Ornella Muti, who starred in several Italian hits in the 70s, was convicted of having forged a medical note to report herself sick to the theatre, in which she was supposed to play, to attend a charity event, featuring, among other guests, the Russian president and Kevin Costner.

A court in Italy has upheld a 2017 appeals court verdict for Italian movie star Ornella Muti, who was convicted to six months in prison and 500-euro fine for fraud with a medical note in order to take part in a gala with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The actress tried to contest the decision, ruling that she lied about being sick and cancelled a show at the Teatro Verdi in Pordenone back in 2010, providing a medical confirmation of acute laryngeal-tracheitis with fever and cough. It prescribed five days of rest and forbade her from using her voice yet she still attended a charity event in St. Petersburg along with Kevin Costner, as later photo reports revealed.

The court of first instance sentenced Muti to 8 months in jail and a 600-euro fine in 2015, which she contested with relative success in 2017.

"I would have gone anyway; I only anticipated the departure given the impossibility to act that evening. It wasn't an excuse: the show consisted of a shouted monologue over an hour that I couldn't have supported. But a hoarse voice does not prevent you from attending a dinner”, Muti said in her defence, according to the Italian media.

However, it was ruled that the sentence could be suspended if a provisional payment of 30,000 euros was made to the Teatro Verdi, which was adversely affected by her behaviour.

As the Italian outlet Corriere Della Sera points out Muti might struggle to pay this four-digit sum and eventually end up in prison. According to them, the 62-year-old and her daughter Naike were evicted from their home in Rome for non-payment in 2017.