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Sopranos Welcome in Jersey Town After All

Fri., Mar. 9, 2007 4:44 PM PST by Natalie Finn

Bloomfield will be saying bona sera to The Sopranos after all.

An attorney for the New Jersey township said Friday that the award-winning HBO mob drama could shoot its final scene in a local ice cream shop after all, four days after Bloomfield's mayor and council revoked the crew's filming permit.

Mayor Raymond McCarthy and several town council members voted on Monday to block the shoot, saying The Sopranos paints a negative picture of Italians. McCarthy, whose wife is Italian, also said nay when the council okayed the permit last week.

But even before HBO execs could make Bloomfield an offer it couldn't refuse, township lawyer Brian Aloia determined that it was up to the town clerk to objectively issue a filming permit and that the council had no say in the matter unless the crew also needed a waiver to approve its choice of locale.

Since producers were planning on filming in a commercial district after 8 p.m., no waiver was needed, Aloia said, and therefore there was no need for the council or mayor to weigh in.

"[The clerk] must look at the application in an objective manner," Aloia said. "She cannot consider, for instance, what's being filmed or, in this case, if she likes the show or doesn't like the show."

Remember, it ain't personal. It's just business.

HBO had been planning to film at Holsten's Brookdale Confectionary for three days in late March. Co-owner Chris Carley, for one, had been looking forward to his shop's cameo appearance and was hoping that the mayor would get on board. Or at least not stand in his way.

"He should do what's good for the town and not let his personal feelings dictate his decision," Carley told the New Jersey Star-Ledger on Thursday.

Although the town council voted to cancel the shoot after some residents objected to the fact that the characters on The Sopranos are both Italian and involved in organized crime, officials had been planning to revisit the issue yet again next Monday after even more complaints surfaced about the decision to rescind the permit.

"What the rest of the council does, that's their choice," McCarthy, who is also a member of the Italian-American civic group Unico, said in a written statement. "I am pledged to honoring my commitment to its mission to speak out in defense of Italian-American dignity. This is what I chose to do in this case."

Councilmember Peggy O'Boyle Dunigan told the Star-Ledger that she had already changed her mind and was planning to let The Sopranos set up shop for a few days.

"If you don't like the show, you can turn it off," she said. "It's hard enough to have a small business in town. I don't want to discourage them."

The landmark series' final run kicks off Apr. 8 on HBO. And ends, nine weeks later, in a Bloomfield ice cream parlor.