By GREG SMITH
New York Daily News Staff Writer

Finally the proof is in: The real-life Mafia and Hollywood's version of the underworld have become one and the same.

The true and the false came together during a remarkable 1999 Christmas party in Little Italy that was under surveillance by the FBI, the Daily News has learned.

During the party at Il Cortile on Mulberry St., cast members of "The Sopranos" mingled with made members of the Colombo crime family, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Another participant in the Goodfellas get-together down on Mulberry St. was James Caan of "The Godfather" fame, the source said.

Vincent Pastore

The intersection of myth and reality was discovered on a chilly night in December 1999, as law enforcement agents secretly observed the restaurant after learning of a Colombo gathering there, the source told The News.

The investigators were watching James (Jimmy Green Eyes) Clemenza, a reputed Colombo capo and his brother, Jerry Clemenza, an alleged Colombo soldier, the source said.

The FBI was camped out in front of Il Cortile, a fixture serving traditional Italian fare in the heart of Little Italy since 1975. The restaurant is across the street from one ex-mob social club and three blocks from John Gotti's former hangout, the Ravenite.

A source familiar with the investigation said agents observed the Clemenza brothers and other members of the Colombo family enter the restaurant for a party.

They also saw several members of the "Sopranos" cast join the party, including Tony (Paulie Walnuts) Sirico, and Vincent (Big Pussy) Pastore. In an interview, Sirico acknowledged knowing both Clemenza brothers and said he had eaten at Il Cortile five times in the last few years.

He did not recall attending a party there with the Clemenzas, though he did not rule it out.

"I have been to so many dinners and parties and charities, I have no idea," he said. "I don't want to be mixed up with a lot of bad guys."

Sirico, who has a lengthy criminal record from the 1970s, said he has stayed on the straight and narrow for years: "All that tough guy stuff went out the window years ago."

"If I was at a place where there was mob guys, I'm sorry to hear it. I'm sorry for me," he said.

Regarding the Clemenza brothers, he was discreet: "I know them. I know everybody. I've been around. I don't remember this party. If I was there, I wasn't hanging out with nobody."

"I haven't seen these guys in a hundred years," he added. "I haven't seen the kid Jerry [Clemenza] in a thousand years."

Sirico remembered being at Il Cortile on more than one occasion with Pastore, but he couldn't recall dates.

The owner of Il Cortile, Carmine Esposito, also recalled Sirico and Pastore eating at his restaurant on more than one occasion. Pastore did not return several calls seeking comment.

Either way, Sirico emphasized that he had done nothing unlawful and said the FBI should remember that he is simply an actor who does not take his part too seriously.

"I hope they don't have my name on a list. I'm an actor. I hope they know that," he said.

Another actor who allegedly attended the Colombo party was Caan, who has long professed to be a friend of Andrew Russo, reputedly a top leader of the Colombo crime family.

Representatives for Caan, who played the hot-headed Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather," did not return calls seeking comment.

At times, it is hard to tell the difference between the real-life Mafia and the Mafia of TV and Hollywood. In March 1999, for instance, the FBI recorded several members of the DeCavalcante family discussing the hit HBO show.

Anthony Rotondo, an alleged capo, said he recognized incidents and real gangsters in the characters and plots of the allegedly fictional TV show.

"Every show you watch, more and more you pick up somebody," Rotondo said, reeling off several striking similarities between the show and the DeCavalcante family.

Through a spokesman, "Sopranos" creator David Chase admitted he'd been at Il Cortile in the 1980s and a few months ago, but he insisted he was not at the Colombo family party.

Quentin Schaffer, a spokesman for HBO, emphasized that the highly successful "Sopranos" was all made up: "David, despite what people think when they watch 'The Sopranos,' does not know all these crime figures. People just assume because it's so accurate, so real. He's not whoever you think he is. They've done research. They obviously read the press clippings. They talk to law enforcement people. They try to give it a feeling of accuracy. But he does not know any of these people." But when it comes to La Cosa Nostra in the 21st century, the line between fact and fiction gets fuzzier by the day.

Even Sirico, who plays his Paulie Walnuts character as a cold-hearted hit man, says real-life gangsters have given him advice on how to behave on screen.

"I've had guys come up to me, I don't even want to tell you. They say I should have been a little harder in some scene. I don't know what to tell them. What do you say? I mean, what can you say?"

Original Publication Date: 8/26/01

AmericanMafia.com
div. of PLR International
P.O. Box 19146
Cleveland, OH 44119-0146
216 374-0000

Copyright © 1998 - 2001 PLR International