ABC’S 20/20 FOCUSES ON HOLLYWOOD
STEREOTYPING OF
ITALIAN AMERICANS
Washington, DC-- September 7, 2006 The ABC news magazine,
20/20 will explore how Hollywood stereotypes Italian
Americans tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 8 at 10 PM Eastern Standard
Time during the program's 2006 season premiere.
The Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) provided the program’s
producers with statistics, reports and concrete examples of how the
US entertainment industry stereotypes Italian Americans.
The Sons
of Italy deputy executive director, Dona De Sanctis, also did an
on-camera interview for the segment that was filmed at ABC’s studios
in New York City in August.
“Although cable networks have occasionally focused on this issue,
to our knowledge this is the first time that a broadcast network is
calling attention to this problem on a primetime television program
that will be seen coast to coast by millions of viewers,” says OSIA
National President Vincent Sarno.
OSIA urges all interested in this issue to see the program and
then to contact 20/20 host John Stossel and the show’s
producers on message boards found at the program’s webpage, http://abcnews
.go.com/2020/. E-mail addresses are found there as well.
OSIA is the largest and oldest national organization for men and
women of Italian descent in the United States. Established in 1905,
OSIA has more than 600,000 members and supporters and a network of
more than 700 chapters coast to coast.
OSIA works at the community, national and international levels to
promote the heritage and culture of an estimated 26 million Italian
Americans, the nation’s fifth largest ethnic group, according to the
U.S. Census Bureau. To learn more, visit OSIA at www.osia.org
| Contact:
Kylie Cafiero
Director of Communications
phone: 202/547-2900 |
|
