Ilona Staller

Ilona Staller (complete name Anna Elena Staller, 26 November 1951), also known by her stage name la Cicciolina, is a Hungarian-born Italian politician, porn-star, and singer. She continued to make hard core pornographic films while in office.[1] She is famous for delivering political speeches with one breast exposed.[2][3]

Biography

Anna Ilona was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her stepfather was an official in the Ministry of the Interior, her mother a midwife. In 1964 she began working for the Hungarian modelling agency, M.T.I. In her memoirs and in a 1999 TV interview, she claimed that she had provided Hungarian authorities with information on American diplomats staying at a Budapest luxury hotel where she worked as a maid in the late 1960s.

Naturalized by marriage and settled in Italy, she met pornographer Riccardo Schicchi in the early 1970s, and, beginning in 1973, achieved fame with a radio show called "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" (French for "Do You Want to Sleep with Me?") on Radio Luna. For that program she adopted the name "la Cicciolina," which translates, loosely, as "cuddles". She has referred to her male fanbase as well as the Italian parliament as "cicciolini", translating loosely as "little tubby boys"[4] Although she appeared in several films from 1970, she made her debut under her own name in 1975 with La Liceale, whose U.S. title was The Teasers, playing Monica, a lesbian classmate of Gloria Guida. In 1978, on the RAI show "C'era due Volte" her breasts were the first to be seen bared on Italian TV.

She appeared in her first hardcore pornographic film was "Il telefono rosso" ("The Red Telephone") in 1983. She produced the film together with Schicchi's company, Diva Futura. She was rumored to have engaged in zoophilia with a horse in the movie Cicciolina Number One, but her memoirs and other sources have refuted this claim.[5]

Her memoirs were published as Confessioni erotiche di Cicciolina by the Olympia Press of Milan in 1987. That same year she appeared in Carne bollente, called The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress in the US, co-starring John Holmes. The film would later create a furor when it was revealed that Holmes had tested positive for HIV.

Staller married American sculptor Jeff Koons in 1991. Koons produced a series of sculptures and photographs of them having sex in many positions, settings and costumes, which were exhibited under the title "Made In Heaven."[6] The marriage broke up in 1992, and their son Ludwig Maximillian was born shortly afterwards. Staller left the US with the child, and a lengthy custody battle ensued. Koons won custody in 1998 but Ludwig remains with Staller in Italy. In 2008 Staller filed suit against Koons for failing to pay child support.

Staller has appeared nude in Playboy Magazine in several countries. Her first Playboy appearance was in Argentina in March 1988. Other appearances for the magazine were in the U.S. (September 1990), Hungary (June 2005), Serbia (July 2005) and Mexico (September, 2005).

In 1994, she appeared in the film Replikator, and in 1996, she had a role in the Brazilian telenovela Xica da Silva.[7] In 2008 she was a contestant on the Argentine version of Dancing with the Stars named Bailando por un Sueño. She retired after breaking a rib in rehearsals.[8]

Political career

In 1979 Staller was presented as a candidate to the Italian Parliament from the "Lista del Sole," Italy's first Green Party. In 1985 she switched to the Partito Radicale, campaigning against nuclear energy and NATO membership, for human rights, and against world hunger.

She was elected to the Italian parliament in 1987, with 20,000 votes. While in office, before outset of the Gulf War she offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein if he would release his foreign hostages.[9] She was not reelected at the end of her term in 1991.

In 1991, Staller was among the founders of the political movement Partito dell'Amore (Love Party), spearheaded by her friend and fellow porn star Moana Pozzi. She has advocated absolute sexual freedom - "Love for All! She also advocated for a tax on automobiles to reduce the damages of smog and fund the defence of nature.[10] She is a strict vegan and animal rights activist.[11]

In January 2002, she began exploring the possibility of campaigning in Hungary, where she was born, to represent Budapest's industrial Kőbánya district in the Hungarian parliament. However she failed to collect enough petition signatures for a non-partisan candidacy. In the same year she ran in local elections in Monza, Italy, promising to convert a prominent building into a gambling casino, but she attracted few votes. In 2004 she announced plans to run for mayor of Milan with a similar promise.

She renewed her offer to have sex with Saddam Hussein in October 2002, when Iraq was resisting international pressure to allow inspections for weapons of mass destruction, and in April 2006 made the same offer to Osama bin Laden.[12]

Musical career

During her career, Staller has recorded several songs, mostly from her live performances. The result is generally more comic than erotic, with explicit lyrics being sung to a childish melody. Her most famous song is Muscolo Rosso, a song entirely dedicated to il cazzo, which means "the prick" in Italian. Because of its extensive use of swear words, she could never release it in Italy, but it became a hit in other countries, especially in France, where the French did not grasp the meaning of the lyrics. The song gained considerable popularity in the internet era, when many Italian speakers were able to hear it for the first time.

Many unedited songs were records both during RCA period and the Diva Futura agency period. These unreleased songs were mostly used during her TV shows, live performances and adult movies.

