Official Press Release

Source: CBS Entertainment

"BELLA MAFIA," THE FOUR-HOUR MINI-SERIES STARRING VANESSA REDGRAVE, DENNIS FARINA, NASTASSJA KINSKI, JENNIFER TILLY AND ILLEANA DOUGLAS, TO BE REBROADCAST JULY 1 AND 4 ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

Tony Lo Bianco, James Marsden and Gina Philips Also Star

(May 31st, 2001)--BELLA MAFIA, the two-part, four-hour mini-series starring Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave ("Julia"), Dennis Farina, Nastassja Kinski, Jennifer Tilly and Illeana Douglas, about a disparate group of Mafia wives who band together to avenge their husbands’ murders, will be rebroadcast Sunday, July 1 and Wednesday, July 4 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, each night) on the CBS Television Network. Tony Lo Bianco, James Marsden and Gina Philips also star in the drama, which was adapted by Lynda La Plante ("Prime Suspect") from her intriguing novel of the same title about family, loyalty, love and revenge.

In Sicily, the world of Don Roberto Luciano (Farina) and his wife, Graziella (Redgrave), is turned upside down when their favorite son, Michael (Michael Hayden), is kidnapped and murdered on the night before he is to leave for college in America. Luciano vows that he will avenge the murder and suspects that Mafia rival Peter Carolla (Lo Bianco) is responsible. Unbeknownst to the family, Michael’s secret girlfriend, Sophia (Kinski), is pregnant with their child.

The family’s die is cast later when the surviving Luciano sons marry: Constantino (Richard Joseph Paul) weds Sophia; Alfredo (Tony Maggio) marries Teresa Scorpio (Douglas), the daughter of a wealthy widow, and Fredrico (W. Earl Brown) takes a former casino girl, Moyra (Tilly), as his bride. Fate again intervenes when, years later, Sophia’s lost son, Luka (Marsden), meets and befriends Carolla’s invalid son, Giorgio (Christopher Shaw), who, on his deathbed, asks Carolla to adopt and care for Luka.

Revenge sweeps across the landscape as Luciano and all his sons are murdered at a family gathering, then Carolla is killed in an Italian courtroom. Though emotionally shattered, the women band together to avenge the deaths of their husbands. They go on the run from authorities in New York, where they befriend Luka, now a charming though deadly and remorseless young man. But when Sophia discovers that Luka was responsible for the massacre of the Luciano men, she takes swift and terrible justice.

BELLA MAFIA is a production of The Konigsberg Company. Frank Konigsberg is the executive producer; Jack Clements, the producer; David Greene, the director.

RATING: TV14-LSV

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