Judge throws out 'Sopranos' bias case
A lawsuit accusing the makers of the hit television series The Sopranos of offending Italian-Americans by depicting them as mobsters was thrown out by a US judge yesterday.
Judge Richard Siebel ruled that the American Italian Defence Association had no basis to sue because nobody had suffered any injury and the programme's makers, HBO, had a constitutional right to have it aired.
The association had wanted the judge to declare that the series about a suburban New Jersey mafia family, shown on Channel 4 in Britain, breached the "individual dignity" of Italian-Americans.
But, in a reference to the group's acronym, Aida – the name of a Verdi opera – he wrote in his 11-page ruling: "The aria may be offensive to Verdi, but The Sopranos have the constitutional right to sing."
Tom Yannucci, representing Time Warner, had argued that the show was a popular and critical success and that viewers would not assume from watching it that all Italian-Americans were morally corrupt.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies