By: Jasmine Yiminez
Big brother to the rescue.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is sticking up for his kid brother Chris following last week’s dust-up in which the CNN host melted down on video after being called “Fredo.”
For those not in the know: Frederico “Fredo” Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather. Fredo was portrayed by actor John Cazale in the Francis Ford Coppola film adaptation and in the sequel, The Godfather Part II. Fredo is the younger brother of Sonny (James Caan) and the elder brother to Michael (Al Pacino) and sister, Connie (Talia Shire). Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) is his informally adopted brother.
According to Wikipedia, “Being weaker and less intelligent than his brothers, Fredo has little power or status within the Corleone crime family. The infant Fredo had pneumonia. In the novel, Fredo’s primary weakness is his womanizing, a habit he develops after moving to Las Vegas and which earns his father’s disfavor. In the films, Fredo’s feelings of personal inadequacy and his inability to act effectively on his own behalf are character flaws leading to greater consequences.”
“I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, ‘In “The Godfather,” who are you, which one are you, which character are you?’ ” Cuomo said during an interview on WAMC radio. “I have seen parts of it. My father wouldn’t watch the movie because it was anti-Italian.”
“Chris Cuomo was caught on video earlier this month launching into a profanity-laced tirade against a heckler who called him “Fredo.’’ Chris said “The Godfather’’ character — another son of the flick’s Mafia chief, Vito Corleone, although a much more mild, ineffectual one — was as offensive to Italian-Americans as the N-word is to African-Americans,” the New York Post reported.
“I just want to finish one point on this,’’ the governor added during the interview. “‘The Godfather’ movie, don’t you dare, don’t you dare liken my family to the family you saw in ‘The Godfather or [HBO’s] ‘The Sopranos.’ Mario Cuomo lived with those rumors of the Mafia. They hurt him. They scarred him. Every Italian lives with it. Don’t you glorify it, and don’t you repeat it, and don’t you institutionalize it and say, ‘Well, if you google it its not that bad.’ ”
He added, “I remember there was another discussion of the term ‘Dago,’ which is another ugly miserable term, which was, I believe, and my father believed, a ‘Dago’ was an anti-Italian slur. Somebody says to my father, ‘Well, you know, “Dago” is not really anti-Italian, it’s really anti-Latino, it came from “Diego,” ‘ and my father was like, ‘Don’t you tell me what they meant when they said to me “Dago, You’re a Dago.” They knew I wasn’t Spanish.’ This is all ugliness.’’
