NAMES IN THE NEWS : Stallone Brushes Up on Poe

“Suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” Yo.

Edgar Allan Poe, meet Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone took a detour during filming of “Rocky V” to visit the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, a house where the poet and short-story writer lived for two years.

Park Ranger Joelle Wagner said Thursday she answered a knock at the locked front door Feb. 12 to find the creator of movie hero Rocky Balboa on the doorstep with co-star Talia Shire and a bodyguard.

“I was flabbergasted,” she said. “I had to take a few moments to compose myself.”

As the group toured the three-story structure, one of four houses Poe rented while living in Philadelphia from 1838 to 1844, Stallone told Wagner he had written a movie script about the author.

“He’s just in awe of Poe,” Wagner said. “He said he really admired him.”

Stallone, the star of such action movies as “Rambo” and “Tango and Cash,” did not say if he wanted to portray Poe, she said.

Movie publicist Dave Fulton said Stallone wrote the script because he believes the writer “gets within the soul” of people and poetry.

“He’s a big fan,” Fulton said.