I Once THought the SOPRANOS was a TV series on...

Hi-Octave singing.

But actually in an imitation of Hollywood, Reality shows that Sopranos can be canaries!:)

Desi's knotty repro of an intem of interest/non-interest on a hazey, lazey and mazey -- not lacey though as Desi's no Soprano! -- Sundae wit' nothing of High octane to do in Peytn Placesque Furong...here/hear!

America gripped by a real-life Sopranos tale of brutal murders and high living

NEW YORK, Oct 4 — If it were an episode of The Sopranos, it would probably be dismissed as too outlandishly plotted and overly dramatic. But the trial of accused mafioso John “Junior” Gotti in New York is full of betrayals, brutality, dark humour and unexpected revelations.

It is the mafia trial to end all mafia trials, providing a rare glimpse into a mob world that still dominates America’s cultural landscape, even while it fades as a criminal organisation. Gotti is probably the most famous alleged mafioso in America, son of the “Teflon Don”, John Gotti Sr, who led the Gambino crime family. Gotti Jr stands accused of a series of brutal killings in a massive case assembled by the FBI in its fourth bid in five years to bring him down.

The star witness for the prosecution is John Alite, an Albanian mobster and self-confessed killer who was Gotti’s best friend. The pair grew up together and were said to be as close as brothers. In the tight-knit world of the mafia, bound by its secret oath of omertà (loosely translated as “code of silence”), that should have been enough to ensure Alite would never testify.

Yet omertà is clearly not what it used to be. In a stunning betrayal of the mafia code, Alite has taken the stand in the trial and sung like a canary. For hours, Alite has recounted endless details of mafia hits and the partying lifestyle he and Gotti enjoyed in between murders. All the while Gotti has stared at him balefully, backed up by a courtroom packed with his family and friends.

If that was intended to intimidate Alite, it has not worked. “John Gotti Jr was my boss” were the first words to come out of Alite’s mouth as he opened his testimony. He went on to detail how Gotti had collaborated with him on three killings and had told him about four others. The descriptions are blood-curdling, including how he had put one man’s body in a car crusher at a junkyard and another victim had been hanged from a tree.
Find vehicles, parts & accessories at low prices on Alibaba.com!


After killing drug dealer George Grosso in 1988, Alite and Gotti had their nails done and then returned to the scene of the crime to check Grosso was indeed dead, Alite testified. “He doesn’t look that good,” Alite said Gotti had joked after seeing Grosso’s corpse. That callousness in Gotti had also been witnessed by Kevin Bonner, who testified that he had seen him fatally stab a man in a bar brawl in 1983. Daniel Silva was just a local drinker at the Silver Fox bar in New York who had got into a row with Gotti. Gotti stabbed Silva and left him slumped and bleeding on a bar stool, Bonner testified. A second witness added that Gotti had taunted the dying man with a Porky Pig impression, saying: “Th-th-that’s all, folks!”

The brutality detailed in the case so far has generated huge media interest, but some say that reflects the fact that the American public, inspired by films and TV shows such as The Godfather and The Sopranos, is obsessed with all things mafia. In fact, Italian-American gangs are far less of a problem than Mexican, Russian, Albanian, Chinese or Colombian criminal organisations. “With the Godfather movies we greatly overstated their criminal power in the first place. Then they got all of this attention, which decreased it even further. Unlucky for them,” said Dennis Kenney, a criminologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

It may have been unfortunate, but it did not appear to stop Gotti, Alite or others living like the mobsters they saw on screen. Alite has described a celebrity-style existence of fast cars, fancy restaurants and glamorous women that seems straight out of the classic mob film Goodfellas. He told of wearing US$500 (RM1,733) shoes and Rolex watches, and watching Gotti blow US$30,000 at the gambling tables during a trip to Las Vegas.

He has described how hundreds of thousands of dollars were generated from crime, funding his and Gotti’s lavish lifestyles. “When I went to restaurants, I didn’t wait. When I went to shows, I got the best seats… We got treated like celebrities,” Alite said.

Like every good soap opera, the case has had its family drama. Alite claimed while under oath that he and Gotti’s sister, Victoria, had become romantically close after she had been beaten by her then husband, Carmine Agnello.

“I had feelings for her, she had feelings for me. We talked to each other,” Alite claimed. That prompted Victoria to break her own silence. “The only feelings I had for John Alite were that I despised him,” she told reporters, denying any relationship. The comments were immediate headline news in New York’s mafia-hungry tabloids.

But while Victoria’s feelings for Alite and his breaking of the mafia’s once-sacred code were clear, she is also guilty of her own version of telling tales. Perhaps no one typifies the bizarre mix of crime, pop culture and the media that the mafia in America has become than Victoria Gotti. Not only has she been the star of her own reality TV show, Growing Up Gotti, she also chose last week to publish her memoir, This Family of Mine. In it she describes the ceremony in which her brother, John Jr, became a “made man” in the mob.

“This was one of the happiest days in his life,” she wrote. Victoria even described the secret oath-taking ceremony that involved burning a picture of a saint stained with blood and she also listed those present. It seems that when it comes to breaking omertà, Gotti’s problems have not ended with his ex-best friend on the witness stand. — Observers


******************************

REALITY TV CUNTFESSIONS deBUTTS?

Letterman’s rivals quick to jump on chat-show host’s confession
NEW YORK, Oct 4 — Career suicide or media masterstroke? The jury is still out over US chat-show king David Letterman’s unprecedented on-air confession of affairs with female production staff.

His very public mea culpa succeeded in snuffing out a US$2 million (RM7 million) blackmail plot and thwarting any chance of the news channels revealing his dalliances first. The twice-married 62-year-old father of one admitted on his CBS show: “I have had sex with women who work for me on this show.”

He then later joked, “I know what you are saying, ‘I’ll be darned – Dave had sex!’“

It drew gasps of disbelief and nervous laughter from his studio audience — and from his television rivals, who have not been slow to stick the knife in.

Hours after the show was screened, Robert “Joe” Halderman, a producer on CBS News’s 48 Hours, pleaded not guilty to attempted grand larceny.

Jay Leno, Letterman’s main rival and the current ratings leader, could not resist the temptation to join in. He told his own audience: “If you came here tonight for sex with a talk-show host, you’ve got the wrong studio.”

Messages posted on Hollywood gossip sites have questioned the wisdom of the confession. Having spent more than a quarter of a century poking fun at the indiscretions of other celebrities, Letterman finds the tables have now been turned. This fact was not lost on the broadcaster, whose minute-long declaration included reference to a desire not only to save his life but also his job.

But while some gossip sites have continued to speculate on the potentially damaging and more lurid details of the affairs, some American commentators have largely backed his decision.

In the New York Daily News, David Hinkley wrote that it would be unlikely to “derail his career”. The journalist Bill Zehme, who has written extensively about American late-night television, claims Letterman may draw even more fans. “It was manful,” he said. “It was kingly. Dave has the gravitas. At this point in his life he’s just a man in control.”

The public relations veteran Cindi Berger called it “very smart” to get ahead of the story, particularly because Letterman “was able to control the message”. And the CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said Letterman “absolutely had to” do what he did.

She said: “Once this matter went in front of a grand jury, as it has, there’s at least a dozen citizens who are getting wind of the allegations. Once it’s in the district attorney’s hands, there’s always the possibility of leaks. So he had to get out there first. He had to tell the story. He had to acknowledge his part in it.” — Independent