Today, another fictional organized crime family has caused some real-life politicians to sing the praises of Italian Americans — and to warn against stereotyping Italians as uneducated, murderous thugs. HBO’s The Sopranos, which was recently nominated for 22 Emmys, is wildly popular among critics and television viewers, but it has also caused consternation among some Italian-American groups that feel a sense of d”j” vu.

For decades, Italian Americans have both embraced and loathed the television and film representations of their lives. Back in 1961, for example, purported real-life gangster Anthony “Tough Tony” Anastasia organized demonstrations outside ABC’s corporate offices protesting The Untouchables, a popular show that chronicled U.S. Treasury agent Eliot Ness’ war against Al Capone in Prohibition-era Chicago. Anastasia had announced a boycott of Liggett & Meyers tobacco company, the chief sponsor of The Untouchables, and the head of the longshoreman’s union in New York reportedly said Liggett cigarettes would not be unloaded from the docks. The company dropped its sponsorship within days.

Untouchables producer Desi Arnaz (of I Love Lucy fame) met with the chairman of the Italian American League to Combat Defamation and agreed any future fictional criminals portrayed on the show would not have Italian surnames. Moreover, the role of “Nick Rossi,” an Italian-American member of the Ness’ crime-fighting unit, would be given more heft.

In 1970, the Italian American Civil Rights League held a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden to protest the filming of Mario Puzo’s popular novel, The Godfather. According to Harlan Lebo’s The Godfather Legacy - The Untold Story of the Making of the Classic Godfather Trilogy (1997), the League supplied its members with form letters, which were later sent to “every elected official in the federal government” and to Paramount Pictures. The letter read:

“A book like The Godfather leaves one with the sickening feeling that a great deal of effort and labor to eliminate a false image concerning Americans of Italian descent and also an ethnic connotation to organized crime can be wasted. There are so many careers and biographies that could be made into constructive and intelligent movies, such as the life of Enrico Fermi, the great scientist; Mother Carbrini; Colonel Ceslona, a hero of the Civil War; Garibaldi, the great Italian who unified Italy; William Paca, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Guglielmo Marconi; and many others.”

(Given the wording of the letter, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola may have used it as a basis for Senator Geary’s speech in Godfather II.)

The pressure on Paramount Pictures became so great that The Godfather’s producer Albert Ruddy decided to meet with the head of the Italian American Civil Rights League, Joe Colombo (who, perhaps not so ironically, was the alleged head of the Colombo organized crime family), to discuss the League’s concerns about the film. Eventually, the movie producers agreed not to use the words “Mafia” or “La Cosa Nostra” in the film. Additionally, proceeds from the film’s world premiere would be donated to a League-sponsored charity.

(Incidentally, in 1971, Joe Colombo was shot twice in the head at close range at the Italian United Day celebration in New York’s Columbus Circle. Colombo would linger in a coma for seven years before dying in May, 1978. His assassination was allegedly ordered by Carlo Gambino, head of the organized crime family that bears his name and one of the models for Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Don Vito Corleone. Gambino was supposedly upset with Colombo for drawing unwelcome attention to Gambino and the other Mafia families through his involvement with the Italian-American Civil Rights League.)

Now, nearly 30 years after The Godfather outraged segments of the Italian-American community, The Sopranos has reignited flames of indignation, with politicians of Italian descent among the most vocal critics. In a recent New York City mayoral debate involving the four Democratic candidates, City Council President Peter Vallone, an Italian American, lambasted the hit show.

“It has a lot of Italians killing a lot of people, and its an outrage to Italians,” he said. “The problem is, if [non Italian Americans] watch the show, they think that’s the norm and that is the culture of Americans of Italian descent.”

Don’t expect Vallone to call for a boycott of HBO, however. Despite his expressed “outrage,” Vallone admitted, in the same debate, that he and his wife regularly watch The Sopranos, because “it’s great entertainment.”

Congresswoman Marge Roukema (R-N.J.), another Italian American, isn’t amused, and said she would introduce a congressional resolution condemning Hollywood’s continued portrayal of Italian Americans as gangsters.

