Maurizio Costanzo (born 28 August 1938) is an Italian

television host A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garne ...

, journalist, screenwriter and film director.

Biography

Costanzo began his career as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, first as a contributing writer to ''Paese Sera'' and then as managing editor of the weekly '' Grazia''. In the late 1970s, he was the founding editor of the newspaper ''L'Occhio''. Parallel to his career as a journalist, he worked as a radio and TV host, where he became known for his subtle, low-profile irony. His most popular show, ''Bontà loro'' was a stable of RAI's programming but he was forced to resign after news broke that he was a member of the

Propaganda 2 Propaganda Due (; P2) was a Masonic lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy, founded in 1877. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it transformed into a criminal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-leftist, pseudo-Masonic, a ...

masonic lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

. Costanzo then moved to

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

's main TV station Canale 5, where he hosted ''The Maurizio Costanzo Show'', currently the longest-lasting

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

in Italy. Costanzo was artistic director of Canale 5 until 2009. In 2010 he returned to

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

, presenting the talk show ''Bontà sua''. Since 2011 he also collaborates with Radio Manà Manà. Costanzo is the ''"communication-agent"'' (an aesthetical and rhetorical consultant for public appearances) of many Italian political leaders. He is a professor at the Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano. Costanzo also wrote the screenplays for several films. In 1977 he wrote and directed his first and to these days last film, ''Melodrammore''. In 1966 he co-wrote the lyrics of the song "Se telefonando", which was popularized by Mina. On 14 May 1993, Costanzo, who had expressed delight at the arrest of Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore Riina, was almost killed by a bomb as he drove down a Rome street; 23 people were injured.

Personal life

Costanzo has been married four times. In 1963 he married Lori Sammartino, a journalist and photographer fourteen years his senior. He later married another journalist, Flaminia Morando, who left her husband Alberto Michelini for Costanzo. Costanzo and Morando had two children: Camilla (born 1973) and Saverio (born 1975); they divorced in the late 1970s. From 1983 to 1986 Costanzo lived with the actress, voice actress, screenwriter and director

Simona Izzo Simonetta "Simona" Izzo (born 22 April 1953) is an Italian actress, voice actress, director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Rome, the daughter of the voice actor Renato Izzo, at a young age Simona Izzo started working as a dubber. In 1990 s ...

. On 7 June 1989 he married the TV presenter Marta Flavi, but they separated in December 1990 and divorced in 1995. On his 57th birthday, 28 August 1995, Costanzo married

Maria De Filippi Maria De Filippi (born 5 December 1961) is an Italian television host and the owner of the television production company ''Fascino PGT''. She is one of the most popular presenters. Biography De Filippi was born in Milan, Lombardy, but grew up in ...

, a television host and producer, who had been living with him since 1990.Maurizio Costanzo and Maria De Filippi with two drums
gettyimages.co.uk In 2004, the couple adopted a 12-year-old boy, Gabriele.

Films

Screenwriter

* 1968 – A qualsiasi prezzo, by Emilio P. Miraglia * 1969 – I quattro del pater noster, by

Ruggero Deodato Ruggero Deodato (born 7 May 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and sometime actor. His career has spanned a wide-range of genres including peplum, comedy, drama, poliziottesco and science fiction, yet he is perhaps best known f ...

* 1969 – Il giovane normale, by

Dino Risi Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of ''commedia all'italiana''. Biography Risi was born in Milan. He had an o ...

* 1970 – Cerca di capirmi, by

Mariano Laurenti Mariano Laurenti (15 April 1929 – 6 January 2022) was an Italian film director and actor. Career He started as a script supervisor and later became an assistant director for, among others, Mauro Bolognini and Stefano Vanzina. He directed 50 ...

* 1976 –

Al piacere di rivederla ''Al piacere di rivederla'' is a 1976 Italian giallo-comedy film directed by Marco Leto. It is based on the novel ''Ritratto di provincia in rosso'' by Paolo Levi. Cast * Ugo Tognazzi: Mario Aldara * Françoise Fabian: Viviana Bonfigli * Miou-M ...

, by Marco Leto * 1976 –

Bordella ''House of Pleasure for Women'' ( it, Bordella) is a 1976 satirical comedy film written and directed by Pupi Avati and starring Gigi Proietti, Christian De Sica, Gianni Cavina, Al Lettieri and Vincent Gardenia. Plot A brothel for women is ...

, by Pupi Avati * 1976 – La casa dalle finestre che ridono, by Pupi Avati * 1977 –

L'altra metà del cielo ''L'altra metà del cielo'' (''The other half of the sky'') is a 1977 Italian comedy film directed by Franco Rossi. It is loosely based on the comedy play ''Romancero'' by Jacques Deval. Plot Don Vincenzo (Adriano Celentano), a priest sent in ...

, by Franco Rossi * 1977 – Una giornata particolare, by Ettore Scola * 1977 – Tutti defunti... tranne i morti, by Pupi Avati * 1978 – Melodrammore, by Maurizio Costanzo * 1978 – Jazz band – Film TV, by Pupi Avati * 1979 – Cinema!!! – Film TV, by Pupi Avati * 1983 – Zeder, by Pupi Avati * 2003 – Per sempre, by Alessandro Di Robilant * 2005 – Troppo belli, by Ugo Fabrizio Giordani * 2007 – Voce del verbo amore, by Andrea Manni

References

External links