It hurt, when 2 years ago so many Italians felt that The Sopranos was an Italian American problem, not an Italian problem. I feel compassion if Italians have a problem and would try to be helpful, NOT cavalier.

But, times have changed. FIRST, the Italian government has taken notice of the Italian Americans complaints about Shark Tale, and put on hold the planned presenting of an Honorary Citizenship for Robert DeNiro.

NOW, also the Italian Deputy Prime Minister has criticized The Sopranos, and
Media Negative Depictions of Italian Americans.

CARRES, you have had impact on both sides of the Atlantic. Please persevere!!!

Am I thinking too Big, to imagine Berlusconi talking to Bush, about how the US Media practices systemic bigotry against US citizens of Italian Ancestry??

The London Guardian
John Hooper in Rome
Tuesday, October 12, 2004

It has won just about every award in television, and an audience of millions around the world. But The Sopranos, the gritty chronicle of modern-day mobsters in New Jersey, continues to raise hackles among Italians and those of Italian descent.

Yesterday, it emerged that Italy's deputy prime minister had added his voice to protests by Italian-Americans at the depiction of their community.

Before arriving in New York to march in yesterday's Columbus Day parade, Gianfranco Fini, the leader of Italy's rightwing National Alliance party, praised the contribution made by Italians whose forebears had settled in the US and said: "No television series can undo it."

Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government had avoided getting involved in a row that has been simmering since the show was first broadcast in 1999.

Last month The Sopranos won an Emmy award for best drama. The next series is expected to be the last.

The row over its portrayal of Italian-Americans last bubbled to the surface two years ago when the organisers of the annual Columbus Day march expressed outrage that New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, had invited two members of the cast to take part.

One organiser said the series portrayed Italian-Americans as "uneducated, lowlife brutes". But Mr Bloomberg's predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, himself an Italian-American, deplored the criticism, saying The Sopranos was "a terrific show" and that Italian-Americans should try not to be so sensitive.

Mr Fini's remark comes at a time when the Italian government is under fire on a related issue. This month it plans to confer honorary citizenship on the US actor Robert De Niro, despite an attempt by an Italian-American association to block the award on the grounds that he has played so many gangster roles.

The depiction of Italian-Americans as boorish hoodlums is less of an issue in Italy itself. But this is partly because many Italians, particularly in the richer north, look askance at their US cousins, most of whose families originated in the depressed south.

The Sopranos was first shown on Italian television three years ago by Canale 5. It was put on air with almost no publicity, in the middle of the week, and after midnight.

When it won glowing reviews and a huge audience, a Canale 5 spokesman said: "This is a problem for Italian-Americans, not for us." The show was promptly moved to Saturday evenings. Mr Fini failed to mention that the owner of Canale 5 is his boss, Silvio Berlusconi.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Italian minister adds voice to Soprano chorus of denial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/
story/0,12576,1325070,00.html