by Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In the town where Al Capone gave even
mobsters a bad name, an Italian-American legal group on
Thursday sued the producers of cable TV's popular show “The
Sopranos,” saying it paints Italians as born criminals.
The suit against Time Warner Entertainment Co. seeks no
money or modifications in the show, but asks a court to
proclaim that the program violates the Illinois Constitution's
guarantee of individual dignity.
“This is like no family I know,” said attorney Enrico
Mirabelli, pointing to a poster of the fictitious mob family in
whose name the letter “R” is depicted by a pistol.
“I don't know Italian mothers, ever, who try to have their
son killed. That's not realistic,” he told a news conference
called by the American Italian Defense Association. The group
filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court.
The association issued a statement saying the series
“suggests that criminality is in the blood or in the genes of
Italian Americans and that Italians as early immigrants to this
country had little opportunity other than to turn to crime.”
Added Theodore Grippo, chairman of the group:
“We're looking for a vindication of our reputation. We
realize that we can't stop the free speech rights of Time
Warner. We're not looking for money. We want a moral victory
here, we want to balance things.”
Time Warner Entertainment is a division of AOL Time Warner,
which issued a statement saying, “We are very proud of 'The
Sopranos.' We're hardly alone in our assessment that the show
is an extraordinary artistic achievement.”
The hit program about the intrigues of a New Jersey crime
boss and his family, in its third season, is carried on HBO.
This season's premier episode drew 11 million U.S. viewers.
The Chicago group said a boycott of the show and its
advertisers was a possibility down the road.
If the court does issue a judgement holding the show
depicts depravity, hatred, abuse and criminality to an ethnic
group as forbidden by the state constitution, he said, the next
step might be to take that ruling to Time Warner's shareholders
to ask them why the company should still be spending money on
such a program.
“I personally would love to see them do away with the
show,” Grippo said. “I think it's bad for America. We're having
children shooting each other in schools and we have a program
that is deifying and romanticizing the shooting of people in
the head.”
He said Hollywood has churned out 700 movies since the
1930s with Italian bad guys, but said “The Sopranos” is in a
league by itself, beyond even TV's “Untouchables,” which
depicted the U.S. government's Roaring '20s war against Capone,
who was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an immigrant Italian
family.
Grippo accused advertising agencies of “piggy-backing” on
the popularity of “The Sopranos” by drawing ads that also
besmirch Italian Americans.
The group said it has brought its concerns to Time Warner
in a letter earlier this year but received a reply that was
“totally unresponsive.”
© 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
