The owner of Gene and Georgetti's steakhouse apparently has a big beef with a new show.
The producers of VH1's "Mob Wives" recently approached restaurant owner Tony Durpetti to ask if they could film in his restaurant for a Chicago spin-off, reported the Sun-Times.
He gave them a big fat no.
Louis H. Rago, president of the Italian American Human Relations Foundation of Chicago, praised the decision, saying he is tired of negative stereotypes about Italians on television.
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Other Chicago restaurant owners also have said they would not participate with the show.
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
"Mob Wives" Season Two Starts January 1st, 2012, "Mob Wives: Chicago" Coming This Spring
There’s no better way to start off the New Year than with ‘the family.’ “Mob Wives” is back and the drama has gone to a whole new level. The highly-anticipated second season premiere of VH1′s hit reality television series premieres on Sunday, January 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Viewers will also be introduced to a new group of ‘Syndicate Sisters’ with the debut of the franchise’s first spin-off “Mob Wives: Chicago” this Spring, where the legendary home of Al Capone will serve as the backdrop. Both shows are produced by TWC, Electus, Left/Right and JustJenn Productions.
The second season of “Mob Wives” picks up where the first left off – with each cast member dealing with major personal life issues. The rift between Karen and Drita is far from over – will they ever be able to ‘bury the hatchet’? Renee goes under the knife for major plastic surgery that may have some unexpected consequences, while also contemplating her future with her ex-husband Junior. Drita is considering her options when it comes to leaving her husband Lee – while Carla’s relationship with her estranged husband Joe may take an unexpected twist. And, of course, everyone wants to know what’s in Karen’s soon-to-be-released book – the one she moved back to New York to write!
Last season,”Mob Wives” gave viewers an unfiltered look into the closed-door society of Renee, Karen, Carla and Drita, four struggling “allegedly” associated women who have to pick up the pieces and carry on while their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. United by a bond which few understand, the women are all struggling with their identities and their futures as they raise their kids as single parents in the New York City area.
The franchise expands as VH1 announced the pickup of “Mob Wives: Chicago.” A spin-off from the original east coast-based series,”Mob Wives: Chicago” will introduce a new cast of women suffering the stronzi and agita of their Mafiosi connections. The series will air in Spring 2012.
“Our viewers connected so strongly with our New York cast that we were skeptical about trying to repeat that success, said Jeff Olde, Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production. “But once we met these ladies from Chicago and heard their truly unbelievable stories, we knew that viewers would become just as captivated as we did. These women’s life experiences may be far different from our own, but their current struggles to stand on their own two feet are relatable to everyone.”
“After a terrific first season, Electus is incredibly proud to partner once again with The Weinstein Company, JustJenn Productions and VH1 to bring the second season of Mob Wives to air so that audiences can see how the ladies’ compelling stories progress,”said Jimmy Fox, Executive Producer and Head of Creative Development for Electus.”We are equally thrilled that Mob Wives will be coming to Chicago, a town that was once home to some of the mob’s most notorious gangsters. Audiences will be blown away by the larger-than-life characters with their own unique stories to tell.”
“The first season of “Mob Wives” pulled back the curtain on a much-discussed yet mysterious world inhabited by four fascinating and strong-willed women,”stated Meryl Poster, TWC’s President of Television.”The viewer response to the genuine and gripping storylines that unfolded on the show was immediate and passionate, and we are grateful to these extraordinary ladies for inviting the cameras back into their lives for season two. We know that the viewing audience will feel a similar connection to the cast of “Mob Wives Chicago” and look forward to bringing their remarkable stories to the small screen this spring.”
“The furs, the money, the parties, the respect – it’s all part of the intrigue of the world I grew up in,” said series Creator and Executive Producer Jennifer Graziano of JustJenn Productions. “But at any time, the other shoe can drop and these women find themselves going on prison visits. I have long thought that this was a story that needed to be told, and am so thankful that we can continue this journey with the original “Mob Wives” – as well as expanding the franchise to Chicago. I have always heard the legends about Al Capone and Chicago, but it wasn’t until I actually went to the city that I became enamored with the rich mob history there. These women’s lives are right off the pages of a storybook!”
The second season of “Mob Wives” picks up where the first left off – with each cast member dealing with major personal life issues. The rift between Karen and Drita is far from over – will they ever be able to ‘bury the hatchet’? Renee goes under the knife for major plastic surgery that may have some unexpected consequences, while also contemplating her future with her ex-husband Junior. Drita is considering her options when it comes to leaving her husband Lee – while Carla’s relationship with her estranged husband Joe may take an unexpected twist. And, of course, everyone wants to know what’s in Karen’s soon-to-be-released book – the one she moved back to New York to write!
Last season,”Mob Wives” gave viewers an unfiltered look into the closed-door society of Renee, Karen, Carla and Drita, four struggling “allegedly” associated women who have to pick up the pieces and carry on while their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. United by a bond which few understand, the women are all struggling with their identities and their futures as they raise their kids as single parents in the New York City area.
The franchise expands as VH1 announced the pickup of “Mob Wives: Chicago.” A spin-off from the original east coast-based series,”Mob Wives: Chicago” will introduce a new cast of women suffering the stronzi and agita of their Mafiosi connections. The series will air in Spring 2012.
“Our viewers connected so strongly with our New York cast that we were skeptical about trying to repeat that success, said Jeff Olde, Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production. “But once we met these ladies from Chicago and heard their truly unbelievable stories, we knew that viewers would become just as captivated as we did. These women’s life experiences may be far different from our own, but their current struggles to stand on their own two feet are relatable to everyone.”
“After a terrific first season, Electus is incredibly proud to partner once again with The Weinstein Company, JustJenn Productions and VH1 to bring the second season of Mob Wives to air so that audiences can see how the ladies’ compelling stories progress,”said Jimmy Fox, Executive Producer and Head of Creative Development for Electus.”We are equally thrilled that Mob Wives will be coming to Chicago, a town that was once home to some of the mob’s most notorious gangsters. Audiences will be blown away by the larger-than-life characters with their own unique stories to tell.”
“The first season of “Mob Wives” pulled back the curtain on a much-discussed yet mysterious world inhabited by four fascinating and strong-willed women,”stated Meryl Poster, TWC’s President of Television.”The viewer response to the genuine and gripping storylines that unfolded on the show was immediate and passionate, and we are grateful to these extraordinary ladies for inviting the cameras back into their lives for season two. We know that the viewing audience will feel a similar connection to the cast of “Mob Wives Chicago” and look forward to bringing their remarkable stories to the small screen this spring.”
“The furs, the money, the parties, the respect – it’s all part of the intrigue of the world I grew up in,” said series Creator and Executive Producer Jennifer Graziano of JustJenn Productions. “But at any time, the other shoe can drop and these women find themselves going on prison visits. I have long thought that this was a story that needed to be told, and am so thankful that we can continue this journey with the original “Mob Wives” – as well as expanding the franchise to Chicago. I have always heard the legends about Al Capone and Chicago, but it wasn’t until I actually went to the city that I became enamored with the rich mob history there. These women’s lives are right off the pages of a storybook!”
Chicago Version of VH1's "Mob Wives" in the Works?
This one should set tongues to wagging from Bridgeport to Chicago Heights and along Grand Avenue to Elmwood Park.
The folks behind “Mob Wives,” VH1’s hit reality television show following the lives of four tough-talking, loud-living Staten Island women with personal ties to New York mob figures, plan to start filming a new Chicago spinoff within the next month.
Talk about your Operation Family Secrets.
The biggest secret is which Chicago women have been signed up by the network to participate.
Jennifer Graziano, the show’s producer, is keeping that information within the family, so to speak, despite numerous scouting trips here over the last several months to lay the groundwork for a series that is expected to air in the spring.
I’ve heard a couple of names, including one you can bet wouldn’t be doing this if her father were still alive, but both women angrily hung up on me.
Television gossip isn’t my normal turf, but it’s been too hard to resist this story since Graziano’s co-producer called this summer looking for Chicago mob insights.
Apparently, big city daily newspaper columnists are supposed to have lots of sources inside the mob, and I hate to break it to my readers, but unfortunately I’m fresh out.
Still, I know a spit storm brewing when I see one. I can’t tell you about New York, but in Chicago, mob wives — and daughters and girlfriends — are still supposed to stay out of the public eye.
Chicago lawyers who have represented mob clients were beyond skeptical when asked if they were aware of the project. “It’s inconceivable,” one said. “I just don’t think it would meet with approval here.”
I tried to make the same point to Graziano when she stopped by the office around Labor Day between meetings with prospects. But Graziano, whose father is Anthony “The Little Guy” Graziano, reputed consigliere to the Bonnano crime family, just gave me a knowing look as if to indicate she had her bases covered.
