Famous Contemporary Italians
Famous people in Italy
 
(ANSA) -
Milan, December 28 - 'Life Is Beautiful' comic
and filmmaker Roberto Benigni has come top of a poll which
asked Italians to name their Person of the Year.
Benigni, who is currently wowing TV audiences with a show
combining wicked satire with fervent Dante readings, got
almost 11% of the votes from 1,000 respondents around the
country polled by the Ekma agency.
Second spot went to maverick comedian Beppe Grillo,
leader of an extra-parliamentary campaign to reform Italian
politics.
Grillo, whose 'Vaffanculo day' rallies to eject MPs with
criminal records drew angry crowds this autumn, earned 8.7%.
The other prime mover of this year's wave of
anti-political sentiment, journalist and writer Gian Antonio
Stella, was only second-last in the poll.
Stella's book The Caste, about perks, privileges and
pork-barrel policies, was Italy's bestselling book this year
- but Italian bestsellers sell in the thousands rather than
millions.
The evergreen appeal of opposition leader and media
magnate Silvio Berlusconi was confirmed by his fourth slot,
three ahead of possible general-election opponent Walter
Veltroni.
Apart from TV personalities, singers, soccer stars and a
lone cyclist, the only other newsmaker in the poll was
controversial Milan magistrate Clementina Forleo, who got
into hot water for alleging political attempts to sway a bank
takeover probe.
Here is the poll:
1) Roberto Benigni, comic (10.9%)
2) Beppe Grillo, comic (8.7%)
3) Antonio Ricci and his hit TV comedy show Striscia La
Notizia (7.7%)
4) Silvio Berlusconi, politician, media magnate (7.4%)
5) Adriano Celentano, singer (7.1%)
6) Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, FIAT, Ferrari and business
association leader (6.6%)
7) Walter Veltroni, politician (6.3%)
8) Paolo Bonolis, TV presenter (5.8%)
9) Simona Ventura, TV presenter (5.3%)
10) Fiorello, entertainer (4.8%)
11) Gianluigi Buffon, footballer (3.4%)
12) Dario Fo, Nobel-winning writer (3.1%)
13) Gerry Scotti, TV quizmaster (2.9%)
14) Francesco Totti, footballer (2.6%)
15) Gennaro Gattuso, footballer (2.3%)
16) Vasco Rossi, singer (2.2%)
17) Clementina Forleo, magistrate (1.9%)
18) Mike Buongiorno, doyen of Italy's quizmasters (1.6%)
19) Gian Antonio Stella, journalist (1.1%)
20) Paolo Bettini, cyclist (1.0%)
21) others (7.3%)
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