'Sopranos' Creator
Calls It 'Invention'

By GREG B. SMITH
Daily News Staff Writer

The creator of "The Sopranos" says his TV show about the Mafia is "purely invention," even though alleged members of the DeCavalcante crime family see it as more fact than fiction.

The HBO show is filmed in the northern New Jersey towns that the reputed real-life gangsters call home, and some of the episodes resemble real-life events.

A scene from HBO's 'The Sopranos'

Yesterday, the show's creator, David Chase, was filming in Jersey City, which is near Elizabeth, which is the home of reputed mob capo Joseph Giacobbe.

Chase declined to comment, but in an interview on the HBO Web site, he insisted that the show is "purely invention." Asked how he is able to portray mob characters accurately, Chase replies, "We do our research."

"And," he adds, "having grown up in New Jersey helps."

Judging by secret FBI tapes used in the recent indictment of 41 alleged DeCavalcante family members and associates, the boundary between art and life gets fuzzy.

On tape, reputed soldiers and capos discuss the show, credit the "great acting" and note several similarities between fictional characters and real-life gangsters.

On the show, a soldier named Silvio Dante owns a strip club. In real life, Vincent Palermo, the alleged acting boss of the DeCavalcante clan, just happens to run a strip club. This is, the creators insist, pure coincidence.

In the second episode, the main character, Tony Soprano, worries that one of his own is secretly cooperating with the FBI and recording conversations.

From January 1998 through the summer of 1999, a DeCavalcante associate — known to all as Ralphie — wore a wire for the FBI. Ralphie's recordings are the centerpiece of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White's case.