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I’m 80 years old and this is my 60th year in the entertainment business. It’s hard to believe even as I write it. Most of my career was in public relations, working with the biggest stars of the day. There were too many secrets in Hollywood back then, but I sometimes miss the mystery of icons like Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Ali MacGraw, Diahann Carroll, Charlton Heston and so many others. They spoke to the audience mainly through their work and carefully controlled press to promote their latest film. That mystery allowed me to pull off one of my most unusual achievements for a client when I accompanied actress and photojournalist Gina Lollobrigida to Cuba in 1974 for an exclusive photo essay and interview with Fidel Castro. As I watched Castro playing 5 on 5 basketball in an empty arena, I asked myself how a girl from a small town in Virginia ended up here.

Charades has taken international sales rights to “Il tempo che ci vuole” (The Time It Takes), directed by Francesca Comencini. The film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the out of competition section.

“The Time It Takes” will be released in Italian theaters on Sept. 26 through 01 Distribution.

The film centers on a devoted father working in the film industry, who shares a deep bond with his young daughter. Together, they discover the magical world of childhood through the daughter’s eyes and the “Pinocchio” set he’s working on, “where chaos meets fantasy.”

The child becomes a young woman, and the state of enchanted limbo between father and daughter vanishes. She realizes that her childhood is slipping away, giving way to adolescence. The young woman starts taking drugs while hiding the truth from her father. Refusing to ignore the situation, the father confronts his daughter and decides to...

Exclusive: Two years ago, Sigourney Weaver handed the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to the filmmaker Paul Schrader. As she explains to us in a rare sit-down, she didn’t imagine that two years later she would be receiving the same accolade.

Looking over her career is to be quickly reminded that there are few actresses working today who are more deserving. Between Alien, Ghostbusters and Avatar, Weaver has left an indelible mark on some of cinema’s most iconic sci-fi franchises. As Ellen Ripley, she represented a heroine unprecedented in the action and sci-fi genre up to that point.

But the three-time Oscar nominee is perhaps most worthy of the Venice award she will receive at the festival Wednesday for her remarkable range, and her ability in the words of Venice festival director Alberto Barbera to “side-step labels that sought to restrict her”: “She...

The Venice Film Festival will celebrate Italian production designer Paola Comencini with its Campari Passion for Film Award dedicated to film industry figures who, along with the director, contribute to excellence in creating cinematic art.

The long list of feature films and TV series on which Paola Comencini has served as production designer comprises Italy’s smash hit “There’s Still Tomorrow” directed by Paola Cortellesi, groundbreaking TV series “Romanzo Criminale,” and drama “Il tempo che ci vuole,” directed by her sister Francesca Comencini, that will launch from Venice out-of-competition.

The Venice statement described “Il tempo che ci vuole,” which pays homage to their father Luigi Comencini – the Italian master who made Oscar-nominated Cinema Italiano classic “Bread, Love and Dreams,” with Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica – as “a film in which the set design is not only a creative and accurate work but an incredible emotional journey.”

“Throughout her lengthy career as an architect,...

Bei der 70. Ausgabe des Taormina Film Festival, die am kommenden Freitag beginnt, wird Sharon Stone für ihr Lebenswerk ausgezeichnet.

Sharon Stone, hier bei der Premiere von „The Bikeriders“ in Los Angeles, wird beim Taormina Film Festival für ihr Lebenswerk geehrt (Credit: Imago / Abacapress)

Das Taormina Film Festival, dessen 70. Ausgabe von 12. bis 19. Juli stattfindet, zeichnet Sharon Stone mit dem Cariddi d’oro alla carriera für ihr Lebenswerk aus.

Wie das Festival jetzt bekannt gegeben hat, wird die US-Schauspielerin erstmals auf dem Festival zu Gast sein und in einem Gespräch mit der Presse und dem Publikum darüber sprechen, „wie sie neu definierte, was es bedeutet, eine Frau auf der Leinwand zu sein, und wie sie im Laufe der Jahrzehnte zu einer weltweiten kulturellen Ikone wurde“.

In seiner Mitteilung betont das Festival auch Stones Engagement abseits der Leinwand: „Sharon Stone hat sich schon immer für Bürgerrechte eingesetzt und ist seit fast 30 Jahren Sprecherin von amfAR,...

