An actor in the Oscar-tipped Naples Mafia expose' Gomorrah was back behind bars for the second time in just over six months after police busted him for demanding protection money from local businesses.
Giovanni Venosa, who played a Camorra boss who condemns two unruly teenagers to death in the film, was arrested at the weekend, just days after his release from a half-way house in northern Italy.
Venosa was first arrested in July and sentenced to two years by magistrates, who branded him a ''habitual delinquent''.
After an early release, he returned to his native Caserta, a town north of Naples, where he is alleged to have gone back to asking local shopkeepers for the so-called 'pizzo' at a special Christmas rate.
Venosa is the third actor from director Matteo Garrone's largely non-professional cast to have been jailed since the film's release last year.
Salvatore Fabbricino, who played a boss in Naples' notorious Scampia neighbourhood in the film, was also arrested in July after a former Camorra drug dealer collaborating with police identified him as one of his ''employees''.
A third actor, Bernardino Terracciano, who plays Uncle Bernardino in the movie, was busted in October for extortion and for having links to the fearsome Casalesi clan, which is thought to have been responsible for the shooting of six African immigrants in September.
The clan is also believed to have issued a death threat for author Roberto Saviano, who wrote the worldwide bestseller from which Gomorrah was adapted.
The film is bidding for the Best Foreign Film Oscar and also hopes for a nod among the best films of the year as well as screenplay and director nominations at the Academy Awards ceremony in February.
Gomorrah won second prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival and bagged the best screenplay award at the Chicago Film Fest.
