Vittorio Sodano Studios/Los Angeles

11/26/2023

Hi Vittorio,
Happy Sunday! So I know you got my last letter and you won't answer. This makes me so sad. I've given you so many chances to do the right thing but you will not do it. Why do you want to make this so hard? Do you really want me to take you to court and force you to pay your debt? Do you really want me to take away your business? Really?

OK I will make you an offer. I paid Sam $14,000 over three years. I paid your debt for three years. I will never understand how any man could let a woman pay his debt for him. Can you pay half? Pay half of what you owe me and I will take down the page and I will leave you alone and I will not take you to court. This is your last chance and if I don't hear from you, you better get a lawyer.

Love,
Gina

11/25/2023

I am so thankful for so many things and I say it out loud every day, but the thing that I am most thankful for right now is that Vittorio Sodano has relocated to Los Angeles and opened up a makeup "academy" in a house in Porter Ranch. For those of you who know the backstory, this means that I can FINALLY sue him for the money he owes me. Since it's nearly impossible to sue someone overseas, the fact that he is here and running a business in my town is a true blessing.

*Note: I don't want to hurt his business, his house, or his career, but he's had years to pay me and he's never even attempted to send me one dime. Time to be a man and do the right thing.
WHAT KIND OF MAN LETS A WOMAN PAY FOR HIS MISTAKES?

11/12/2023

Hi Vittorio,
It's your ex-wife here. I've realized that you have now taken residency in California and are conducting business on a residential property, most likely without a proper license.

As you remember, you signed a 3-year lease for a commercial property in North Hollywood back in October 2010, for which I was a co-signor. You left the U.S. to go back to Italy shortly thereafter and stuck me with the legal and financial responsibility of that lease. The property owner sued me for that lease in the amount of $50,400 ($1,400/month for 36 months), of which I paid over $14,000. I stopped paying after I lost my own shop and the property owner did not further pursue the case, but it was reported to my credit bureau and prevented me from renting any other property for the following 7 years.

Leaving me to take responsibility for YOUR shop is not only extremely unethical and unfair, it is shameful and cruel. After 13 years of trying to get you to do the right thing and to pay me back for YOUR mistake, I have no choice but to take legal action against you and your new business now that you are in Los Angeles. I do not want to have to take legal action. I do not want to hire lawyers to close down your business and your new house. Most of all, I do not want this matter to interfere with your film career as it certainly will when your agent learns of your legal trouble. Paying for a lawyer and all of the many court fees, plus what you owe me, will cost you twice as much as just paying what you owe.

You can avoid all of these things simply by paying me the money you have already promised to pay many times (I have your own messages as proof). Pay me back and all of these problems will go away. If you keep ignoring the problem it will get much worse and you will lose your business and your house. You can choose the easy way or the hard way, the choice is yours.

Kindly,
Gina R. Ortiz

09/21/2016

SCOUNDREL, CON ARTIST!

03/13/2016

I've kept quiet about this for way too long. It's time to share the story about what can happen when good people collide with bad people.

5 and a half years ago, I met Vittorio Sodano. We became good friends. He confided in me that he was very ill, and feared that he would not have much longer to live. His dream was to live in America and win an Oscar. I knew what that felt like, from barely surviving cancer myself. I wanted to *pay it forward* to the Universe by making a profound difference in someone else's life, so I offered to marry him so he could become a resident of the US. We married, but never filed for the residency. He rented a shop in North Hollywood, and we planned on running it together as a second location for his FX Academy in Rome.

After the wedding, we went to Rome together, but he stayed there and I came back to L.A. He abandoned the shop he rented, and since I was married to him, the owners came after me. Not only did they stick me with the 3-year/$50,000 lease, they filed an eviction and lien, which is now on MY credit.

Here's what happens when you have an eviction/lien on your credit: You will never be able to rent another property until that lease is paid for. Because of this, I cannot RENT any property, much less buy one, in the future. I can't get another place to live, and I have been forced to couch-hop and live in my car for the last 6 weeks.

I have been begging Vittorio for YEARS to at least TRY to settle some of this debt. I have hired attorney after attorney, spending MY money, trying to get him to pay something, ANYTHING, to get this burden off my shoulders. I sent him divorce papers three times (each time costing over $1,000), and he would not sign them. I fought and fought with the owners of that shop, to no avail. They have destroyed my credit, and have rendered me completely helpless to get another place to live or work. No shop means no business, and no income. I lost my business & income because of Vittorio Sodano. I am homeless because of Vittorio Sodano.

I have begged him to do the right thing, time and time again. Finally his boyfriend Anthony Antonio Alty agreed to pay HALF of Vittorio's debt (he claims to be *rich*), which would have settled the entire thing in court, and cleared my name. He promised to do this way back in September, and asked me to give him four months. Four months rolled around, and he still kept promising to pay. Six months later, and they have both disappeared, leaving me in the worst situation I have ever been in my life.

I have no other options than to tell this story to his peers in the makeup community, in hopes that the exposure will trigger him to pay his debt. I'm a good, honest, hard-working person who only tried to help someone in need, and this is how he repaid me: by taking my life from me. So much for being the God-fearing Catholic he claims to be. I don't know how people like this can sleep at night.

02/13/2016

It is with great sadness that I must report that Vittorio and Anthony have let me down once again. After reaching out to me last month, and promising to FINALLY settle his debt, they have broken their promise and disappeared once again. I really believed them this time. It just goes to show that once a scoundrel, always a scoundrel...even when they know their peers are watching. Such a shame that grown men have no honor for their own word. I am so disappointed in them both :'(

01/24/2016

01/22/2016

I'm very proud of (and grateful to) Vittorio Sodano at VITTORIO SODANO STUDIO today. He and his partner Anthony Antonio Alty have stepped up to the plate and agreed to settle his debt with me. In doing this, they will have my support as a friend and fellow artist, and we can all move forward with our futures. I'm looking forward to that very much indeed

12/13/2015

Anthony Antonio Alty: PLEASE send me your email address. I have an offer for you that will solve all of our problems. :-)

12/13/2015

Fun activity for people who are divorcing someone in Italy:
Run your attorney's letter through Google Translate. Then take that translated version and run it through again, back to English. Guess what? TOTALLY different letter! Yay for me!