Ornella Muti Gets Jail for Faking Sickness to Dine with Putin



An Italian court has sentenced actress Ornella Muti to jail after she took a sick day to skip a theater performance but then flew out to have dinner with President Vladimir Putin at a charity dinner in St. Petersburg, Italian web site Oggi reported.

Muti did not appear on stage in the Italian region of Friuli in December 2010, having sent a note from a doctor saying that she had throat problems and needed five days rest, the court in Pordenone in north Italy heard, Oggi reported. But she then took part in a charity concert, along with Kevin Costner, Sharon Stone and Mickey Rourke, organized by the controversial Federatsiya fund.

The actress was sentenced to six months in jail and a 600 euro fine for fraud, but can escape jail if she pays 30,000 euros to the plaintiff, Oggi reported.

The charity trip was not Muti's only trip to Russia in recent years. In 2012, the actress danced the lezginka, a traditional Chechen dance, with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov at a city day celebration in Grozny, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.