LPs/CDs

• 1979 Ilona Staller (RCA PL 31442) published at least in Italy and Colombia (The Colombian record has titles in Spanish). Also music tape exists.

Tracklist

• I was made for dancing / Pane Marmellata e Me / Labbra / Benihana / Lascia l’ultimo ballo per me / Cavallina Cavallo (by Ennio Morricone) / It’s all up to you / Professor of Percussions / Più su sempre più su

• 1987 Muscolo Rosso (BOY RECORDS) published in Spain only.

Tracklist

• Russians / Inno (Come un angelo) / Satisfaction / Telefono Rosso (Avec Toi) / Balck Sado / Goccioline (Bambole) / Perversion / Animal Rock / Nirvana / Muscolo Rosso / Muscolo Rosso (reprise)

• 1988 Sonhos Eróticos printed in Brazil only (ALL DISC 00.101.009, also music tape 00.107.009). Basically a reprint of the English long playing Erotic dreams adding the two Cicciolina's songs Muscolo Rosso and Avec toi. The other songs are performed by Erotic Dreams Band, maybe some Cicciolina's speeches are used in La prima volta song. Cover is dedicated to Cicciolina only instead.

Tracklist

• Muscolo Rosso / Emmanuelle / Bilitis / Le Réve / La Prima Volta / I feel love / Je t’aime... moi non plus / Histoire d’O / Les Femmes / Black Emmanuelle / Love to love you bay / Avec Toi

• 1994 Sonhos Eróticos (Brazil only, All Disc RQ 032) Reprint of 1988 LP with a new layout of the cover, with background from brown to pink and violet.
• 2000 Ilona Staller (Cd, in United Kingdom only, Sequel Records/Caste Music NEMCD398) Reprint on CD of 1979 LP, plus the two extended tracks of the red vinyl mix.

7"

• 1976 Voulez vous coucher avec moi? (Italy only, with neither serial number nor cover, on the vinyl it is written "Nuovo Playore 1° Radio Rete 4 D.R." only) from the same named radio programme on Radio Luna station by Riccardo Schicchi where the nickname Cicciolina was born.
• 1979 I was made for dancing /Più su sempre su su (Italy only, RCA PB 6323)
• 1979 Cavallina Cavallo / Più su sempre più su (Japan only, RCA SS 3205)
• 1980 Buone Vacanze / Ti amo uomo (Italy only, RCA BB 6449)
• 1981 Ska Skatenati / Disco Smack (Italy only, LUPUS LUN 4917)
• 1987 Muscolo Rosso / Avec Toi (SFC 17117-7) symbolo the Italian Radical Party on the cover. The record was published in France and limitedly in other European countries.
• 1987 Muscolo Rosso / Russians (Spain only, BOY-028-PRO) promo for journalist, no cover, a cicciolina presentation enclosed in..

12" mix e picture disk

• 1979 I was made for dancing (extended vers.) / Save the last dance for me (English original version of Lascia l’ultimo ballo per me) (Italy only, RCA PD 6327, red vinyl mix without cover, promo for Djs).
• 1987 Muscolo Rosso / Russians (Spain only, BOY-028) versions are not extended, the same as 7".
• 1989 San Francisco Dance / Living in my Paradise / My Sexy Shop (Acv 5472) Picture disk, limited edition published in Europe, together with the colleague Moana Pozzi's one.

Collaboration

• 1979 Dedicato al Mar Egeo, LP sound track by Ennio Morricone published in Japan only; though she does not sing, she is portrayed naked on the inlay and back-cover. Two songs from here she will record the same year (Cavallina a cavallo and Mar Egeo). The LP exists in 2 versions, one with Japanese titles, the other with Italian titles. Also CD version exists.
• 1979 Aquarium sounds, LP of an Italian TV programme, she sings in Elena Tip track.
• 1990 Touched by the Hand of Cicciolina, single by Pop Will Eat Itself from the United Kingdom; though she does not sing, she is portrayed on the cover and appears in the promotional video. Some copies contain petition forms demanding that Cicciolina be allowed to present the 1990 FIFA World Cup to the winning team.

Pop culture influence

• 1990 Cicciolina from the Chilean rock band Los Peores de Chile was a hit single in that country.

• 1991 The song Cicciolina appears on the album Machines of Loving Grace by the Industrial group of the same name

• 1993 The strange, obsessive, stalker-like lyrics on the Love 15 LP, by U.S. band Majesty Crush focus on her celebrity and sexual legend.

Literature

• Filippucci, Giovanni Romanini and Ubaldi: Les aventures de Cicciolina (Média 1000, France 1989): Graphic novel about her life.
• Ilona Staller & Riccardo Schicchi: Cicciolina (Taschen, 1992) ISBN 3-8228-9761-2: Large-format Italian, German, English and French language album
• Nicolas Barbano: Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner (Rosinante, Denmark 1999) ISBN 87-7357-961-0: Features a chapter on her.

External links

• Article on Cicciolina's Sexual Politics by the International Museum of Women

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