Diogo Mainardi
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Diogo Briso Mainardi (born September 22, 1962) is an Italo-Brazilianwriter, publicist and TV commentator, mainly known for his short, impactful, ironic articles in Brazil's best-selling, weekly newsmagazine, Veja.
He was born in São Paulo, where he finished high school. He went to London, England, to study economics at the London School of Economics. After not managing to maintain a passing average he quit, and never graduated.
Mainardi lived for a long time in Venice, and while living in Italy he met Gore Vidal, who heaped praise on him during a mid-1980s conference tour in Brazil. He has published five books: Malthus (1989), Arquipélago (1992), Polígono das Secas (1995), Contra o Brasil (1998), and A Tapas e Pontapés (2004). None of the first four - all novels - were commercial (or critical) successes, but his latest book, featuring excerpts of his popular articles in Veja, has been. He has also written two screenplays: 16060 (1995) and Mater Dei (2001). Both films were major box-office flops, something Mainardi regularly makes fun of in a self-deprecating manner.
He recently joined a Sunday night cable TV talkshow called Manhattan Connection.
He has a nasty nickname, didi naftalina, in fact he does not like it but it shows the truth about his character, which is a right wing narrow minded view of the world.
Mainardi also started a podcast sponsored by Veja in 09/29/2006 where he records informal talks about random topics. The podcast is now available in iTunes.
Mainardi is a controversial character. He constantly writes defamatory and smearing articles about President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, and his party
Mainardi is married and has two sons. The older one is Tito, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
He regularly cites noted Brazilian intellectuals Paulo Francis and Ivan Lessa as his mentors.
[edit] Quotes
"I don't feel the responsibility to construct, only to destroy".
"The role of the press is to chase, hunt and knock down the politicians in power- someone's gotta control those people".
"Lula is my Xbox. He's my Nintendo".
