'Sopranos' Auditions Mobbed

H A R R I S O N, N.J., July 23 -- They ain’t gotta be pretty, just good, capece?

The producers of The Sopranos didn’t use those exact words in announcing a casting call for the popular HBO series about a fictional New Jersey mob family, but hey, you get da point.

About 13,000 Soprano wannabes did Saturday, turning out for open auditions at Harrison High School, dreaming of becoming the next Big Pussy. And yeah, you could say it was a mob scene.

Italian, in Jersey

Joey Saladino came from Coral Springs, Fla., to try out.

“When we came through the toll booths, we were wondering how many Italians there were in Jersey,” he said. “We just found out.”

Saladino, resplendent in a black pinstripe suit, black shirt, black tie and shoes, accessorized nicely with a gold chain and cross and what he claimed was a real Rolex, said he sometimes gets bit parts in local gangster flicks shot in Florida.

But being a Soprano was a dream — like the best cannoli and pasta e fagioli he ever had, rolled into one. He was only too glad to offer an impromptu sidewalk audition.

“We’re in da parts business,” he said. “We do da shins, da knees, and for special holidays, like, uh, Valentine’s Day, we send hearts to people,” he said.

Jewelry, With Three Syllables

Eighteen year-old John Vasta of Central Valley, N.Y., hoped his high school acting experience would help.

“I went to a class; they told me, you know, how to breathe and stuff,” he said. ‘I played an Italian guy in a play once, or something. I talk like them, I got a schnoz on me, and I wear jewelry.” And he pronounces it with three syllables.

He looked the part: black polyester shirt unbuttoned to just above the navel, two gold chains, one bearing a cross and the other spelling out his name in diamonds; two gold bracelets and three gold rings.

Lora Oliveri of Fort Lee grew up loving Mafia movies.

“I figure this is the closest I’ll ever get to the mob,” she said.