Sharon Stone will receive a lifetime achievement honor on the closing night of the 70th edition of the Taormina Film Festival next month.

The fest will present her with the Cariddi d’oro alla carriera (Golden Cariddi for Lifetime Achievement), which has previously been awarded to the likes of Jessica Lange, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Richard Gere, Colin Firth, Isabelle Huppert, and Gina Lollobrigida.

The star and producer will meet the press and the audience on the occasion of a conversation on “how she redefined what it meant to be a woman on screen, becoming a global cultural icon over the decades,” Taormina fest organizers said on Wednesday. “Sharon Stone’s appearance in Taormina – curated by Marco Fallanca – marks her first attendance at the festival, which hosted Basic Instinct’s Italian premiere in 1992.”

After her debut in 1980 with a cult cameo in Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories,...

Italy’s Taormina Film Festival will honor Sharon Stone with a Golden Cariddi for Lifetime Achievement at is upcoming 70th edition this month.

The actress will follow in the footsteps of previous honorees Jessica Lange, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Richard Gere, Colin Firth, Isabelle Huppert, Gina Lollobrigida, Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Alberto Sordi and Monica Vitti.

Stone, who will receive the award on the closing night of the festival, will also participate in an on-stage conversation on her career as part of honor.

Since her big screen debut in Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories in 1980, Stone has ratcheted up more than 150 film and TV credits, with highlights including Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Sliver and Casino, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress and an Oscar nomination.

It will mark Stone’s first appearance in Taormina which hosted the Italian premiere for Basic Instinct...

Kevin Spacey will be honored with the Nations Award for Lifetime Achievement at a special gala evening in the historic southern Italian town of Taormina in July.

The organizers said The Usual Suspects and American Beauty Oscar winner will also give a short on-stage performance at the event, taking place on July 21 in Taormina’s 4,000-seats Greek-roman Theatre.

The event, which is part of a program of cultural events running in the landmark ancient amphitheater across the summer, is not connected to the Taormina Film Festival, which runs from July 12 to 19.

The honor comes as Spacey continues to battle multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him, which he has denied.

He was found not liable in a 2022 battery case brought by actor Anthony Rapp in the U.S., and not guilty in a UK trial in 2023, related to allegations by four men, but faces a fresh civil trial in the...

One of the most overexposed classic rock songs ever is Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” — and yet, some fans miss its meaning. Jon Bon Jovi revealed the tune was inspired by one of the defining political ideas of the 1980s. On top of that, “Livin’ on a Prayer” was influenced by the singer’s romantic life.

How Ronald Reagan inspired Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’

On the surface, “Livin’ on a Prayer” is a song about a couple trying to make a life for themselves while they don’t have much money. It’s easy to understand the tune as a simple self-empowerment anthem. However, Jon Bon Jovi himself connected it to the political milieu of the 1980s.

The BBC reports that the singer said “Livin’ on a Prayer” was about the economic policies of President Ronald Reagan. “I wrote that song during the Reagan era...

Andrea Piazzolla, the ex-assistant of the late Italian actress, Gina Lollobrigida, was sentenced to serve a three-year sentence in an Italian prison for embezzling $11.3 million from her prior to her death on January 26.

Piazzolla had looked after the actress since 2009, went along with her at glamorous events and even moved in with her at her Roman villa.

It was in this domicile where he purchased sports cars for hundreds of thousands of dollars with her money before having sold them.

The con artist was found guilty of exploiting the actress’ old age and vulnerability to swindle her out of most of her estate.

According to the late actress’s will, she divided her assets between her former assistant and her son, Milko Skofic Jr. Dividing them in this manner caused her family to accuse Piazzolla of manipulating her into granting him a portion of her fortune.

This long legal feud...

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros.Industry nerves were jangling back in July when the ongoing strikes by the actors’ and writers’ guilds saw Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers pulled from its opening night slot at the 80th Venice Film Festival. The loss of a high-profile premiere with the film’s star Zendaya in attendance must have flustered red carpet reporters and festival bosses alike: those for whom newsworthiness and movie-star magic are inextricably linked. As the festival itself drew near, it began to look like the spotlight was turning towards the filmmakers—and perhaps even the films themselves.It was hard to keep track, in the weeks leading up to the festival, of which films had received the exemptions from their respective guilds that would allow talent to attend, but for my first full day on the Lido, it certainly looked like business as usual. Over there was Adam Driver, who, from the right vantage point,...

