Milan
A 73-year-old mother of 11 has won Italy’s hottest new television competition, Velone, in which geriatric women gyrate about onstage for a chance to claim the $286,000 prize. Carpina Zuccarino, who has 21 grandchildren, outdanced and outsang the competition, which included one woman who swore she once saw a UFO. Producer Antonio Ricci said he wanted to let older women show their fun side. But the show has faced withering criticism from commentators, who say it proves that Italians are willing to suffer any indignity for the chance to appear on television. “Older Italians should be respected for their hard-earned wrinkles,” said sociology professor Franco Ferrarotti, “not for whether they can wiggle their arthritic hips.”
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