A case involving Gina Lollobrigida, the Hollywood siren, and an allegedly forged marriage certificate has brought her ex-toyboy, her young male adviser and her estranged son face to face in a court in Rome for the first time.
The Italian actress, 88, who was once dubbed the most beautiful woman in the world, has accused her Spanish former boyfriend Javier Rigau y Rafols, who is 34 years her junior, of tricking her into marrying him in 2010.
Mr Rigau, who faces up to six years in jail for forgery and fraud if convicted, denies that he fooled Ms Lollobrigida into signing marriage documents and claims that she was a consenting bride. He is due to address the court next month.
“My client owns health clinics and property — he is much richer than Gina and has no need of her money,” Michele Gentiloni Silveri, his lawyer, said at the hearing. “Lollobrigida had twice before made plans to marry my client, including a wedding for 600 people in New York in 2006 that she planned to invite the Clintons to then cancelled.”
Ms Lollobrigida told The Times: “The guilty will get what they deserve at the end of this trial.”
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Addressing the court last month, Ms Lollobrigida said she had never had sex with Mr Rigau while they were dating, always sleeping in separate room.
Andrea Piazzolla, 28, Ms Lollobrigida’s adviser, was also in court this week and showed reporters a video of Mr Rigau that he claimed was taken during an unrelated trial in Spain in 2012, during which the Spaniard says he cannot remember if he is married, then admits under pressure that he is not.
“It is a comic scene,” said Ms Lollobrigida.
While Mr Piazzolla has tried to discredit Mr Rigau, the young adviser is viewed with suspicion by Ms Lollobrigida’s only son, Milko Skofic, 58, who also gave evidence at the hearing.
Mr Skofic tried and failed in court two years ago to gain access to his mother’s financial records.
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“People get brainwashed and I don’t trust her adviser,” he said. “I just said I wanted to look over her books. They are buying cars for lots of money and guess who is driving them?”
Ms Lollobrigida said that she no longer saw her son. “I have finished with Milko, but that’s life. Not even a psychologist can help him now.”
The actress claimed that if anyone was driving expensive cars it was her, not Mr Piazzolla.
“I crashed my Rolls in the 90s, injuring myself as well as [film director] Franco Zeffirelli, who was with me,” she said.
“I didn’t want to drive again, but Andrea got me back behind the wheel of a go-kart and then a Ferrari.” Ms Lollobrigida, who starred in films alongside the likes of Sean Connery and Frank Sinatra in the 1950s and 1960s, is now a sculptor and plans to sell a titanium work at Sotheby’s in New York this year as well as organising an exhibition in Los Angeles.
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“I also have to be in Hollywood to pick up a movie award,” she said.