How he defines himself: “I am the man of the pots and mattresses”. How others define him: “I don’t know about the others. But even today, when I walk into the Cologno Monzese studios to shoot a teleshopping, they shove a little contract in my face that says “artist”. That always made me smile, because it’s the same profession that one would attribute to Picasso or Van Gogh, let’s say the term “entertainment professional”, also for contracts, would be more correct».
Giorgio Mastrotanon has been directing his own programs for more than twenty years. But thanks to teleshopping and telepromotion of pots and mattresses, “to which have been added those of recliners,” he’s still one of the most recognizable faces on TV. It’s difficult to find an Italian over forty passing him on the street and not recognizing him. In 1998, the news of Natalia Estrada’s split hit the Rg5 headlines in the evening. Last September, after 11 years of dating, he married Floribeth Gutierrez, mother of two of his four children, and hardly anyone noticed. In a few weeks he will be 59 years old.
His life changed when he won the 1988 edition of the Most Beautiful in Italy competition.
«Everything piloted, I was recommended».
Are you kidding?
“Not at all. Gianfranco Funari, chairman of the jury of the competition held in Loano, invited me to participate with the guarantee of winning. The problem is that besides me, who was recommended by the part of the jury that came from television, there was another one recommended by the cinema world. His name was Caveri, I don’t know what happened to him».
how did they get out
“By multiplying prices. Caveri “the most beautiful in Italy”, Mastrota “the ideal man”».
When had he met Funari?
«Foreword: I come from a family that had nothing to do with the world of entertainment. Calabrian father from Civita, Arbereshe origin, high school in Naples, then insurance salesman in Milan; Venetian mother, housewife. As early as 1988, I had broken off my studies in business administration at Bocconi and enrolled in political science. Andrea, who is still one of my best friends today, takes part as a competitor in the couples game moderated by Marco Predolin and brings a photo of me to the authors, including Marco Balestri.»
Do you take them too?
‘They give me some tests and in the end they turn me down. But they suggest that I do photo novels in the “Grand Hotel”: a hundred thousand lire a day, just think that I used to earn four thousand as a setter in the tennis club below. Then, also thanks to the photo novels, I started being a “Boy Sponsor” in the show “Smile” with Federica Panicucci, hosted by Gerry Scotti. Fininvest decides to send some of us to theater studies to learn what it was like on stage. Besides me and Panicucci, to name just one other name, there was Simona Ventura».
Yes, but Funari?
‘The wife of Alberto Tagliati, then manager of the Grand Hotel, referred me to Gianfranco. “Look, this mastrota is not only good-looking, but also awake”. So I start working with Funari, and since he gets along very well with me, he has the gimmick of taking me to the “Bello d’Italia” of which he was the jury president. After becoming “The Ideal Man” in 1988, they let me conduct “The Ideal Woman” and the following year “Improvvisando” together with Ramona Dell’Abate always on Rai».
Cash?
«Eight hundred thousand lire per episode for eight episodes. Total: six million four hundred thousand lire. The program was in Saint-Vincent and I stayed at the Billia Hotel, the one with the casino. Convinced that the treatment was all-inclusive, I began to indulge in what I had previously considered unattainable luxuries. I tried the smoked salmon which I have never tasted before and it was always smoked salmon. An imperceptible stain on the shirt? Ready to go, I called the Grand Hotel’s laundry service and an hour later the clean shirt came. When I leave, they hand me a bill for 4 million at the reception. And with Rai’s salary of over six million arriving after a few weeks, my father was forced to rush from Milan to Saint-Vincent to write a check and get me to leave.”
When are soap operas coming out?
«Two years later, in 1991. In the meantime, Tiziana Martinengo, who is still a friend of mine, called me to Fininvest to act as correspondent for Patrizia Rossetti’s programmes. At some point people in Cologno started looking for an Italian face for the then very successful South American telenovelas with Grecia Colmenares and Jorge Martinez. They asked me if I happened to speak Spanish and I said yes, “of course I do”».
was it true
“Not at all. I knew that the tapes of the Spanish classes existed in the Sormani library, which I used to go to when I was a political science student. I locked myself in there for a couple of weeks without telling anyone. Then I went to Buenos Aires to play the role of Marcello Negri in the telenovela Manuela».
