Ilona Staller, better known by her stage name Cicciolina, is a politician active in Italy's libertarian Partito Radicale, former porn star and disco singer.

She was born November 26, 1951 in Budapest, Hungary. Her stepfather was an official in the Ministry of the Interior, her mother a midwife. In 1964, she began working for the Hungarian modelling agency, M.T.I.. She lost her virginity at the age of sixteen with an African student. Naturalized by marriage and settled in Italy, she met pornographer Riccardo Schicchi in early 1970s and achieved fame with a radio show called "Voulez vous coucher avec moi?" on Radio Luna. For that program she adopted the name "Cicciolina". In 1978, on the RAI show "C'era due Volte" her breasts were the first to be seen bared on Italian TV.

In 1979 she was elected the leading candidate of the "Lista del Sole", Italy's first Green Party. In 1985 she switched to the Partito Radicale, campaigning against nuclear energy and NATO membership, for human rights, and against starvation anywhere in the world. She was elected to the Italian parliament in 1987, representing the Lazio district of Rome. She starred in her last porno film in 1989.

In 1991 when the preamble to the Gulf War was going on, she offered to give Saddam Hussein the most mind boggling fuck of his life, if he would withdraw his troops from Kuwait.

Staller married American sculptor Jeff Koons in 1991. Koons produced sculptures and paintings of Staller and him having sex which were exhibited as "Made in Heaven". Their marriage broke up in 1992, and their son Ludwig was born shortly afterwards. Staller left the US with the child, and a lengthy custody battle ensued. Koons won custody in 1998 but the son remains with Staller in Italy.

She continues to be active in politics, advocating a safe future without nuclear energy and with absolute sexual freedom including the right to sex in prisons. She is against all forms of violence including the death penalty and the use of animals for fur or scientific experimentation. She is for the decriminalization of drugs, against censorship of any kind, in favour of sex education in schools, and for objective information about AIDS. She has proposed a tax on automobiles to reduce the damages of smog and fund the defence of nature.

In January 2002, she began exploring the possibility of campaigning in Hungary, where she was born, to represent Budapest's industrial Kőbánya district in the Hungarian parliament but failed to collect enough signatures for a non-partisan candidacy. More recently, she has expressed an interest in running for mayor of Milan.

Quotes

"My breasts have never done anyone any harm, while bin Laden's war has caused thousands of victims." -- October 2002

"I am here not showing my breasts. Now I am speaking about poor people so it is not necessary -- not because I don't have beautiful breasts ... even now. But it's not necessary showing because poor people have no interest in my breasts." -- 2002

External links

• Staller music album cover
• Filmography Warning: contains explicit pornographic content
• Former Italian porn star says she wants to be Milan's mayor