Chazz Palminteri Rips New York City Mayor For Columbus Statute Commission

Carl Campanile at the New York Post offers a piece on Chazz Palminteri’s dispute with the New York City mayor over Columbus statues in the city.

Italian-American actor Chazz Palminteri on Monday urged Mayor de Blasio “strap on a set of balls” to defend Columbus and said he should never have appointed a commission to examine if statues of the explorer should be removed from city property.

“I am really pissed,” Palminteri said on WABC radio.

“How can you appoint 18 people who are going to judge what Columbus means to us. You’re going to pick up 18 people and tell us what our New York values are?”

“You’re the mayor. You should have the balls to say, `Hey, enough of that,’” said Palminteri, who was accompanied by his pal, Phil Foglia of the Italian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Palminteri said he declined an invitation to be honored last week with a “Chazz Palminteri Day” proclamation at the mayor’s annual Italian-heritage reception at Gracie Mansion.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2017/10/09/chazz-palminteri-rips-de-blasio-for-columbus-statue-commission/ 

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer Q&A with Chazz Palminteri via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/10/my-philadelphia-inquirer-q-with-chazz_4.html 

Chazz Palminteri 'Was Blessed' With Growing Up With Wise Guys

Christine Burroni at the New York Post offers a piece on why A Bronx Tale is so important to producer/writer/actor Chazz Palminteri.

When it comes to the Bronx Chazz Palminteri sheds his tough-guy persona.

“I have such a strong feeling and passion for ‘A Bronx Tale’ because it’s my life and it’s my parents,” he said of the musical during BroadwayCon at the Jacob Javits Center on Sunday. “And I was blessed with growing up with all these wise guys that taught me the streets.”

The 64-year-old actor has seen the story of his life evolve over 27 years from a book to a one-man show to a movie directed by Robert De Niro, and now a Broadway musical (for which De Niro is also a co-director).

While “A Bronx Tale” focuses on his relationship with his mobster mentor, Sonny, Palminteri credits his fame to his parents — specifically, his late father.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://pagesix.com/2017/01/30/chazz-palminteri-was-blessed-with-growing-up-with-wise-guys/

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer Q&A with Chazz Palminteri via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/10/my-philadelphia-inquirer-q-with-chazz_4.html

A Bronx Tale: Chazz Palminteri’s Move From Mean Streets To A Tuscan-Style Villa

Writer, actor and producer Chazz Palminteri talks about his life, his art and his move from the Bronx to a villa in up-state New York in a piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Chazz Palminteri, 64, is an actor, screenwriter and producer. The 
musical version of his “A Bronx Tale,” co-directed by Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks with music by Alan Menken, opens Dec. 1 at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre. He spoke with Marc Myers.

Only the wiseguys had money when I was a kid. I grew up in the Belmont section of the Bronx, a great Italian neighborhood. Most parents there didn’t have much. They worked hard to make a better life for their families. For me and my friends, it was paradise. I saw a guy kill a man when I was 9. Other than that, we had fun.

I was blessed with Ozzie and Harriet parents. My father was a city bus driver. All he cared about was making sure his son and two daughters graduated from high school. We all went on to college.

To protect your space, you had to learn how to fight. Fortunately, my father, Lorenzo, trained boxers in the neighborhood. He taught me how to box when I was 4. By the time I was 11, I could hold my own.

... At one point we had to read Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and write what we felt about the book. I got an A. The teacher asked how I saw all of the things I wrote about. That’s when I realized I was a writer.

In 1986, I moved to Los Angeles to become an actor. But things didn’t work out as planned. One day, I was sitting in my dumpy apartment on Vineland Avenue and said to myself, “If I can’t get a part, I’ll write one for myself.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/chazz-palminteri-moves-from-mean-streets-to-a-tuscan-style-villa-1479225315 

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer Q&A with Chazz Palminteri via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/10/my-philadelphia-inquirer-q-with-chazz_4.html 

Happy Birthday To Robert De Niro, One of America's Greatest Actors

As History.com notes, today is the birthday of Robert De Niro, one of the greatest actors in modern movie history.

You can read about Robert De Niro's life and work via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/robert-de-niro-born?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-0817-08172016&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=80488914&kx_EmailCampaignID=6665&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-0817-08172016&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa

Note: Robert De Niro is one of my favorite actors. I particularly like his film collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. Together they made what I consider the greatest crime film ever made, Goodfellas. They also made other classic crime films together, such as Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Casino. Robert De Niro also starred in and directed Chazz Palminteri's brilliant film, A Bronx Tale.