Belén Rodríguez


María Belén Rodríguez Cozzani is an Italian-Argentine showgirl and model. Known as Belén Rodríguez or Belén, she has been based in Milan since 2004. Rodríguez hosted variety shows and appeared in television commercials and films. Considered a sex symbol of the 2000s and 2010s, she posed for nude calendars.
The international press has called Rodríguez "the Rioplatense Sophia Loren" and "the Italian Sara Carbonero". She hosted the February 2011 Sanremo Music Festival, the third Argentine. Cecilia Rodríguez, an Argentine show-woman active in Italy since 2008, is Belén's younger sister.

Biography

Early life

Rodríguez was born on 20 September 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Gustavo Rodríguez and Veronica Cozzani de Rodríguez. Veronica, of Italian origin, is the daughter of immigrants from La Spezia in Liguria. Rodríguez has a younger brother, Jeremías, in addition to her younger sister Cecilia. At age 10, she moved to Pilar with her family. Rodríguez' sister, Cecilia, has been a model in Italy since 2008. In January 2014, Cecilia became Belén's business partner. Jeremías, Gustavo and Veronica have lived in Milan since August 2015, and Jeremías has been active in Italian show business since 2017.

Personal life

From August 2004 to December 2008, Rodríguez was the girlfriend of A.C. Milan footballer Marco Borriello. From January 2009 to April 2012, she was in a relationship with Fabrizio Corona; they broke up when she met dancer Stefano de Martino, whom she married. They had a son on 9 April 2013 in Milan, and married on 20 September of that year. Rodríguez and de Martino separated on 22 December 2015, and divorced on 24 January 2017 after signing a judicial agreement at the Court of Milan; as part of the divorzio breve, de Martino was ordered to pay €1,000 per month in child support. Their divorce became final six months later. To avoid a lengthy public trial, de Martino did not request alimony. Santiago lives with Rodríguez.

Career

She has lived in Italy since 2004, hosting variety shows and appearing in films and television commercials and programs. Considered a sex symbol of the 2000s and 2010s, Rodríguez posed in Italy for Playboy and several nude calendars. The tabloid press in Italy and abroad have closely followed her life and career.
The international press called Rodríguez "the Rioplatense Sophia Loren" and "the Italian Sara Carbonero". In February 2011 she hosted the Sanremo Music Festival, the festival's third Argentine host. Rodríguez has worked with Gerry Scotti, Maria De Filippi, Paolo Bonolis, Michelle Hunziker and Gianni Morandi.

Singing

During the run of on Rai 3 in the spring of 2007, singer Taiyo Yamanouchi suggested that Rodríguez pursue a musical career; however, she preferred to continue her modeling and acting career. That fall, Rodríguez appeared with Claudia Galanti in the Boyfriend video clip for Coolio's 2008 Steal Hear album.
During the summer of 2009, Rodríguez made her vocal debut with "Dai muovi muovi" by Mario Gardini, Giovanni Paolo Fontana and Roberto De Luca. The following February she sang Toto Cutugno's "" at the Teatro Ariston, which she also sang at the 2010 Sanremo Festival with Cutugno. Rodríguez sang "Amarti è folle", written and arranged by Fortunato Zampaglione for the film Non c'è due senza te, at the Sanremo Music Festival 2015.

Acting

She made her acting debut during the summer of 2010 in the cinepanettone Natale in Sudafrica, directed by Neri Parenti and released on 17 December of that year. That fall Rodríguez appeared in Se sei così, ti dico sì and the episode "Il campo del vasaio" of the Rai 1 television series Il commissario Montalbano, which premiered on 14 March 2011. Rodríguez guest starred in several episodes of the second season of Così fan tutte, an Italia 1 sitcom directed by Gianluca Fumagalli, in 2011–2012. She dubbed her voice in the animated film Gladiatori di Roma, directed by Iginio Straffi and released on 18 October 2012. During the summer of 2014 Rodríguez appeared in Non c'è 2 senza te, directed by Massimo Cappelli and released on 5 February 2015. In August 2015 Lux Vide and RAI Fiction announced that she would guest-star in "", a :it:Episodi di Don Matteo |tenth-season episode of the Rai 1 TV series Don Matteo which premiered on 7 January 2016.

