Bloomfield to Sopranos: Fuhgeddaboutit

This is incredibly lame.

A Garden State town council whacked "The Sopranos" Monday night, barring the Cosa Nostra drama from filming in suburban Bloomfield, N.J.

Local lawmakers hit the wildly popular HBO series due to what it called "negative depictions of Italian-Americans," said the town's mayor, Raymond McCarthy, a leading opponent of the show.

McCarthy - whose wife is Italian - said the show had intended to film the very last scene, for the very last episode, at a local Broad Street ice cream parlor, Holsten's Brookdale Confectionery.

As a former Bloomfield resident, I'm very disappointed the town has become so namby-pamby and weak-kneed, caving in to political correctness like their neighboring town, Montclair, once did.

Back in the first season of the program, the scene where an attempted hit was made on Tony Soprano was filmed in Montclair, an affluent, ultra-liberal enclave. Following that, the locals decided to bar The Sopranos from being filmed there because they used guns while filming. Shocking a mob hit would involve guns, isn't it? Of course, they failed to take into account the show is fiction and nobody was really being shot.

Still, there is still hope things can be resolved.

Holsten's owner is now complaining that the town's touchy politicians denied him a place in television history.

"We were excited," said the historic parlor's co-owner, Chris Carley, 53. "If it's good for the area and businesses, your personal opinions shouldn't be mixed in."

The council originally met in a closed-door conference last week and approved the shoot planned for later this month, following routine approvals from Bloomfield's traffic department.

But after pressure from McCarthy and Italian-American organizations, the council flipped and refused to allow the show to be filmed just one week later during its bi-weekly meeting.

Now, the county executive will try to step in to bring the matter back to a vote next Monday - and make the council an offer they can't refuse.

" 'The Sopranos' will hopefully have their last episode here," said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. "Hey, I'm an Italian-American and to me it's about the arts, it's about TV."

Good for DiVincenzo, and I hope he can exert some influence in this case.

One of the great things about The Sopranos, especially for New Jersey residents, is recognizing places you know while watching the program. I've had the opportunity to witness filming in past years and wherever you go, the show has been immensely popular for the locals as well as being a source of revenue. To deny a local establishment in a town like Bloomfield, with a heavily Italian population, to have the final scene in this landmark program, is really a disgrace. Having frequented the establishement in question makes it even more disappointing.