Bankrupt Italian film producer
Vittorio Cecchi Gori was hospitalised with pneumonia on
Wednesday.
The Florence-born producer, 80, who pleaded guilty to bankruptcy
and was sentenced in February 2020 to 8 years and 5 months of
imprisonment, said "I only have pneumonia, it's not COVID, which
I actually already had and recovered from".
Speaking on the phone to ANSA from his bed in Rome's Gemelli
Hospital, he added: "I'm not worried: the fact is that when
you're 80 you get weaker, they're giving me oxygen, but it's not
COVID".
The son of the more famous Mario Cecchi Gori, the producer has
produced numerous films, most notably Il Postino: The Postman
(1994), which received an Academy Award nomination for Best
Picture and Life Is Beautiful (1997) which received an Academy
Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as a Best Actor
Oscar for director and actor Roberto Benigni, the first for a
male non-English performance, and a third Oscar for Nicola
Piovani's score.
Cecchi Gori was also briefly a Senator for the now-defunct
Italian People's Party.
He owned the football club A.C. Fiorentina from 1993 to 2002, as
well as the private television channel La7.
On 3 June 2008, he was arrested in Rome for bankruptcy and on 25
July 2011 again.
He was a gossip magazine staple with his on-off relationship
with actress Valeria Marini, and previously his marriage
(1983-2000) to actress Rita Rusic.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