Business

Rodríguez introduced two perfumes in 2011: Belén Rodríguez and Belén Rodríguez. In January 2014 the Italian weekly magazine Il Mondo reported that she and Cecilia were founding the Family Factor, a company to oversee their family's Italian business activities. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore published Bella Belén, a photo-book, in early 2014. In June 2015 Rodríguez opened Ricci, a restaurant in Milan, with three partners. Around that time she opened beauty salons for Cotril, an Italian company in which she is a spokesperson and business partner. In December 2017, Ricci was closed and sold.

Modelling

In the autumn of 2007, Rodríguez appeared with Elisabetta Canalis and Christian De Sica in the Telecom Italia commercials as Donna dei Sogni. Her collaboration with TIM continued until February 2011.
In February 2012, Rodríguez posed nude for the cover of the Italian edition of Vanity Fair. In July 2012 She also posed nude for the cover of the Italian edition of GQ, photographed by Douglas Kirkland. In May 2013, Rodríguez and Gerry Scotti became spokespeople for the "marriage" of Barilla and McDonald's. She debuted as a stylist for the Imperfect clothing line with Fabio Castelli. In June 2013, Rodríguez became spokesperson for the Bikini Lovers cruise-wear line created by fashion blogger Chiara Biasi. In October 2013, she and Cecilia presented the 2013–2014 Imperfect fashion line as models and stylists. In December, Rodríguez was the spokesperson for Javier Zanetti's Pupi Foundation and for virtual application software created by WeChat.
As models and designers, in February 2014 Rodríguez and Cecilia presented Imperfect's third fashion line. That spring, she posed for the cover of SportWeek. Rodríguez and Cecilia designed and produced Me Fui, a new beachwear line for the summer of 2014, and Belén became the spokesperson for Samsung mobile phones. During the spring and summer of 2014, she was model and spokesperson for Richmond Perfumes. In January 2015, John Richmond replaced Rodríguez with Venezuelan model Mariana Rodríguez for the Milan fashion shows. In September 2016, she lost the Vanitas line to Madalina Ghenea.
During the summer of 2005, Rodríguez first posed nude for the Vuemme Calendar 2006. That fall, she posed nude with three other models for the De Nardi Calendar 2006. In the summer of 2006, Rodríguez posed nude for the Fer Calendar 2007. During the summers of 2007 and 2008, she posed nude for Maxim Calendars. In the autumn of 2009, Rodríguez and Cecilia posed nude for the Max Calendar 2010. Between late 2009 and early 2010, Vuemme published Calendar Vuemme 2010. In the summer and fall of 2010, Rodríguez posed for the Maxim and TIM calendars.
On 18 February 2009 Rodríguez said in a Corriere della Sera interview that several years earlier she declined an offer to pose nude for the cover of Playboy Miami, preferring to remain in Italy for a fashion shoot with an Emilian company. In early 2012, she became the face of the Arthur's Underwear lingerie line. Rodríguez, Alessandra Ambrosio and Shanina Shaik became the global spokespeople for Swarovski in August 2017.
During the spring and summer of 2015, Paul Marciano chose Rodríguez as his flagship model and the worldwide spokesperson for Guess?. Marciano also used her for spring and summer 2016 season and the fall and winter of 2016–2017. In the spring–summer of 2016 In February 2017, Rodríguez posed for Jadea's spring–summer women's intimate and homewear collections. The following month, she endorsed the Foreyever eyeglass line. In July Rodríguez endorsed McDonald's, and endorsed Alessandro Angelozzi Couture's 2018 line of wedding dresses in October. She modelled at the 2018 Milan Fashion Week, for the Swarovski line, for Jadea's new line and for Me Fui's spring–summer 2018 line.
From May to July 2018, Rodríguez modelled and endorsed for RaNpollo, Hanny Deep, Comme Des Fkdown, Gaëlle Paris, and Pyrex. She worked again with Guess? and model Stefano Sala in Cefalù, Sicily.

