He will turn 50 on June 10th: “With telephone chats alone, in one year I made a million euros in turnover. The fans called 899 and spoke to me, they listened to me. Sometimes I told them about my day, what I was doing, normal things” , he tells Corriere della Sera
“Men and women” invented the figure of “tronista” on the small screen, a term that has been part of entertainment jargon for years. In the imagination of viewers the first was Costantino Vitaglianohis relationship with Alessandra Pierelli and the subsequent romantic implications glued millions and millions of viewers to the screen. Over the years the program has taken other paths and Vitagliano’s notoriety is certainly not the samebut thanks to those years he still manages to earn significant amounts.
He will be 50 years old next June 10th: “With telephone chats alone I generated a million euro turnover in one year. Fans would call 899 and talk to me, they listened to me. Sometimes I would talk about my day, what I was doing, normal things,” he tells Corriere della Sera ensuring that he still uses his image today. She remembers the golden years: “I earned a lot. Suffice it to say that on a whim I suddenly bought a Bentley for 250 thousand euros, which I had six-seven houses. I couldn’t quantify. At a certain point the requests were too many, to limit the evenings the agency raised the fee to the maximum, going beyond ten thousand euros for an hour. And instead of decreasing, the questions increased. I earned and made others earn.”
Now the climate and earnings, chat aside, are different: “Now discos are no longer hosted: there are events in shops, in shopping centres. Per event I ask for two thousand euros plus expenses for 90 minutes. But I can choose, they also ask me at aperitifs and shops, I evaluate”. “I was in demand, I got excited for years. People were looking for me, I arrived and the delirium went away. I never felt used in a negative way. In the collective imagination, I’m the one at Lele Mora’s feet in the flirty photos: fake. Lele Mora and I worked together but Costantino never kissed or massaged feet, ever. Neither in a literal nor metaphorical sense,” explains Vitagliano. In 2023 he was diagnosed with a serious illness: “I was having checks in the hospital. They saw a stain: the umbilical aorta had gone from 21 millimeters to 36. ‘You’re not leaving here’. The aorta could explode and there would be no more left for anyone. For 40 days I thought I had a tumor, I had to stay at absolute rest. Today I have two injections in my belly a week. I started training again, light things. I have changed physically: it is not easy but I move forward. I’m getting back up.”
