• Link Party: Angelina Jolie Gets Salty

  EOnline.com - Found Nov. 17, 2009 Driver','Mira Sorvino','Mischa Barton','Moby','Molly Ringwald','Molly Shannon','Molly Sims','Monica Bellucci','Monica Keena','Monique Imes...

• First Official Photos From Disney?s The Sorcerer?s Apprentice

  /Film - Found Nov. 10, 2009 ? The film, also features  Teresa Palmer ( Bedtime Stories ) as Baruchel?s love interest and  Monica Bellucci ( Passion of the Christ...

• Monica Bellucci Embraces Sex Trafficking

  Cinema Blend - Found Oct. 20, 2009 Google Tip: Searching for pictures of Monica Bellucci may result in the transmission of a malicious virus... but it's worth it.

• Monica Bellucci, Vanessa Redgrave, David Strathairn join The ...

  Screendaily - Found Oct. 19, 2009 Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci and David Strathairn have been cast alongside lead Rachel Weisz in Larysa Kondracki?s The Whistleblower, a Canada...

• Monica Bellucci's slimming tips

  stuff.co.nz - Found Aug. 28, 2009 Beauty Beauty genes Mid-winter pick-me-ups Monica Bellucci dresses in black so she doesn't have to go to the gym.

• Monica Bellucci Gym Blackout

  FemaleFirst.co.uk - Found Aug. 25, 2009 Monica Bellucci dresses in black so she doesn't have to go to the gym.

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  Africa Leader - Found Aug. 25, 2009 Italian actress Monica Bellucci says that she is bored of Hollywood glitz and glamour and prefers to be at home with her four-year-old daughter Deva.

Monica Bellucci
Monica Bellucci at the Women's World Award 2009
Born	Monica Anna Maria Bellucci 30 September 1964 (1964-09-30) (age 45) Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy
Occupation	Actress and fashion model
Years active	1990 – present
Spouse(s)	Vincent Cassel (1999 – present)

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (born 30 September 1964¹) is an Italian actress and fashion model.

Personal life

Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy,²³ the daughter of Maria Gustinelli, a painter, and Luigi Bellucci, who owned a trucking company.⁴ Bellucci started modelling at 16, when she was attending the Liceo classico. Initially pursuing a career as a lawyer, Bellucci modeled to pay her tuition at the University of Perugia,⁵ but the lifestyle tempted her away from her law studies. She speaks Italian, French, and English fluently, Spanish semi-fluently, and she has had speaking roles in each of these languages as well as in Aramaic for her part as Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ.

Bellucci is married to fellow actor Vincent Cassel, with whom she has appeared in several films, and has a daughter named Deva (born 12 September 2004). In 2004, while pregnant with her daughter, Bellucci posed nude for the Italian Vanity Fair Magazine in protest against Italian laws that prevent the use of donor sperm.⁶

Career

Modeling

In 1988, Bellucci moved to one of Europe's fashion centers, Milan, where she signed with Elite Model Management. By 1989, she was becoming prominent as a fashion model in Paris and across the Atlantic, in New York City. She posed for Dolce & Gabbana and French Elle, among others. In that year, Bellucci made the transition to acting and began taking acting classes. The February 2001 Esquire's feature on Desire featured Ms. Bellucci on the cover and in an article on the five senses. In 2003, she was featured in Maxim.⁷ In 2004, she topped AskMen's 100 Most Beautiful Women in the World annual list. Bellucci's modelling career is managed by Elite+ in New York City. She is considered an Italian sex symbol.⁸⁹¹⁰ She is currently a face of a range of Dior Cosmetics. Bellucci is also signed to Storm Model Management in London.

Entertainment

At the 2009 Women's World Award.

Bellucci's film career began in the early 1990s. In 1992, she made her first appearance in a major English-language film as one of Dracula's brides in Bram Stoker's Dracula. She became known and popular with worldwide audiences, following her roles in Malèna (2000), Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), and Irréversible (2002), though is perhaps best known for her role as Persephone in The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), followed by her portrayal of Mary Magdelene in The Passion of the Christ (2004).

In a documentary about the film, The Big Question, she stated: "I am an agnostic, even though I respect and am interested in all religions. If there's something I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites nature and beings."¹¹

In 2003, Bellucci starred in Tears of the Sun as a doctor in Nigeria being rescued by the U.S., and in 2005 in the fantasy film The Brothers Grimm as a beautiful evil queen. Her latest films are The Stone Council (2006) by Guillaume Nicloux, and Manuale d'amore 2 (2007), where she portrays a physiotherapist, who is the object of the desire of her patient. She was supposed to be seen portraying Indian politician Sonia Gandhi in the biopic Sonia, originally planned for release in 2007, but now shelved. September 2007 saw the release of Shoot 'Em Up, where she plays a prostitute, opposite Clive Owen. She dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of the film.¹²

She filmed Le deuxième souffle (2006), with Daniel Auteuil, Michel Blanc and Eric Cantona.

Bellucci also voiced Kaileena in the video game Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and the French voice of Cappy for the French version of the 2005 animated film Robots.

In 2007, she appeared in Heartango (2007), a film for Intimissimi, with José Fidalgo and directed by Gabriele Muccino.

Awards

In 2003, Bellucci won the Nastro d'Argento Best Supporting Actress award for her portrayal of Alessia in Remember Me, My Love.¹³ She has been nominated for several others, including the 1996 César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lisa in L'Appartement.¹⁴

Filmography

References

1. ^ Birth registration from the Perugina Registry Office, [1]
2. ^ Martínez, Claudio (30 October 2003). "Persephone". El Diario de Hoy. http://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/2003/10/30/escenarios/escen1.html. Retrieved 2009-11-09. 
3. ^ "Monica Bellucci: Biography". MSN. http://movies.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=254848&mp=b. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
4. ^ "Monica Bellucci Biography (1969?–)". Filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/49/Monica-Bellucci.html. Retrieved 2007-09-08. 
5. ^ Corliss, Richard (10 March 2003). "It's Monica Mania". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004378,00.html. Retrieved 2007-05-26. 
6. ^ Owen, Richard (4 June 2005). "Actresses fight Pope over fertility". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article529864.ece. Retrieved 2007-05-30. 
7. ^ "Monica Bellucci Photos". Maxim. http://www.maximonline.com/girls_of_maxim/pictures_and_bio/977/MonicaBellucci.girl. Retrieved 2007-01-15. 
8. ^ Salisbury, Mark (23 October 2005). "Danger woman". Guardian Unlimited, The Observer. http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,1598393,00.html. Retrieved 2007-05-26. 
9. ^ Davies, Hugh (23 January 2003). "Gibson brings his passion for Christ to the big screen". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/23/wmel23.xml&site=5&page=0. Retrieved 2007-05-26. 
10. ^ Morgoglione, Claudia (14 October 2006). "Monica baronessa divertente per Virzì "Bello quel ruolo un po' da mignotta"". La Repubblica. http://www.repubblica.it/2006/10/sezioni/spettacoli_e_cultura/cinema/roma/monica-bellucci/monica-bellucci/monica-bellucci.html. Retrieved 2007-05-26.  (Italian)
11. ^ "Monica-Bellucci.net". http://www.monica-bellucci.net/. Retrieved 2006-10-08. 
12. ^ CraveOnline (5 September 2007). "Monica Bellucci's balancing act". CraveOnline. http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/film/article/monica-belluccis-balancing-act-64993. Retrieved 2007-10-21. 
13. ^ Vivarelli, Nick (16 June 2003). "'scared' Nabs Italian Silver". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4889349-1.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
14. ^ Campion, Chris (5 October 2006). "Fantasy made flesh". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3588732/Fantasy-made-flesh.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 

External links

Film portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Monica Bellucci

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Monica Bellucci

• Monica Bellucci at the Internet Movie Database
• Monica Bellucci at BFI Film & TV Database
• Monica Bellucci at Fashion Model Directory
• Monica Bellucci at Allmovie
• Monica Bellucci at Yahoo! Movies