“I’ve got some family contacts here, people that have known my family and friends of mine,” said Graziano, whose sister Renee is one of the stars of the show along with Karen Gravano, daughter of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the mob hit man who became a government witness and took down John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. “One of the selling points is we don’t write about anything that hasn’t been in the news,” Graziano said. “We don’t divulge any secrets.”
While hoping to land a recognizable mob family name or two for the Chicago cast, Graziano said it was more important that the characters “pop” on television.
I suggested they pay a visit to former Cicero Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese. That was the weekend Betty happened to be having a garage sale, so it seemed pretty obvious she could use the money. I also assured them Betty “pops” on television. But they weren’t certain Betty fit the demographic they were seeking, in other words, too old. Sorry, Betty. I tried.
I’ve never watched “Mob Wives” myself. “Wives” shows give me the heebie-jeebies. But my wife assured me “Mob Wives” was the best show on television during its first season, and I can attest she is a connoisseur of a certain kind of TV — the trashy kind.
“Mob Wives,” as I understand it, is way more raw, more intense, more real, than any of those “Housewives” shows. When these women have a fight, as they often do, you fully expect somebody to get hurt.
My wife’s favorite character is Drita D’avanzo. She is particularly impressed with how effortlessly Drita slips off her high heels while charging headlong into battle. You’ve got to admire that in a woman.
This embrace of mob stereotypes has received its share of criticism in New York, and anticipating the same here, I called Dominic DiFrisco, president emeritus of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. “I wish them nothing but failure,” said DiFrisco, who hasn’t seen the show but knows the type. “I think it’s a very ugly continuation of the long-standing slandering and defaming of the Italian-American people.”
If the characters pop, I can’t imagine it will be a failure. But this being Chicago, you still have to wonder if somebody will get popped.
Thanks to Mark Brown
The folks behind “Mob Wives,” VH1’s hit reality television show following the lives of four tough-talking, loud-living Staten Island women with personal ties to New York mob figures, plan to start filming a new Chicago spinoff within the next month.
Talk about your Operation Family Secrets.
The biggest secret is which Chicago women have been signed up by the network to participate.
Jennifer Graziano, the show’s producer, is keeping that information within the family, so to speak, despite numerous scouting trips here over the last several months to lay the groundwork for a series that is expected to air in the spring.
I’ve heard a couple of names, including one you can bet wouldn’t be doing this if her father were still alive, but both women angrily hung up on me.
Television gossip isn’t my normal turf, but it’s been too hard to resist this story since Graziano’s co-producer called this summer looking for Chicago mob insights.
Apparently, big city daily newspaper columnists are supposed to have lots of sources inside the mob, and I hate to break it to my readers, but unfortunately I’m fresh out.
Still, I know a spit storm brewing when I see one. I can’t tell you about New York, but in Chicago, mob wives — and daughters and girlfriends — are still supposed to stay out of the public eye.
Chicago lawyers who have represented mob clients were beyond skeptical when asked if they were aware of the project. “It’s inconceivable,” one said. “I just don’t think it would meet with approval here.”
I tried to make the same point to Graziano when she stopped by the office around Labor Day between meetings with prospects. But Graziano, whose father is Anthony “The Little Guy” Graziano, reputed consigliere to the Bonnano crime family, just gave me a knowing look as if to indicate she had her bases covered.
“I’ve got some family contacts here, people that have known my family and friends of mine,” said Graziano, whose sister Renee is one of the stars of the show along with Karen Gravano, daughter of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the mob hit man who became a government witness and took down John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. “One of the selling points is we don’t write about anything that hasn’t been in the news,” Graziano said. “We don’t divulge any secrets.”
While hoping to land a recognizable mob family name or two for the Chicago cast, Graziano said it was more important that the characters “pop” on television.
I suggested they pay a visit to former Cicero Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese. That was the weekend Betty happened to be having a garage sale, so it seemed pretty obvious she could use the money. I also assured them Betty “pops” on television. But they weren’t certain Betty fit the demographic they were seeking, in other words, too old. Sorry, Betty. I tried.
I’ve never watched “Mob Wives” myself. “Wives” shows give me the heebie-jeebies. But my wife assured me “Mob Wives” was the best show on television during its first season, and I can attest she is a connoisseur of a certain kind of TV — the trashy kind.
“Mob Wives,” as I understand it, is way more raw, more intense, more real, than any of those “Housewives” shows. When these women have a fight, as they often do, you fully expect somebody to get hurt.
My wife’s favorite character is Drita D’avanzo. She is particularly impressed with how effortlessly Drita slips off her high heels while charging headlong into battle. You’ve got to admire that in a woman.
This embrace of mob stereotypes has received its share of criticism in New York, and anticipating the same here, I called Dominic DiFrisco, president emeritus of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. “I wish them nothing but failure,” said DiFrisco, who hasn’t seen the show but knows the type. “I think it’s a very ugly continuation of the long-standing slandering and defaming of the Italian-American people.”
If the characters pop, I can’t imagine it will be a failure. But this being Chicago, you still have to wonder if somebody will get popped.
Thanks to Mark Brown
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Unfinished Business on Mob Wives
During a ladies' night out, "Party Renee" Graziano makes an overdue and completely wild appearance. Meanwhile, Drita D'avanzo comes face to face with the harsh realities of having a husband behind bars as her birthday approaches. Her boozy blowout pushes her to resolve one conflict, though she remains oblivious to another even bigger one that is brewing. Carla Facciolo's blissful relationship with a mystery man sows the seeds of dissent among the women, as Renee prepares herself for a fresh start, at any cost. While continuing to work on her book and dig into her past, Karen Gravano resolves to confront an explosive issue that's been eating at her for a long time. Sparks fly. Lines are crossed.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
‘Do You Know Who I Am?’ on Mob Wives
Renee Graziano tempts fate by hosting a Psychic Party, while Carla Facciolo loses control over her rambunctious twins and contemplates telling them the truth about their Dad's imprisonment. After Drita D'avanzo's moves to make amends are rebuffed by Renee, the domineering wise gals go head to head. Renee's inner Mafia Princess is unleashed when things take a disrespectful and dangerous turn during a night out with Karen Gravano.
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Mob Bust on VH1's Mob Wives
When the Feds conduct the biggest mob bust in the history of organized crime, the fall out rocks Staten Island to its core and Renee Graziano's world starts to unravel.
Karen Gravano is forced to revisit her mafia past as she reconnects with memories of growing up as an infamous gangster's daughter. Drita D'avanzo faces the harsh realities of her husband's prolonged jail sentence which forces her to question her future as a prisoner's wife. The divide between Renee and Drita deepens when Renee receives an unexpected blow and an unlikely ally shows support.
Karen Gravano is forced to revisit her mafia past as she reconnects with memories of growing up as an infamous gangster's daughter. Drita D'avanzo faces the harsh realities of her husband's prolonged jail sentence which forces her to question her future as a prisoner's wife. The divide between Renee and Drita deepens when Renee receives an unexpected blow and an unlikely ally shows support.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Mob Wives "The Bitch is Back" Episoide
The showdown continues at Carla Facciolo's birthday party as Renee Graziano and Karen Gravano both refuse to back down. When Drita D'avanzo decides to take matters into her own hands, all hell breaks loose. Old friendships are tested and new alliances are formed. While Karen rebuilds her old relationships on Staten Island, Renee clashes with her ex-husband and Drita receives shocking news from prison.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Mob Wives "Made in Staten Island" Epsiode
Welcome to Staten Island, the land of fierce women who never admit to being allegedly "connected" -- until now. Renee Graziano, Carla Facciolo and Drita D'avanzo are no strangers to the good life, but now, with their husbands and fathers behind bars, they realize there is a price to pay. Left alone to pick up the pieces, these women face the harsh realities of "life" after informants have turned their families' lives upside down.
To these ladies, "loyalty is everything" so, when Karen Gravano (the daughter of infamous mob informant Sammy the Bull) arrives back on the Staten Island scene after 10 years away in Arizona -- there is hell to pay. Karen's return becomes explosive when she shows up at a party on loyalist, Renee 's, home turf.
To these ladies, "loyalty is everything" so, when Karen Gravano (the daughter of infamous mob informant Sammy the Bull) arrives back on the Staten Island scene after 10 years away in Arizona -- there is hell to pay. Karen's return becomes explosive when she shows up at a party on loyalist, Renee 's, home turf.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Mob Wives Come to VH1
Mob Wives is a docu-soap series that follows the lives of four women at a crossroads, having to pick up the pieces and carry on while their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. They are struggling with their identities, their own families and their futures.
