(ANSA) - Rome, October 21- After launching a social media
campaign that went viral, Italian singing legend Mina has found
the author of a mysterious demo that made its way into her hands
and onto her upcoming album.
Paolo Limiti wrote the lyrics and Mario Nobile composed the
music, according to the artist's website, which just days ago
invited fans to listen to the mastered track sung by Mina and
accompanied by an animated video that narrates the mysterious
origins of the song.
In just three days the video went viral and received 80,000
views.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 20 - French first lady Carla Bruni
has given birth to a baby girl.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Italian wife gave birth
in a Paris clinic at around 8pm on Wednesday, French media
reported.
Sarkozy reportedly was not present at the birth but came
to visit Bruni and their new child late on Wednesday.
The 43-year-old mother, a former singer and model, has a
10-year-old son from a previous relationship and the president
has three sons from his two previous marriages.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 18 - Like Prince Charming looking for
the owner of the glass slipper, reclusive Italian singing legend
Mina launched a social media campaign Tuesday to identify who
wrote a song on her upcoming album.
The demo, entitled This Song (Questa Canzone), was sent to
the pop superstar without a name or return address, yet made its
way onto her new album set for release in November.
(ANSA) - Milan, October 13 - Famed Argentinian-Israeli
conductor Daniel Barenboim was on Thursday named musical
director of Milan's iconic La Scala opera house, filling a post
left vacant when Riccardo Muti stormed out in 2005 amid artistic
differences.
Barenboim, 68, who is already principal guest conductor for
La Scala, will assume his new post on December 1, La Scala said.
For the last five years Barenboim has been Maestro of La
Scala, a less formal title under which he has produced at least
two operas a year. This arrangement was due to lapse this year.
(ANSA) - Venice, October 7 - Longtime advertising chief
Giulio Malgara has been named the new president of the Venice
Biennale, the Ministry of Culture has announced.
Malgara, from Milan, has headed Italy's advertisers' body
UPA for the past 23 years. He is also a founder and current
president of Auditel, the Italian ratings agency.
"I'm taking on the challenge with great passion", said
Malgara, 74. "There will be a lot to work on".
(ANSA) - Rome, September 29 - One of Italy's famous fashion
names, Santo Versace, on Thursday said he had quit Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party after his coalition's
decision to back a minister with alleged links to the mafia .
"This morning I left the PDL (People of Freedom party). It
is my birthday gift to Berlusconi," Versace said in an interview
with state broadcaster Radio Due.
He was referring to Berlusconi's 75th birthday on Thursday.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 28 - Terraferma by Emanuele
Crialese will be Italy's contender for
the 2012 Best Foreign Film Oscar, a jury decided Wednesday.
The Roman director's film, about a family of Sicilian
fishermen dealing with the influx of migrants, was chosen over
seven movies including Nanni Moretti's Habemus Papam and
Giuseppe Gagliardi's Tatanka.
Crialese's fourth feature, Terraferma won the Special Jury
Prize at the 2011 Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
(ANSA) - Verona, September 27 - Madonna is eyeing a house in
the northern Italian city of Verona, local sources said Tuesday.
"I confirm the American pop star's interest but I cannot
add anything else," said Milan realtor Alessandro Proto, known
for selling a villa to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in
Valpolicella, near Verona, and a penthouse outside Turin to
Leonardo DiCaprio.
(ANSA) - Milan, September 26 - Italian comics great Sergio
Bonelli, publisher of the much-loved Western heroes Tex and
Zagor as well as cult 'paranormal detective' Dylan Dog, died
Monday in Milan.
He was 79.
Tex, who was created by Bonelli's father in the 50s,
inspired TV and feature films.
Dylan Dog, created in 1986 by Tiziano Sclavi, was also made
into a film, while its sales overtook those of Tex.
Zagor, invented by Bonelli himself, was another hit for the
Cepim stable, which became a publishing giant under his
stewardship, Italy's biggest comics and cartoon house.
(ANSA) - Perugia, September 16 - Amanda Knox, the US student
appealing a 26-year conviction for the 2007 murder of British
flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, has written a video script
for a band based near her prison.
The band, Hands of Times (H.O.T), said Knox had "always had
a passion for music and poetry" and had often seen them at
student gigs before the Kercher case.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 15 - George Clooney's former
Italian partner Elisabetta Canalis has launched a new anti-fur
advertising campaign for American animal rights association PETA
in which she gets naked.
The 33-year-old, who split with Clooney earlier this year
after two years together, is the face and body of a PETA
campaign, which is suitable for family viewing, entitled 'I'd
rather go naked than wear fur'.
(ANSA) - Milan, September 13 - The Milanese are the coolest
dressers in Milan according to a new poll from TripAdvisor.
The trendy inhabitants of Milan beat out their counterparts
in Paris, Rome and London thanks to the way they translate
catwalk looks to the streets, according to the survey of 3,000
European travellers.
Parisian fashion lovers came second and Roman trendies
third, followed by fashionistas in Barcelona, Madrid and London.
Stockholm was seventh, followed by Florence, Copenhagen and
Amsterdam.
(ANSA) - Venice, September 9 - Recalling the days before he
was famous, iconic Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio once said
that the great advantage of first films is the director's
anonymity.
"You're nobody and you have no history," he said. "You have
the freedom to risk everything".
(ANSA) - Catania, September 5 - Italian tenor Salvatore
Licitra has been pronounced brain dead after suffering massive
head and chest injuries in an August 27 scooter crash in Sicily,
hospital sources said Monday.
Licitra, 43, was one of the greatest singers of his
generation.
In the short time since his debut in 1998, he had been
called the new (Luciano) Pavarotti.
(ANSA) - Pistoia, August 31 - After nude photographs
surfaced on the web, two Miss Italy contestants have been
disqualified from the national beauty pageant.
Rafaella Modugno, from Rome, and Alice Bellotto, from the
northern province of Vicenza, were each taken out of the running
when competition organizers spotted their rule-breaking pictures
"of nude and semi-nude poses of a provocative nature," they said
in a statement.
