Luca Barbareschi

{{Short description|Italian-Uruguayan actor, filmmaker, and politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| office = Member of the Chamber of Deputies

| term_start = 29 April 2008

| term_end = 4 March 2014

| constituency = Sardinia

| name = Luca Barbareschi

| image = Luca Barbareschi.jpg

| caption = Barbareschi in 2008

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|7|28|df=y}}

| birth_place = Montevideo, Uruguay

| years_active =

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Politician
television presenter
actor

}}

| party = The People of Freedom (2008–2010)
Future and Freedom (2010–2011)

}}

Luca Giorgio Barbareschi (born July 28, 1956) is an Uruguayan-born Italian actor, filmmaker, businessman, and politician. He represented Sardinia in the Chamber of Deputies between 2008 and 2014.

Early life

Barbareschi was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Italian parents Francesco Saverio, an engineer and former World War II partisan from Milan, and Maria Antonietta Hirsch, an economist of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.{{cite web |last=Gramola |first=Gianfranco |date=2 December 2015 |title=Luca Barbareschi |url=http://www.intervisteromane.net/interviste%20pronte%203/luca_barbareschi.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515210505/http://intervisteromane.net/interviste%20pronte%203/luca_barbareschi.htm |archive-date=15 May 2021 |access-date=13 December 2020 |language=it |quote=Io sono ebreo e seguo la religione ebraica. |trans-quote=I'm a Jew and I follow Judaism.}} His parents divorced when he was six, and Barbareschi moved to Milan. He attended the Leo XIII Institute, Milan in the 1960s.{{cite news |last=Maria |first=Mottola Grazia |title=Io, per 4 anni abusato dai gesuiti. Il discorso del Papa? Era ora |url=http://www.fondazionelucabarbareschionlus.it/download/rassegna/2008720_corriere.pdf |page=3 |access-date=15 May 2025 |work=Corriere della Sera |date=20 July 2008 |language=It}}

Acting career

Barbareschi studied acting with Alessandro Fersen, and began his professional career in 1970 as an assistant director to Virginio Puecher at the Teatro di Verona. He spent a year as an assistant director at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, then to Frank Corsaro at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He subsequently enrolled in the Actors Studio, where he studied for four years.

He was one of four actors whom the Italian police believed had been murdered in the making of the 1980 horror film Cannibal Holocaust, where he also abused and killed a young piglet. So realistic was the film that shortly after it was released, its director, Ruggero Deodato was arrested on suspicions of murder. The actors had signed contracts to stay out of the media for a year in order to fuel rumors that the film was a snuff movie. The court was only convinced that they were alive when the contracts were canceled, and the actors appeared on a television show as proof.Ruggero Deodato (interviewee), In the Jungle: The Making of Cannibal Holocaust, Alan Young Pictures, Italy, 2003.Ruggero Deodato, interview with Sage Stallone and Bob Murawski, Cult-Con 2000, Cannibal Holocaust DVD Commentary, Tarrytown, New York, 2000.

Political career

In 2008, he was elected as a Member of the Italian Parliament in the Chamber of Deputies with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party, The People of Freedom. In 2010, he joined Gianfranco Fini's new party Future and Freedom with 32 other deputies and 10 senators. He left parliament in 2013.

Social career

In 2008, he alleged in Ferruccio Pinotti's book White Holocaust that he was sexually abused by a Jesuit priest at the Leo XIII Institute in the 1960s. According to Barbareschi, the events took place from when he was from the ages of eight to thirteen.{{cite book |last=Pinotti |first=Ferruccio |title=Olocausto Bianco |date=2008 |publisher=Rizzoli Libri |isbn=978-88-586-0687-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAE9u-2oP0IC |access-date=15 May 2025 |language=It }} He later established the Luca Barbareschi Foundation, which aims to protect children who are victims of pedophilia.{{cite news |last1=Filippini |first1=M.Antonietta |title=Luca Barbareschi: messaggio di speranza nel discorso del re |url=https://www.gazzettadimantova.it/territorio-mantovano/luca-barbareschi-messaggio-di-speranza-nel-discorso-del-re-1.12309268 |access-date=15 May 2025 |work=Gazzetta di Mantova |date=13 February 2013 |language=it}}

Controversies

On June 11, 2012, during an interview for the program Le Iene, Barbareschi attacked journalist Filippo Roma and his cameraman, and stole Roma's cellphone.{{Cite web |title=Barbareschi-Iene, atto secondo Calcio, schiaffi e pugni dell'onorevole |url=https://www.corriere.it/politica/12_agosto_28/barbareschi-iene-atto-secondo_4fef018c-f136-11e1-a005-0150214880db.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107203428/https://www.corriere.it/politica/12_agosto_28/barbareschi-iene-atto-secondo_4fef018c-f136-11e1-a005-0150214880db.shtml |archive-date=7 November 2021 |access-date=7 November 2021}} The police rushed to the scene but did not make any arrests. Roma filed a complaint for theft, but according to some witnesses, his phone, never returned, was destroyed by Barbareschi. A similar incident repeated in Filicudi in August, when Barbareschi again battered Roma.

