Lady Gaga’s already on the wrong side of real-life House of Gucci heiress who plotted husband’s murder
Lady Gaga with Adam Driver on the set of House of Gucci. (Instagram)
Lady Gaga has courted criticism from Patrizia Reggiani, the wealthy socialite convicted for ordering the death of her ex-husband of Maurizio Gucci, for not meeting her ahead of a film based on her life.
House of Gucci, the biographical crime film based on a 2001 book of the same name, will star Gaga as Reggiani with actor Adam Driver as Maurizio, the grandson of the fashion house’s founder Guccio Gucci.
Photographs of the pair have already ascended to meme status, but Reggiani has said she is struggling to see the funny side of it because Gaga failed to do one important thing – meet her in person.
If Lady Gaga were a ‘good actor’ she would have reached out to me, says Gucci heiress
Chatting to Italian news agency Ansa, Reggiani, 72, said: “I’m annoyed by the fact that Lady Gaga is portraying me in the new Ridley Scott film without even having the courtesy or the good sense to come and meet me.
“It’s nothing to do with money because I won’t be taking a single cent from the film. It’s about common sense and respect.
“I believe that any good actor should first get to know the person that they are meant to be playing.
“I think it is not right that I wasn’t contacted. And I say this with all the sympathy and appreciation that I have for her.”
Lady Gaga (L) and US actor Adam Driver (R) in costume filming House of Gucci. (MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
The film, set for a November 2021 release in American movie theatres, is marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the house of Gucci.
But it is a brand straddled by baggage. Maurizio, the scion who helmed the house in the 1980s, was shot and killed in Milan, Italy, by a hitman hired by Reggiani in 1995.
The pair had split in 1985, and Maurizio had sold out his 50 per cent share of the family empire in 1993. His last, rocky few years as head of the company were defined by bitter lawsuits and feuds.
It was a brutal slaying – Maurizio was shot twice from behind, twice in the face – that shuddered throughout Italy. Reggiani was quickly dubbed the so-called “black widow” by the Italian press.
Reggiani was convicted two years later by a jury in Milan and sentenced to 29 years in prison – later reduced to 26 years on appeal.
Her personal psychic, Guiseppina Auriemma, meanwhile, who first contacted the killers, was given a 25-year-long sentence.
The heiress, once one of Italy’s most well-known members of the jet set class, was released from prison in 2016.
