://kck.st/1EhARDO.

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