No longer married to the mob

New York Victoria Gotti, daughter of imprisoned mobster John Gotti, was granted a divorce from her scrap-dealer husband Carmine Agnello, who’s serving a nine-year sentence on a racketeering and tax-evasion conviction.

Nassau County Judge Ira Raab granted the divorce Wednesday, Gotti attorney Stephen Gassman said Thursday.

Victoria Gotti, who forged her own career as a best-selling novelist, has custody of the couple’s three sons.

Agnello was sentenced to prison and ordered to forfeit $10 million as part of a plea deal reached last August.

Gassman said Gotti planned to ask the court to increase child support and maintenance payments. He said his client would seek “a substantial increase.” Agnello, he said, had previously claimed he needed substantial funds for his defense.

Nancy Bernheim, Agnello’s lawyer, said Thursday that her client “is paying, and he is current” on court ordered payments of about $18,600 a month.

Cosby honors Cincinnati boycott

Cincinnati Bill Cosby has canceled a performance next month, honoring a boycott by black groups unhappy with the city’s response to last year’s riots.

“I still stand by the fact that I feel very uncomfortable playing the concerts at this time in this climate,” the 64-year-old comedian said in a statement released Wednesday.

The Coalition for a Just Cincinnati one of 14 groups that have called for economic sanctions mailed letters to Cosby and other performers booked to appear in the city. The coalition asked them to boycott Cincinnati until city leaders pay more attention to police, racial and economic issues.

The push for a boycott came after three days of rioting over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer last April. The officer was acquitted of charges of negligent homicide and obstruction of official business.

Cosby was scheduled for two evening performances March 15 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. More than 3,000 tickets had been sold. The money will be refunded.

Film role puts actor on the fence

Los Angeles Jim Caviezel spent weeks learning how to fence for his role in “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

“I must have had five different trainers from L.A. to England to Ireland to having someone else come in at the end,” the 33-year-old told APTN. “And I learned all of these styles and also had to learn both hands.”

Caviezel plays the wrongly imprisoned Edmond Dantes, and Guy Pearce is Fernand Mondego, the jealous friend who frames him for treason, in the film directed by Kevin Reynolds.

Was he nervous?

“It’s a challenge,” Caviezel said. “How many people get the opportunity to do that? It’s just that when you fail, it’s your failure.”

His previous films include 1998’s “The Thin Red Line” and 2000’s “Frequency.”