Far too many of Robert DeNiro's Film's have Italian Mobster themes. NOW he is starring in "Shark's Tale" that is directed at KIDS!!!! He has long been on the WRONG side of depicting Italian Americans, BUT "Shark's Tale" Crosses the Line!!!!!

FIRST: If you want to add your voice to OSIA re: DeNiro's citizenship and Shark Tale premiere in Venice, click on to "Fateci sapere" (translation: "Let Us Know") and click on "suggerimenti" (suggestions).

You will then be able to send an email to the press office of the Italian ministry that is promoting the DeNiro citizenship.  Keep your message short, polite and to the point.  Write in English or Italian and sign your name or the name of your organization.  Please do it today.  Will only take a minute.

Fateci sapere
http://www.beniculturali.it/scrivi.htm

SECOND:  Responses to some of the defenses (D) raised on DeNiro's behalf:

D: Why stand in the way of a CITIZENSHIP that his bloodline entitles him to?
A: The paternal GREAT Grand Parents are from Italy, and Does NOT Entitle him.

D: He is an ITALIAN AMERICAN?
A: DeNiro is Predominantly IRISH in his Ancestry!
His Maternal Side is ALL Non Italian, and at least Half of his Paternal side.
He was raised by his mother Virginia Admiral, from Oregon, after his parents separated immediately after his birth, (though not divorced until 1953)

D: He spent his youth in LITTLE ITALY??
A: NO, he was raised in Greenwich Village, and only when Italians started moving in from the west side, and were squeezing the Anglo community out of the downtown area, when he was 10, did he have exposure, and then, despite his solitary nature, he was drawn only to the Italian and Sicilian youth gangs.

D: The Senior taught Robert Jr. about his Italian Heritage.
A: NO!!! The time he spent with his father, was watching his father paint, and going to movies, and being discouraged from attending St. Patrick Church.

D: Robert DeNiro is a Role Model??
A: NO!!! DeNiro is a Talented Actor, but a Conflicted, Tormented, Human Being.
Nor is it hard to see a psychological connection between De Niro Sr's homosexuality and his son's taste for flamboyant wives (Hightower, Abbott) and girlfriends (Smith, Campbell); invariably (exclusively) tall, black and glamorous - "trophy" partners, designed to prove he shares none of his father's sexual ambivalence.[DeNiro, Baxter]

Husband/Wife: Grace Hightower (former flight attendant; married on June 17, 1997; divorced in 1999), Diahnne Abbott (actress, singer; married in 1976; divorced in 1988
Relationship: Toukie Smith (actress, restaurateur,TV host;), Naomi Campbell(model) Father: Robert De Niro Sr. (died on May 3, 1993)
Mother: Virginia Admiral (artist)
Son: Elliott (born on March 18, 1998; mother: Grace Hightower), Aaron Kendrick and Julian Henry (twins; born on October 20, 1995; to surrogate mother: Toukie Smithtwin), Raphael (born in 1978; mother: Diahnne Abbott)
Daughter: Dreena (mother: Diahnne Abbott; De Niro adopted her; model)

THREE: We must be Persistent, Persevering, and Tenacious

The War against ANY Defamation, is a matter of a series of battles, some of which you win, many of which you lose, BUT you ALWAYS continue the fight.

For instance look at the monumentally embarrassing defeat of Abe Foxman and the very powerful ADL, in it's battle vs "The Passion of the Christ"!!!! They shake it off, and keep on keeping on.

FOUR: Opposition to DeNiro's Honorary Citizenship is receiving International Interest.

DON'T HONOUR WISE GUY DENIRO, SAY US ITALIANS

The London Guardian
Sophie Arie in Rome
Friday, August 13, 2004

To millions of moviegoers around the world, Robert De Niro is the epitome of the Italian man.

But the tough guy image and parts in blockbusters such as The Godfather II have not endeared him to some Americans of Italian descent.

Yesterday, it emerged that an influential Italian-American organisation had appealed to Silvio Berlusconi, asking the prime minister to cancel Italy's plan to award De Niro honorary citizenship.

The Order of the Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), which is based in Washington and has 600,000 members and donors, and describes itself as the oldest and largest association of its kind, is indignant that the actor has "made a career of playing gangsters of Italian descent".

It is particularly annoyed that De Niro is to star in a Steven Spielberg children's film which is, it says, deeply offensive and will instil in young people the idea that Italians are all mafiosi.

The group has been asking Spielberg's company, DreamWorks, since last autumn to edit what it considers the most offensive aspects of the film, Shark Tale, before it is shown at next month's Venice film festival and launched in the US in October.

According to OSIA, Spielberg's company has responded by saying that it does not believe the film, in which De Niro plays the voice of a shark that OSIA says is a classic godfather figure, will cause offence.

"This man [Spielberg] is going to make millions of dollars with a film that is going to introduce unflattering and untrue stereotypes of Italian-Americans as gangsters to millions of children," said Dona de Sanctis, OSIA's deputy executive director.

The organisation faxed Mr Berlusconi on Tuesday to demand that the actor not be given the citizenship accolade.

"He has done nothing to promote Italian culture in the United States. Instead, the OSIA and its members hold him and his movies responsible for considerably damaging the collective reputations of both Italians and Italian-Americans," the group said.

The letter, copied to Italy's minister for Italians abroad, also pointed out that for Italy to confer such an honour on De Niro would be perceived as an insult by millions of Italian-Americans who have long objected to the actor's "distorted and unbalanced portrayal of people of Italian heritage".

Andy Spahn, a DreamWorks spokesman, rejected OSIA's criticism. "This organisation has not even seen the film, so we are somewhat perplexed. It's an animated movie about colourful fish. I can't see how that can offend anyone."

Spahn acknowledged that some of the underwater characters in the film have Italian accents and names. But, he said, "at not point in the film does any fish say 'I'm Italian'."

[RAA: If THAT isn't the height of Chutzpah/Audacia!!!!!]

Italy's culture ministry confirmed that Giuliano Urbani, the minister in charge of the citizenship ceremony in Venice next month, did not intend to comment on OSIA's intervention but said that he "has not changed his mind" on the award.

In Ferrazzano, the village which De Niro's great grandparents left in search of the US dream in the late 19th century, most of its 3,280 residents are among his greatest fans and are adamant that he should be formally made an Italian. He does not officially qualify for a passport because neither his parents nor his grandparents were Italian born...

De Niro was born in New York in 1943, and has never visited the village.

Locals say that though there are no direct De Niro family descendants in the village - they left en masse to escape poverty at the end of the 19th century -...

The village's now wealthy population of lawyers, doctors and office workers, most of who commute to work in the nearby town of Campobasso (Abruzzi & Molise)...

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Wise guy De Niro ruins our image, say Italians in US
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/
story/0,3604,1282182,00.html