March 27, 2008 — She’s no longer a porn star, but Cicciolina is still outrageous.
The notorious Italian actress and former member of Parliament has filed suit demanding that her controversial artist ex-husband pay her $2.3 million in back child support for the son she kidnapped from him a decade ago.
Cicciolina – whose real name is Ilona Staller – says in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that multimillionaire Jeff Koons hasn’t paid any child support for their son Ludwig since 1998.
That’s four years after she defied a court order and smuggled the boy out of New York and back to her home in Italy, where the now-15-year-old lives today.
Koons, who has since remarried, was traveling and could not be reached for comment.
The controversial artist had introduced himself to the porn star – who was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1987 – in the late ’80s, and she quickly became his muse. She started posing for his sexually explicit pictures, paintings and sculptures, and they fell in love and married in 1991.
Staller gave birth to Ludwig – whom Koons referred to as “a biological sculpture” – soon after, but their marriage eventually fell apart. That led to an international divorce and custody battle. Staller took the boy with her on a business trip to Italy and didn’t come back. Koons flew to Italy and brought the boy back while Staller was off performing an “erotic show” in South America.
A Manhattan judge ruled the boy should stay in New York for the duration of the divorce proceedings.
But Staller ignored the order and took the boy back to Italy.
After a hard-fought legal battle, Koons was awarded custody of Ludwig by an Italian judge in 1998. That decision was reversed a year later by an appeals court, which ruled Ludwig should stay with his mom because he’d been living with her for most of his life.
Staller’s suit says Koons has paid only a total of about $250,000 in child support over the years. The suit says the Italian court ordered him to pay about $22,000 a month back in 1998, and he’s ignored the order.
Koons’ custody fight has cost him big bucks. He rang up $4 million in legal fees, some of which he later challenged unsuccessfully.
Among Koons’ complaints was his lawyers charged him for time they spent watching his ex’s porn films, one of which famously includes her sexual interlude with a snake. A judge later ordered Koons to pony up.
