Riccardo Scamarcio

This is a photo of a beautiful boy. He's considered the latest Italian sex symbol, although this photo doesn't promote that image so well.



A little Google time for images, however, reveals that he's the man of a hundred faces and appears to be an entirely different person depending on the image you choose.
Sure, he's an actor and should be capable of some of that, but the differences in Scamorcio are remarkable. You sometimes can hardly recognize him.

He is in Hollywood right now, making a break for the international big time. How will they deal with that name? "skah MORE cho" There, you are maybe the first on your block who knows how to say it.

He's just barely legal, not yet even thirty, but watch him, because he could live up to his Italian hype as the Italian Marlon Brando.

Raoul Bova

Time for some straight up male beauty taken neat.



Bova was a swimming champion who turned on a dime to acting and for once it worked. Born in 1971 at Rome, that makes him just about old enough to watch without wincing. And watch we will, because there probably isn't any male in movies today who is more beautiful than Bova. It also seems he might be a decent guy, a family man and good to work with.

He looks good in clothes, too, even rumpled clothes.



Mums, talk to your boys about swimming lessons. It seems to do a body good.

Roberto Bolle

Bolle is Italy's primo ballerino, which simply means first male dancer.



Bolle is generally said by the critics to be very elegant and extraordinarily supportive of the ballerinas with whom he dances. He doesn't usually get points for acting, but it may well be that properly supporting the ballerina who is praised for her acting is good acting. His unusual height allows him to partner taller females and allows shorter females to take wilder chances, knowing that there is this big fellow waiting to catch them and that he is up to the job. I have only seen film of Bolle dancing, and acting doesn't come through film all that well.

From the film I have seen, I like him best in modern ballets. He can be shocking in them. The stripped-down costuming in modern ballet reveal better this wonderful physique, the trained structure and musculature he has developed from six hours daily training. The less he wears, the more he differs from other dancers.



This photo shows him not dancing, but looking pretty darned handsome. At 31, he is making more non-dancing appearances, because although 31 is young, in ballet it is wake-up time that another career needs to be developed.

Both the above images come from danse-photos and if you like ballet at all, I recommend you go there to see more, more, more of Bolle dancing and partnering some of the leading ballerinas of our time. It is a stunning site and sight.

Listening to Bolle talk is interesting. He has a quite pronounced lisp, and I always wonder why he hasn't trained that out of his speech. Surely the next stage of his career would be better for it? As it is, you almost need to be fluent in Italian to understand him at times.

It is reported that he likes to go to discos for relaxation, and it is also expected that he will marry one day.

Paolo Bonolis

This mild-mannered, ordinary guy is one of the most successful television personalities in Italy.


Cortesia biografia.leonardo.it

I have found him quick-witted and easy on his guests. One never knows if it's a matter of good writers and a good memory or whether the person actually is witty, but anyone who has watched Italian television has at least seen him. He has over his 25 years in show business run the gamut of hosting jobs, and has also made at least one movie, "Commedia Sexi."

This photo is Bonolis at his glamorous best.


Cortesia funnyfans.it

Pick one quality that would make him a star. But he is one. Last I heard he was making eight million euro a year. He was born in 1961, was married to a New York psychologist and has two children who live there. He is presently married to an Italian former-showgirl.

I find him pleasant, but fairly inexplicable. Why is he so successful? But then I ask that about Pippo Baudo, too, and Italians look at me like I have a hole in my head!

Francesco Totti

In Italy all the starlets and letter girls date and sometimes marry soccer players. This photo, courtesy of abc.au, shows the most famous current player at work.



He plays for Roma. He is so recognizable that when he participated in a reality show which had famous people (including a past President) doing ordinary jobs, he was recognized instantly while pumping gas.

He is 4 centimeters shorter than last year's Miss Italia, but tall isn't a requirement for Italian men. He's been a pro soccer player since 1993, which seems a long career to me. He wrote a jokebook a while back, and I got the impression he might be an Italian Yogi Berra, conversationally. The proceeds were dedicated to charity and Totti is a UNICEF ambassador.

