Fashion and film - this mixture makes the box office ring.

"The devil wears Prada", "Coco Chanel" or "House of Versace" have shown how it is.

The latest work in this genre, "House of Gucci" by Ridley Scott, now also fulfills another criterion for great attention: a conflict with real people.

The heirs of the Italian fashion house have threatened an advertisement because they believe the description is incorrect and distorted.

"The Gucci family reserves the right to take any initiative to protect their name and image and that of their loved ones," said a letter quoted by the Italian news agency Ansa.

Christian Schubert

Economic correspondent for Italy and Greece.

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The film, which will hit German cinemas on Thursday and Italian cinemas on December 16, tells the story of company boss Maurizio Gucci and his wife Patrizia Reggiani, who had him killed years after the divorce.

Lady Gaga plays the person who commissioned the act of violence.

And although the American described the murder and the commission for it as “deeply wrong and condemnable” in an interview, she expressed sympathy for the Italian, who rose from a small family.

She has “thought a lot about the courage of women who dare to challenge male power”.

"Insult to the inheritance"

Such statements alarmed the descendants of Aldo Gucci, and they have now confirmed their fears. Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment in real life, of which she served 18, and yet the film portrays her in a victim role, the Guccis lament as they appear “as bullies”, “who are ignorant and insensitive to the world around them are". This is "extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today." To describe Reggiani as a victim who fights against a macho world could not be “further from the truth”.

Your legal threat is unlikely to have any consequences. The film, which is based on a book, only states that it was inspired by the real story. The Gucci family can also hardly pass itself off as exemplary. Your name stands like no other for family wars that lost an empire. After decades of power struggles, mismanagement and a lavish lifestyle, the later murdered Maurizio Gucci had to sell the once flourishing company in the 1990s. Today it belongs to the French luxury goods group Kering. The spicy note: the actress Salma Hayek is married to the Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault. She plays one of the main roles as a bosom friend of the murder instigator. The Kering Group declined to comment on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the opus about the quarrels of the rich and beautiful finds its continuation in real life: Reggiani, who once confessed to inciting the murder of her ex-husband, not only fought for an annual annuity of one million euros from the Gucci after her release. Legacy, but also for the right to use an apartment in Sankt Moritz and a sailing yacht.

An Italian court of appeal granted her the annuity and 26 million euros from the estate in November 2020.

The daughters from their marriage to Maurizio, Alessandra and Allegra should pay.

However, according to Italian media reports, the two sisters of their mother, who had their father murdered, have not yet transferred a euro.