Mob Wives is a docu-soap that follows the lives of four struggling, "allegedly" associated women who have to pick up the pieces and carry on after their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. The women are long time friends who live in New York City's "forgotten borough", Staten Island. Along the way they battle their friends, families and each other as they try to do what's best for themselves and their children. It's not easy to maintain the lifestyle they were accustomed to when the family's primary bread winner is in lock up.
From The Godfather to The Sopranos to My Cousin Vinny, these women are sick and tired of the lies and stereotypes that exist about their lives. They're determined to finally set the record straight and show the world once and for all that while their lives may seem crazy at first glance, they love, laugh and get their hearts broken just like everyone else. The cast:
DRITA: Drita is a hot-tempered Albanian who married into the mob much to the chagrin of her straight-laced immigrant family. Her husband Lee is part of the New Springville Boys gang and is currently in prison for robbing a Staten Island bank. While she's been married to Lee for 12 years, she's only been able to spend 2 years with him due to his crime sprees and jail time.
KAREN: Karen is returning to Staten Island after a 10 year absence. She's thrilled to finally be able to return home to the city she loves and reunite with the girls. Karen's father is legendary Mafia informant Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. While he confessed to 19 murders in his book, he is currently serving a 19-year sentence in an undisclosed location. Karen once dated Drita's husband and as a result, there is still some underlying tension between them.
RENEE: Renee is the drama queen of the group. Even though she stirs up the most trouble, she'll give you the shirt off her back. Renee grew up in the glory days of the mob- fur, diamonds, limos, all by the age of 7 and she still carries that Mafia attitude. Renee's father is Anthony Graziano the former consigliore of the Bonanno crime family who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for tax evasion, racketeering, and conspiracy to murder. Renee is a mob loyalist and despises what Karen's father did.
CARLA: Carla fancies herself a Manhattan girl. She is used to the finer things in life and has no desire to give them up. Carla's husband Joseph is currently serving an 88-month sentence for fraud after stealing 17 million dollars from unsuspecting senior citizens in a boiler room scandal. The couple have twin 8-year olds, Joseph and Carmen, but that doesn't curb Carla's desire to party like there's no tomorrow.
Mob Wives is a docu-soap that follows the lives of four struggling, "allegedly" associated women who have to pick up the pieces and carry on after their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. The women are long time friends who live in New York City's "forgotten borough", Staten Island. Along the way they battle their friends, families and each other as they try to do what's best for themselves and their children. It's not easy to maintain the lifestyle they were accustomed to when the family's primary bread winner is in lock up.
From The Godfather to The Sopranos to My Cousin Vinny, these women are sick and tired of the lies and stereotypes that exist about their lives. They're determined to finally set the record straight and show the world once and for all that while their lives may seem crazy at first glance, they love, laugh and get their hearts broken just like everyone else. The cast:
DRITA: Drita is a hot-tempered Albanian who married into the mob much to the chagrin of her straight-laced immigrant family. Her husband Lee is part of the New Springville Boys gang and is currently in prison for robbing a Staten Island bank. While she's been married to Lee for 12 years, she's only been able to spend 2 years with him due to his crime sprees and jail time.
KAREN: Karen is returning to Staten Island after a 10 year absence. She's thrilled to finally be able to return home to the city she loves and reunite with the girls. Karen's father is legendary Mafia informant Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. While he confessed to 19 murders in his book, he is currently serving a 19-year sentence in an undisclosed location. Karen once dated Drita's husband and as a result, there is still some underlying tension between them.
RENEE: Renee is the drama queen of the group. Even though she stirs up the most trouble, she'll give you the shirt off her back. Renee grew up in the glory days of the mob- fur, diamonds, limos, all by the age of 7 and she still carries that Mafia attitude. Renee's father is Anthony Graziano the former consigliore of the Bonanno crime family who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for tax evasion, racketeering, and conspiracy to murder. Renee is a mob loyalist and despises what Karen's father did.
CARLA: Carla fancies herself a Manhattan girl. She is used to the finer things in life and has no desire to give them up. Carla's husband Joseph is currently serving an 88-month sentence for fraud after stealing 17 million dollars from unsuspecting senior citizens in a boiler room scandal. The couple have twin 8-year olds, Joseph and Carmen, but that doesn't curb Carla's desire to party like there's no tomorrow.
Carla Facciolo of VH1's Mob Wives
Carla Facciolo grew up in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, where she had a similar upbringing to Renee Graziano. While her father went to prison when she was young, it didn't stop her from living the lifestyle she grew to love.
When Carla was 17 she started dating street guys and really got a taste of the life. She hung out with girls like Renee, and others -- whose parents were either in the life or extremely wealthy. Carla likes the finer things in life and thought she'd met her match when she married Joey Ferragamo, a stock broker.
Although Carla thought she had finally gotten away from the lifestyle she lived growing up, her husband eventually got indicted and convicted for a boiler room scandal and Carla once again found herself dealing with the ins and outs of prison. Carla tells her twins, who she feels are too young to know where their dad is, that he is away at work. She is a stay at home mom and sales rep for a juice company. She takes good care of herself and prides herself on her hair and great body.
When Carla was 17 she started dating street guys and really got a taste of the life. She hung out with girls like Renee, and others -- whose parents were either in the life or extremely wealthy. Carla likes the finer things in life and thought she'd met her match when she married Joey Ferragamo, a stock broker.
Although Carla thought she had finally gotten away from the lifestyle she lived growing up, her husband eventually got indicted and convicted for a boiler room scandal and Carla once again found herself dealing with the ins and outs of prison. Carla tells her twins, who she feels are too young to know where their dad is, that he is away at work. She is a stay at home mom and sales rep for a juice company. She takes good care of herself and prides herself on her hair and great body.
Karen Gravano of VH1's Mob Wives
Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, the infamous mobster who cooperated with the government to help take down John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. Karen was just 19 years old when her father turned on the mafia, a move that left Karen devastated.
While her family relocated to Arizona to start over, at first Karen stayed behind in New York--her way of showing that she had trouble with her father's cooperation. After a couple years, she joined her family in Arizona where she became a licensed aesthetician, opened up a lucrative day spa, and had her first and only child, Karina.
After 12 years of coming to terms with who she is and understanding her father's choices, Karen is ready to close up shop in Arizona and return to Staten Island. Beyond reconnecting with old friends, Karen hopes that coming back will help her stand on her own, out of shadows of her father's infamous past.
Strong, driven and business minded, she has already inked a deal to write a book about her life and is ready to revisit her old stomping grounds and reconnect with her old friends.
While her family relocated to Arizona to start over, at first Karen stayed behind in New York--her way of showing that she had trouble with her father's cooperation. After a couple years, she joined her family in Arizona where she became a licensed aesthetician, opened up a lucrative day spa, and had her first and only child, Karina.
After 12 years of coming to terms with who she is and understanding her father's choices, Karen is ready to close up shop in Arizona and return to Staten Island. Beyond reconnecting with old friends, Karen hopes that coming back will help her stand on her own, out of shadows of her father's infamous past.
Strong, driven and business minded, she has already inked a deal to write a book about her life and is ready to revisit her old stomping grounds and reconnect with her old friends.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Bob Cooley - Man vs. The Chicago Mob on The National Geographic Channel
The Chicago Mob, known as the Outfit was literally getting away with murder. Through rarely seen archival footage and interviews with former Mob associates and FBI agents, NGC takes you inside what took down the Mob. Be sure to watch the National Geographic Channel on Sunday, August 17th at 7:00PM Chicago time.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The Sopranos Season 6 to be Released 10-23-07.
Last year
, Tony Soprano cheated death when he was shot by his now institutionalized Uncle Junior. While Tony continues to muse about his second chance at life, he faces a myriad of immediate, stress-inducing crises at home, at work and from the law. Tony's wife Carmela plans for a future she's not sure will arrive, and son AJ and daughter Meadow find that adulthood holds its own surprises. Meanwhile, at work, Tony comes to doubt the allegiances of many of those closest to him - no one, not Paulie, Bobby, Silvio or even Christopher is above suspicion. The clock is ticking. Time is running out. But on who?
