Italian Pride on Parade

A small gathering of journalists--Italian and Italian American--gathered poolside at the hilltop home of Italian Consul General Massimo Roscigno. A glance at the guest list (most surnames ended in vowels) showed that this group shared a common heritage along with a vocation. Italian mingled with English as people sipped wine and got acquainted, often using their family’s region of origin as an opener. The consul’s dog padded around the party as smells of the evening’s pasta meal wafted outside.

“I had no idea there were so many Italian Americans in L.A.,” said one woman to a new acquaintance. “They’re everywhere, really,” responded the man.

Italian journalists representing national publications like La Stampa, La Repubblica and L’Espresso stuck close to one another, smoking cigarettes and speaking in rapid Italian. Meanwhile, their Italian American counterparts talked shop and eyed the buffet. And, as seems customary at dinner parties in Los Angeles, there were two well-known actors among the crowd--Joe Mantegna of the CBS show “First Monday” and “The Practice’s” Michael Badalucco.

The event was hosted by the National Italian American Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit founded in 1975 to debunk stereotypes, promote Italian Americans in government, encourage ties between Italy and the U.S. and monitor the portrayal of Italian Americans in media and entertainment.

(The group’s most recent victory took place two weeks ago when the Los Angeles City Council voted to keep Columbus Day as a local holiday in October instead of replacing it with one honoring Cesar Chavez’s birthday. As a compromise, the council will allow city employees to celebrate either holiday.)

At the group’s West Coast gala Thursday night, the organization was to induct actor Nicolas Cage (ne Coppola) into the Italian American Hall of Fame and honor Garry Marshall (whose father, Tony Maschiarelli, changed his name when his family moved to the States) for his career achievements.

Two and a half years ago, Roscigno and his wife, Agnes, were granted a reprieve from Beirut and assigned to four years in Los Angeles. They’ll stay another 18 months before returning to their villa in Rome.

For Roscigno, the dinner party was an opportunity to educate local journalists on his job and his nation. “A lot of people confuse the consul general with a [military] general, a counselor, a concierge,” he joked. “On one side it might look like an easy job. On the other hand ... my biggest challenge is to try to make known the Italy of today ... a modern and very complex country.”

A Critical Eye on

‘Governtainment’

The mobile awareness campaign set to cruise near CBS Television City and through the rest of the city next week has a simple tagline: “The CIA has its hand in Hollywood.” The posters are not hyping a new show but posing the question: Should government agencies serve as script consultants on TV shows?

The campaign, to coincide with May sweeps, comes from a group of artists based in Boston and Los Angeles. Citing shows like “The Agency” on CBS, “Alias” on ABC and the Fox show “24,” co-founder S.A. Bachman said the group wants viewers to think about overlaps between news and entertainment.

“We love our TV,” Bachman said. “We’re not telling people to turn off their TV but inviting them to look critically at ... ‘governtainment.’”

Bachman, a professor of art at the School of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and David Attyah, a Boston-based printmaker and artist, have previously collaborated on campaigns designed to raise questions about depictions of race and gender in the media.

The new campaign was conceived after Sept. 11 (though the three shows prompting the group’s concern were all ordered and scheduled before the attacks).

“What does it mean at this moment to have intelligence agencies collaborating with these shows?” said Bachman, offering no answers but hoping to provoke a discussion. “What does it mean to have all these shows on the air, glamorizing the intelligence agencies?”

Chris Ender, a CBS spokesman, has a thought about that. “‘The Agency’ does from time to time get technical advice [from the CIA],” he said, “but the CIA has no influence or approval in the creative process.”

He added, “Television series from time to time generate their fair share of conspiracy theorists. This appears to be another one.”

But Bachman is undaunted. In addition to the above-mentioned shows, Bachman cited a recent episode of NBC’s “The West Wing,” which featured real-life presidents Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and took the form of a documentary, as an example of “the increasing blurry lines between news and entertainment.”

“We live in a world that’s a TV world, [and] TV is a really important place to look at what’s going on because TV reflects and creates the times,” she said.

In a TV world, Bachman knows, her mobile awareness campaign may face an uphill challenge.

“We don’t have the audience that ‘Alias’ does.”

City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail angles @latimes.com