![]() ![]() In a sense, Pileggi was like the young Henry Hill in “GoodFellas,” the awe-struck outsider looking in. ![]() Not like today, where more people know about the Secret Society than about the Boy Scouts.” “But no one ever talked about it then, never used the words Cosa Nostra. Priests would go to them and be very respectful. I saw these guys-who were supposed to be the bad guys-with the judges, the congressmen, the big shots. “It was a kind of subculture and as a kid I was always fascinated by it. “What the Vatican is to the Roman Catholics, Bensonhurst was to the Mafia,” Pileggi said early one recent morning in his rooftop office in Manhattan. Pileggi’s marriage to the Mob began when he was growing up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the curious, restless son of an immigrant Italian family. And always his beats have been cops, crime, corruption and one element that touches them all: the Mafia. ![]() He has been prowling the streets of New York City for nearly four decades as one of its top journalists. Suddenly, at 58 and with no prior movie credits, Pileggi is a hot new Hollywood property. The two collaborated on the screenplay, which is nominated for an Academy Award, and have plans to do two more movies together. Pileggi gave Scorsese his word that night that he could make his book into a movie, and then refused to listen to other offers. “Well, I’ve been waiting for this call all my life!” ![]()
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