Features:
* Making "Cleaver": Behind the scenes of Christopher's horror film
* The Music of The Sopranos: Creator David Chase, cast and crew discuss the songs from the show
* Four audio commentaries with cast members Dominic Chainese, Robert Iler, Arthur Nascarella, Steven R. Schirripa and Stevie Van Zandt
, Tony Soprano cheated death when he was shot by his now institutionalized Uncle Junior. While Tony continues to muse about his second chance at life, he faces a myriad of immediate, stress-inducing crises at home, at work and from the law. Tony's wife Carmela plans for a future she's not sure will arrive, and son AJ and daughter Meadow find that adulthood holds its own surprises. Meanwhile, at work, Tony comes to doubt the allegiances of many of those closest to him - no one, not Paulie, Bobby, Silvio or even Christopher is above suspicion. The clock is ticking. Time is running out. But on who?Features:
* Making "Cleaver": Behind the scenes of Christopher's horror film
* The Music of The Sopranos: Creator David Chase, cast and crew discuss the songs from the show
* Four audio commentaries with cast members Dominic Chainese, Robert Iler, Arthur Nascarella, Steven R. Schirripa and Stevie Van Zandt
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Tony Soprano to be Whacked in Final Season?
IF any television character has a bullet, or meat cleaver, with his name on it, it's Tony Soprano.
As HBO's "The Sopranos" counts down its final nine episodes beginning next Sunday, the existential question hanging over the series is: Should Tony live or die? Given the show's bleak themes, anything less than killing him off could be construed as a miscarriage of justice — and a dramatic sellout.
After six seasons, even Tony doesn't seem to like his chances. In therapy, the married father of two admitted to his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, that there are two outcomes for "guys like me" — prison or death.
The New Jersey don has meted out death to family (cousin Tony Blundetto), friend (Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero), and foe (witness protection turncoat Fred Peters) alike. He has sanctioned many more cold-blooded hits, of course, as on his daughter's boyfriend Jackie Jr. or on his nephew's fiancée, Adriana. He once even tried to snuff out his smothering mother, Livia, with, appropriately enough, a hospital pillow.
The crime boss' intuition is dead-on, argues Al Gini, who contributed an essay for the 2004 book "The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am." By summer, says Gini, whose essay was called "Bada-Being and Nothingness: Murderous Melodrama or Morality Play?," Tony will be sleeping with the fishes.
"Tony has got to be killed. It's the only satisfying ending," said Gini, a philosophy professor at Loyola University in Chicago who has incorporated Soprano's leadership traits into a business ethics course. "We're not talking about Robin Hood here, someone that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. We're talking about a hood. If Tony doesn't lose everything, what's the message? The bad guy gets away with it all?"
Gini isn't suggesting a Sgt. Joe Friday "crime doesn't pay" lecture as much as a dramatization of the biblical injunction that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. God's judgment may be evident, but a sudden, violent death for Tony would also have to do with probability. In other words, those who live with mobsters, drug dealers, loan sharks and waste management consultants are probably going to die like them.
But popular L.A. mystery writer Robert Crais still would find such a finale overly simplistic, out of sync with the complexity and sophistication that have been earmarks of the show's storytelling. There are things worse than death, after all. Tony should survive some type of mob conflagration, said the former writer for "Hill Street Blues," "Miami Vice" and "Cagney & Lacey," but not without dire consequences.
"I don't think the audience would be happy if Tony gets a bullet to the head," said Crais, who wrote the bestselling fictional thriller "The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel." "In the end, he should be promoted, but where the cost far exceeds the triumph."
When it comes to story lines, "The Sopranos" breaks all the rules, but that hasn't stopped oddsmakers from weighing in on how the show will end. The line seems to recommend not betting against the man with a back office at the Bada Bing! At an online gambling site based in Costa Rica called BoDog, the odds are running 1 to 2 against Tony's demise, according to Bodog.com founder Calvin Ayre. However, Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti is a 2-to-1 favorite to be a stiff before the final curtain falls. (Tony's son, A.J., is a 15-to-1 family long shot to die.)
Certainly, there are no shortage of "Sopranos" characters with the opportunity and motive to knock off Tony. Perpetually disgruntled Paulie Walnuts, rival mob boss and recently imprisoned Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni, even nephew Christopher all would be credible assailants to perform the foul deed. But perhaps there is someone closer still to Tony who would do him in.
"You see echoes of great Greek tragedy in all this," said Glen O. Gabbard, a psychiatrist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who has written extensively about the show. "I could see Carmela getting so furious that she killed Tony."
Long torn, as she once said, between doing what is right and doing what is easy, Carmela could become the fury behind Tony's death. All the goodwill built between the reunited couple could vanish in a flash if Carmela were to learn the truth behind Adriana's disappearance.
An equally powerful dramatic finish would be if the prone-to-depression mobster took his own life, contends Peter H. Hare, an emeritus philosophy professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who also wrote an essay for "The Sopranos and Philosophy."
Tony's suicide should not be a personal moral reaction to his many evil acts but rather stem from a deepening melancholy that overtakes him as he realizes his life is without true meaning or purpose. The suicide can't be the result of a pill popping or a gun to the temple. Instead, in what Hare terms an "ambiguous suicide," Tony could deliberately maneuver himself into a heroic battle ostensibly for his Mafia family but actually meant as a way to kill himself.
"I don't want to imply Tony deserves to die," said Hare, whose essay is titled "What Kind of God Does This …?" "But the whole 'Sopranos' narrative has a great deal more meaning if it ends with his death."
SHOULD Tony die is one question. Will he die is quite another. Wrapping up any beloved and long-running television series is extraordinarily difficult, much less one that has drawn comparisons in breadth and depth to the works of Shakespeare and has so clearly stamped its brooding, darkly humorous soul onto the pop culture canopy.
Not surprisingly, series creator David Chase and his staff are in lockdown mode in their New York studios zealously guarding any hint over Tony's ultimate fate. Though the show's writers are renowned for their ingenuity and unpredictability, storytelling convention can still offer clues to the final days of Tony Soprano.
Endings typically hew closely to the logic established within a show's fictional universe while also resolving outstanding dramatic questions. This basic storytelling rule would, it is hoped, eliminate Tony's possible escape into the federal witness protection program, or worse, a "St. Elsewhere"-like scenario where the whole "Sopranos" pageant had been all in the mind of an autistic child. But memorable endings — Bob Newhart ending up back in bed with Suzanne Pleshette! — usually pack a surprise, and that as much as anything else could spare Tony.
"I watch shows like 'The Sopranos' for the unknown — the twists and turns and for the nice ride," said Saul Friedman, a writer for the website http://www.TVgasm.com. "We've all seen the mafia movies, and we know how they end. I want to see something different here."
It's worth noting the conclusions of "The Godfather" movies, which are frequently alluded to and even quoted outright in "The Sopranos." Mafia head Vito Corleone, after being nearly assassinated, turns over his empire to son Michael. Vito's brush with death seems enough punishment and he dies relatively peacefully in the family garden before his bewildered grandson.
Meanwhile, "The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)" would seem to offer an ending more in keeping with "The Sopranos" overall tone. There, Michael consolidates his rule, but it comes at the price of murdering his older brother and forever alienating his family. The final shot of a soulless Michael staring off at a frozen Lake Tahoe is more chilling than any murder could ever be. (Sorry, "The Godfather, Part III (Widescreen Edition)" doesn't count.)
From a strictly storytelling point of view too, killing off Tony now would seem repetitive and anticlimactic. It was only a handful of episodes ago that Tony escaped death after being shot in the belly by a senile Uncle Junior.
Another problem with killing Tony is how likable he is despite his pathologically long list of misdeeds and murder. We like him, that's why we watch the show, and doing him in may be more than the writers and the audience can bear. Indeed, they want to believe he can change.
"Arthur Miller used to say, 'You don't go to the theater unless you see yourself onstage,' " said Gabbard, who wrote "The Psychology of the Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family." "The audience thinks that maybe, just maybe, this bad man can be transformed into a good man. That's what Melfi thinks, that's what the audience thinks."
And yet, something more powerful than the demands of storytelling may dictate Tony's final fate — Hollywood. Although Chase is ending the series because he's mined the show for all he can on television, rumors persist about a possible "Sopranos" feature film. A "Sopranos" movie without Tony? As the Bada Bing! boys might say, not going to happen.
Thanks to Martin Miller
As HBO's "The Sopranos" counts down its final nine episodes beginning next Sunday, the existential question hanging over the series is: Should Tony live or die? Given the show's bleak themes, anything less than killing him off could be construed as a miscarriage of justice — and a dramatic sellout.
After six seasons, even Tony doesn't seem to like his chances. In therapy, the married father of two admitted to his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, that there are two outcomes for "guys like me" — prison or death.
The New Jersey don has meted out death to family (cousin Tony Blundetto), friend (Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero), and foe (witness protection turncoat Fred Peters) alike. He has sanctioned many more cold-blooded hits, of course, as on his daughter's boyfriend Jackie Jr. or on his nephew's fiancée, Adriana. He once even tried to snuff out his smothering mother, Livia, with, appropriately enough, a hospital pillow.
