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No Laughing Matter
Celentano
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Articles about Italy)
With his new satirical
chat show, Adriano Celentano is rocking Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's world
By JEFF ISRAELY / ROME (TIME)
Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005
Roberto Benigni was in great form last Thursday night, frantically
pacing the stage in search of "one thing, just one thing!" that
Silvio Berlusconi has done for Italy since becoming Prime Minister
in 2001. The Oscar-winning film director and comedian was a
guest on RockPolitik, an irreverent mix of song, satire and
sermonizing hosted by Italy's most popular entertainer, Adriano
Celentano. After sitting down to write a mock letter of apology
to Berlusconi, the odd couple racked their brains for something
positive to say. Drawing a blank, the scrawny comic then feigned
a call to a friend who works for the Prime Minister's party,
but no luck there either. "Nothing," he told Celentano. "But
he said he'll make some calls and get back to me in the morning."
The performance was vintage Benigni, a longtime leftist and
frequent Berlusconi basher. But, above all, the spectacle was
an awesome display of Celentano's media might. Since first airing
two weeks ago, RockPolitik has smashed all ratings records;
some 12.5 million Italians, a 49% audience share, tuned in to
see last week's show. Celentano is pulling them in with his
rocker roots (in the 1950s, he was Italy's Elvis Presley) and
his biting critique of Berlusconi's private and political domination
of Italian broadcasting. During the show's premiere, Celentano
gave a sizzling monologue demanding a free press and declaring
open season for satire. He flashed national rankings for freedom
of expression on a giant screen: in one survey, Italy placed
77th, sandwiched between Bulgaria and Mongolia. Given Italy's
sluggish economy, Berlusconi's bickering center-right coalition
and his steady fall in the polls ahead of an April re-election
bid, Celentano's show is the last thing the Prime Minister needs.
Celentano and Berlusconi both rose to fame from the outskirts
of Milan, where in the late 1950s each wooed audiences with
song. Berlusconi was a part-time crooner, singing French ballads
for tips on Mediterranean cruise liners. Celentano was a guitar-plucking
rebel in blue jeans who all but invented Italian rock 'n' roll.
He went on to launch a successful film career, later rediscovered
his Roman Catholic faith, and reached iconic status in part
thanks to his periodic returns to television, where he mixes
cabaret, celebrity chat and his own provocative monologues on
everything from God to garbage management. "Celentano is the
Italian heartland," says Carlo Freccero, a former producer for
Berlusconi's Mediaset network who is one of RockPolitik's lead
writers. "He's both innovator and conservative. You just can't
classify him."
This time around, Celentano is taking direct aim at Berlusconi's
conflict of interest. The billionaire Prime Minister already
owned Italy's three main private TV stations when he was elected,
and since then he's installed allies in key posts at two of
the three state-owned channels. He called the shows of three
popular critics of his polices "criminal" and they were soon
cancelled. Celentano has responded by stacking his guest list
with fierce Berlusconi opponents, including Michele Santoro,
a talk-show host who had not been on state TV since Berlusconi
denounced him in 2002.
Fedele Confalonieri, a lifelong pal of the Prime Minister who
now runs his Mediaset network, says Celentano's idiosyncratic
show is proof that Italian television is free and open to all.
Besides, argues Confalonieri, political satire is just harmless
fun: "Television is about entertainment. It's not the media
who decides who wins elections; the voters judge the candidates
on what they've done."
Maybe. But it can't be a good sign if a centrist like Celentano
feels the need to take the Prime Minister on. Benigni had some
advice for Berlusconi on Thursday night: "You can become a comedian.
Then you can really say anything you want." Celentano would
probably even give him airtime, as long as his opponents had
it, too.
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