Roberta Close

Filing this one under 'highly dubious', this lady claims she had a fling with George at some unspecified point in the past.

From beauty tweed

June 19th, 2011
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Having been born with incomplete male genitalial and developed breasts at puberty(which indicated an intersex -pseudo-hermaphroditism- condition). Roberta is the first pre-operative ‘transsexual’ model to have posed for the Brazilian edition of Playboy, Close is probably Brazil’s most famous transsexual woman.Close was born under the name of Luiz Roberto Gambine Moreira, and as an adolescent, began to adopt feminine attire and secretly began taking female hormone injections. By the age of seventeen, Close’s career as a model and actress was beginning to take off.

Close won the “Miss Gay Brazil” beauty pageant at the age of twenty. That same year, she made headlines and was dubbed “The world’s most beautiful model”. She has played a cabaret singer on a popular soap opera, starred in the 1986 movie Si tu vas a Rio… tu meurs, hosted a late night talk show, and was the inspiration for a hit song by Roberto and Erasmo Carlos.

In 1989, Close underwent sex reassignment surgery at Charing Cross Clinic in London, England. Afterwards, she appeared in an extensive photo spread in the Brazilian men’s magazine Sexy, and was subsequently voted the “Most Beautiful Woman in Brazil.”

In 1993, Close married Roland Granacher. The wedding to her Swiss husband took place in Europe, as it would not have been legal in Brazil. Close lived with Granacher in Zurich and Paris.

Roberta’s Portuguese-language autobiography, Muito Prazer, Roberta Close (“Much Pleasure, Roberta Close” or “Pleased to meet you, I’m Roberta Close”) was published in 1998. In it, she claims to have been involved with numerous American celebrities including Eddie Murphy, George Clooney, and Robert DeNiro. It has not been published in the United States.

Close was involved in a lengthy legal judicial battle to challenge the Brazilian laws which prevented her from declaring her sex as female on official documents. In 1997, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled against her. Flávio Giron, the federal vice-prosecutor, argued that “the expert exams carried out have confirmed the male sexuality of the petitioner.” On March 4, 2005, Roberta Close acquired legal status as a female in Brazil after Judge Leise Rodrigues de Lima Espiritu Santo of the 9th Family Court of Rio de Janeiro legally recognized Close as a woman. Close’s lawyer, Leandro Paiva de Medeiros, said, “In the decision, the judge affirms that Roberta has been a woman from the time she was born; it was only that medical science in 1964 was not capable of identifying this, due to a physical problem that she had.” She was issued a new birth certificate by the Office of Public Records of the 4th district of Rio de Janeiro, which states that on December 7, 1964, a child of the female sex was born and was given the name of Roberta Gambine Moreira.

Oh minha Santa Maria Mãe de Jesus! ( = my Holy Mary Mother of Jesus!)
I'm 41 years old, so I know very well miss Close from press and gossip.
Let's go:
1) She NEVER,NEVER proved that she was hermaphrodite. This is HER story. To all of us, brazilians, she was a transvestite that pushed that story to find a place on midia. When she became famous, the brazilian society at that time was shocked ( yes the real Brasil - not the "touristic Brasil" that is sold in US or Europe- is a very sexist country , a huge catholic country and part of our society think if we were at Middle Age. Right now, on our Congress, there's a law project to punish violence commited against homossexuals, transvestites and others bc these crimes are increasing in the last few years)
at the time she appeared on midia, saying she was a hermaphodite its more easy to be accepted , a kind of excuse for her situation bc people in general didn't know nothing about hermaphoditism.
2- She lost the appeals to Supreme Court bc she didn't prove her medical condition. She is a male that made treatments with hormones and made a change sex surgery outside Brasil. The surgery to change sex is done here by the public Healthy System and she did outside. The papers from outside country medical insituition wasn't enough to prove that "she was born as a woman with a male genital". Those papers was analyzed by doctors who works in public heathy System with change sex surgery.
The decision from Rio de Janeiro is not applicable on Federal Justice System, its mean that the passport and drive license belongs to "Luiz Roberto Gambini". Rio's decision only made a note on her birth certificate.
3- She lost the midia attention and the spotlight many, many years ago. Young people in Brasil in their 20's even know who she is and never heard about her.
She always had the behaviour if she was a diva or a top model and even at that time she provided gossip the midia dislike her bc her attitude.
4- She tried everything to find a place again. It will be sad if she isn't so ridiculous. During the time she had some space on the news she also involved local actors, business men into her lies. It's not the first time she is saying that she had sex with famous people.
According to her she had sex with all important actors, singers, rich man in Brasil...but she never proved anything and was threatened by some of them! LOL
5- Once she can not get attention with her "fake romances" she decided to improve herself including in her lovers list famous names, as George Clooney, De Niro and more.
It's pitiful...she/he is a compulsive liar. So insignificant that people give up to sue her everytime she talk about her/his fake romances.
To finish, she is cleary saying that George, De Niro are men with capitol letters...bc she never pointed any homossexual or possible bissexual as her lover.
Only very, very men!!!

Sorry by used capitol letters. This woman/man/who knows make crazy!

Just to add
The gay community doesn't like her
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here she wants compensation for the 80's and apologyzes from the President


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She is pretty nonetheless...

By the way, just a scientific note: the correct term for human beings is not hermafrodite it's intersex. Transexuality and gender reassignment are very delicate (sensible) topics to talk about. One of the leading countries for progressing and contributing to advance in this area is Australia. Congrats Aussies!

@ LouisLane
Thank you for the info! I didn't know that!

Now that whole story is interesting, sad, and a little disturbing all at the same time.

Just a Barbie girl in a Barbie world. Oh would that be Ken?

Yes don't think she has a lot of credibility and seems to have thrown around some names. I would believe we are doing a lot for transgenders I have met several in my life and it can be hard to pick. Others not so hard! Sounds like this girl wanted to be famous and anything would do.

LornaDoone wrote:Just a Barbie girl in a Barbie world. Oh would that be Ken?

Ooh! Very funny! Bad, LornaDoone