State broadcaster Rai said Friday that it had launched "all the appropriate checks" into allegedly unauthorized product placement in relation to a performance at the Sanremo Song Festival this week by John Travolta.
The 71-year-old Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Pulp Fictionstar appeared on stage at the Ariston Theater wearing a noted brand of trainers whose logo had not been pixellated out.
Rai said the contract for Travolta's participation in the festival did not allow any form of direct or indirect advertising that was not authorized in writing and reiterated that it had made any commercial deals in this regard.
Rai Prime Time Entertainment Director Marcello Ciannamea said the broadcaster could refuse to pay the agreed fee to the company that handled the rights for Travolta's performance, Divina Luna Srl, and could seek damages if it turned out that the terms of the contract had not been respected.
The alleged covert advertising was not the only aspect of the actor's participation to cause controversy.
Travolta fans also took to social media to voice their ire over the way the actor had allegedly been "humiliated" and "embarrassed" by being forced to do the fad Chicken Dance with presenter Amadeus and showman Fiorello.
Travolta had first led Amadeus in the moves of his iconic bigscreen dances before Amadeus and Fiorello took him outside the Ariston Theater and taught him the Ballo del Qua Qua, as it is known in Italian.
On Thursday they admitted that it had been "one of the most terrible gags in the history of TV".
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