Actor Vincent Piazza's mum gave him the silent treatment after she saw his penis on the small screen for the first time.

The star regularly signs no-nudity clauses for his movie and Tv work but a Boardwalk Empire director persuaded him to let his manhood dangle for one scene in the period drama.

Piazza recalls, "The director calls me and goes, 'So, there's this great shot, and we feel like we should use it. And it's... the front of you'.

"I'm just sitting there silent, because one of the lines in the scene refers to my horse c**k, and I was like, 'I dunno, does it kinda defy horse c**k?' And he's (director) like, 'No, no, you'll be all right'. So I was like, 'All right, man, use your judgment'."

But Piazza's mother wasn't thrilled when she saw her boy's manhood on screen.

He tells Nylon magazine, "She'd call me after every episode and give me her review... I told her, 'Mom, do not watch episode six'. She said, 'I'm a grown woman, I can handle anything."

His mother never called to offer up her critique.