(Credits: Far Out / Pathé France)
Being a celebrity comes with plenty of positives and negatives, with the constant hounding by paparazzi falling firmly into the latter camp. There’s not much that can be done about it in an age where everybody is always recording everything, meaning the bespoke retaliation of Anita Ekberg will never be matched.
Already a tabloid obsession and Hollywood pin-up in the 1950s, the Swedish actor toured with Bob Hope, was signed to a contract with John Wayne’s production company, and co-starred with ‘The Duke’ as well as other high-profile stars, including Lauren Bacall, Audrey Hepburn, Jerry Lewis, and Frank Sinatra.
The peak of her career undoubtedly came when she starred as Sylvia Rank in Federico Fellini’s 1960 classic La Dolce Vita, an international sensation that quickly became regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. The downside is that it increased her profile even further, with her attack on the paparazzi coming later that same year.
The character of Paparazzo in Fellini’s masterpiece was said to have been partially inspired by Felice Quinto, who was dubbed ‘The King of the Paparazzi’ for his no-holds-barred approach to capturing pictures of the rich and famous, which popularized many of the tactics still used to today.
After visiting several nightclubs alongside producer Guido Giambartolomeo, Ekberg would retire to her villa for the evening, but she wasn’t alone. As he tended to do, Quinto was lying in wait, recalling to The LA Times that “we took pictures of them going into the house”.
Ekberg wouldn’t stand for it, though, with the photographer revealing that “we were getting on our motorbikes to leave, when Anita came running out of the house with a bow and arrow in her hand.” Presumably unaware that she’d been training in archery for a role in The Mongols, she opened fire.
According to Quinto, she demanded the pictures, and then unloaded. He was struck in the left forearm, while another paparazzo was reportedly struck twice in the back. Needless to say, they didn’t hang around much longer, but they’d already completed their assignment by snapping Ekberg both before, during, and after she’d returned home.
A movie star wearing a cocktail dress while wielding a bow and arrow before using the weapon to chase off the paparazzi is, without a doubt, one of the most unique ways of dealing with unwanted press intrusion, and Quinto would have undoubtedly regretted his decision to follow Ekberg back to her residence right while she was in the midst of training for a film where she could put these skills to the test.
If it were to happen today, then there would be serious consequences, but everybody simply went about their business afterwards, although Ekberg did at least manage to avoid being caught on camera utilizing any more weaponry on the press.