The crime boss' intuition is dead-on, argues Al Gini, who contributed an essay for the 2004 book "The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am." By summer, says Gini, whose essay was called "Bada-Being and Nothingness: Murderous Melodrama or Morality Play?," Tony will be sleeping with the fishes.
"Tony has got to be killed. It's the only satisfying ending," said Gini, a philosophy professor at Loyola University in Chicago who has incorporated Soprano's leadership traits into a business ethics course. "We're not talking about Robin Hood here, someone that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. We're talking about a hood. If Tony doesn't lose everything, what's the message? The bad guy gets away with it all?"
Gini isn't suggesting a Sgt. Joe Friday "crime doesn't pay" lecture as much as a dramatization of the biblical injunction that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. God's judgment may be evident, but a sudden, violent death for Tony would also have to do with probability. In other words, those who live with mobsters, drug dealers, loan sharks and waste management consultants are probably going to die like them.
But popular L.A. mystery writer Robert Crais still would find such a finale overly simplistic, out of sync with the complexity and sophistication that have been earmarks of the show's storytelling. There are things worse than death, after all. Tony should survive some type of mob conflagration, said the former writer for "Hill Street Blues," "Miami Vice" and "Cagney & Lacey," but not without dire consequences.
"I don't think the audience would be happy if Tony gets a bullet to the head," said Crais, who wrote the bestselling fictional thriller "The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel." "In the end, he should be promoted, but where the cost far exceeds the triumph."
When it comes to story lines, "The Sopranos" breaks all the rules, but that hasn't stopped oddsmakers from weighing in on how the show will end. The line seems to recommend not betting against the man with a back office at the Bada Bing! At an online gambling site based in Costa Rica called BoDog, the odds are running 1 to 2 against Tony's demise, according to Bodog.com founder Calvin Ayre. However, Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti is a 2-to-1 favorite to be a stiff before the final curtain falls. (Tony's son, A.J., is a 15-to-1 family long shot to die.)
Certainly, there are no shortage of "Sopranos" characters with the opportunity and motive to knock off Tony. Perpetually disgruntled Paulie Walnuts, rival mob boss and recently imprisoned Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni, even nephew Christopher all would be credible assailants to perform the foul deed. But perhaps there is someone closer still to Tony who would do him in.
"You see echoes of great Greek tragedy in all this," said Glen O. Gabbard, a psychiatrist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who has written extensively about the show. "I could see Carmela getting so furious that she killed Tony."
Long torn, as she once said, between doing what is right and doing what is easy, Carmela could become the fury behind Tony's death. All the goodwill built between the reunited couple could vanish in a flash if Carmela were to learn the truth behind Adriana's disappearance.
An equally powerful dramatic finish would be if the prone-to-depression mobster took his own life, contends Peter H. Hare, an emeritus philosophy professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who also wrote an essay for "The Sopranos and Philosophy."
Tony's suicide should not be a personal moral reaction to his many evil acts but rather stem from a deepening melancholy that overtakes him as he realizes his life is without true meaning or purpose. The suicide can't be the result of a pill popping or a gun to the temple. Instead, in what Hare terms an "ambiguous suicide," Tony could deliberately maneuver himself into a heroic battle ostensibly for his Mafia family but actually meant as a way to kill himself.
"I don't want to imply Tony deserves to die," said Hare, whose essay is titled "What Kind of God Does This …?" "But the whole 'Sopranos' narrative has a great deal more meaning if it ends with his death."
SHOULD Tony die is one question. Will he die is quite another. Wrapping up any beloved and long-running television series is extraordinarily difficult, much less one that has drawn comparisons in breadth and depth to the works of Shakespeare and has so clearly stamped its brooding, darkly humorous soul onto the pop culture canopy.
Not surprisingly, series creator David Chase and his staff are in lockdown mode in their New York studios zealously guarding any hint over Tony's ultimate fate. Though the show's writers are renowned for their ingenuity and unpredictability, storytelling convention can still offer clues to the final days of Tony Soprano.
Endings typically hew closely to the logic established within a show's fictional universe while also resolving outstanding dramatic questions. This basic storytelling rule would, it is hoped, eliminate Tony's possible escape into the federal witness protection program, or worse, a "St. Elsewhere"-like scenario where the whole "Sopranos" pageant had been all in the mind of an autistic child. But memorable endings — Bob Newhart ending up back in bed with Suzanne Pleshette! — usually pack a surprise, and that as much as anything else could spare Tony.
"I watch shows like 'The Sopranos' for the unknown — the twists and turns and for the nice ride," said Saul Friedman, a writer for the website http://www.TVgasm.com. "We've all seen the mafia movies, and we know how they end. I want to see something different here."
It's worth noting the conclusions of "The Godfather" movies, which are frequently alluded to and even quoted outright in "The Sopranos." Mafia head Vito Corleone, after being nearly assassinated, turns over his empire to son Michael. Vito's brush with death seems enough punishment and he dies relatively peacefully in the family garden before his bewildered grandson.
Meanwhile, "The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)" would seem to offer an ending more in keeping with "The Sopranos" overall tone. There, Michael consolidates his rule, but it comes at the price of murdering his older brother and forever alienating his family. The final shot of a soulless Michael staring off at a frozen Lake Tahoe is more chilling than any murder could ever be. (Sorry, "The Godfather, Part III (Widescreen Edition)" doesn't count.)
From a strictly storytelling point of view too, killing off Tony now would seem repetitive and anticlimactic. It was only a handful of episodes ago that Tony escaped death after being shot in the belly by a senile Uncle Junior.
Another problem with killing Tony is how likable he is despite his pathologically long list of misdeeds and murder. We like him, that's why we watch the show, and doing him in may be more than the writers and the audience can bear. Indeed, they want to believe he can change.
"Arthur Miller used to say, 'You don't go to the theater unless you see yourself onstage,' " said Gabbard, who wrote "The Psychology of the Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family." "The audience thinks that maybe, just maybe, this bad man can be transformed into a good man. That's what Melfi thinks, that's what the audience thinks."
And yet, something more powerful than the demands of storytelling may dictate Tony's final fate — Hollywood. Although Chase is ending the series because he's mined the show for all he can on television, rumors persist about a possible "Sopranos" feature film. A "Sopranos" movie without Tony? As the Bada Bing! boys might say, not going to happen.
Thanks to Martin Miller
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sopranos Comes to an End
“You don’t listen to the president? We’re gonna mop the floor with the whole f***in’ world. The whole world’s gonna be under our control. So what are you worked up about?” —Christopher Moltisanti of “The Sopranos”
Everything comes to an end.”
These words, delivered by an irate Edie Falco, are used in the promo death knell for one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved television series of all time, HBO’s “The Sopranos.” The fictional story of a likeable, northern New Jersey crime family ends this spring with the final nine episodes of season six beginning April 8.
What will happen to mob boss Tony Soprano and his family? How about his colorful henchmen, despicable for their brutal violence and racism one moment, and lovable for their humor, resourcefulness and camaraderie the next? Surely, bets are already being placed on who will end up in prison and who will have to go (in the Mafia sense). One thing is almost certain: More than a few HBO subscribers will be going. The program has been a major draw since it first aired in 1999. How do you top one of the greatest pop-culture success stories of the last 25 years?
Show creator David Chase (born David DeCesare) is no stranger to thought-provoking, classic television, having produced episodes for “The Rockford Files” and “Northern Exposure.” But as ruthless and violent as it has been, “The Sopranos” is his masterpiece. People may argue over the best of the six seasons, but the fact remains that this hard-hitting show has always been better written, better acted and better conceived than anything else on television. There is simply nothing like it.
What began as a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into our long-running fascination with Italian-American Mafia culture — from Coppola’s “Godfather” series through Scorsese’s real best picture winner, “Good Fellas” — has continued to evolve by delving deeper into the psychological lives of its characters, usually by way of Freudian themes, Byzantine political plots and philosophical nuggets from the Far East. It’s a postmodern soap opera, colored by Italian-American cultural traditions and populated with anti-heroes, intelligent professionals and plenty of existential despair. As an organized crime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer once wrote, “If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be writing for ‘The Sopranos’”
Sometimes, though, I still wonder why I love Mafia tales. These characters are serial murderers for the most part, scary people most of us wouldn’t want to meet in daylight, much less a darkened strip club. Normally I’m not a huge fan of television either, especially the stuff with commercials (which HBO programs thankfully do not have).
I was about to write my fascination off to morbid curiosity, or the Wild West appeal of modern-day lawless cowboys, when I ran across a recent interview with activist/intellectual Noam Chomsky that made me wonder again why so many of us accept mobsters as sympathetic characters.