Photo credit: Getty Images

Fred White

White, the original drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire who played on their 1980 hit “Shining Star,” died Jan. 1 of undisclosed causes. He was 67.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Gangsta Boo

The Tennessee-based former member of the Oscar-winning rap group Three 6 Mafia, whose real name was Lola Chantrelle Mitchell, died Jan. 1 of undisclosed causes, though an autopsy is pending. She was 43.

James D. Brubaker

Brubaker, who started out as a driver on Hollywood sets before rising through the ranks to become a producer on films including “Rocky IV” and “Right Stuff,” died Jan. 3 after a series of strokes. He was 85.

Peter Rawley

Rawley, a longtime talent agent for ICM Partners and former MGM executive, died on Jan. 3. He was 85.

Photo credit: Gregory Yee/Twitter

Gregory Yee

Yee, a breaking news reporter for the LA Times, died Jan. 4 from complications from a respiratory illness. He was 33.

Earl Boen

Boen,...

The Portuguese festival showcases documentaries from around the world.

The 21st edition of DocLisboa will open with Wang Bing’s Man In Black, and will close with Baan from Portuguese director Leonor Teles.

Man In Black premiered at Cannes and Baan made its debut at Locarno earlier this year.

The festival will take place in Lisbon from October 19-29.

Wang Bing, via videoconference, and Telles both participated in the festival press conference on September 28 at which festival director Miguel Ribeiro revealed this year’s programme in full.

Bing explained his film profiles 86-year-old Wang Xilin, one of China’s most important contemporary classical composers,...

Giuliano Montaldo, the admired Italian filmmaker who wrote and directed Sacco & Vanzetti, the John Cassavetes-starring Machine Gun McCain and every episode of the big-budget 1982 miniseries Marco Polo, has died. He was 93.

Montaldo died Wednesday at his home in Rome, his family announced.

His big-screen résumé also included The Reckless (1965), starring Renato Salvatori; Grand Slam (1967), starring Janet Leigh; Giordano Bruno (1973), starring Gian Maria Volonté and Charlotte Rampling; And Agnes Chose to Die (1976), starring Ingrid Thulin; and The Gold Rimmed Glasses (1987), starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli and Valeria Golino.

Of the 20 films Montaldo helmed, 16 were set to music by Ennio Morricone; no other director collaborated with the famed composer more.

Montaldo also served as president of Italy’s Rai Cinema from 1999-2004.

Montaldo’s gangster tale Machine Gun McCain (1969), which also starred Britt Ekland, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, and Sacco & Vanzetti (1971), about the Massachusetts trial and 1927 execution of...

It would be nearly impossible to underestimate the excitement triggered by Gina Lollobrigida during her many visits to the Venice Film Festival.

The legendary actress, who died Jan. 16 at 95, always created a stir. Journalist Oriana Fallaci, writing in L’Europeo magazine, described Lollobrigida’s arrival in 1956: “A roar rose up from the crowd. The metal barricades risked snapping like twigs, the 156 policemen trying to hold back all those bodies were on the verge of being overwhelmed by the crush. Gina alighted from a taxi. … The photographers rushed towards her. [Her] bodyguard enclosed her in a circle of arms. … All of this took place at 10 in the evening on … the day of the inauguration of the 17th Film Festival, also known as Lollo’s Festival, for the heroine of our time.”

In an interview with Eilidh Hargreaves of The Daily Telegraph, Lollobrigida recalled a similar scene in 1962: “Before we could...

At a certain point you care less about world premieres and fixate mostly on a festival’s repertory slate. And even by the high standards set with Cannes Classics or NYFF Revivals is this year’s Venice Classics in a class of its own. We could start at the new cuts for three of the greatest directors ever: One from the Heart is the latest film to be given a revision by Francis Ford Coppola, following recuts of Apocalypse Now, Twixt, and Dementia 13––to say nothing of restorations like The Rain People, of which we’re hosting the New York premiere next weekend––while Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev will debut in “the reconstruction of the complete original version, which was censored before its release and has never been seen until now.” Meanwhile one of Yasujiro Ozu’s greatest films, There Was a Father, has been amended by “recent rediscovery...

The first screening of the uncensored version of ’Andrei Rublev’ by Andrei Tarkovsky has also been programmed.

