.jpg) Italian screen actress Sophia Loren, 72, is greeted by fans after arriving at Sydney Airport. Loren is in Australia as a special guest of the Italian Australian Film Festival, 31 May 2007. Photo: Ben Rushton, courtesy Sydney Morning Herald. |
By Jenna Price
Sydney correspondent
The Italian ambassador just would not believe her.
When Queenslander Gabriella Mattacchioni went for her regular visit to the Italian Embassy in Canberra last November, she told the ambassador some astonishing news.
Sophia Loren - the magnificent, the beautiful, the icon - would be the guest of honour at the inaugural Italian Australian Film Festival.
Ms Mattacchioni and business partner had sussed out Loren, invited her to the festival in early June - and Loren had said yes!
Even this week, the ambassador had trouble believing that Loren would arrive. But arrive she did, in Sydney yesterday to a small but passionate crowd. And Ms Mattacchioni still can’t believe it has happened.
Loren, who began her film career in 1951 and who won the 1962 best actress Oscar for La Ciociara (Two Women), opens the festival in Sydney tomorrow night but that’s not the only good work she plans to do.
 Sophia Loren during 2007 Italian Australian Film Festival Opening Night - Red Carpet at Hoyts Cinema, Bent Street, Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, NSW, Australia. (Photo by Don Arnold/FilmMagic) |
On Sunday night she will be guest of honour at the Serata Con Sophia, a dinner to raise money for the Day of Difference Foundation, which was set up by the family of Sophie Delezio for burns victims.
Sophie’s father, Ron Delezio, can’t believe his luck either.
Mr Delezio, 53, has fond memories of Loren in movies with all the other film greats: Cary Grant, Anthony Quinn, Clark Gable and Charlton Heston.
And he is quick to say all the right things about her, what an honourable wife (her husband Carlo point died earlier this year at 94), what an excellent role model.
“We are fussy but we looked at Sophia and what a beautiful role model she is and we knew she was right for us,” he said.
But the truth is, Mr Delezio is bowled over by her.
“I contacted Alan Jones [the Sydney broadcaster] to ask whether he would MC the function and said that if he accepted, I would fight him for the first dance,” he said.
“She is absolutely gorgeous, I don’t care that she is 72.”
“We are seeing her on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night.”
The entire Loren entourage is bubbling - and perhaps the most bubbly is event producer Julia Loaney, who left a quiet farm in Bungendore five years ago to retire to Queensland.
Ms Loaney, of Italian descent, decided to brush up her mother language and met Ms Mattacchioni who is responsible for Italian language teaching in Queensland.
Her Italian has improved immeasurable but Ms Mattacchioni was more interested in Ms Loaney’s event management skills, which have been in steady use since February.
Yesterday she headed out with the directors of the festival, to greet Loren in a Maserati especially hired for the occasion. “But I came back in the ute!,” she said.
First published in The Canberra Times, June 1 2007
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