The late and great film critic Roger Ebert, a local boy who did good (in both senses), loved Italy, Italian culture and Italian-Americans. He visited the country frequently, admired filmmaker Federico Fellini, and felt a cinematic, Catholic kinship with an American filmmaker of Italian heritage, Martin Scorsese. In 1996, he also praised actor Stanley Tucci for trying to move beyond Italian movie stereotypes with his independent film "Big Night."

I had the pleasure of meeting Roger and his lovely wife, Chaz, after a screening of "Big Night." I was a young film critic for Fra Noi, Chicagoland's Italian-American newspaper, and was assigned to review it at a private, mid-afternoon screening in the Loop. As I waited in an elevator afterward, hurrying to meet my deadline, in walked Roger and Chaz.

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