As Chomsky points out, the U.S. government operates exactly like the mob in its international relations and has for a long time — though with far more money made, and far more lives lost. Specifically, he was discussing our foreign policy strategies concerning Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran (which could be in store for some Gulf of Tonkin incident any day now). Speaking of Cuba, Chomsky notes:
“A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time, with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it too. But the government won’t allow it. It’s attributed to the Florida vote but I don’t think that’s much of an explanation. I
think it has to do with a feature of world affairs that is insufficiently appreciated. International affairs is very much run like the Mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience, otherwise the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders and it can spread to important places.”
I realize “The Sopranos” has poked fun at this analogy between organized crime in high and low places. And the show’s political awareness, like much of the country, has mushroomed since 9/11. Those following this final season are likely expecting some explosive plot thread involving the suspiciously quiet Middle Easterners who’ve been hanging at the Bada Bing and buying up guns. Yet the similarities between La Cosa Nostra and our foreign policy dons are uncanny indeed.
For instance: Back in the ’70s, the United States overthrew the parliamentary government of Iran, installed a brutal dictator (the shah) and proceeded to help him develop the same nuclear energy we now worry about. When the shah was overthrown, we punished Iran for its disobedience by supporting Saddam Hussein in his war on Iran. More recently, we had to punish Saddam because he wasn’t following orders (yes, the strategic control of oil is the chief reason for our current predicament, for those of you still deluded enough to think it was for the Iraqi people’s sake or keeping terrorists out of America’s shopping malls or whatever excuse Bush is peddling this week).
But what’s really scary to ponder is how the U.S. role as world mob boss will play out with China — or the Johnny “Sack” New York mob boss character, if you’re a “Sopranos” fan. More from Chomsky:
“You can imagine a kind of a loose Shi’ite alliance in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, controlling most of the world’s oil and independent of the United States. And much worse, although Europe can be intimidated by the United States, China can’t. It’s one of the main reasons why China is considered a threat. We’re back to the Mafia principle. … If the Middle East oil resources around the Gulf, which are the main ones in the world, if they link up to the Asian grid, the United States is really a second-rate power.”
Ever in denial, Tony Soprano admits that everything he does — all of his horrible crimes — he does to provide for his family. Likewise, it is an operating assumption too seldom challenged in the U.S. media that our leaders act only from noble reasons. “Ugatz!” as Paulie “Walnuts” might say.
I’ve greatly enjoyed watching “The Sopranos” these last eight years. What I probably won’t enjoy is the world stage drama from our bought-and-paid-for Mafia captains in the White House over the next 20 years.
Like Carmela tells Tony: “Everything comes to an end.”
Thanks to Brent Baldwin
Everything comes to an end.”
These words, delivered by an irate Edie Falco, are used in the promo death knell for one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved television series of all time, HBO’s “The Sopranos.” The fictional story of a likeable, northern New Jersey crime family ends this spring with the final nine episodes of season six beginning April 8.
What will happen to mob boss Tony Soprano and his family? How about his colorful henchmen, despicable for their brutal violence and racism one moment, and lovable for their humor, resourcefulness and camaraderie the next? Surely, bets are already being placed on who will end up in prison and who will have to go (in the Mafia sense). One thing is almost certain: More than a few HBO subscribers will be going. The program has been a major draw since it first aired in 1999. How do you top one of the greatest pop-culture success stories of the last 25 years?
Show creator David Chase (born David DeCesare) is no stranger to thought-provoking, classic television, having produced episodes for “The Rockford Files” and “Northern Exposure.” But as ruthless and violent as it has been, “The Sopranos” is his masterpiece. People may argue over the best of the six seasons, but the fact remains that this hard-hitting show has always been better written, better acted and better conceived than anything else on television. There is simply nothing like it.
What began as a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into our long-running fascination with Italian-American Mafia culture — from Coppola’s “Godfather” series through Scorsese’s real best picture winner, “Good Fellas” — has continued to evolve by delving deeper into the psychological lives of its characters, usually by way of Freudian themes, Byzantine political plots and philosophical nuggets from the Far East. It’s a postmodern soap opera, colored by Italian-American cultural traditions and populated with anti-heroes, intelligent professionals and plenty of existential despair. As an organized crime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer once wrote, “If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be writing for ‘The Sopranos’”
Sometimes, though, I still wonder why I love Mafia tales. These characters are serial murderers for the most part, scary people most of us wouldn’t want to meet in daylight, much less a darkened strip club. Normally I’m not a huge fan of television either, especially the stuff with commercials (which HBO programs thankfully do not have).
I was about to write my fascination off to morbid curiosity, or the Wild West appeal of modern-day lawless cowboys, when I ran across a recent interview with activist/intellectual Noam Chomsky that made me wonder again why so many of us accept mobsters as sympathetic characters.
As Chomsky points out, the U.S. government operates exactly like the mob in its international relations and has for a long time — though with far more money made, and far more lives lost. Specifically, he was discussing our foreign policy strategies concerning Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran (which could be in store for some Gulf of Tonkin incident any day now). Speaking of Cuba, Chomsky notes:
“A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time, with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it too. But the government won’t allow it. It’s attributed to the Florida vote but I don’t think that’s much of an explanation. I
think it has to do with a feature of world affairs that is insufficiently appreciated. International affairs is very much run like the Mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience, otherwise the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders and it can spread to important places.”
I realize “The Sopranos” has poked fun at this analogy between organized crime in high and low places. And the show’s political awareness, like much of the country, has mushroomed since 9/11. Those following this final season are likely expecting some explosive plot thread involving the suspiciously quiet Middle Easterners who’ve been hanging at the Bada Bing and buying up guns. Yet the similarities between La Cosa Nostra and our foreign policy dons are uncanny indeed.
For instance: Back in the ’70s, the United States overthrew the parliamentary government of Iran, installed a brutal dictator (the shah) and proceeded to help him develop the same nuclear energy we now worry about. When the shah was overthrown, we punished Iran for its disobedience by supporting Saddam Hussein in his war on Iran. More recently, we had to punish Saddam because he wasn’t following orders (yes, the strategic control of oil is the chief reason for our current predicament, for those of you still deluded enough to think it was for the Iraqi people’s sake or keeping terrorists out of America’s shopping malls or whatever excuse Bush is peddling this week).
But what’s really scary to ponder is how the U.S. role as world mob boss will play out with China — or the Johnny “Sack” New York mob boss character, if you’re a “Sopranos” fan. More from Chomsky:
“You can imagine a kind of a loose Shi’ite alliance in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, controlling most of the world’s oil and independent of the United States. And much worse, although Europe can be intimidated by the United States, China can’t. It’s one of the main reasons why China is considered a threat. We’re back to the Mafia principle. … If the Middle East oil resources around the Gulf, which are the main ones in the world, if they link up to the Asian grid, the United States is really a second-rate power.”
Ever in denial, Tony Soprano admits that everything he does — all of his horrible crimes — he does to provide for his family. Likewise, it is an operating assumption too seldom challenged in the U.S. media that our leaders act only from noble reasons. “Ugatz!” as Paulie “Walnuts” might say.
I’ve greatly enjoyed watching “The Sopranos” these last eight years. What I probably won’t enjoy is the world stage drama from our bought-and-paid-for Mafia captains in the White House over the next 20 years.
Like Carmela tells Tony: “Everything comes to an end.”
Thanks to Brent Baldwin
Friday, December 29, 2006
Out of Shape Soprano
James Gandolfini insists all mafia characters have to be fat.
The 45-year-old actor, famous for his role as a mob boss in 'The Sopranos', insists he is too old to exercise but it doesn't matter because he needs to be overweight to play Tony Soprano.
He told Esquire magazine: "I should exercise, but I'm too old for that shit. I lost 30lbs to play my character in 'The Mexican
', but people don't take to skinny mafia men, and I don't feel right when I'm thin. I was voted best-looking kid in high school but, as you can see, things changed.
"I used to say I was a 260lb Woody Allen. You can make that 295lb now."
Despite being happy with the success he has achieved in 'The Sopranos', Gandolfini admits he gets tired of playing the same part.
He said: "I can only take so much of Tony Soprano. I like the guy, but he takes up nine months of my year, every year, and that's not really me. I'm more of a soft guy."
The 45-year-old actor, famous for his role as a mob boss in 'The Sopranos', insists he is too old to exercise but it doesn't matter because he needs to be overweight to play Tony Soprano.
He told Esquire magazine: "I should exercise, but I'm too old for that shit. I lost 30lbs to play my character in 'The Mexican
', but people don't take to skinny mafia men, and I don't feel right when I'm thin. I was voted best-looking kid in high school but, as you can see, things changed."I used to say I was a 260lb Woody Allen. You can make that 295lb now."
