Adriana La Cerva

Infobox character | name = Adriana La Cerva


real_name = Adriana La Cerva
portrayer = Drea de Matteo
Status = Deceased
creator = David Chase
species =
gender = Female
first = "Pilot" "(episode 1.01)"
last = "Long Term Parking" "(episode 5.12)"
(death)
"Cold Stones" "(episode 6.11)"
(dream sequence)
birth date = birth date|1967|3|15|d=yes
death date = 14 April, 2004, aged age|1967|3|15|2004|4|14
cause = Murdered by Silvio Dante on orders from Tony Soprano

age = 30s (Deceased)
occupation = Manager of Club Crazy Horse
title =
alias =
family = Liz La Cerva (mother)
spouse = Christopher Moltisanti (fiancé)
children =
relatives = Richie Aprile (uncle)
Jackie Aprile, Sr. (uncle)
Jackie Aprile, Jr. (cousin)
Vito Spatafore (cousin)
footnotes =

Adriana La Cerva played by Drea de Matteo, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series "The Sopranos". She was the long-time moll and, later, fiancée of Tony Soprano's protege, Christopher Moltisanti.

Character history

Adriana was known as a mobster's dream girl, having grown up around wiseguys all her life by virtue of being the niece of Jackie and Richie Aprile. Growing up she saw and heard plenty, and wasn't at all repulsed by the Mafia lifestyle. Adriana was initially portrayed as shallow and materialistic, interested in the things that Christopher's money could buy: expensive cars, jewelry, drugs, designer clothing and furs. However, as the couple became closer, she always seemed to have Christopher's best interests (as well as hers) in mind. She was very ambitious and wanted to have a business of her own. She was eventually set up as the manager of Christopher's "Crazy Horse" club in Long Branch, New Jersey, which became quite successful. Christopher's violent outbursts made her a frequent victim of domestic abuse. She is based on mob mistress Carol Luciana who was the girlfriend of Lucchese crime family capo Frank Signorino and Anthony Persichetti.

The mole

The FBI had been targeting Adriana as a potential weakness in the family's organization. Upon the death of Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, the FBI looked to Adriana as a close relation to a rising star in the crime family and sent Special Agent Deborah Ciccerone to befriend her. Ciccerone succeeded at befriending Adriana, but they had to cut short the mission earlier than planned after Christopher made a pass at Ciccerone. Nonetheless, the FBI learned of Christopher's heroin problem, which they knew would enrage Tony Soprano, and turned Adriana into an informant by threatening her with jail time for cocaine distribution at the nightclub she owned.

Out of loyalty to Christopher, Adriana avoided giving up any serious information on the family and did her best to avoid the Soprano family house in order to have nothing to give back to the feds. Her deception caught up with her after the FBI learned of her involvement in covering up a murder at her club and threatened to press charges of being an accessory to murder against her unless she offered full cooperation. She chose to reveal the truth to Christopher, hoping they could run away together and start new lives. Christopher's loyalty to his crime family turned out to be greater than his love for her as he revealed Adriana's status as an informant to Tony Soprano. Tony had Silvio Dante, under the pretense that he was taking her to Christopher (who Adriana was told had attempted suicide), execute her. Like Richie Aprile and Ralph Cifaretto not everyone is exactly sure what happened to her. Carmela, along with many others, believe she moved off elsewhere following her and Christopher's break-up.

Post-Mortem

There was initial speculation that Adriana may not have been killed — the primary reasoning for this was that her death was not seen, which was unusual in the course of the series; the camera tilted upward, away from Silvio and the crawling Adriana, before two gunshots are heard. De Matteo was also under contract to appear in the sixth season. However, in her audio commentary on the fifth season DVD, de Matteo confirmed that Adriana is indeed deceased, and the show's frequent use of dream imagery instead provided for her return; she appeared in a dream of Carmela's in the sixth season premiere on March 12, 2006, "Members Only". Also in that episode, Carmela asks Tony about Adriana (he quickly changes the subject).

In the Season 6 episode "The Ride", Carmela runs into Adriana's mother, Liz La Cerva, who tells Carmela that she believes Christopher killed Adriana, and the FBI came to her with questions about her. When Carmela tells Tony about their conversation, he explains that there was no body, and reminds her that if the FBI really thought Christopher had killed her, they would have hauled him in.

While in Paris, Carmela had a dream that she saw Adriana in a park, but a gendarme tells her that Adriana is dead. Carmela is intent on finding her, especially after Liz La Cerva lands in the hospital following an attempted suicide. However, after Tony and Silvio pull some strings and Carmela is able to continue construction on her spec house, this distraction keeps her from investigating the matter further.

After Christopher's murder in "Kennedy and Heidi", Carmela showed remorse over thinking he had killed Adriana, stating, "He could never let himself take her life. Why are we so quick to blame? What is the attraction in that?"

ee also

* FBI Informants on The Sopranos

External links

* [http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/cast/character/adrianna_lacerva.shtml HBO Profile: Adriana La Cerva]
* [http://www.adrianalacerva.com Official Website: Adriana La Cerva]