The star attraction at Cape Ann Community Cinema this Saturday night won't be up on the screening room wall.
He'll be right down there with the audience, in living flesh, blood and brio, telling a tale as wild than any Wild West shoot 'em up Hollywood has ever put in a can.
The tale of Vincent "Buddy" Cianci — as told by Vincent "Buddy" Cianci — is one he's told often and well.
As mayor of Providence, R.I., for 21 years (1975 to 1984 and, again, 1991 to 2002), Cianci's first administration ended in 1984 when he pleaded guilty to assault.
Then, when his second stint ended with a conviction for racketeering conspiracy, he ended up in federal prison.
"I'm no angel," he admits in his memoir, "Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt A Dying City, Dined With Sinatra, Spent Five Years In A Federally Funded Gated Community And Lived To Tell The Tale."
"I've stretched some boundaries, and, in the end I served 41/2 years in a federal prison with a prison mate who, it was later revealed, disposed of the bodies of people killed by organized crime by dropping them into barrels of acid," he writes. "Well, compared to him, I guess I was an angel."
He was also, by all accounts, beloved by the residents of Providence, and is viewed by many as the best and most effective mayor it ever saw — revitalizing virtually every segment of the city and its economy, and transforming its derelict waterfront into an innovative and successful commercial, cultural and creative enterprise that became a model and standard setter for American urban redevelopment.
Cianci isn't, however, coming to Gloucester to offer advice on what it should do with its waterfront.
"I wouldn't presume to tell another city what to do with itself," he said graciously in a phone interview with the Times. "What I did in Providence was right for Providence. What's right for Gloucester is up to Gloucester."
Cianci's gentlemanly phone demeanor comes as quite a surprise to anyone whose prior knowledge of him comes primarily from reading the book, "The Prince of Providence: The True Story of Buddy Cianci, America's Most Notorious Mayor, Some Wiseguys, and the Feds."
Written by Mike Stanton, the Providence Journal's Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran investigative reporter, it's billed as "the definitive biography of Buddy Cianci."
Cianci has taken public umbrage at Stanton's depiction of him as, among other things, blunt, brute, bombastic and overbearing.
In his own memoir "Politics and Pasta," he claims that Stanton "cast a dark shadow over all of my accomplishments while emphasizing all my problems."
Since his release from prison in May 2007, Cianci has devoted much of his time setting that record straight in his own words, on the lecture circuit and in interviews promoting the memoir, on the airwaves on local Providence AM station WPRO where he hosts a weekday talk show, on WLNE-TV ABC6, which he joined as chief political analyst, contributing editor, and moderator of a weekly political segment called "Your Attention Please."
That segment's been renamed "Buddy TV" and evolving into a daily segment, now known as "The World According to Buddy." He also hosts the station's weekend public affairs program, "On the Record with Buddy Cianci."
If, as he claims, he is innocent of the federal charges that landed him in prison, he is walking, talking proof of the adage that "living well is the best revenge."
When his probation ends this year, Cianci will again be eligible to run for mayor of Providence. And an astonishingly large percentage of the city's residents say they'd elect him.
He was 33 when he first took office; he's 70 now.
Older, wiser, amazingly no worse for the wear — mellowed, perhaps, like a vintage port — he was unruffled at learning that a major part of Saturday's 7:30 p.m. program at Cape Ann Community Cinema — the screening of director Cherry Arnold's Emmy Award-winning documentary, "Buddy: An American Story" — had fallen through at the last minute.
The real story, he figures, is all there in his book, "Pasta & Politics." That's what he'll focus on during his Saturday night visit, with copies on hand for members of the audience to buy and have signed.
Cianci may have been guilty of a few things over the course of his life — but disappointing an audience, he says, has never been one of them.
Joann Mackenzie can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3457, or at jomackenzie@gloucestertimes.com.
IF YOU GO
Who: Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, former mayor of Providence who served federal time.
What: Presentation based on his book, "Politics and Pasta ..."
When: Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Cape Ann Community Cinema, Main Street, Gloucester.
How much: $15, $12 for cinema members. For ticket information, call 978- 282-1988, or 978-309-8448.
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
