The 43-year-old This Is Us star showed off his “I love Dean 4 Ever” sign during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, April 5, after the host, 46, noticed the artwork in the house during the Zoom chat.

“It says ‘I Love Dean 4 Ever.’ And that’s the certificate you get when you’re nominated for an Emmy,” Ventimiglia explained to Fallon, a self-proclaimed Gilmore Girls fan.

After the comedian asked if the placement of the sign was “rubbing it in his face,” Ventimiglia clarified that he and Padalecki, 38, are still close.

“Not at all, Jared and I are really good friends,” the actor said. “I made the sign for some photograph that someone was looking for online or something. And after I made it, I just said, ‘Well, let me just hang on to this ’cause this is cool.’ And I literally just kind of stuck it right onto my Emmy notification that was hanging on my wall.”

The characters of Jess and Dean competed for Rory (Alexis Bledel) on Gilmore Girls before she headed to college and met Logan (Matt Czuchry) during season 5. This isn’t the first time Ventimiglia has declared that he thinks Dean was The One for Rory.

“I’ve always been Team Dean,” he said at the ATX TV Festival in 2015. “Logan was a dick.”

While he isn’t a fan of his character, Ventimiglia recently raved about Czuchry during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly after the Good Wife alum revealed he knew who the father of Rory’s baby was.

“That’s amazing. [Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino] never told me,” Ventimiglia told Us on March 23. “You know what, though, I didn’t ask. And I feel like I’ve got, I still have a really, really, really, really close relationship with Amy and Dan. And I feel like if I asked, they would tell me. … Maybe I’ll call Mattie and ask him like, ‘Hey, man, so who’s kiddo was it?’ Cause like, it wasn’t Jess. That was the only thing I knew. I knew it wasn’t Jess’ baby. I’m positive it wasn’t Jess’ baby.”

Gilmore Girls, which also starred Lauren Graham, ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007. The series returned for a Netflix revival titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life in 2016, which ended on the cliffhanger that Rory was pregnant.

“I never have [told] because, one, that’s for them to say. Ultimately this is Amy and Dan’s show and it’s Lauren’s show and it’s Alexis’ show. It’s not mine,” Czuchry told Us in January. “So, for me, it doesn’t feel like the right place to say who it may or may not be. Also, if we do come back, they may change their minds. So it could become somebody else. Those are the reasons why I’ve never said what they told me on set.”

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Sarah Hearon