Venice Classics will include a screening of ‘The Exorcist’ and tributes to late filmmakers Ruggero Deodato and Carlos Saura as part of its line-up of restored features for the 2023 edition.

The Exorcist, by William Friedkin, returns in a restored version, to mark the 100th anniversary of its distributor, Warner Bros.

Italian genre master Deodato passed away last year. One of his most extreme films, Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, has been programmed in tribute. This edition also pays homage to Italian actor Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January,...

Recently restored versions of William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist,” Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart” feature in the Venice Classics section of the 80th Venice Film Festival.

The lineup of recently restored films in Venice Classics, which is curated by the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi, was unveiled on Friday.

“The Exorcist” is screened, 50 years after it was produced by Warner Bros., alongside Disney’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” starring Shirley Temple and directed by “the prolific and sometimes brilliant” Allan Dwan, to mark the Hollywood studios’ 100th anniversaries.

“One From the Heart” and Arturo Ripstein’s “Deep Crimson” are “not just restored, but also revised by the filmmakers themselves in what are genuine Director’s Cuts,” Barbera and Gironi said, while Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece “Andrei Rublev” will be presented in the reconstruction of the original version,...

The Venice Film Festival will pay tribute to late Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January, with a pre-opening event featuring a double bill of freshly restored works in which she stars.

The Lido’s annual pre-opening event on Aug. 29 will feature a 27-minute short by Orson Welles titled “Portrait of Gina.” In 1968, Welles interviewed Lollobrigida in her villa on the Appian Way as the pilot for an ABC TV series — a U.S. version of “Around the World With Orson Welles”– that ABC rejected.

Welles’ portrait of the diva remained in the vaults until 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival one year after Orson Welles’ death. This piece has been defined by Welles as a “personal essay” on Lollobrigida. Interestingly, when Lollobrigida saw “Portrait of Gina” in Venice in 1986, she reportedly tried to have it banned. The short’s restoration was done by the Munich...

Rock Hudson was one of the biggest stars of the 1950’s and 60s: the most handsome leading man who romanced the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Jane Wyman, Barbara Rush, Julie Andrews and Gina Lollobrigida on the silver screen. But he was living a secret life off-screen — he was gay.

The new Max/HBO documentary “Rock Hudson All That Heaven Allowed” examines his double life and the lengths that were taken to ensure his LGBTQ+ identity wasn’t revealed It wasn’t until 1985 did the truth make the headlines when he became the first famous Hollywood star to die of AIDs.

Barbara Rush, who appeared in three films with Hudson including 1954’s “Magnificent Obsession,” told me in a 2019 L.A. Times interview that it was no secret in Tinseltown that he was gay. “His agent [Henry Willson] decided that there had been enough about the rumors about Rock being gay.

Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna film archives have unearthed a small treasure trove of shorts documenting the early career of late icon Gina Lollobrigida, who was hailed as a major European sex symbol of the post-World War II era.

The prominent archives, known globally as a prime film preservation entity, have found and restored three vintage clips dated between 1947 and 1948 in which Lollobrigida – who died at 95 in January – sings Italian folk songs billed under the name Diana Lori.

Described by the archives as precursors to MTV-style music videos, the shorts were directed by Pietro Francisci, later known for hit swords-and-sandals titles such as 1958’s “Hercules” starring Steve Reeves as its titular hero. In the shorts Lollobrigida appears to sing (she may have been dubbed) Italian folk songs “O sole mio!”; “Na sera ‘e maggio”; and “Stornellata Romana.”

Lollobrigida, which is her real name, was born on July 4, 1927, in Subiaco,...

A rare and extensive animation collection from Steven Spielberg, Shirley Kurata’s Oscar-nominated costumes from 2022 Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once, a blacklisted writer’s original Oscar statuette from 1958’s The Defiant Ones and the more than 700-film collection of legendary film scholar and Honorary Oscar recipient Kevin Brownlow are just a few of the latest donations to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ vast collections housed at the Margaret Herrick Library on Beverly Hills, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Academy Film Archive. These items and many more just add to the eye-popping collected works for AMPAS, the largest film-related collection in the world (next to my garage – Not).

The Steven Spielberg Animation Collection, which includes more an 150 pieces of original animation art from 1932-52 is such a prize that the Academy is renaming its Herrick Library’s Graphic Arts department — which also includes posters,...

