Striscia la notizia
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Striscia la notizia is an Italian television program on the Mediaset-controlled Canale 5. Its name in Italian translates to "the news is sneakin'", a probable allusion to the Biscione ("Big Snake"), the snake which is part of Canale 5's logo. Founded in 1987, it is meant to be a parody of the daily news, which airs right before the program, but Striscia also satirizes government corruption and exposes scams with the help of local reporters who are also comedians. The program is produced by Antonio Ricci and is hosted by two major comedians. Usually Ezio Greggio (who co-founded the show with D'Angelo) is assisted by another comedian (as Enzo Iacchetti) for the winter season, after which there is a change of guard.
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[edit] The Gabibbo
The Gabibbo, an Italian cultural icon acts as the mascot and is the soul of the show. Gabibbo is a caricature of the layman of Southern Italian origin, a low-income worker who lives near the docks of Genoa. Always loud, braggart but pungent in his naive but straightforward ways, butts in everywhere he sees new friends to chat with a childlike enthusiasm always running after the veline, is in some ways like the Cokney type in comedies.
[edit] The veline
The term "velina" comes from the name of the guidelines issued by the Ministero della Cultura Popolare (Ministry of Popular Culture), during Fascist rule, to the journalists: the "veline" stated which news could be printed and which should be silenced. These are two girls in their low-twenties, one blonde, the other brunette: once they showed up to hand the news, but today they perform short dance breaks or stacchetti always ending on the table of the news anchors. They usually perform in swimming-suits or tank tops, singing a pop song as they dance. These dancers probably evolved from the scantily-clad waitresses who served at the tables of Drive-in, the show that made Greggio and D'Angelo widely known in the late eighties. The veline have become the most popular female icons on Italian TV. The names of the veline are known after a long beauty pageant on summer. The program is called "Veline", but there's also another program like this: "Velone". "Velone" (that means "big velina"), is a contest only for women over 50/60 (some were almost 100!). Like in "Veline", women have to dance and make little sketches and on september the new "velona" will be chosen.
[edit] All the veline
- 1988
Cristina Prevosti, Stefania Dall'Olio, Eliette Mariangelo, Micaela Verdiani
- 1989/1990
Jordy Gordon, Indra Smith, Simonetta Pravettoni, Terry Sessa, Annalisa Gambi (not all the season)
- 1990/1991
Laura Paternoster, Monica Spreafico, Simonetta Pravettoni, Terry Sessa, Sonia Grey, Angela Cavagna (the nurse)
- 1991/1992
Ana Laura Ribas, Terry Sessa, Simonetta Pravettoni
- 1992/1993
Cecilia Belli, Fanny Cadeo
- 1993/1994
Cecilia Belli, Laura Valci, Fanny Cadeo
- 1994/1995
Miriana Trevisan, Laura Freddi
- 1995/1996
Alessia Merz, Cristina Quaranta
- 1996/1997
Roberta Lanfranchi, Marina Graziani
- 1997/1998
Alessia Mancini, Marina Graziani
- 1998/1999
Roberta Lanfranchi, Marina Graziani
- 1999/2000
Maddalena Corvaglia, Elisabetta Canalis
- 2000/2001
Maddalena Corvaglia, Elisabetta Canalis
- 2001/2002
Maddalena Corvaglia, Elisabetta Canalis
- 2002/2003
Giorgia Palmas, Elena Barolo
- 2003/2004
Giorgia Palmas, Elena Barolo
- 2004/2005
Lucia Galeone, Vera Atyushkina
- 2005/2006
Melissa Satta, Thais Souza Wiggers
[edit] The tapiro d'oro
The Tapiro d'Oro (English language: Golden Tapir), a small golden statue, is a special "prize" delivered to big celebrities or politicians who have been humiliated or defeated. Although many personalities take it in front of the cameras in the hope of getting attention for themselves, others run away and Valerio Staffelli, a special correspondent for the show, has to run after them until they finally take it. Other times, however, the bodyguards have been known to have acted aggressively breaking the reporters' noses and camcorders alike. Once even Rai Uno Director Fabrizio Del Noce, cornered by Staffelli banged his microphone on his face breaking his nose.
[edit] Striscia and the Italian showbiz
Veline's name (invented by the co-founders and their producer) nowadays is often attributed (often disparagingly) to any famous girls on TV with little or no intellectual gifts. Often criticized by high-brow critics and feminists as the symbol of trash-TV, the veline are, however, much more likely to be sought by producers of Italian soap operas, TV series or shows after just one year on Striscia than any other female candidates. They are considered the ideal match for prominent soccer players and therefore a role-model for many young viewers. Enzo Iacchetti, one of the hosts, has currently a relationship with Maddalena Corvaglia, a velina from a previous edition of Striscia.
