Taking a leaf out of the book of Michael Moore, the American director responsible for Fahrenheit 9/11, she confronted those responsible in a documentary that has become one of Italy’s most popular films of the winter.

Buoyed by her success at the box office, Guzzanti has weighed in to the campaign for the general election, set for April 9-10, by leading demands for a bill to strip politicians of their power over RAI, the state broadcaster, giving it a status more akin to that of the BBC instead.

“At RAI, everything is run along political lines,” said Guzzanti, 42, a former actress who began her career in the theatre. “The managers, the presenters of news broadcasts, even the hosts of quiz shows and the chefs who do cookery programmes are chosen on the basis of their political allegiance.”

The dominance over the media enjoyed by Berlusconi, 69, who owns three private television channels, has been particularly evident in recent weeks.

His centre-left challenger Romano Prodi, the former prime minister who is leading in opinion polls, complained Berlusconi had been on radio and television news programmes for three hours and six minutes in the space of a fortnight, while he had had just eight minutes’ exposure.

Guzzanti has been effectively banned from state television since 2003, when her show RAIot: Weapons of Mass Distraction was pulled after a defamation suit from Berlusconi’s broadcaster Mediaset. In the documentary Viva Zapatero! — named after the Spanish socialist prime minister — Guzzanti buttonholes senior RAI executives, asking them why they bowed to political pressure to suppress the series.

In the opening scene, she imitates Berlusconi in a dialogue with Rory Bremner as Tony Blair. The documentary, which also takes on the opposition for failing to take a stand, was critically acclaimed at the Venice and Sundance film festivals.

The new bill backed by Guzzanti would create a national broadcasting council that would elect the RAI board and a watchdog. The bill’s backers have six months to collect 50,000 signatures. If the target is met, it will be put before the next parliament.

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