Despite being happy with the success he has achieved in 'The Sopranos', Gandolfini admits he gets tired of playing the same part.
He said: "I can only take so much of Tony Soprano. I like the guy, but he takes up nine months of my year, every year, and that's not really me. I'm more of a soft guy."
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Showtime's Brotherhood
An enraged construction worker will beat a mob leader to death with a shovel. A frustrated housewife will cheat on her politically prominent husband. A mother will hoard and then dispose of a stash of ill-gotten cash. And authorities will discreetly snap photos of known criminals, from a distance.
It's not ''The Sopranos," but it promises to be just as gritty. Yet on the cramped living-room set of ''Brotherhood," a TV series about the mob shooting in Providence for the cable network Showtime, the characters are making nice. It's the birthday of mobster protagonist Michael Caffee, who has just stepped into his mother's home with a female companion, unaware of pending events.
''Surprise!
" people shout as Caffee (played by Jason Isaacs) opens the front door.
Caffee, it appears, doesn't like surprises, especially when he's in the company of a woman everyone knows is married to someone else. The set is as silent as a tomb.
''Look what the cat dragged in," his mother, Rose (Fionnula Flanagan), says quietly.
''Ma," says Caffee in a warning tone. ''You remember Kath McCarthy, she's . . . a friend of mine?"
''How could I not?" Rose says. ''Happy birthday, Michael."
''Cut!" director Nick Gomez announces.
With just five months to go until the highly anticipated sixth season of HBO's ''Sopranos," Showtime is hustling to produce its own mob story. But executives don't want to stress the comparison. The network, in mobspeak, plans to come heavy with its own thing.
''Brotherhood" will follow the lives of an Irish mobster in Providence and his brother, a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives who is under a lot of pressure from his sibling's associates to bend the rules. The series, which is loaded with racial and socio-economic tensions, is inspired by the real-life brotherhood of Boston's William Bulger, the former state senator and university president, and James ''Whitey" Bulger, one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives. But the program, which was originally set in Boston and called ''Southie," is not biographical, its creator insists. ''I didn't want to do their story," says Blake Masters, executive producer, in an interview in his office here. ''The idea of telling a story through two brothers is just an interesting dynamic."
Clearly, the Caffee brothers are not the Bulgers, most notably because they live in Providence and aren't nearly as powerful in their respective circles as the Bulgers were. Michael Caffee was once in line to run the show locally but fell out of favor with the reigning crime boss because of an unauthorized killing. After seven years on the run for the murder, he's back in Providence to reclaim his territory. Tommy Caffee (Australian actor Jason Clarke) is his younger brother, a rising star in the state house whose link to Michael makes his professional life murky as underworld types lean on him for state-sponsored favors. Masters says he moved the series to Rhode Island because, in the wake of the Boston-based feature films ''Mystic River" and ''The Departed," Providence is ''less explored" terrain.
Now 29 years old, Showtime has struggled to define itself in the changing television landscape. Although it recently won its first Emmy (a supporting actress nod for Blythe Danner in ''Huff"), the network's original programming has been heavily niche-oriented (the African-American drama ''Soul Food," the gay-themed ''Queer as Folk") or has fizzled after early buzz (the comedy ''Fat Actress").
Now, though, Showtime may have momentum. ''Huff" will return next year as will ''Weeds," a comedy about a pot-dealing suburban widow, which has become the network's highest-rated show. In December, Showtime will premiere ''Sleeper Cell," a miniseries about a Muslim, African-American FBI agent who infiltrates a terrorist cell in Los Angeles.
''Brotherhood" is expected to premiere in May or June.
''We are focused on critical acclaim and buzz and awards, more than on how many people are watching," says Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime, which has 13 million subscribers (HBO has 30 million). ''We want to air controversial, edgy subject matter and flawed characters that aren't allowed on broadcast television," he says. ''We only do a handful of shows a year, so each one has to be something you'd write home about."
The challenge for Showtime is getting viewers not to view the show as a takeoff on ''The Sopranos." ''It will never compare," Greenblatt says. ''We are in Mafia territory, but it's not the mainstay of the show. What's more interesting is to see a family where there are two brothers who have chosen very different paths. The good brother is in a business that is inherently bad [politics]. He has to do things for the greater good that aren't always completely upstanding. Conversely, the guy who wears the black hat [the mobster] actually does some incredibly benevolent things. It's the gray area of all of that that's most interesting."
Here on the set, which includes a nonworking kitchen with real canned beef stew on the stove, as well as faux marble hallways replicating the State House, playfulness is in the air. Idle crew members are hitting a ball with a bat in one corner of the warehouse while others are hovering around buffet tables loaded with cookies, cakes, and brownies.
''Jason! They have your [character's] business card in here with an address and everything," says Isaacs, 42, who is lounging in Tommy Caffee's state house office.
Clarke, who broke into Hollywood three years ago with ''Rabbit-Proof Fence," pops his head inside the office to glance at the cards before returning to business. The 36-year-old actor has been doing extensive research on the Bulgers and Rhode Island politics to prepare for his role. He met with a number of legislators, including the real-life Rhode Island Speaker of the House William Murphy. Clarke also sat in on a few House committee meetings.
''I know every politician in the state," he brags. Murphy has even advised Clarke on what to wear to church in the series. ''They wanted me to wear a suit, but Bill said that's too dressy. A sweater and khakis pants is better," Clarke says.
True to his character, Clarke, who says he was apathetic growing up in Australia, is conflicted about the gray nature of politics in his scripts. ''I'm always thinking, 'This is really dodgy mate. Is this right or wrong?' "
British-born Isaacs, who stopped production briefly in September after his wife gave birth to their second child here, is less concerned about Michael's soul. ''What's criminal?" he says. ''In England, you can bet on when the queen is going to die and that's perfectly legal. . . . If you think the whole system is corrupt, then living outside of it makes perfect sense."
Upstairs in his office, Masters is tinkering with his story lines as he prepares for a read-through of the next day's script with the cast. Greenblatt will listen in via telephone from Los Angeles. For the 34-year-old producer, this show is more than just entertainment. It's a chance to look at a bygone era when ward-style politics dominated immigrant neighborhoods in cities such as Chicago and New York and corruption was king.
''Although those cities have rooted out a lot of the bad, there were good things that were lost too," he says. ''We lost a personal connection to our local politicians. The idea that when a family member died, your politician would come by the house and make sure that you had money for the funeral."
Masters calls that political behavior ''ancient history" in Boston. Rhode Island, he adds, is a different story. ''Rhode Island is referred to as the world's biggest high school . . . Many of the cops, criminals, priests, and lawyers all went to the same schools, they attend the same churches, their wives exchange recipes. I want to explore the contradictions in those relationships -- the idea that the guy who played softball with you in high school is the guy responsible for arresting you today."
As a backdrop, Masters will portray the angst of lower-middle class Irish ''getting squeezed" by the influx of Southeast Asians, Latinos, and yuppies bent on gentrification. Reacting to racial stereotypes and economic pressures, some of his Irish characters will lash out in ugly ways, he says. ''I want your skin to crawl. I want you to be repelled by it. We want you to be horrified by these nice, sweet people who are nice one day, talking about baseball. Then they bash someone's head in and then go back to talking about baseball."
Kevin Chapman, who grew up in Dorchester, is all for the bashing scenes. Just back from filming Clint Eastwood's film ''Flags of Our Fathers," the actor is excited to play the cocky and portly mob boss Freddie Cork . ''It's fun to get dark and almost diabolical," says the actor. ''My character runs the neighborhood. I'm in charge."
''Quiet!" a nearby crew member yells as Chapman chats away. ''We're shooting."
On the set today, Gomez -- not Chapman -- is in charge. And the birthday party is over. ''We're moving on," Gomez announces, signaling to the crew to set up for the next scene.
It's Showtime's hope that viewers will move along with him.
Thanks to Suzanne C. Ryan
It's not ''The Sopranos," but it promises to be just as gritty. Yet on the cramped living-room set of ''Brotherhood," a TV series about the mob shooting in Providence for the cable network Showtime, the characters are making nice. It's the birthday of mobster protagonist Michael Caffee, who has just stepped into his mother's home with a female companion, unaware of pending events.
''Surprise!
" people shout as Caffee (played by Jason Isaacs) opens the front door.Caffee, it appears, doesn't like surprises, especially when he's in the company of a woman everyone knows is married to someone else. The set is as silent as a tomb.
''Look what the cat dragged in," his mother, Rose (Fionnula Flanagan), says quietly.
