Marie José of Belgium Claretta Petacci, claimed in her diary that in 1937 the then princess and wife of the heir to the throne tried and failed to seduce the dictator at a beach resort near Rome. However, Mussolini's son, Romano, claims that the princess and dictator entered into a sexual relationship. In 1943, the Crown Princess involved herself in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States; her interlocutor from the Vatican was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was
The Mistress of Spices reunites with him as they walk along the beach holding hands. The film received largely negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that only 13% of professional critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 3.9/10. Reviews The Mistress of Spices The Mistress of Spices is a 2005 film by Paul Mayeda Berges, with a screenplay by Gurinder Chadha and Berges. It is based upon the novel "Mistress of Spices" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The film stars Aishwarya Rai. The soundtrack was created by Craig Pruess, who also contributed to the "Bend It Like