Cosa Nostra News

Brittany Fogarty In the past year, I've talked to a few mob wives -- by that I mean woman married to made guys. The general consensus about VH1's Mob Wives is that the women are a disgrace and an embarrassment to all Italian-Americans. Some are even "frauds," "rats" and "whores." One source said something that resonated:

An anonymous source who knows a lot about VH1's Mob Wives cast members recently contacted us. What annoys her (she's a true "Mob Wife") is the idea that some of the women on Mob Wives may actually serve as role models for young women. "First off, understand:  They are not  Mob Wives . None of them ." The "old" cast is new... almost. "They are all liars and everyone on Staten Island has no respect for them. And how they chased her father because of the show!

This year Mob Wives really lived up to its tagline: Trust No One.... This year most of the drama on Mob Wives occurred off screen and after the season ended following a two-part reunion that got heated enough to make Vivica Fox weep. (It almost makes you forget she did a pretty good job kicking ass herself in Kill Bill. See pic--->.) Since episode one, the major dynamic of the entire season was proclaimed loud and clear: this year it's all about the bitch called pay back that ultimately took the form of an implied major confrontation between Natalie Guercio and Natalie DiDonato. But the big fistfight or shootout or whatever we all expected never happened. (Nor did we relish the thought of it. We don't like the idea of two women fighting.... we want women to act, well, womanly, not like dudes...And, yes, we did interview one of the cast members and we will get to her following some prefatory remarks.)

Reacting to stories about how boring "Mob Wives" is so far, within week two of filming, Carla Facciolo tweeted her response leaving no doubt as to how she feels about the show. As reported, "Mob Wives" season five, which has commenced filming , apparently has not started off with a bang. Or, filming so far has mostly been limited to second unit-type stuff... Who knows? Apparently, Big Ang with her grand babies is the only storyline, so far. And Renee Graziano has yet to appear on film. All this knowledge comes courtesy of a little birdie talking to AllAboutTRH .

Alicia DiMichele, wife of a member of the Colombo crime family, will star on VH1's "Mob Wives" when it debuts this year -- with DiMichele and another Philadelphia mob wife replacing Karen Gravano, Ramona Rizzo and Carla Facciolo. Not exactly breaking news, we know, but what is interesting is some other information posted on Gang Land News last week. Alicia DiMichele Namely that DiMichele's husband, Edward "Tall Guy" Garofalo, is "figuring to be a major star" in the upcoming season. DiMichele and Garofalo's former marriage is supposedly going to form a centerpiece of the show, according to three sources, Capeci reported, one of them being Karen Gravano.

  Mob Wives Chicago was cancelled for a variety of reasons, foremost among them the cast members' lack of credible ties to the mob -- or the Outfit, the name by which the organized crime entity is better known in the Windy City. Carla and soon-to-be-former husband. It could be argued that really only one Chicago mob wife, Nora, had legit ties -- primarily through her deceased former-hit man father. The bottom line: None of the other women were mob wives in that they were not married or otherwise related to bona fide members of the Outfit (which says a lot about the Outfit, and how seriously even its women honor old-world codes). With the case of "Mob Wives" New York, that was seemingly less of an issue among some of the women, many of whom have very real ties to the "honored society" via husbands and/or fathers -- and it seems to have had very real repercussions on a heavyweight mobster who at one time was consiglieri for the Bonanno family, J...

CelebrityNetWorth.com, founded in October 2009 in Los Angeles, claims it has grown into "one of the most popular and influential celebrity finance outlets on the Internet." "Whether you're looking for the latest net worth and salary of your favorite celebrity or you want to stay up to date on all the most expensive products and gizmos in the world, Celebritynetworth has you covered," the site declares. Drita D'Avanzo is up there but Big Ang is the wealthiest of all... All its figures and articles are thoroughly researched, scrutinized and fact checked by writers and financial analysts, the site notes, adding that the figures are acquired from publicly available information, including salaries, real estate holdings, divorces, record sales, royalties and endorsements. The estimated net worths come from a formula that takes out taxes, manager’s fees, agents’ fees, and lifestyle. So, of course, we immediately checked out what the low-down was, ...

Renee, giving props where due, is the most popular. Karen Gravano won the dubious distinction. Ramona Rizzo is not too far behind.  After only three-four appearances on the show, that is quite a remarkable feat. Anyone could vote in this, and all, Cosa Nostra News polls; in this one, readers could vote for one or two wives, and they could change their votes up until the final moments before the poll closed. I am a bit surprised that Renee could be seen as most loved in that the least amount of people "hate" her -- 38 people, or 11% of the voters. I give her kudos for talking about her depression issues on television. Depression is a major problem in the U.S., and the more the "stars" with the bully pulpits address problems such as this one, the better for society, I believe. Drita and Carla fared much, much better than Gravano and Rizzo, running about neck-and-neck with each other, close behind Renee -- with 18% (61 votes) and 17% (60 votes)...

Carla Facciolo appeared on the Joy Behar show and identified her father for the audience, stating that he was not a mobster. Louis "Bagels" Daidone murdered the uncle of Mob Wife Carla Facciolo, then stuffed a canary in his mouth. The family thought Facciolo was a rat -- but he wasn't. Carla identified her uncle as Bruno Facciolo and her father is Louis Facciolo. To wit, according to the Behar transcript, which another blogger found, we read the following:

VH1 has picked up "Mob Wives," a new reality series created by Jennifer Graziano, a daughter of Bonanno capo Anthony (T.G.) Graziano (according to Reality Wives ). This is Ms. Graziano's first producer/writer credit, according to IMDB.com . The cast list, as indicated on Bourgy (a website that follows reality shows), is Renee Graziano (another daughter of Anthony Graziano?), Drita D’Avanzo (wife of Lee D’Avanzo), Carla Facciolo (wife of Joey Ferragamo) and Karen Gravano (daughter of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano). So "Mob Wives & Daughters" would be a better title, no? (A little nugget we dug up about one of the "mobsters," which, if true, should make for a bit more interesting show: The New York Daily News reported that Lee D’Avanzo was romantically linked to the daughter of Sammy "Bull" Gravano, who, along with her brother, pleaded guilty to their role in the operation set up by their father that peddled drugs to kids.) ...