It was the week before Christmas in 2004. There was food and wine on the table and an FBI bug hidden underneath. A trio of veteran wiseguys was trashing a reality show that struck close to their hearts, “Growing Up Gotti,” the saga of John Gotti’s racy, platinum blonde daughter, Victoria, and her three teenage sons, dubbed “Hotti Gottis” for their well-gelled good looks. 

“It’s a soap opera, and the kids look like girls,” thundered the host, Genovese capo Ciro Perrone, 85, owner of Don Peppe, a popular Italian restaurant in Ozone Park where the men regularly gathered at a big round table in the back for dinner and discussion. 

“It’s one of the most disgusting, insulting shows” on television, said John Yannucci, the aging capo’s longtime right-hand-man, according to a report about the discussion written by FBI agent John Penza. 

Colombo soldier Ralph Scopo, a close Howard Beach pal of the late Gambino boss, was “so embarrassed,” for his late friend’s family, he said he couldn’t talk about it, Penza wrote in an affidavit that was filed last year with the federal judge who approved the bugging.           

Worse, Scopo noted, the Gotti boys in the show were incomprehensible. “The

kids can’t even talk,” said Scopo. 

In fact, the vocabulary and diction of sons Frank, Carmine and John was so poor that A&E ultimately resorted to subtitles to help viewers figure out what they were saying. 

The wiseguys, of course, weren’t alone in their distaste. The conversation took place on December 14, two days after the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick wrote in his “Prime Time” column that “you don’t have to be Italian to be offended” by the crude, vulgar, and negative stereotypes that fueled “Growing Up Gotti.”

Critics, Gang Land among them, said the show did more to degrade Italian Americans and tarnish their image than a dozen “Godfather” films.

But what do critics know? On the A&E website for the show, viewers can still learn how to “dress like a Gotti,” or join the “Hotti Gotti Girls Club” or play a neat new online “Pantsing Game” – where you sneak up behind someone and try to pull their pants down without them catching you. 

That demonstrated one positive aspect of the show, Yannucci (right) suggested to his pals, one that is central to the mobster creed: “They are making money,” he said.  

“They are paying a hell of a price to be an

embarrassment,” replied Scopo, (left) adding that the boys' father, imprisoned Gambino soldier Carmine Agnello, “can’t tell them what to do anyway; he’s heard about it, but never seen it.”

Unfortunately for Scopo, the FBI’s secret tapes were used not for a focus group reaction to the Gotti show, but as the basis for a racketeering case that charged Perrone, Scopo, Yannucci and 17 others, including legendary Genovese gangster Matthew (Matty the Horse) Ianniello, with loansharking, gambling, obstruction of justice, labor racketeering and other crimes. 

Scopo, 57, and Yannucci, 61, pled guilty to lesser charges. But Perrone, an old school wiseguy, opted for trial, along with three codefendants – mob associates Steve Buscemi, 43, and Joseph Quaranta, 50, and Perrone’s son-in-law, Paul Kahl, 54. 

Yesterday, in its eighth day of deliberations in a two-month trial, a Manhattan Federal Court jury reported it was hopelessly deadlocked on the main racketeering charge against Perrone. (right) Earlier, the panel indicated it had reached agreement on other counts. Jurors resumed their talks after Chief Judge Kimba Wood read them a so-called Allen charge that essentially instructed them to go back at it, with vigor. 

From early indications, the deliberations could continue  a few days more. An hour or so after they resumed, the panel sent out another note requesting that it work tomorrow, Veteran’s Day, an official court holiday, to wrap up the case. 

Mob prince Alphonse (Allie) Persico still has a long way to go to match the feat that John (Junior) Gotti pulled off six weeks ago when he got his third straight hung jury. But the still imprisoned acting Colombo family boss was grinning from ear to ear last week when jurors in his racketeering trial were unable to reach a verdict. 

Unlike the 42-year-old Junior Don, Persico, 52, (left) is not free to do what he wants with the rest of his life, even if he has two more hung juries and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn follow the lead of their Manhattan counterparts and toss the charges. Allie still has nearly six years remaining on a prior racketeering conviction. 

There was no escaping the immediate comparisons between Persico’s mistrial and the three divided juries that led to the dismissal of all charges against the son of the Dapper Don. 

Attorney Sarita Kedia, who was part of Junior’s defense team, took over as Persico’s lead lawyer when the Gotti jury began its deliberations. In fact, for a few days, as Gotti’s trial was winding down and Persico’s was beginning, she shuttled back and forth, occasionally appearing in both courtrooms on the same day. (Kedia sums up for defense in drawing by sketch artist Ruth Pappas.)

And after the Persico jury – it deadlocked 10-2 for conviction, according to a report by Daily News reporter John Marzulli – was dismissed, Judge Sterling Johnson told lead prosecutor Thomas Seigel: “You can commiserate with those guys over in the Southern District,” the official name for Manhattan Federal Court. 

Seigel, who endured a mistrial in a related case last year when jurors also were hung 10-2 for conviction, asked for a speedy retrial date. But Johnson, a former New York City police officer for 11 years, doubted that could be worked out. He caused a few courtroom gasps, followed by smiles, when he explained why. (Seigel sums up prosecution case as Persico and co-defendant Jackie DeRoss look on.)

In the coming months, said the judge, he had a death penalty case in January, another trial, and “then, ‘Fuck the Police’,” quickly noting with a grin that he was not expressing the court’s opinion of New York’s Finest but the name of a drug gang in an upcoming trial.

For years he’s been known as Vinny Gorgeous, but it may be time to start referring to onetime acting Bonanno boss Vincent Basciano as Quirky.

That’s what Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis called him last week at a bizarre proceeding at which Basciano (right) was kept apart from six codefendants in two different murder indictments as they all pushed for the same relief, a trial before another judge. 

His co-defendants, including capos Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso and Patrick (Patty From The Bronx) DeFilippo, sat in the jury box. Basciano, who is housed under special administrative measures (SAMs) usually reserved for terrorists because of allegations that he planned to kill the judge, among others, was at the defense table with a battery of four lawyers.

Garaufis, who presided over Basciano’s first trial – yet another hung jury regarding the sole murder in the case – noted that he had observed Basciano’s interactions with his lawyers, the press, prosecutors, spectators and witnesses before, during and after the lengthy trial, and after pausing for a moment, came up with a word to describe Basciano: Quirky.

The judge denied having any bias against Quirky and indicated he was unlikely to recuse himself, but reserved a final decision on the motion.