Sep. 30, 2003 Bob Thomas, Associated Press
Los Angeles - Sophia Loren, returning to Hollywood to promote her son's
directorial debut, recalled her first visit, which included an infamous
encounter with Jayne Mansfield. To welcome Italy's top star, Paramount Studios invited a
stellar crowd to a reception in 1958 at Romanoff's, the town's toniest
restaurant. The publicity-prone Mansfield, whose propensity for bearing cleavage
pushed new limits, was among the guests. Someone, perhaps her studio's press agent, seated the blond
actress next to the guest of honor. An alert - or perhaps planted - photographer snapped a shot
just as Mansfield's bodacious bosom plunged over the bodice and Loren gazed down
in astonishment.
The photo was too graphic for family newspapers and
magazines, but it has had a long underground life. "They keep on sending me
this picture, the fans," Loren said, "hoping that I would sign it.
Never." Despite the dubious debut, Loren has returned to Hollywood
many times since - both to make movies and for some R&R at her ranch in
suburban Thousand Oaks. This most recent visit was for "Between
Strangers,"
written and directed by her younger son, Edoardo Ponti. It premieres 8 p.m. EDT
Sunday on the WE: Women's Entertainment cable channel.
"We chose cable because today's theatrical market is not
conducive to character-driven movies," said Ponti, a tall, lean
30-year-old. "On cable it could be seen by 80, 90 million people. We could
never do that in theaters," although the film will appear in theaters
overseas.
"Between Strangers" tells the stories of three
troubled women in Toronto, where it was shot on a budget of less than $7
million. Loren appears as an aging, frustrated artist in a loveless marriage
with a violent, wheelchair-bound husband (Pete Postlethwaite). Others in the
cast include Mira Sorvino, Gerard Depardieu, Malcolm McDowell and Klaus Maria
Brandauer.
Loren - the first to win an Academy Award for a performance
given entirely in a foreign language (1961's "Two Women") - plays the
role in a gray wig, frumpy dresses and little makeup. Did she rebel at abandoning her traditional glamour?
"Every morning she would show up with a bit more lip
gloss than she should," said Ponti during an interview. "Every morning
I would tell her, `Please take it off.' It would happen the next morning, and it
became a joke."
"He made me suffer so much - I'm joking," Loren
said with the sly laugh. "It was a very difficult role to sustain, because
every day it was full of emotions, full of things you had to feel so deeply. Was
it tiring? No, no, no. I love to act, I love to do good things, and this was one
of them."
The mother-son relationship helped during the filming, Ponti
explained. "I know her face so well that I can sometimes say something to
her that I could not tell other actors. I could tell her: `In this moment when
you're not speaking, open your mouth slightly.' I know what kind of emotion
she's going to give." Loren turned 69 on Sept. 20, but her age doesn't show. Her
figure - she's dressed in a red pantsuit on this day - remains voluptuous, the
classic Italian face unlined, surrounded by a swirl of dark curls.
"I feel younger than I am sometimes," remarked
Loren, who received an Oscar for career achievement in 1991. "The same
drive, the same enthusiasm, eager to live, eager to do things. The drive that is
inside of me helps me to go on and to remain young."
That drive keeps her working in films, mostly in Europe. She
has completed two recent movies and plans another with Lina Wertmuller. By her
own account, "Between Strangers" is her 100th. Loren is proud of her two sons, both by her husband, Italian
film producer Carlo Ponti. Carlo Ponti Jr., 34, conducts the San Bernardino
Symphony Orchestra and guest-conducts elsewhere.
The younger Ponti was asked what it was like growing up with
a mother who was recognized wherever she went. "That was what my life has been, so there is no
comparison," he replied. "But what is very interesting is that she
always made me feel that we were her priority. Her fame or her profession were
always second to us. So we felt the beauty of having somebody that people loved
so much, and never felt the burden of it. She always was there for us."
© 2003 Associated Press
Archived 2003-08 Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net