Good Job, Dona. You hit the Main Issues in the brief time you were allowed.

Mainly the PROFUSITY of Negativity, and PAUCITY of Positivity of Italian American Portrayals in the Media.

Keep up the Drum beat. We ARE making Progress.
Persistence, Perseverance and Tenacity WILL prevail.

The Following is Excerpted from the Transcript

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DAVID BURD SHOW
Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 9:07 AM
WMAL-AM
Greater Washington DC Area

DAVID BURD, Host:
(Many of us have) been waiting 18 months for another season of "Sopranos"....
When we last left off with Carmella and Tony, I think Carmella was throwing all his stuff out the window and they were splitting up.  Tonight's episode brings us back into their world again.  Apparently a lot of folks who were in jail are coming out of jail and they're rejoining the family.

BURD:  Well, of course, not everybody is happy about this.  And we have our next guest on. Dona De Sanctis, she's from the Order Sons of Italy in America...

Dona, we hear this all the time, especially every new season of "Sopranos". Someone from your organization or someone of Italian descent gets - the hair goes up on the back of their neck.  They get a little irritated because... you guys feel that this show, and rightfully so at times, is the wrong stereotype of Italians.  You don't want that kind of stereotype any more, and you're kind of fed up with it.  Is that what I'm hearing here?

DE SANCTIS:  Yes, that's part of it, Dave.  But you see, though it's been 18 months since you've seen "The Sopranos", in the past 18 months there's not a day that's gone by that Italian Americans haven't seen themselves stereotyped either by a television program, a film or a commercial.  For example, PBS just recently launched a new documentary series on the Medicis, the family that funded the Renaissance - Michelangelo, Da Vinci.  And they called the series "Medici: The Godfathers of the Renaissance".  They weren't even a Mafia at the time.

BURD:  I see your point on stuff like that.

DE SANCTIS:  I don't have a problem with "The Sopranos", you know.  If people find that entertaining, it's a free country.  We've never said take "The Sopranos" off the air.  What we've asked is that there be a more balanced portrayal of Italian Americans in the entertainment industry.

BURD:  I'm so happy to hear you say that.... Obviously, you're of Italian descent.  Here I am an Irish guy, and I get tired of hearing about Irish guys being drunks and eating potatoes all the time.  That's not true.  Come on.  Stop it now.

DE SANCTIS:  Exactly.  Exactly.

BURD:  So I can see, especially in that example where you came right off the bat talking about a show  (about the Medeicis) on PBS and them calling it the Godfather.

DE SANCTIS:  Can you imagine PBS?  And then, even worse, Steven Spielberg is making a new children's gangster movie called "Shark Tale".  Well guess who the bad guys are and what letter their last names end in?

BURD: Oh, gee.

DE SANCTIS:  So you're passing on these stereotypes of Italian Americans as gangsters to another generation of children that are going to have multi-gernerational shelf life of DVDs.  This is our problem.  On the other hand, you never hear about the Italian Americans who are in law enforcement.

BURD:  That's right.

DE SANCTIS:  The Italian Americans who are in government who have made sacrifices.  The war heroes, the medal of honor (winners).  We're completely absent from the public scene except as this stereotype of Mafia.  And that's the problem that we have, not with the Mafia as entertainment.

BURD:  Gee, it's funny, the name Rudolph Giuliani comes to mind.

DE SANCTIS:  You're right.  But Giuliani is a real person.  I'm talking about how we're portrayed in the entertainment industry.  And the fact is the entertainment industry shapes people's actions and perceptions.  If not, why would there be such a concern over Mel Gibson's new movie "The Passion of the Christ".

BURD:  Dona, you have to admit that Hollywood has done quite a number on you guys, meaning Italians.  For example, the Godfather trilogy, when you have a deposed dictator like Saddam Hussein - that is one of his favorite movies, along with that nutbag over in North Korea.  He loves that movie, too.  It's just really tough to fight those kinds of stereotypes when they're on the big screen.

DE SANCTIS:  It is.  And that's a great movie.  I mean Coppola did a magnificent job.  There are some movies that are classic. But there are others that are not. "Analyze This", "Analyze That", "Married to the Mob", these are not classics.  These don't tell you anything about life.  So that's the problem we have.  There's "The Sopranos" and then there are the Sopranos wannabes.  "The Sopranos" is so popular for the last four years that in commercials they even us Sopranos figures and even character actors from "The Sopranos" to sell breath mints, stationery, milk products, you know.  We're just bombarded.

BURD:  Dona, if you had a dream list of the things you'd like Hollywood to take action on tomorrow, what would some of those be?

DE SANCTIS:  I'd like to see Hollywood make movies using- if they do a science-fiction movie, have an Italian American astronaut because there are Italian American astronauts.  I'd like to see a movie about Al Capone's brother who was a famous lawman and presidential bodyguard.

BURD:  I didn't know that.

DE SANCTIS: Yeah.  Two-Gun Hart.  His name was Vincenzo Capone.  He was his oldest brother and he was so ashamed of his brother that he changed his name.

BURD:  Oh, we're going to have to have you back. You've got good stuff.  I like this stuff.  Anyway, Dona, thank you so much for spending some time with us.  And I agree with you now.  You've convinced me.

DE SANCTIS:  Thank you.
BURD:  Thank you, Dona.