Santo Gold to sell his jewelry to finance long-awaited movie 'Blood Circus'

Santo "Santo Gold" Rigatuso, back in his glory days.

By C.F. Twob

Publisher, Ponderings from Pluto

A quasi-jewelry salesman and convicted con artist infamous for an eighties infomercial has announced the partial liquidation of his stock in an attempt to generate cash for his long-awaited cinematic venture.

Santo Rigatuso, also known as Santo Gold, will be selling approximately 85 percent of the unsold jewelry he has stockpiled in a Baltimore warehouse to a metallurgist as part of a well-publicized "cash for gold" program that's often advertised on television.

Customers' complaints landed Santo Gold in hot water.

During the eighties, Rigatuso ran a series of infomercials simultaneously promoting his Santo Gold jewelry line while also promoting his science fiction film Blood Circus.

Rumor has it only three people showed up at the premiere of Blood Circus: two movie critics and a film extra.

While singing and performing on the infomercials, Rigatuso's Santo Gold character wore a white suit, several gold chains and rings and dark aviator sunglasses.

The film, made in the Baltimore area in the eighties, has never been released due to an inability to find a distributor and due to the original print disappearing. Rigatuso now claims that the original print is alive and well and locked safely away in a safe deposit box.

"With the cash I will earn from the gold jewelry I have in stock, I should have enough money to do a final edit on the movie and get it into theaters," Rigatuso said in a statement. "This, for me, is a dream that will finally come true."

Rigatuso declined to answer questions regarding his short stint in federal prison on fraud charges, or the reports by one editor that Blood Circus is "...about as watchable as a porn film starring John Madden and [former U.S. Attorney General] Janet Reno."

Jin Xihuan, the metallurgist to whom Rigatuso is selling his gold, estimates that because of the low quality of the jewelry, the stockpile will probably net Rigatuso only about $2,000. If it were genuine, 24-carat gold, it would probably go for close to $500,000.

Besides Blood Circus, Rigatuso is also promoting himself as a music producer (he has recently released a song called "I'm the Real Santo Gold") and has sent a cease-and-desist to musician Santogold for what he calls an unauthorized use of his name.