“People stop me in the grocery store, objecting to [The Sopranos],” Roukema told the Associated Press. “I decided this has gotten to be so discriminatory and stereotypical of Italian Americans as mobsters, and denigrating women and families, that I thought I had to speak out.”

And, last month, another New York City councilman, Alfonso Stabile, called the show ‘disgraceful.” Stabile said every time he sees a commercial or hears a reference to the show, “I feel as if I should have some inner shame.” He called on other Italian Americans to protest the show.

“Almost every scene shows what is becoming the typical Italian to American audiences — a pasta eating, foul mouthed mobster,” Stabile said. “It’s time we Italians stood up and said, `This is not us.’”

Other Italian American politicians are treading cautiously before condemning the popular show. New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo told The New York Times he doesn’t watch The Sopranos (”I don’t think it would be particularly entertaining if I did”), but believed he could gain voter insight by learning what his potential constituents think of the show. So Cuomo’s pollster asked potential voters the question, “Do you think The Sopranos gives a favorable representation of Italian Americans?”

Cuomo hasn’t revealed what he intends to do with the results (order sensitivity training if elected?) It is, perhaps, a matter covered by omerta - the Italian code of silence.

His father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, has long railed against Hollywood’s portrayal of Italian Americans, and has even famously refused to watch the cinematic masterpiece, The Godfather.

By contrast, Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has long proclaimed The Godfather his favorite movie. So it’s no surprise that the former gang-busting federal prosecutor has wholeheartedly endorsed The Sopranos as one of his favorite television shows. He even went as far as giving the show’s cast the keys to the city and invited them to participate in a ticket tape parade for the mayor’s beloved Yankees following last year’s World Series victory.

Giuliani’s unbridled fandom has alienated some fellow Italian Americans. The Italian American One Voice Committee, a New Jersey-based non-profit organization, made Giuliani the recipient of this year’s “Pasta-tute” award — presented each year to the Italian American who “has done the most to tarnish the image of his people.” Sopranos creator and producer David Chase (his pre-Americanized name was “DeCesare”) was a previous “Pasta-tute” recipient.

Are the concerns over television and film representations valid? Some believe they are, at least to the extent that they lead to widespread misconceptions about Italian Americans. A 1996 survey, sponsored by the Commission for Social Justice and conducted by Princeton-based Response Analysis Corporation, found that 74 percent of Americans believed most Italian Americans are in some way associated with organized crime. Italian American groups say the figure is so high because of media portrayals of Italians as mobsters.

According to a  recent report by the Italic Studies Institute, a Floral Park, N.Y.-based group that monitors depictions of Italians, between 1928 and 2001, there were 1,220 movies that included characters of Italian background. Of those, 487 films, or 40 percent, fell under the category of ‘mob movies,” most of which featured fictional Italian criminals.

"Nine out of 10 gangsters in the movies are fake,” said Bill Dal Cerro, author of the film study. “They need a villain, so bring in the Italian.”

A National Italian American Foundation study found that Italian Americans constituted only 5.6 percent of the 458 fugitives on the FBI’s Most Wanted List over the past 50 years.

Given these figures, the Italic Studies Institute last March issued a press release saying The Sopranos is the logical culmination of more than 30 years of unbalanced film and television portrayals of Italian Americans as gangsters and buffoons.

“We can’t stop our brethren from doing this,” Mancini said. “Coppola, Puzo, Scorcese, Chase — these guys are very selfish.”

Critics of The Sopranos will have to endure the show’s perceived stereotypes for a while longer. On July 17, producer David Chase, who had previously indicated that the series’ upcoming fourth season might be its last, announced a new deal with HBO for a fifth season. The Sopranos’ fourth season is not expected to air until September, 2002.

But no matter when the show ends, given its success and the popularity of Mafia-related films, it is almost certain that Italian-American groups will continue their battle against Hollywood long after Tony, Chris, Uncle Junior, and Paulie have had their final ’sit down.”

Steven Harras is a legal reporter based in Washington, D.C.  He previously wrote the The Recounter, a satiric screenplay looking at Election 2000 through the eyes of The Godfather.