No Castration Required for the New Comedy "Courting Mae West"

PRLEAP.COM) (New York, NY) —— Robert DeNiro knows the routine: invited to ride in the guest-of-honor's float one Columbus Day — banned from getting honorary Italian citizenship months later because of acting in a mob movie. "Saturday Night Live" funnyman Joe Piscopo doesn't find that funny — especially since the same Italian American organizations who had pinned medals on him were now out to give him a black eye at a recent Essex County, New Jersey day-long conference where he was a panelist. Which is one more reason Piscopo wants the play "Courting Mae West" to succeed and attract deep-pocket investors.

"For years, Italian American non-profits have accused actors of being the villain each time we accept a role as a gangster," said Piscopo. "The reality is that, unlike other groups who fund authors, screenwriters, and dramatists, the Italian American leadership has shortchanged their writers for over half-a-century. This is the reason we don't have more real-life stories onstage and onscreen like one script I want to produce: 'Bloomfield Avenue' about an Italian-American family surviving the 1960s Newark riots." He vowed, "In the name of my grandparents and my parents, I will make that movie."

Dramatist and journalist LindaAnn Loschiavo said part of the problem is that Italian-Americans are not funding plays that could improve their image. While there are 90 Hispanic drama groups, she said, there is not one Italian-American theater or drama group in the United States. New plays are generously funded by Jewish organizations as well as Irish and Black non-profits. All of these groups have produced numerous Pulitzer and Tony Award winners whereas Italian American playwrights rarely win prizes.

Piscopo, who sat next to Loschiavo on the "Hollywood and the Media" panel, admitted he was astonished and enlightened by her research. He added, "You have to put your money where your mouth is."

"We need to do a lot less complaining, and a lot more creating," said Jerome Bongiorno, a Newark filmmaker whose feature "Little Kings," made independently on a $75,000 budget, has been making the festival rounds. The film, about three Italian-American brothers and their complicated relationships with women is not unlike an Italian "Hannah and Her Sisters," he said.

"We need to have positive films and plays, and they need to be financed by Italian-Americans," said his wife and co-filmmaker Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno. "We need to make commercial, mainstream, intelligent entertainment that will compete with all these negative ideas."

The constant complaining, in the form of relentless poison-pen campaigns against DeNiro and others, is one reason that actor and dentist Don Gulotta has distanced himself from contributing to Italian American organizations. "If they're so enamored of writing letters, why don't they focus on a positive outcome? It would be refreshing to see them beat the drum, for example, on behalf of an Italian American novelist," he said.

Rea Marino, an artist who recently moved to rural Pennsylvania from Staten Island, dropped her membership in several Italian American causes she once generously supported. "My husband is Jewish and we love not hearing complaints about Jewish actors. We're happy to support the arts — but don't drag us into a witch-hunt. This letter-writing mania by Italian Americans reminds us of the McCarthy era."

"If the Italian American associations would build a theatre, I'd have more respect for them," said actor J.W. Perra. "Instead they focus on the wrong goals — crucifying an actor — while their leadership perpetuates the problem." He added, "I hope 'Courting Mae West' goes to Broadway and I hope I get cast as Mario deAngelis. At least I'll know that the Italian American warriors won't try to castrate me after the Tony Awards."

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