my all-time favourite 'what do xxx models do once they leave the business?' story
Ilona Anna Staller (born 26 November 1951), known by her stage name Cicciolina, is a Hungarian-Italian former porn star, politician, and singer
In 1964, at age 12, she began working as a model for the Hungarian news agency Magyar Távirati Iroda.
In her memoirs and in a 1999 TV interview, she claimed that she had provided the Hungarian authorities with information on American diplomats staying at a Budapest luxury hotel where she worked as a maid in the 1960s
In 1979, Staller was presented as a female candidate to the Italian Parliament by the Lista del Sole, Italy's first Green party.
In 1985, she switched to the Radical Party, campaigning on a libertarian platform against NATO membership and nuclear energy, and for human rights
She was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1987, with approximately 20,000 votes.
While in office and before the outset of the Gulf War, she offered to have sex with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in return for peace in the region
In September 2011, it was revealed that Staller was eligible for and would be receiving a yearly pension of €39,000 from the Italian state as a result of her five years in the country's parliament.
Reacting to the controversy raised by the news, Staller, who started receiving the pension in November 2011, when she turned 60, stated: "I earned it and I'm proud of it."
In 2012, Staller founded the Democracy, Nature, Love party. Its objectives included the reopening of former brothels, support for same-sex partnerships, a guaranteed minimum wage for young people, improvements to the judiciary, and the elimination of the privileges of the rich political caste
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 profanity, the song could not be released in Italy, but became a hit in other countries, especially in France
Cicciolina's single 'Political Woman' 1987 (in which Ilona celebrates her election to Italian Parliament)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8TVLpg8257cStaller married American artist Jeff Koons, with whom she collaborated on 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' at the 1990 Venice Biennale. In 1992 they separated, partly because Staller refused to stop making porn
Staller is an accomplished chess player, having learned from her father while growing up in Hungary. In July 2021, it was announced she would demonstrate her ability in an exhibition match, taking on four top players simultaneously
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilona_Stallerthe thing i think i love most about Ilona and her life story, is that if you were to approach a film company with a script of her life story, they would all reject it out of hand saying "no, we couldn't possibly make a film based on a story like that, because no one would ever believe it!"
to have lived an utterly extraordinary life: isn't that everyone's dream (openly or secretly)?
'Living Legend' is an overused turn of phrase, but in Ilona's case i think it's more than well-deserved
(as a side thought, i wonder if Giorgio - who i'm guessing would have been a teenager at the height or her xxx career - was ever a fan?)