Barbareschi was accused of homophobia during April 30, 2022 speech in Sutri, in which he said "the homosexual mafia is the problem." He later claimed the comments were taken out of context and were intended as a joke, and that he himself had had homosexual experiences.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-30 |title=Barbareschi interviene alla presentazione della mostra di Sgarbi con insulti ai gay e attacchi all'inclusività. Lazio Pride: "Inaccettabile, si scusi" |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2022/04/30/barbareschi-interviene-alla-presentazione-della-mostra-di-sgarbi-con-insulti-ai-gay-e-attacchi-allinclusivita-lazio-pride-inaccettabile-si-scusi/6575881/ |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=Il Fatto Quotidiano |language=it-IT}}{{Cite web |last=Redazione |date=2022-04-30 |title=Barbareschi dopo le polemiche: «La mia frase sugli omosessuali? Era una battuta, è stata strumentalizzata» |url=https://www.open.online/2022/04/30/sutri-barbareschi-vs-omosessuali/ |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=Open |language=it-IT}}{{Cite web |title=Cinema, Barbareschi: «Il problema è la mafia degli omosessuali. L'inclusività è stupida». Il Lazio Pride: «Parole inaccettabili» - Corriere Tv |url=https://video.corriere.it/cronaca/cinema-barbareschi-il-problema-mafia-omosessuali-l-inclusivita-stupida-lazio-pride-parole-inaccettabili/1fa6c512-c883-11ec-85c4-7c8d22958d02 |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=video.corriere.it |language=it-IT}}{{Cite web |date=2023-05-09 |title=Luca Barbareschi: "Le attrici denunciano le molestie per pubblicità. Sono stato molestato, il problema è più grande" |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.it/life/2023/05/09/news/luca_barbareschi_intervista_molestie-12053814/ |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=HuffPost Italia |language=it}}

Barbareschi has defended director Roman Polanski, with whom he has worked several times as a producer, against his sexual abuse conviction, claiming the case against him is due to "political correctness."{{Cite web |last=Kaloi |first=Stephanie |date=2023-09-02 |title=Roman Polanski's Producer Defends Working With Him: 'I Know the Real Story' |url=https://www.thewrap.com/roman-polanski-producer-abuse-rape-venice-luca-barbareschi/ |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=TheWrap |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Vivarelli |first=Nick |date=2023-09-02 |title='Viva Polanski!' Says Roman Polanski's Producer After Lamenting That 'The Palace' May Not Be Released in France |url=https://variety.com/2023/film/global/polanski-roman-polanski-producer-laments-that-the-palace-france-1235711684/ |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}

Personal life

= Marriages and relationships =

Barbareschi has been married twice. With his first wife, Patrizia Fachini, he had three daughters: Beatrice, Eleonora and Angelica. He married his second wife, Elena Monorchio, the daughter of Ministry of Economy and Finance economist Andrea Monorchio, on June 20, 2015. They have two children, Maddalena (b. 2010) and Francesco Saverio (b. 2012).

Barbareschi was previously in a seven-year long relationship with actress Lucrezia Lante della Rovere.

= Religion =

Barbareschi practices Judaism.

Filmography

=Cinema=

1977 – Ultimo mondo cannibale
1979 – Da Corleone a Brooklyn
1980 – Cannibal Holocaust as Mark
1983 – Dream of a Summer Night
1984 – Impiegati
1986 – Via Montenapoleone
1987 – Private Affairs
1988 – Bye Bye Baby
1990 – In nome del popolo sovrano
1991 – L'amico arabo
1992 – La bionda
1992 – Obiettivo indiscreto
1994 – La delegazione
1995 – La tenda nera
1995 – La famiglia Ricordi
1995 – Il cielo è sempre più blu
1996 – Ardena
1999 – Le fils du Français
2002 – Il Trasformista
2008 – The International
2010 – Noi credevamo
2013 – Something Good (director, actor)
2019 – Dolceroma (producer)
2019 – An Officer and a Spy (producer)
2021 – Appunti di un venditore di donne (producer)
2022 – Ero in guerra ma non lo sapevo (producer)
2023 – The Palace (producer){{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2022/film/global/roman-polanski-the-palace-casts-fantastic-beasts-oliver-masucci-1235240068/ |title=Roman Polanski's 'The Palace' Adds 'Fantastic Beasts' Actor Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant (EXCLUSIVE) |website=Variety |first=Elsa |last=Keslassy |date=April 25, 2022 |access-date=April 25, 2022 |archive-date=25 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425195903/https://variety.com/2022/film/global/roman-polanski-the-palace-casts-fantastic-beasts-oliver-masucci-1235240068/ |url-status=live }}

Image:Luca Barbareschi e Ezio Greggio.jpg]]

=Television=

1992 – Questo è amore
1992 – That's Amore
1997 – Trenta righe per un delitto
1998 – Cronaca nera
1999 – Jesus
2000 – Greed
2002 – Giorni da leone
2003 – Una vita in regalo
2004 – Rivoglio i miei figli
2005 – Nebbie e delitti
2005 – Les Rois maudits
2006 – Giorni da leone 2
2006 – La profezia dei templari
2007 – Nebbie e delitti 2
2009 – Nebbie e delitti 3
2012 – Nero Wolfe (producer){{Cite web|url=http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/photostory/spettacolo/2012/04/03/visualizza_new.html_160688311.html|title=Nero Wolfe torna con Pannofino e trasloca a Roma - Photostory Spettacolo - ANSA.it|access-date=19 December 2017|archive-date=22 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222104846/http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/photostory/spettacolo/2012/04/03/visualizza_new.html_160688311.html|url-status=live}}
2013 – Le Iene con Botte da Orbi
2015 – Pietro Mennea - La freccia del sud (fiction)
2022 – Il grande gioco (producer)