Word: veneto
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Rome's Via Veneto, the night was gay with lights and pink azaleas in curbside tubs. At a sidewalk cafe, Ivan Kro-scenko, 31. a man in a black leather jacket, sipped espresso and cased the pedestrian traffic with a predatory eye. A bearded giant strode past: Cinemactor Steve ("Hercules") Reeves. "Mr. Universe," sneered Kroscenko softly. "So who cares?" He was after bigger game. "Linda Christian. Ava Gardner, Anita Ekberg. Jayne Mansfield." he rolled the names lovingly across his tongue. "They are important people. They make trouble." Kroscenko rose, slung the strap of his Rolleicord camera over a shoulder...
Trouble that can be shot with a cam era is Kroscenko's business. A three-block stretch of the Via Veneto, cascading from the Aurelian Wall to the U.S. embassy, is his favorite hunting ground. Here, in the glittering array of hotels, smart shops and open-air cafes, throng Kroscenko's picturesque prey. He is a paparazzo* one of a ravenous wolf pack of freelance photographers who stalk big names for a living and fire with flash guns at point-blank range...
...safe, not even royalty (see cut). In February on the Veneto, when U.S. Actor Ernest Borgnine and his estranged wife, Katy Jurado, wrangled in the street, cameras popped. They caught Actor Cornel Wilde struggling with a local heckler, froze Anita Ekberg's bosom as it heaved in a wild dance at a private Roman orgy. When Katharine Hepburn passed through town recently, the paparazzi mounted Vespa scooters, putt-putted out to waylay her at Fiumicino Airport. Because Ava Gardner once called him a dirty name. Paparazzo Tazio Secchiaroli vengefully hid for hours in a cardboard box on a Cinecitta...
Legitimate news photographers scorn the paparazzi as streetwalkers of Roman journalism. But like streetwalkers, they cling to their place in society. Via Veneto cafes have found they are good for business. With paparazzi lurking just off the premises, cash customers mass to watch for fireworks...
...then, a paparazzo goes on to loftier things-Tazio Secchiaroli has his own agency, employs five photographers. But most are content to bay on the Via Veneto. Displaced Russian Kroscenko would not consider moving his base of operations. "I couldn't live anywhere else but here," he said. "I feel like a king. I make the Via Veneto, and it makes...