New move in Sopranos legal action

Italian-American gangsters are a movie staple

Lawyers for the Italian-American Defense Association are trying to continue legal action against the makers of gangster drama The Sopranos.

The association says the award-winning series contains offensive stereotyping of Italian-Americans by showing them as criminals.

Despite a court upholding an earlier legal ruling dismissing the case last week, the association's legal team say they will seek another hearing in the case.

The Sopranos has won numerous awards

The association had taken legal action against Time Warner Entertainment under the "individual dignity" clause of the Illinois state constitution.

Their legal team said the group did not want money or the HBO show's cancellation, but a declaration from a jury that the show offends the dignity of Italian-Americans.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Richard Siebel dismissed the legal action "with prejudice" last September, ruling that the clause in the state's constitution was merely advisory.

The Illinois Appellate Court upheld that ruling on 28 June.

Supreme Court

But the association plans to apply for a re-hearing, Michael Polelle, one of their lawyers, said on Tuesday.

He said if the group loses in a more senior court, the circuit court, it will ask for a hearing before the Illinois Supreme Court.

Time Warner's lawyer, Tom Yannucci, has argued viewers would not be left with the impression from the show that Italian-Americans are mobsters or morally corrupt.

The show has won continuing plaudits and high ratings for its slick domestic twist on a familiar theme.

It has made a star out of James Gandolfini, who plays a mob boss who is seeing a psychiatrist, as well as other cast members playing in the dysfunctional family.