Maurizio Costanzo

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Maurizio Costanzo (born August 28, 1938, Pescara) is an Italian television personality.

He started his career as a journalist, little by little gaining a certain popularity, and in the late 1970s appeared in several television shows before creating his most famous show, The Maurizio Costanzo Show, currently the most important and longest-lasting talk show in Italy. Costanzo's TV style includes subtle low-profile irony.

He also wrote the screenplay for several films, as well as the lyrics of an appreciated song, "Se telefonando", made famous by Italian singer Mina, together with Ennio Morricone's music.

Costanzo now works for the main TV channel of the ex-Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi, Canale 5, of which he is also the artistic director. His latest wife (his third), Maria De Filippi, who is many years younger than him and who was previously his employee, presents several gossip-related/human interest talk-shows on the same channel.

In the 1990s he was the target of a murder attempt by unknown agents - a car-bomb exploded resulting in two of his security escort being injured. Certain similarities with the murders of Sicilian judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, together with the consideration that Costanzo had in the preceding months sponsored media campaigns against the Mafia, suggests that it might have been a Mafia attack. However, in the years following this attack he significantly reduced his contribution to anti-mafia campaigns.

He is also the "communication-agent" (a sort of aesthetical and rhetorical consultant for public appearances) of many important Italian political leaders.

Together with Silvio Berlusconi, Costanzo's name was found in the list of members of the masonic lodge P2.