When Mario Pergolini was the “bad boy” of Argentine television, embodied in his irreverent role of “TV Attacks” first and then in “CQC”few female voices managed to contradict him without being exposed, and even fewer did so with today’s courage. And with its return to the air in “Another lost day”not only the nostalgic provocations reappeared, but also the conflicts that seemed buried, and several of the women who once crossed paths with his microphone decided to speak: Fabiana Cantilo, Marcela Tauro, Noelia Ferriols – on behalf of her mother Beatriz Salomón – and Susana Giménez They took from the trunk of memories, during the last weeks, what they were tired of keeping silent about while Pergolini now tries to rebuild his media place.
blood in the eye
Fabiana Cantilo surprised with a confession that was both revealing and forceful. When she was young there was an unrequited bond with Pergolini: she was in love with him and he wanted only sex. “I was a little girl who was afraid. So I wrote her 800 letters that I later tore up. It was a before and after,” she said, highlighting not only the romantic gesture, but also the disappointment. Cantilo also noted that Pergolini deliberately ignored her: “Since I can’t understand you, I won’t give you any attention. And since I can’t understand you, I won’t give you any attention.”. But his complaint goes beyond a personal story, it speaks of the structural machismo that crossed the medium. In another interview she recalled that “with him, that happened to me. And because of him they made fun of me for years”, directly alleging that Pergolini left her out of Rock & Pop as part of that systematic mockery towards women in the ’90s. More recent was his furious phrase on Instagram after a recital: “I swelled my balls, man. All my life I was afraid of journalists, of Pergolini, of all those sexists.”
Marcela Taurusa journalist accustomed to looking at power in the face, also told her version of the physical episode that many remember as symbolic, the day in which Pergolini would have grabbed her by the neck after an informative error of his, which spoke of a Pergolini’s infidelity with Raquel Mancini. She said: “He grabbed me… when I finished the show, I was going down a staircase… and he grabbed me.” He said it hurt him. Pergolini, for his part, acknowledged that it was “the first thing that came out” when he was confronted, admitting that it was an irrational act of fury. That scene has remained emblematic, not only of personal tension, but of how channel corridors worked in the past.
The case of Noelia Ferriols revives another dark chapter from Pergolini’s past when he thought he was the owner of cool television: the scandal that surrounded Beatriz Solomon. In the 2000s, the program Punto Doc, produced by its production company Cuatro Cabezas, revealed a hidden camera to the plastic surgeon. Alberto Ferriolsthe star’s husband, where he was seen exchanging work for sex, which caused deep damage. Years later, his daughter demands a public apology from Pergolini and Jorge Rialpointing out that that exposure was part of an aggressive media culture that allowed the moral lynching of his mother. She understands that this episode was not isolated, but sustained by the silence and complicity of the media ecosystem.
Diva with memory
Susana Gimenezon the other hand, has probably been the strongest voice against any public reconciliation with Pergolini. On a visit to the theater, she was intercepted by drivers who mentioned it to the driver and she responded without hesitation: “I will never see him, let him apologize on his knees.” She accused him of always speaking ill of her, tirelessly, and made it clear that he was not looking for reconciliation but for recognition. Another artist who suffered the arrogance of Mario in the nineties was Anama Ferreirawho recognizes that at that time they all escaped from the driver due to his constant bullying and because his noteros had a license to do everything: insult, verbally attack and try to kiss them without consent.
Today’s Pergolini appears calmer and kinder, but the guests seem determined to remind him of his provocative past. In his current program, Adrián Suar and Eduardo Feinmann They confronted him with old reproaches that took him back to the ’90s, when he made fun of everyone.
Suar did it with humor, evoking the day when they almost ended up “in the pineapples” due to Pergolini’s criticism of Polka’s fictions. “They rarely harassed me in my own house”the producer joked when he recalled the discussion when he asked him to change the day of “CQC” from Tuesdays to Thursdays. “Yes, he was an idiot,” Mario admitted, between nervous laughs.. Feinmannon the other hand, was not so diplomatic and reminded him of when he treated him as a fascist. “You told me that and it hurt me,” the journalist acknowledged. The tension was felt in the studio. The driver tried to justify it with a timid “those were other times,” but Feinmann did not let go: “Well, times change, but the words remain”.
Another key element of this rebellion is also in those who stopped playing along. In the golden years of “CQC”, Pergolini’s power was backed by Juan Di Natale, Eduardo de la Puente and others who were his media squires. But now, their distances and internal ruptures emerge as signs that this ecosystem is no longer impenetrable. Pergolini himself justified his distancing from De la Puente due to criticism made on social networks, while they insist and repeat that Mario played a trick on them financially, making them sign contracts that harmed them.
With Pergolini at the helm of El Trece’s nights, it is not only his audience that returned, but also his wounded who have recovered today and are demanding public compensation. He insists that this is part of a person left in the past.
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