After controversy erupted, Ruddy met with the Italian-American Civil Rights League president Joe Colombo. Colombo asked that the characters in the film be given less Italian names, which Ruddy said could not happen. Ruddy then asked if the league's leaders wanted to read the script and judge for themselves whether the film slandered Italian-Americans. After the initial meeting, league leaders asked that all references to the Mafia and Cosa Nostra be taken out, which Ruddy agreed to. IACRL members had not actually read the script. If they had, they'd have realized the word "Mafia" had only been used once in the initial script. Since they hadn't, the IACRL was extremely happy with what they saw as Ruddy's concession.
