Filming, acting and the whole set atmosphere of a production weren’t new to Gary Tanguay, but the Rumford native and University of Maine alumnus had to admit it was pretty exciting.

“I absolutely love it. I love getting an inside view of the whole thing. The process fascinates me as a movie buff,” said the co-host of Fox Sports Net’s New England Sports Tonight and studio host for FSNNE Boston Celtics telecasts.

Tanguay, who worked as a movie/television extra while living in New Hampshire, won’t be the only one excited to be on the set of “Stiffs,” a black comedy following the plight of a proud Italian-American hearse driver played by Danny Aiello. A yet-to-be identified man from Massachusetts won an eight-day Internet auction for a walk-on role in the movie with a $5,001 bid Wednesday night.

“I haven’t talked to him yet to find out if he minds having his name released,” said FSNNE marketing and communications manager Skip Perham, who also coordinated the benefit auction. “But he’s a big fan of Danny Aiello.”

The auction’s proceeds go to The Salvation Army’s Good Neighbor Energy Fund for heating assistance.

Tanguay – who plays Mike Roberts, a reporter chasing down details of some missing mobsters in the movie – has parlayed his acting experience, friendship with the film’s director (Frank Ciota), and role into a charitable endeavor.

“Gary’s excited about being in the movie and getting us a role to auction off,” Perham said. “We talked about doing something for charity for the holidays, but we couldn’t do that in time. This was really timely. I know Gary and [NEST co-host) Greg [Dickerson] have done the red kettle in the past and I know Danny’s done stuff for the Salvation Army.”

Tanguay, 41, has wrapped up two of his three days of shooting on the movie, which should take four to six weeks to film.

“We had to work around the Celtics schedule and Fox was happy to do it,” said Tanguay, a former radio and TV broadcaster for WABI in Bangor. “It was great. There’s a lot of down time, but they gave me my own trailer and they had a great buffet all the time.”

Tanguay, who has written a screenplay and hopes to direct a film someday, found the experience very enlightening.

“It wasn’t brand new to me because I was into acting as an extra back along, but the real technical stuff was new,” he explained. “I was interested in some of the technical stuff the director did, which I never would have considered in camera angles and placement. You can fool a lot of people with a good cameraman.”

He also learned another intriguing tidbit.

“Aiello’s first role was in ‘Fear Strikes Out’ and he told me he got the role because he could throw a baseball,” Tanguay said with a chuckle.

Tanguay got the role through his friendship with Ciota and his brother Joe, who wrote the screenplay.

“They wanted someone to play a reporter who had interview skills,” Tanguay said.

The film is scheduled to be released in 2007.

Black Bears 2-1 on TV

The University of Maine’s basketball teams are getting some TV time this winter, and doing fairly well.

The Maine men are 1-0 after Sunday’s 53-51 victory over Boston University on New England Sports Network through the America East TV network.

Maine’s women are now 1-1 in TV games after a lopsided loss to BU Sunday. In their previous game, they beat University of Maryland Baltimore County Jan. 21 on Bangor’s WABI (Channel 5).

The Black Bears will make five more regular-season TV appearances – two for the men (Feb. 15 on NESN and Feb. 19 on WABI) and three for the women (Feb. 18 on WABI, Feb. 25 on NESN and College Sports TV, and March 4 on WABI).

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net