14 DAY TRIAL // The mysterious Mr. Grey in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” books apparently has his real-life counterpart, a man that author E.L. James met during her trip to Italy. The man is called Alessandro Proto and is a successful real estate agent, selling houses to the stars.
He boasts of brokering deals for stars such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Madonna, but he's found immortality by becoming the inspiration for E.L. James' Christian Grey, a successful businessman with a passion for S&M.
New York Daily News has caught up with usually media-shy Proto, and he pointed out some parallels between him and the character in the book. From the name of his company, Proto Organization Holding, to the car he drives, an Audi R8, Proto can see where reality and fiction collide.
He says that he, too, has an office on the top floor, just like Grey and he's also not keen on giving interviews, just like his literary counterpart.
Proto has been amazed by the impact the book had on people and claims to be inundated with indecent proposals from female fans from all over the world. But whereas Grey is a voracious and imaginative beast when it comes to lovemaking, Proto confesses he's a bit more old-fashioned in this respect.
The Italian realtor admitted that he tried once to read the book to see what all the excitement was about, but he couldn't get past the first few pages, indicating that it was all a bit too much for him.
Wanting to get the most out of this marketing ploy, the producers of the recent “Fifty Shades of Grey” film wanted to give him a cameo role, but Proto denied the appearance in the spotlight.
At the moment, he's doing his best to avoid the public eye, after he was arrested in February last year on charges of manipulating the financial market. He is currently on parole and doesn't need all this attention, although he seems amused by this huge marketing operation.