Mobster star accused of leading crime operration
January 22, 2002 Posted: 9:28 AM EST (1428 GMT)
Daniel Provenzano: "If a guy owes me money and I want my money, that doesn't make me an extortionist
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, New Jersey (AP) -- Danny Provenzano said organized crime doesn't exist -- it's just something that people made up for the movies.
One of those movies happens to be "This Thing of Ours," which stars Provenzano as the nephew of a mob boss who runs a scheme to steal millions over the Internet. The movie, which he directed and co-wrote, debuts this week at a film festival in Sarasota, Florida.
There is another drama coming up for the nephew of reputed Genovese associate Anthony Provenzano: "The State of New Jersey vs. Daniel Provenzano."
Provenzano, 38, has been charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder. Prosecutors say he used violence, including taking a hammer to someone's thumb, kidnapping and death threats to extort $1.5 million from businessmen dealing with a former printing firm he ran.
He faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The indictment called Provenzano the leader of an organized crime operation, but didn't associate him with a particular family.
Provenzano calls himself an artist who may like to pretend he is a criminal, but isn't the real thing.
"These things about me kidnapping people and extorting people and taking money from people," said Provenzano, sitting in the home office of his spacious Bergen County home, a copy of Elia Kazan's "On What Makes A Director" by his side. "It's not true. If a guy owes me money and I want my money, that doesn't make me an extortionist."
Provenzano has defenders in the show business world.
"I don't know him as a gangster. I know him as a filmmaker," said Vincent Pastore, who played Big Pussy on "The Sopranos" and co-stars in Provenzano's latest movie. "He's treated me really good and I like the guy."
Frank Vincent, another star of "This Thing of Ours" and dozens of films including "Goodfellas" and "Raging Bull," was among the celebrities who appeared in a courtroom last year to support Provenzano at a hearing.
"I really don't know much about the charges," said Vincent. He called Provenzano a loyal friend, an accomplished actor and director. "I think he's got a bright future in the movie business."
His great-uncle, Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, was identified by New Jersey State Police as a soldier in the Genovese crime family. Police also called the former Teamsters leader a prime suspect in the 1975 disappearance of ex-Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was headed for a meeting with Provenzano when he disappeared and was presumed dead.
Anthony Provenzano died in prison in 1988 while serving time for racketeering.
Danny Provenzano said his accusers are people who owed thousands of dollars to his former company, Advice Inc., and made up the charges because of his family's links to organized crime.
"It made it very sexy," he said of the allegations. "I'm a legitimate businessman."
His attorney, Vincent Nuzzi, and prosecutor Robert Codey declined to comment on the trial, slated to begin sometime in the spring.
Provenzano said he's eager to put the charges behind him and get on with his film career. The Fort Lee native's first appearance in film was in 1989 as a gas station attendant in a movie called "Posed for Murder." Next came a bit part in "Kabuki Man" -- "schlock film, one of my embarrassments," he said.
He postponed his filmmaking dreams to go into the printing business for several years. In 1994, Provenzano financed and produced "Vampire Vixens from Venus," which aired on cable TV.
But Provenzano said he always wanted to make a mafia movie. "I guess it was just something inside of me," he said.
"This Thing of Ours" -- an approximate translation of La Cosa Nostra -- features James Caan in a cameo as a wheelchair-bound mob boss, Vincent as the leader of a New Jersey crime family and Provenzano as his nephew who persuades the family's elders to invest in the high-tech crime scheme.
Some scenes depict events referred to in the Provenzano indictment. In one sequence, Provenzano and Pastore's characters decide to collect on a debt for a printing service and one family member takes a hammer to someone's thumb.
"It's fiction, just like the indictment," said Provenzano, adding that no mob movie is based on real life. "Organized crime, from what I know, does not exist."
Not that he doesn't love the movies. Among his favorites are "Goodfellas," "The Godfather" and "Gotti."
That one is "closest to reality," he said. "Wherever they got their information, it was pretty good."
Copyright 2002 The Associated
