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Whopper of the Week: Michael BloombergWho knew that Dominic Chianese and Lorraine Bracco were costars on The Sopranos?

By Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, Oct. 11, 2002, at 5:00 PM ET

"I didn't invite them as members of The Sopranos."

—New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, answering complaints from Italian-Americans about his inviting Dominic Chianese and Lorraine Bracco to march with him in the Columbus Day parade. Chianese and Bracco play Uncle Junior and Dr. Jennifer Melfi, respectively, on HBO's The Sopranos. Bloomberg said he invited Chianese and Bracco because "These are two nice people who have gone out of their way to help the city." Bloomberg cited an "I Love New York" public service announcement that Chianese recorded last summer to boost New York City tourism. Reported Oct. 10 by Timothy Williams of the Associated Press.

"When I'm not under house arrest in New Jersey, you'll find me hitting all the spots in the greatest city on earth, New York City. Hi, this is Tony Soprano's Uncle Junior—you know, Dominic Chianese—hitting all the spots. Did that sound a little funny? Don't worry, it's not what you think."

—Chianese's "I Love New York" public service announcement. To listen to it, click here and then click on "Uncle Junior."

Got a whopper? Send it to . To be considered, an entry must be an unambiguously false statement paired with an unambiguous refutation, and both must be derived from some appropriately reliable public source. Preference will be given to newspapers and other documents that Chatterbox can link to online.

Whopper Archive:
Sept. 27, 2002: Rep. Tom Tancredo
Sept. 13, 2002: Al-Muhajiroun
Sept. 6, 2002: National Republican Congressional Committee
Aug. 29, 2002: Eddie Joe Lloyd
Aug. 22, 2002: Larry Klayman
Aug. 2, 2002: Al Gore
July 26, 2002: Princeton admissions dean Stephen LeMenager
July 19, 2002: James Traficant
July 12, 2002: Maryland Lt. Gov. candidate Michael S. Steele
July 5, 2002: Hesham Mohamed Hadayet
June 28, 2002: WorldCom
June 21, 2002: Terry Lynn Barton
June 14, 2002: Tom Ridge
June 7, 2002: Former FBI Deputy Director Weldon Kennedy
May 31, 2002: Ari Fleischer
May 23, 2002: Condoleezza Rice
May 17, 2002: Robert Mueller
May 9, 2002: Karl Rove
May 3, 2002: Gen. Richard Myers
April 25, 2002: Donald Rumsfeld
April 18, 2002: George W. Bush
April 11, 2002: The Rev. Robert J. Banks, archdiocese of Boston
April 5, 2002: George W. Bush
March 29, 2002: Major League Baseball
March 21, 2002: Billy Graham
March 14, 2002: INS commissioner James W. Ziglar
March 8, 2002: Robert Zoellick and the U.S. steel industry
Feb. 28, 2002: Al Sharpton
Feb. 22, 2002: Olympic skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne
Feb. 14, 2002: Kenneth Lay
Feb. 8, 2002: Enron spokeswoman Peggy Mahoney
Jan. 31, 2002: Monsanto
Jan. 24, 2002: Linda Chavez
Jan. 17, 2002: George W. Bush
Jan. 10, 2002: Simon & Schuster
Jan. 4, 2002: The Associated Press

(Click here to access the Whopper Archive for 2001.)

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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