Alfa Romeo Giulietta Gets Uma Thurman as Pitchwoman

MILAN, Italy — Alfa Romeo goes for the glamour in choosing Uma Thurman to help it launch the new Giulietta in Italy. The Italian automaker said it was her image of "aggressiveness, bravery, dynamism and beauty" — along with that "ice cold, untainted" feeling garnered from her starring roles in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill — that made her a good embodiment of the new car's image.

The Thurman ad blitz will bear tag lines from Shakespeare including, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." True enough in the case of the actress and, Alfa says, also true of the "dream that becomes reality" that is the Giulietta. The imagery for the ad campaign was done in stylish black-and-white by Italian photographer Fabrizio Ferri, and the TV commercials show Thurman in five roles as "five different women who symbolize the different souls of the car."

The Alfa Romeo Giulietta is a five-door hatchback that introduces the automaker's new Compact platform. It launches in Italy on May 22, then progressively throughout Europe, with a choice of four turbocharged engines, all equipped with Start & Stop fuel-saving technology. Two 1.4-liter gasoline engines make 120 or 170 horsepower, while the two diesel choices are a 1.6-liter Multijet making 105 hp and a 2.0-liter Multijet making 170 hp.

The base price for the Giulietta in Italy is the equivalent of $26,160. The top-end model is the 235-hp Quadrifoglio Verde, priced in Italy starting at the equivalent of $37,100.

Inside Line says: Two stylish stars that improve each other's looks just by standing side by side. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent