It must not be an easy thing to live in a country that peaked during the Renaissance, where the trains haven't run on time since Mussolini, and where Life Is Beautiful is hailed as first native film since the 60s that doesn't altogether suck. But in a country where every new hot actress is dubbed the new Sophia Loren, where porn stars get elected to parliament, and where rape is considered consensual if the victim is wearing jeans, it must be even harder and weirder to be an Italian woman.

Especially if the woman has a face and a bustline like Deborah Caprioglio. Deborah was 20 years old when her 62 year old boyfriend Klaus Kinski launched her career and life of notoriety by putting her in the co-starring role in his film Paganini, a sex flick that became an immediate scandal and prompted a lawsuit from the movie's own company on the grounds that it was close to porn. Shortly after she starred in another soft-core movie, Paprika, whereupon she was crowned the new Sophia Loren and seemed destined for greatness indeed, after she and Kinski broke up, she was dating government ministers and might have gone on to be the new Ilona Staller as well as the new Sophia Loren. Italy was hers for the taking.

But it wouldn't wait forever. For whatever reasons, Deborah didn't appear in another film until two years after all the hooplah over Paprika, and in the mean time it looks as though Rome had already found other Venuses to adore. Deborah then had a brief Renaissance of her own and managed to crank out a couple of films a year, but by 1996 her wild ride was largely over. Nowadays the once hopeful new Sophia Loren is starting to look a little like the old Sophia Loren, and there doesn't seem to be much to show for it except for a couple of isolated web pages like this one.