Tom Selleck has performed a heartwarming act of kindness after leaving his restaurant servers a $2020 tip for Christmas.
According to People Magazine, the 75-year-old Magnum P.I. and Blue Bloods actor was inspired to make the generous donation by New Kids on the Block star Donnie Wahlberg, who plays his on-screen son in the latter CBS series.
Earlier this year Wahlberg championed the 2020 Tip Challenge earlier this year in a bid to encourage celebrities and other wealthy people to give a $2020 tip to people in the service industry who have had their businesses and livelihoods negatively affected by COVID-19.
Per People, Wahlberg stated that Selleck made the donation to the Italian restaurant back in November, but kept it a secret until he recently informed Wahlberg about it.
In a post made to his 1.4 million Twitter followers on Wednesday, December 23, 51-year-old Wahlberg shared a picture of the receipt and a signed note from Selleck himself, which reads:
"For Elios, I am honoring my friend Donnie Wahlberg's 'Tip Challenge' with my sincere hope for a better 2020. Thank you all."
Walhberg captioned his post:
"I found out that my TV Dad #TomSelleck has generously accepted the #2020TipChallenge at Elios Upper East Side! Love ya dad. I didn’t start it but I’m proud to be part of it. To those who gave even the smallest extra amount this year — THANK YOU. [sic]"
According to The Daily Mail, Wahlberg himself left a tip of a whopping $2,020 tip on a $35.27 lunchtime bill at The Marshland - a restaurant in the town of Plymouth in Massachusetts, on November 7.
The restaurant thanked Wahlberg for his incredible display of altruism by uploading a picture of his check to its official Instagram account.
A spokesperson for the eatery captioned the post:
"A very special thank you to our friend @donniewahlberg! When asked about it all he said was 'who’s up next?!'"
In a later interview with People Magazine on the subject of Wahlberg's tip, Marty Finch, the owner of the restaurant, stated that the waitress in question was named Denise.
Finch stated: "Donnie has been here before in the past and he always asks for [Denise]. He had his normal order: steak tips with some grilled asparagus and some poached eggs. She always knows what he wants.
"When he left he just said: 'Denise, you’re all set. The payment is on the table.' She always says he’s a very good tipper anyway but her jaw dropped, to say the least when she saw that amount of tip."
He continued: "Me, as the owner, we’ve struggled these last eight months. We’ve really tried to keep these doors open. We actually closed for a couple of months because it just wasn’t looking good.
"But we reopened, and it’s been a blessing that we did. We’re kind of like a homecooked-food-neighborhood-type restaurant, so it’s just been a really good feeling all around."
Finch also added that Denise split it with her coworkers and even donated some of it to charity herself, spreading around some of the wealth that Wahlberg had chosen to share with her.
