Dear readers, welcome back! We’re just a week away from the end of February and what a week we have ahead of us! To make room for the Olympics, the Sanremo Festival has been postponed by a few days: it starts on February 24th to reach the final on the 28th.

The anticipation is sky-high and the air you breathe is already electric. In the meantime, however, there has certainly been no shortage of scoops and background stories: among indiscretions, barbs and fiery gossip, the world of Italian entertainment was not caught unprepared. And we are ready to tell you all about it with “Fatti Their”, our weekly column with a high gossip rate.

Make yourselves comfortable: gossip is served, dear gossip addicts!

It performs like a hurricane

Already from the title of Lucio Presta’s book we should have understood what it would contain. In “The Hurricane”, as his effort is called, the well-known and powerful agent of the entertainment world removes some annoying pebbles from his shoe, creating media chaos in the lives of some of the best-known names in Italian showbiz. A sort of ‘Falsissimo’ paper version.

Presta reconstructed the personal and professional rift with Paolo Bonolis, attributing the cause to Sonia Bruganelli. Not new news, but Lucio has added numerous other background stories, including that behind many of the host’s problems there would be the numerous betrayals of his now ex-wife.

According to the former agent, in 2024 – while Bonolis was evaluating a possible return to Rai – Bruganelli would have reported to her ex-husband about an alleged betrayal with him. Accusation that Presta has always rejected and to which she says she responded with a harsh list of alleged lovers attributed to her: “I would like to tell you that your wife was with that surgeon, that well-known host, that well-known singer who won Sanremo…”. In his version, the alleged lie would have definitively damaged the relationship, to the point of separation. Presta goes so far as to speak of “Stockholm syndrome”, claiming that Bonolis is “madly in love with his tormentor”.

TV author Marco Salvati, who has worked with Bonolis and Bruganelli for years, has thought to inflame the situation even more: “What Presta wrote in his book… is all true. When Presta writes that everyone knew, he does it because it is true: everyone knew”, he declared to FanPage. Salvati, however, preferred not to go into details: “I prefer not to go into private matters. I don’t feel like naming names, just as he didn’t, because there are children involved who need to be protected. I’m not interested in the names of Sonia’s alleged lovers: if the situation was fine with Paolo, everyone would be happy. I find it belittling and humiliating to talk about it, especially for a man of Bonolis’s culture and intelligence.” Obviously it must be emphasized that there is no evidence regarding cheating.

Bruganelli’s reaction was not long in coming. The TV producer responded via social media with phrases such as “Don’t do good if you don’t have the strength to bear ingratitude” and “Obsession is the last defense of those who have not been chosen”. Obvious, but it is right to say, the name of Presa or Salvati has never been mentioned, but the reference is implicit. One of his collaborators, Clotilde Zomparelli, took his side and denied the accusations, speaking of “stuff completely invented”.

In the meantime, the paparazzi shot in the weekly magazine Oggi, on newsstands this week, showing Bonolis and Bruganelli at dinner together in Rome with their son Davide and some Mediaset collaborators, has come as a ‘blessing’. Proof that everything is going smoothly between the two exes as always, even if this book must have been just like a hurricane in their and their children’s lives…

Presta encore

In the 272 pages of “The Hurricane”, Presta didn’t just talk about Bruganelli-Bonolis. He revealed the alleged ingratitude of Giovanna Civitillo, wife of Amadeus, of his former client and of Maria De Filippi.

Amadeus had Lucio as an agent until the move from Rai to Discovery. The fracture, according to the manager, would have occurred on the eve of the last Sanremo led by Amadeus, when he would have been “removed”: “He sent me a message asking me not to participate in the last edition of the Festival because it would have embarrassed him”.

Presta claims that the host would have chosen to continue without him, relying above all on the advice of his wife, Giovanna Civitillo, and attacks: “Many say that it is the wife who advises Amadeus to have me close, but it is false: if there is one person who works against me it is Giovanna”. She then claims to have provided her with various professional opportunities, for which she earned a lot, “without ever asking for a euro percentage”.

In the book he harshly criticizes Ama’s choice to abandon Rai, defining it as harmful: “I’m very sorry for the end of our story.” And then he stated, without mincing words: “He left Rai to go and have this experience which unfortunately for him turns out to be the most damaging for his career. And within a few weeks he stopped being number one and became an artist who doesn’t have much to say on television.”

From the top hat, Presta also brought out Maria De Filippi. The agent talks about the relationship that had been created between the two and which then suddenly fell apart, triggering a series of behaviors that would lead to the removal of Lucio’s clients from Maria’s programs. The most “striking” case is that of Lorella Cuccarini, called to act as judge and then teacher at Amici only after leaving her agency. In short, a book that promises what it announces on the cover: “Sun, lightning and lightning”.

Pucci-Pucci, I smell Fiorellucci

Vitriolic back and forth between Andrea Pucci and Fiorello after the comedian’s imitation aired on his radio program La Pennicanza. Pucci, who ended up in the storm and gave up the co-hosting of Sanremo after accusations of racism and homophobia, commented sarcastically during the awarding of the Golden Tapiro to Striscia la Notizia: “Fiorello crowned his career by imitating me. Very nice. Come on Fiore, don’t give up…”. On the criticism received, he added: “My comedy has become far-right, so it can no longer be heard”, also rejecting the accusations linked to the alleged Celtic cross: “They should prove it with documents”. And again: “In 2026 the term fascist should no longer exist… I have never hated anyone”, explaining that he had also taken a step back due to the threats received.

Fiorello then wanted to reply to Pucci on the radio: “If even comedians, or pseudo-comedians, get pissed off, then it’s over”, making fun of his colleague’s touchiness. Pucci, not happy, then responded via social media, calling himself “Pseudo comedian, golden ticket 2025” and claiming: “Never feared anything or anyone… never compromised and will never compromise.” A slogan almost like Fabrizio Corona.

Not even Fabrizio Biggio, Fiorello’s sidekick, was spared, accused of having to laugh and say “always yes” otherwise he would be “fired”. We are certain that this is only the beginning and that now Fiorello will have even more pleasure in imitating the comedian…

Gossippini

The curtain falls on Petrecca
The director of Rai Sport Paolo Petrecca has placed the mandate back in the hands of Rai CEO Giampaolo Rossi and will leave the position at the end of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. The interim leadership will be entrusted to deputy director Marco Lollobrigida. The decision comes after the controversy over the commentary – full of errors and embarrassment – of the opening ceremony and the mobilization of Usigrai, who proclaimed the signature strike, speaking of a “hard blow to the image of Rai”.

Ullalà Ullalà

After the storm unleashed by Fabrizio Corona over the alleged flirtations that Gerry Scotti would have had with the Letterine, during the years in which the quiz Passaparola was broadcast, the group itself decided to reunite. Ilary Blasi, Silvia Toffanin, Alessia Ventura, Alessia Fabiani, Liudmila Radchenko and Daniela Bello would have created a group chat in which they exchange advice on work and family. “The best thing that has ever happened in these years is that we have finally reunited,” Fabiani would have commented, celebrating the newfound bond. An interesting twist on the tale.

The bathroom of discord

On the eve of the Sanremo Festival, an indiscretion emerges regarding an alleged argument between two big names competing for a hotel room with double private bathroom. Two singers would also have signed up their respective agencies. At the moment these are only unconfirmed rumours, in a climate in which, between tests and hotels, gossip multiplies rapidly.