Television

Rodríguez debuted on television in November 2006 on Tele Boario 1, Val Camonica's local television station. After signing with Paola Benegas, her first Italian agent in Italy, she debuted on Italian national television as co-host of Rai 3's late-night comedy show La tintoria in the spring of 2007. That summer, Rodríguez co-hosted the prime-time variety Circo Massimo Show with Fabrizio Frizzi. She appeared in 4 April 2008 episode of Rai 1's prime-time variety show I raccomandati, hosted by Carlo Conti and Alessia Ventura. That spring, Rodríguez was a journalist and co-host, of Pirati, a late-night Rai 2 show. In the autumn of 2008 Belén, After modelling for Max magazine several months earlier, Rodríguez appeared in the sixth season of L'isola dei famosi that fall and placed second.
In December 2008, she joined Lucio Presta's Arcobaleno Tre agency. During the winter of 2009, Rodríguez co-hosted the eleventh season of the prime-time variety show Scherzi a parte on Canale 5. From 2009 to 2011, she appeared in mobile-phone-network television commercials and modelled jewellery. During the summer of 2009 Rodríguez co-hosted the Canale 5 quiz show Sarabanda, whose the theme song she recorded. She guest starred on 23 November episode of the 10th season of Italian Big Brother, a Canale 5 reality show hosted by Alessia Marcuzzi. In the winter of 2010, Rodríguez and Cecelia appeared on Italia 1's late-night Chiambretti Night variety show. She appeared in 18 February 2010 Sanremo Music Festival with singer Toto Cutugno.
In February 2011, Rodríguez co-hosted the Sanremo Music Festival 2011 with Gianni Morandi and Elisabetta Canalis. That spring, she co-hosted Rai 1's Ciak... si canta! with Francesco Facchinetti. Rodríguez appeared on Canale 5's variety show La notte degli chef, hosted by Alfonso Signorini, that summer. In the autumn of 2011, she co-hosted the Italia 1 comedy show ' with Paolo Ruffini, Digei Angelo and Chiara Francini. Substituting for, Rodríguez co-presented during the first two evenings of the February Sanremo Music Festival 2012. That fall, she co-hosted Colorado with Paolo Ruffini, Digei Angelo, Elena Morali and Jiang Wei. The following summer, Rodríguez and Stefano de Martino appeared on Canale 5's prime-time Studio 5.
In February 2014, during the Sanremo Music Festival, she appeared on RTL 102.5's Password and guest-starred on Rai 1's Domenica In - Speciale Sanremo. That spring, Rodríguez hosted Italia 1's afternoon ' and guest-starred on Colorado. In May and June she danced on Italia 1's ', a late-night talk show and hosted by Piero Chiambretti. That fall, Rodríguez co-hosted the of Canale 5's ' with Francesco Sole. On 8 February 2015, she co-hosted the Canale 5 quiz show ' with Gerry Scotti.
In the autumn of 2015, Rodríguez and Francesco Sole hosted the of '. That winter, she hosted the of the Canale 5 prime-time children's talent show '.
During the 2016-2017 season Rodríguez appeared on ', ', ', ' and the '. In May and June 2017 Rodríguez appeared in the second season of ', hosted by Simona Ventura. That fall, she co-hosted the of Tú sí que vales; her co-host, Simone Rugiati, was replaced by Martin Castrogiovanni and Alessio Sakara. In October, Rodríguez guest-starred in the second season of Grande Fratello VIP and the fifth season of '.
She guest-starred on the 17th season of the talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi with Maradona in April 2018, and with Michelle Hunziker in May. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Rodríguez appeared on the sports talk show . That fall, she hosted the of Tú sí que vales.

Awards

YearAwardWorkResult
2011
Personaggio rivelazione dell'anno
2013Accademia Amici della Lirica
Donna dell'anno
2014Galà della Pubblicità
Eccellenza dell'anno
2015San Gennaro Day
Opera d'arte vivente dell'anno

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2004No hay 2 sin 3Various charactersArgentine variety show
2006Palermo Hollywood HotelMaríaArgentine TV Series; 19 episodes
2007La tintoriaHerselfCo-host
2007VerissimoHerselfGuest interviewer
2008L'isola dei famosiHerselfItalian reality show, contestant
2009Scherzi a parteHerselfCo-host alongside Claudio Amendola
2010Ciak... si canta!HerselfCo-host
2010Inspector MontalbanoDolores GutierrezItalian TV Series; episode: "Il campo del vasaio"
2011Così fan tutteHerselfItalian sketch comedy show, season 1
2011Sanremo Music FestivalHerselfAnnual music festival, co-host
2012Sanremo Music FestivalHerselfAnnual music festival, co-host
2012–2013Italia's Got TalentHerselfCo-host
2014–presentTú sí que valesHerselfItalian talent show, host
2015–2016Striscia la notiziaHerselfCo-host
2016Don MatteoCeleste MartinezItalian TV Series, episode: "La colpa"
2016Piccoli gigantiHerselfHost
2017Selfie - Le cose cambianoHerselfGuest
2019ColoradoHerselfCo-host alongside Paolo Ruffini
2019Sanremo YoungHerselfItalian talent show, judge