TVSquad

A couple of weeks ago, I alerted you folks to the premiere of MTV's Jersey Shore, an eye-rolling show that promotes itself as a collection of the shore's "hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos." It's enough to make a Jersey guy like me nauseous.

In a shocking development, it seems like a national Italian-American group has a bit of an issue with this show. UNICO has asked MTV to pull Jersey Shore even before it airs, calling it "trash television" that unfairly depicts Italian-Americans.

Ya think? Wonder if it was the fist-pumping that set them off? Or the drunkenness? Or the fourth-grade-level sentence structure the participants use? Or, maybe -- just maybe -- it was MTV's use of the term "Guido" in the friggin' promo that got them upset. Not sure if I can put my finger on it.

This is an interesting bit of yin yang for y'all*:

It seems that all the reasons given by Claudio Petruccioli, president of the Italian state broadcaster RAI, not to have reality programming on his channel are the exact reasons why American broadcasters want to have more reality programming:

• "unreasonable if not degrading behaviour"
• "[putting] people into environments that are both unrealistic and coercive"

HBO has launched yet another quirky, viral marketing campaign - this time to promote the return of Rome on January 14th. From January 10th through the 13th, 100 Italian eateries in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be offering complimentary bottles of Rome wine, a cabernet sauvingnon bottled in California and labelled for maximum ad appeal. Rather than have servers push the wine on customers, a card will be placed on each table offering diners "a taste of Rome."

The brainchild behind the promo is Lime Public Relations & Promotions who feel that the campaign is "innovative but tasteful." Lime president Claudia Strauss reported to AdAge that, "The show is all about indulgence, and we just felt this was a great way to bring to life one of the key aspects of the story line." In keeping with the show's over-the-top sex and gore, participating restaurants will also allow diners to drink the blood of Christian martyrs, sodomize select servers and retire to a vomitorium following their meal.

ABC's latest Bachelor candidate is starting to sound a little slimy. Sure, Lorenzo Borghese is a member of Italy's royal family who grew up in the United States. But apparently he couldn't speak a lick of Italian so the producers signed him up for an intensive Italian course before the show started, according to Radar online. And, even though his bio says he was raised in Connecticut, Radar can only find addresses for his family in New Jersey, dating back to 1979. Plus, the Radar reporters say there's no way Rome is Lorenzo's "second home", as he claims in the promos. Members of the Borghese family in Rome say the prince has never come to their city. And, quite frankly, they're embarrassed that he's doing the show as a member of the family.

[Via TV Tattle]

A movie created through a partnership between HBO and RAI, the Italian state broadcaster about Albert Einstein may feature Sean Penn playing the role of the acclaimed physicist. Penn has apparently expressed interest in both the script and in working with Italian director Liliana Cavani. The TV movie is obviously still in the early stages, so who knows what to expect, but I can easily picture Penn playing this role. The kid's got range, I'm telling you. Hopefully he can affect a decent German accent, too, or at the very least grasp the concept of an accelerating universe. What do you folks think? Could Penn handle this role? Who else would make a good Einstein?

The other day I talked about the questions I got asked during The Sopranos premiere on Sunday evening, and how "Who's that Gene guy?" was the reigning champ. Since then, I could easily add "What did Junior say before he shot Tony?" to the list of growing curiosities. So, after some intense research (called a friend who called a friend who speaks italian, and whom I apparently owe a drink to at a bar now), I've discovered just what he said. Even turning on the subtitles for the episode didn't help, they just read Junior: (mumbles in italian) Malanga!, so it may not have been the clearest recording that I emailed, but I was told that it sounded like Junior said "Cazzata Malanga!"

So what does Cazzata Malanga mean? Cazzata translates (I was told) into "worthless" or "piece of garbage", definitely derogatory. Malanga, for those long term and keen-eared fans, you'll remember as being the guy that Junior wanted to whack all the way back in season 1. Junior wanted the deed done at Vesuvio's (Artie's place) and Tony didn't, which is what led to the fallout between uncle and nephew. To me, this is just to further the point that Junior is finally senile; he's not faking, he's not lying, he just actually is crazy. Let me know what you think.