Mayor of Rome Bans American Actors

1st\NW Quadrant The Approval Matrix


By The TimesOnline

The new mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, a former fascist, has launched a campaign to promote Italian films at the expense of those featuring Hollywood stars such as Nicole Kidman and Leonardo DiCaprio, who are to be blacklisted.

American actors who flocked to Rome for its film festival will no longer be invited, on the orders of Alemanno, 50, of the National Alliance party, who last week became the first rightwinger to win the mayor’s job in 15 years.

Alemanno, a former minister of agriculture, has a colourful past. He was arrested in 1981 with four other neo-fascists for allegedly beating up a student with baseball bats, but no charges were pressed.

“I believe we need to promote Italian films rather than Hollywood stars,” he declared last week. One of his campaign slogans was: “Alemanno – for less cinema and more security.”