Without these ribbons, he would never have married Natalia Estrada. Or not?
«In 1992 I was given the direction of “Bathroom Beauty”, Fininvest’s answer to “Games Without Borders”. Italian-Spanish production: I hosted the version broadcast on Canale 5 together with Patrizia Rossetti; Natalia the one that is broadcast in Spain by Telecinco. This happened in the summer. We got married already in December, Natalia Junior would come in 1995».
How was the breakup?
“Difficult. Liked, wanted, loved, married: all in very rapid succession, like a fire burning out one by one. The end of the marriage was such a sensational event that it made the Rg5 headlines. But the suffering of the post office was also accelerated. You know, when everyone knows something, you leave the house and get comforting words from everyone: from the passer-by, from the newsagent, from the butcher. And go first».
What did the giants of commercial television look like up close?
‘I’ve never met anyone with the humility of Raimondo Vianello. This half bow she reserved for the viewer was the same with which she approached the costume designers, the seamstresses, the studio assistants, the concierge boys. Sandra Mondaini treated me as if I were her son, always loving. When teleshopping started there were a few weeklies that made the headlines and appeared with the quote attributed to me “Here I am, I’m the king of teleshopping”. Mike, the true king of teleshopping, didn’t like it. “You can’t say that!” he would tell me every time I would meet him in the dressing room. “But Mike, I never said it!”. “Yes, but don’t say it,” he insisted. And I, who had a holy respect for him: “Okay, Mike, I won’t say it anymore”».
Berlusconi’s entry into politics saw them all on one side. Did you also vote for the knight?
“I come from a Christian Democratic family tradition. So, as a moderate looking more center-right, yes I voted for him. But I’ve always been a pragmatist, even as a voter. I look at the person a lot, in fact I voted for Beppe Sala in Milan. My father, on the other hand, had become an enthusiastic Berlusconi supporter; Berlusconi in all its forms was almost a vocation for him. And what happens? Three years after the end of her marriage to me, Natalia starts dating Paolo Berlusconi, so it happened that we saw him occasionally, for example on holidays. Well, dad was happy for those moments to see a Berlusconi in the family, even alongside his ex-daughter-in-law».
Mastrota, how did you disappear from the circle of TV presenters?
«Television consists of ups and downs. And those who do fall into two categories: those who accept and those who don’t. I was always in the first group. In 1995 I took on a program, Born to Win, that went horribly wrong. In the meantime, having continued to engage in telesales and telepromotion with some success, the companies insisted that essentially this was what I and I should do».
Have you ever had the opportunity to reorient yourself?
«After “Meteore” with Gene Gnocchi on Italia 1, Rai offers me “Festa di Classe” based on Amadeus. I should have moved to Rome, quit teleshopping and most importantly gotten away from Federico, my then partner Carolina’s second son who was just born. There are those who live with a desire for revenge, and those who, on the other hand, face life’s choices ask themselves a simple question: Am I okay or not?
Did you choose revenge or the question?
‘I chose the question. And I quickly found the answer. Yes, I was fine.”
Do you think again?
‘Of course I’ll think about it. And if it happens, I’ll rephrase the question. The answer is that I’m fine, so it was okay to give up. Today there are four children. After Natalia Junior and Federico Matilde and Lorenzo arrived, Floribeth and I finally got married and we live surrounded by nature, in Bormio. I still do teleshopping and spend my free time reading essays on Italian and international politics, my passion».
Did you then study political science?
“I only need the thesis review, I passed all the exams”.
Looking back, what surprises you?
“Perhaps it’s the same one that still amazes me after so many years when I sign this contract to go on the air. The fact that the undersigned, Mastrota Giorgio, is officially considered with the same word as Van Gogh or Picasso: artist. But wouldn’t “professional entertainment” be better?».