"A kindly Good Samaritan forwarded to me the screenshot of two ridiculous tweets from David Bret in which he tries yet again to prove Valentino's homosexuality and this time with a set of letters sent by Rudolph Valentino to his friend Bruno Pozzan.
Of those correspondences, sent to Bruno Pozzan, Bret presents two letters in particular, the first sent on 6/22/1910 and the second on 8/29/1910.
Please note that both letters were mailed, by Valentino to Bruno from Taranto, well before his infamous Parisian trip, so Bret's claim this has anything to do with Parisian male prostitution is to be discarded immediately.
The text of the letters is very clear and unequivocal as Valentino refers to his suffering from syphilis.
I quote the original text in Italian: “Ora sono a casa ammalato per una malattia presa da meretrici e sto soffrendo tanto, etc. etc.” and the correct English translation of this sentence is:
"Now I am at home sick from an illness taken by harlots and I am suffering a lot, etc. etc.".
It should be taken into account that in the Italian language there are two clearly identifiable genders and it is not possible to confuse male prostitution with female prostitution, certainly a limitation of the English language is that, often a semantically male or female term becomes neutral and therefore an easy victim of misunderstandings. Bret tries to use this semantic issue of translation to prove Valentino was gay and fails.
I advise David Bret to be careful about comments like those contained in his pathetic tweets and, if he can, check the sources well and refrain from spreading inaccurate news. Those letters to Bruno were written and posted from Taranto two years before Valentino's trip to Paris and Valentino clearly in Italian refers to female prostitutes.
It is not worth my time to even address the rash quotes Bret attributes to Damia who was in England in 1910. I say they are pure invention. Absolute lies."