''Ma," says Caffee in a warning tone. ''You remember Kath McCarthy, she's . . . a friend of mine?"
''How could I not?" Rose says. ''Happy birthday, Michael."
''Cut!" director Nick Gomez announces.
With just five months to go until the highly anticipated sixth season of HBO's ''Sopranos," Showtime is hustling to produce its own mob story. But executives don't want to stress the comparison. The network, in mobspeak, plans to come heavy with its own thing.
''Brotherhood" will follow the lives of an Irish mobster in Providence and his brother, a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives who is under a lot of pressure from his sibling's associates to bend the rules. The series, which is loaded with racial and socio-economic tensions, is inspired by the real-life brotherhood of Boston's William Bulger, the former state senator and university president, and James ''Whitey" Bulger, one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives. But the program, which was originally set in Boston and called ''Southie," is not biographical, its creator insists. ''I didn't want to do their story," says Blake Masters, executive producer, in an interview in his office here. ''The idea of telling a story through two brothers is just an interesting dynamic."
Clearly, the Caffee brothers are not the Bulgers, most notably because they live in Providence and aren't nearly as powerful in their respective circles as the Bulgers were. Michael Caffee was once in line to run the show locally but fell out of favor with the reigning crime boss because of an unauthorized killing. After seven years on the run for the murder, he's back in Providence to reclaim his territory. Tommy Caffee (Australian actor Jason Clarke) is his younger brother, a rising star in the state house whose link to Michael makes his professional life murky as underworld types lean on him for state-sponsored favors. Masters says he moved the series to Rhode Island because, in the wake of the Boston-based feature films ''Mystic River" and ''The Departed," Providence is ''less explored" terrain.
Now 29 years old, Showtime has struggled to define itself in the changing television landscape. Although it recently won its first Emmy (a supporting actress nod for Blythe Danner in ''Huff"), the network's original programming has been heavily niche-oriented (the African-American drama ''Soul Food," the gay-themed ''Queer as Folk") or has fizzled after early buzz (the comedy ''Fat Actress").
Now, though, Showtime may have momentum. ''Huff" will return next year as will ''Weeds," a comedy about a pot-dealing suburban widow, which has become the network's highest-rated show. In December, Showtime will premiere ''Sleeper Cell," a miniseries about a Muslim, African-American FBI agent who infiltrates a terrorist cell in Los Angeles.
''Brotherhood" is expected to premiere in May or June.
''We are focused on critical acclaim and buzz and awards, more than on how many people are watching," says Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime, which has 13 million subscribers (HBO has 30 million). ''We want to air controversial, edgy subject matter and flawed characters that aren't allowed on broadcast television," he says. ''We only do a handful of shows a year, so each one has to be something you'd write home about."
The challenge for Showtime is getting viewers not to view the show as a takeoff on ''The Sopranos." ''It will never compare," Greenblatt says. ''We are in Mafia territory, but it's not the mainstay of the show. What's more interesting is to see a family where there are two brothers who have chosen very different paths. The good brother is in a business that is inherently bad [politics]. He has to do things for the greater good that aren't always completely upstanding. Conversely, the guy who wears the black hat [the mobster] actually does some incredibly benevolent things. It's the gray area of all of that that's most interesting."
Here on the set, which includes a nonworking kitchen with real canned beef stew on the stove, as well as faux marble hallways replicating the State House, playfulness is in the air. Idle crew members are hitting a ball with a bat in one corner of the warehouse while others are hovering around buffet tables loaded with cookies, cakes, and brownies.
''Jason! They have your [character's] business card in here with an address and everything," says Isaacs, 42, who is lounging in Tommy Caffee's state house office.
Clarke, who broke into Hollywood three years ago with ''Rabbit-Proof Fence," pops his head inside the office to glance at the cards before returning to business. The 36-year-old actor has been doing extensive research on the Bulgers and Rhode Island politics to prepare for his role. He met with a number of legislators, including the real-life Rhode Island Speaker of the House William Murphy. Clarke also sat in on a few House committee meetings.
''I know every politician in the state," he brags. Murphy has even advised Clarke on what to wear to church in the series. ''They wanted me to wear a suit, but Bill said that's too dressy. A sweater and khakis pants is better," Clarke says.
True to his character, Clarke, who says he was apathetic growing up in Australia, is conflicted about the gray nature of politics in his scripts. ''I'm always thinking, 'This is really dodgy mate. Is this right or wrong?' "
British-born Isaacs, who stopped production briefly in September after his wife gave birth to their second child here, is less concerned about Michael's soul. ''What's criminal?" he says. ''In England, you can bet on when the queen is going to die and that's perfectly legal. . . . If you think the whole system is corrupt, then living outside of it makes perfect sense."
Upstairs in his office, Masters is tinkering with his story lines as he prepares for a read-through of the next day's script with the cast. Greenblatt will listen in via telephone from Los Angeles. For the 34-year-old producer, this show is more than just entertainment. It's a chance to look at a bygone era when ward-style politics dominated immigrant neighborhoods in cities such as Chicago and New York and corruption was king.
''Although those cities have rooted out a lot of the bad, there were good things that were lost too," he says. ''We lost a personal connection to our local politicians. The idea that when a family member died, your politician would come by the house and make sure that you had money for the funeral."
Masters calls that political behavior ''ancient history" in Boston. Rhode Island, he adds, is a different story. ''Rhode Island is referred to as the world's biggest high school . . . Many of the cops, criminals, priests, and lawyers all went to the same schools, they attend the same churches, their wives exchange recipes. I want to explore the contradictions in those relationships -- the idea that the guy who played softball with you in high school is the guy responsible for arresting you today."
As a backdrop, Masters will portray the angst of lower-middle class Irish ''getting squeezed" by the influx of Southeast Asians, Latinos, and yuppies bent on gentrification. Reacting to racial stereotypes and economic pressures, some of his Irish characters will lash out in ugly ways, he says. ''I want your skin to crawl. I want you to be repelled by it. We want you to be horrified by these nice, sweet people who are nice one day, talking about baseball. Then they bash someone's head in and then go back to talking about baseball."
Kevin Chapman, who grew up in Dorchester, is all for the bashing scenes. Just back from filming Clint Eastwood's film ''Flags of Our Fathers," the actor is excited to play the cocky and portly mob boss Freddie Cork . ''It's fun to get dark and almost diabolical," says the actor. ''My character runs the neighborhood. I'm in charge."
''Quiet!" a nearby crew member yells as Chapman chats away. ''We're shooting."
On the set today, Gomez -- not Chapman -- is in charge. And the birthday party is over. ''We're moving on," Gomez announces, signaling to the crew to set up for the next scene.
It's Showtime's hope that viewers will move along with him.
Thanks to Suzanne C. Ryan
Saturday, October 22, 2005
American Justice: The Chicago Mob
Though they have been glorified to no end, Chicago gangsters have a violent and often unbelievable history. Theirs is a tale of power, wealth, and betrayal. A&E documents the many incarnations of this criminal clan in American Justice: The Chicago Mob.
Al Capone is the most famous of faces to inhabit the Windy City. His absolute control over the streets was typified by the St. Valentine's Day massacre and a seemingly impenetrable legal defense. Under him, Tony Accardo and Sam "Mooney" Giancana learned the ropes, eventually becoming dominant bosses themselves. Accardo earned the nickname "Joe Batters" because of his supposed skill with a baseball bat. At one time, Accardo ran over 10,000 gambling dens throughout the city. Using expert interviews and FBI accounts, A&E also pieces together the ups and downs of the lowly henchmen. Gus Alex, a wise guy serving under Giancana, was ratted out by fellow gangster Lenny Patrick in 1992. The trial caused a sensation because Patrick was the highest-ranking mobster to ever provide testimony for the government. The case also signaled the sputtering end of the golden days for the high-profile organization. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide
Al Capone is the most famous of faces to inhabit the Windy City. His absolute control over the streets was typified by the St. Valentine's Day massacre and a seemingly impenetrable legal defense. Under him, Tony Accardo and Sam "Mooney" Giancana learned the ropes, eventually becoming dominant bosses themselves. Accardo earned the nickname "Joe Batters" because of his supposed skill with a baseball bat. At one time, Accardo ran over 10,000 gambling dens throughout the city. Using expert interviews and FBI accounts, A&E also pieces together the ups and downs of the lowly henchmen. Gus Alex, a wise guy serving under Giancana, was ratted out by fellow gangster Lenny Patrick in 1992. The trial caused a sensation because Patrick was the highest-ranking mobster to ever provide testimony for the government. The case also signaled the sputtering end of the golden days for the high-profile organization. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide
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