He is married to showgirl Ilary Blasi and they have one and a half children. He was caught being unfaithful shortly after the marriage, which would be a dealbreaker for a lot of gals, but Ilary has hidden depths.

While I am a World Cup only sort of calcio fan, it is impossible to live in Italy and not know who Totti is or to not recognize his face. Soccer players are part of the lares and penates of modern Italy. Here is the top one of today.

I Fratelli Fiorello

Brothers, and different as night and day.


Beppe Fiorello, courtesy of TG mediaset, is a serious actor of generally respectable demeanor. I've seen him in many roles, and sometimes I have to think who it is, because he is capable of altering himself completely in a role. He is most believable as tragic heroes and he generally dies. Poor Beppe.









Big brother Rosario, but known as just Fiorello, is a singer and comedian and has a similar ability to alter himself on camera from his handsome self to a bizarre monster in thirty seconds. Fiorello can write his own contract for TV shows, has made it into American movies, but was equally capable of turning his back on the big time and making himself into a cult radio figure.

What was in that family that turned out two chameleons with big talent, even though they express it differently?

Luca Zingaretti

"Montalbano, sono."



So he introduces his popular television character, a Sicilian Commissario of police named Salvo Montalbano. Zingaretti is a fine actor with many roles behind him and ahead of him, but Montalbano, the creature of Italian writer Camillieri, is the one that is indivisible from his public persona. The Rai Italian series has been dubbed and published in DVD form in twelve languages and is sold worldwide. It is probably the single most successful thing Rai has ever produced.
Although the books by Camillieri are among the best mysteries I have ever read, and that mainly for creating this character whose depths are still being plumbed after years of editions, Zingaretti has created a new layer with his artful portrayal. You can read his mind when he is about to do something illegal in the interest of justice.
He is also simply one of the sexiest men ever to appear on any screen, large or small.

Reid

I know Reid because he is both a cook and a traveler. His various websites include his absolutely incredible photographs and endlessly interesting and useful information on walking and climbing in the UK and Spain. Start at fellwalk and wander on to his other sites and you can also try to imagine how he ever had time to live an entirely different life, and he did. There are also links to Italian photos and to me.

Mario Cipollini

Here is a temporary link to Mario.

Why Mario? Well, just look at him! He's a gorgeous champion of sport and then later learned to dance on "Ballando con le Stelle" where I found his tango very tempting. In looking up images of Cipollini, I discovered that he is one of those men who has improved with age.



I have never, darn it, been that close to Mario. These photos are courtesy of
answers.com and bikenews.it. You may follow through to the links if inspired.

Claudio Amendola

Claudio Amendola has the aspect of a "bad boy" but not really bad. Whatever he does, good or bad, is in the Italian public eye and a lot of attention is paid to his long term relationship with Francesca Neri.

He has in the past played a lot of tough guys and romantic types, but comedy fits best, and in the past few years he has begun doing commercials for television in which he is a funny dad to teenagers. I think a lot of fellows might quail at aging their public image like that, but it doesn't seem to bother him, nor should it. This year he is making the same commercials with Paris Hilton, and I may be putting thoughts in his head, but he seems vaguely embarrassed in them. It's probably that I think he should be embarrassed.

He seems sort of like your naughty cousin with whom you did things when you were kids that you are never going to tell your parents, or even your siblings. Can you see your secrets in his smile? Don't ask, don't tell.

I don't know why he is my first man post of all. I think it is perhaps because Claudio is neither here nor there, but sort of possible for anything. Not gorgeous, certainly not ugly! He just seems like a man you could have X rated fun with and who would not make demands nor make you feel guilty. One of the many images available on the net shows him semi-nude with an enormous serpent tattoo, which for Ms Neri's sake I hope is makeup.

I own only one of his films and can understand little of it, because everybody in it mumbles. Sure, they were up to criminal activities, but I wasn't going to be a stoolie.

Claudio's father Feruccio Amendola was a well-known actor and a famous dubber, or doppiatore. IMdb has a short but interesting page on him.

IMdb shows Claudio's filmography on this page.

Amazon has these of his films for sale in the US. Caterina Va in Città and Queen Margot seem to get the most critical plaudits.