Prosecutors check Mafia threat against journalist

Prosecutors check Mafia threat against journalist

ROME — Anti-Mafia prosecutors said Tuesday they are investigating a reported Mafia death threat against the Italian author of “Gomorra,” the best-selling expose on the criminal underworld in Naples.

Naples-based prosecutor Franco Roberti said that his unit is looking into an informant’s claim that the Camorra crime syndicate is planning to kill journalist Roberto Saviano by December.

The prosecutor said the reported threat involved an attack along a highway, which also would target Saviano’s police escort.

Saviano has been under police protection since 2006 when his book “Gomorra,” denouncing the Camorra’s hold on everything from garment industry to drug running to waste disposal, became a best-seller in Italy.

In the book, Saviano said Camorra-run companies routinely win contracts to dispose of toxic waste from northern Italian industries by underbidding competitors, then dispose of it illegally and untreated in the region’s rivers and dumps.

The book was the basis for a film of the same name, which won second place at the Cannes Film Festival this spring and is Italy’s hope for best foreign-language film at next year’s Academy Awards.

Hollywood is tough town for Asians, says actress

HONG KONG — Despite landing roles alongside Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis, Maggie Q says Asian actors still have a hard time getting good roles in Hollywood movies.

The 29-year-old actress, whose full name is Maggie Quigley, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that 90 percent of the scripts she receives are written for Caucasian female characters.

“The first part of it is going into a room [for an audition] and trying to quell this stigma that people have about Asians only doing certain kinds of roles and Asians only being looked at a certain way,” Quigley said. “You run into these stereotypes a lot.”

Quigley’s credits include “Mission: Impossible III,” starring Tom Cruise, and the fourth installment in the “Die Hard” series, “Live Free or Die Hard,” starring Bruce Willis. She also appeared in “Deception” alongside Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams.

Today’s birthdays

Actress Linda Lavin (“Alice”) is 71. Actress-director Penny Marshall is 66. Musician Richard Carpenter of The Carpenters is 62. Singer Tito Jackson is 55. TV chef Emeril Lagasse is 49. Singer Ginuwine is 38. Singer Keyshia Cole is 27.