'Sopranos' Banned From Parade

Oct. 5 -- First the Emmy snub, now this?

Officials for New York City’s Columbus Day Parade are banning the cast of The Sopranos from marching in next week’s procession, due to the show’s less-than-P.C. portrayal of Italian-Americans.

David Chase, the show’s creator, is staying mum on the ban, but the rest of the show’s cast isn’t.

Katherine Narducci, who plays the always disapproving wife of Tony’s pal Artie on the HBO series, tells the New York Daily News, “This is a television show! We’re acting! Get over it! If you are taking it that seriously, then you have a problem.”

Michael Rispoli, who played the dying don Jackie Aprile on the show’s first season, also griped about the ban: “Unfortunately, what will be missed at the parade is the celebration of the fact that David Chase and James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli and Edie Falco are all Italian-Americans who have put together a fantastic show that is watched by everybody out there. And, unfortunately, for them not to be celebrated as Italian-Americans, as actors, playing in a show that everybody watches, I think that’s where the crime is.”

The show and its mob characters were previously hit with protests from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.