Simonetta Stefanelli

Infobox actor
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name = Simonetta Stefanelli


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birthdate = birth date and age|1954|11|30
location = Italy
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Simonetta Stefanelli (November 30, 1954) is an Italian actress, born in Rome, Italy. Stefanelli is best known outside Italy for her role in "The Godfather" (1972), in which she played Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone, Michael Corleone's (played by Al Pacino) wife. Simonetta Stefanelli was only 17 years old when she was filmed in the role of Michael Corleone's first wife, Apollonia Vitelli, the daughter of a bar owner in rural Sicily. Stefanelli knew no English when she played this role and was an unknown.

She also appeared in more than a dozen Italian films, sometimes in leading roles. In the 1992 movie "Le Amiche del Cuore" (a.k.a. "Close Friends"), she plays the character Giuliana. She was also known to have posed for "Playboy" in 1974.

Stefanelli was married to the actor/director Michele Placido, with whom she appeared in a number of films including the 1975 erotic drama "Peccati in famiglia ". They had three children together, including Violante Placido, but they divorced in 1994.

For many years she has lived with the burden of people consistently claiming that she has died in one manner or another. In an October 23, 2007 article, in "Newsday", she explains how difficult it has been for her to deal with this. "I lost [clients] because ... many people don't call me," she said. According to her, it was her son Brenno who first noticed an Internet posting that reported she died in July 2006. Thinking the boy was joking, Stefanelli said her first instinct was to chastise him, but Brenno insisted that he was not lying, and he showed her the Internet posting. Though being interviewed elsewhere many times, Stefanelli said she hasn’t gone to the Italian media about the issue, fearing more negative publicity.

The false reports faced by Stefanelli, which haven't stopped even with the help of a lawyer, Rosanna Grillo, in Italy, are examples of how false news can persist on the Internet. Stefanelli has said that she remembered getting calls from friends, some in tears, who thought she was dead. After getting a recent condolence message from a "Newsday" report, she decided to talk to them because she recently opened a boutique on Rome's Via Chiana, called Simo Bloom, and wants people to know she is alive.

She is currently a designer of purses and shoes.

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