Ilona Staller

Ilona Staller
Ilona Staller at Eros Galicia at A Coruña 2009
Born	Anna Ilona Staller (1951-11-26) November 26, 1951 Budapest, Hungary
Other names	Cicciolina
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Spouse	Jeff Koons (1991-1998)
Website	http://www.cicciolinaonline.com/ (Italian)

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

Early life

Anna Ilona was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her biological father, László Staller left the family when she was just a girl, and then she was raised by her stepfather, who was an official in the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior, her mother a midwife. In 1964 she began working for a Hungarian modeling 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.

Pornography and show business career

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?" (Template:Lang-fr) on Radio Luna. For that program she adopted the name "la Cicciolina," which translates, loosely, as "cuddles". She has referred to her male fanbase and later the Italian parliament as "cicciolini", translating loosely as "little tubby boys". 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 a lesbian classmate of Gloria Guida. In 1978, on the RAI show "C'era due Volte", her breasts were the first to be bared live on Italian TV.

She appeared in her first hardcore pornographic film, titled "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 disputed the claim.

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 prior to appearing in it.

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." 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 the Playboy Magazine's editions 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." In 2008, she was a contestant on the Argentine version of "Strictly Come Dancing" named "Bailando por un Sueño". She withdrew after breaking a rib in rehearsals.

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 approx. 20,000 votes. While in office, and before the outset of the Gulf War she offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein if he would release the foreign hostages.[2] 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.

In January 2002, she began exploring the possibility of campaigning in Hungary, her country of birth, 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.

Musical career

Staller has recorded several songs, mostly from live performances, with explicit lyrics being sung to a children's melody. Her most famous song is "Muscolo Rosso," a song entirely dedicated to il cazzo, which means "the dick" in Italian. Because of its extensive use of swear words, the song could not be released in Italy, but became a hit in other countries, especially in France, where the listeners 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.

Several unreleased songs were recorded during her RCA period and the Diva Futura agency period. some of these unreleased songs were subsequently used during her TV shows, live performances or as soundtracks in her porn 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 plus the two Cicciolina songs "Muscolo Rosso" and "Avec toi". The other songs are performed by Erotic Dreams Band. Some Cicciolina's speeches are used in "La prima volta" song. Cover is dedicated to Cicciolina.

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 the 1979 LP, plus the two extended tracks of the red vinyl mix.

7" disks

• 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.

12" mix and picture disks

• 1979 "I was made for dancing" (extended version) / "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 her colleague Moana Pozzi's release.

Collaborations

• 1979 Dedicato al Mar Egeo, LP soundtrack by Ennio Morricone published in Japan only; though she does not sing, she is portrayed naked on the inlay and back-cover. She recorded two songs from that album ("Cavallina a cavallo" and "Mar Egeo") later in the year. 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 on the "Elena Tip" track.

Pop culture influence

• 1990 The British pop band Pop Will Eat Itself released a single titled "Touched by the Hand of Cicciolina"; 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.
• 1990 The song "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 lyrics on the Love 15 LP, by U.S. band Majesty Crush, focus on her celebrity and sexual legend.
• 1995 She is listed in the "Special Thanks to" section of the credits for season 1 episode 2 of "Mr.Show". She is credited as Ciccolina.
• Two Australian restaurants share the same name, one in St Kilda, Victoria, founded in 1993. A sister restaurant called 'Ilona Staller' is to open in 2010. The other is in Newtown, New South Wales (not connected) and displays a wall sculpture believed to be a nipple.

Literature

• Filippucci, Giovanni Romanini (1989). Les aventures de Cicciolina. France: Média 1000. Graphic novel about her life {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Staller, Ilona (1992). Cicciolina. Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-9761-2. Large-format Italian, German, English and French language album {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Barbano, Nicolas (1999). Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner. Denmark: Rosinante. ISBN 87-7357-961-0. Features a chapter on her

Quotations

• "My breasts have never done anyone any harm, while bin Laden's war has caused thousands of victims." -- October 2002

References

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

External links

• Official website (Adult content)