Mumbai, March 18 (Ians) Veteran actress Zeenat Aman has shared a throwback picture from 1977 saying it is to inspire “evening plans” for Saturday.

Taking to Instagram, Zeenat shared a monochrome picture dressed in a neck plunging sequined dress. In the picture, she can be seen combing her hair.

She shared the picture with the caption: “Some Saturday glam to inspire your evening plans! I’ve seen this image of myself floating around on the Internet, and thought it would be good to add some context to it.

“The year was 1977, and the cast and crew of Krishna Shah’s Shalimar had gathered at the Turf Club in Mumbai for the film’s ‘mahurat’. It was a packed, high-profile event and everyone was dressed to the nines.

“My glorious silver gown was created by renowned costume designer Mani Rabadi based on a design of my own making. Its plunging neckline and sleek silhouette certainly turned some heads.

Anne Heche, Tom Sizemore, Paul Sorvino, Charlbi Dean and Leslie Jordan were among the names missing from the 2023 Oscars In Memoriam segment, which recognizes stars and filmmakers who died over the past year.

John Travolta choked up as he introduced the annual In Memoriam segment, which featured Lenny Kravitz performing “Calling All Angels,” with a tribute to Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John.

On Twitter and other social media platforms, viewers mentioned that the likes of Heche, who starred in such movies as Donnie Brasco, Volcano and Wag the Dog and on such TV shows as Men in Trees and Hung; South African Triangle of Sadness actress Dean; character actor Sorvino; Call Me Kat and Will & Grace actor Jordan; and Sizemore, who starred as Sgt. Mike Horvath in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and portrayed cops, crooks and psychopaths, should have been included.

All of them are, however, are part...

Every year the “In Memoriam” tribute at the Oscars leaves off a few fan favorites and 2023 was no exception: Among those who weren’t included in Sunday night’s video montage were Anne Heche, “Saving Private Ryan” star Tom Sizemore and Charlbi Dean, who appeared in this year’s Best Picture nominee “Triangle of Sadness.”

Fans also noted the absence of Cindy Williams: While she was best known for the ’70s TV sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” she notably appeared in two classic films of the era, George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation.”

And while the tribute included “Goodfellas” star Ray Liotta, who died unexpectedly on May 26, 2022, his costar Paul Sorvino, who died in July 2022, was left out.

Also Read:

Celebrity Deaths in 2023: Hollywood Stars We’ve Lost This Year (Photos)

Also missing from the tribute: two-time Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,...

John Travolta introduced the Oscars In Memoriam segment, tearing up while remembering his “Grease” co-star Olivia Newton-John.

“They’ve made us smile, and became dear friends who we will always remain hopelessly devoted to,” a visibly emotional Travolta said before the video montage began.

The Oscars recognized the actors and filmmakers we lost over the past year in the annual In Memoriam segment, which this year unfurled to the sound of Lenny Kravitz playing “Calling All Angels.” The emotional segment is a viewer favorite, but omissions of high-profile Hollywood figures spark annual debate.

This year, Twitter lit up with people they thought should have been included during the show, including Anne Heche, “Triangle of Sadness” star Charlbi Dean and Paul Sorvino. However, all three were memorialized on the Oscars website.

Among the other stars not mentioned on-screen were Leslie Jordan, Gilbert Gottfried, Tom Sizemore and Cindy Williams.

The show is...

Four-time Grammy winner Lenny Kravitz will perform for Sunday’s emotional “In Memoriam” segment on the Oscars 2023 ceremony. While only 40-50 people are generally remembered for the television ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, over 200 people will be recognized on the Academy’s webpage starting that evening.

SEEWho is Performing at the Oscars 2023?: Full List of Presenters and Performers

Here is a lengthy list of many contributors to film who died since last year’s Academy Awards ceremony:

Mary Alice (actor)

Gil Alkabetz (animator)

Kirstie Alley (actor)

Burt Bacharach (composer)

Angelo Badalamenti (composer)

Simone Bär (casting director)

Joanna Barnes (actor)

Carl A. Bell (animator)

Jeff Berlin (sound)

David Birney (actor)

Bruce Bisenz (sound)

Robert Blake (actor)

Eliot Bliss (sound)

Nick Bosustow (shorts)

Albert Brenner (production designer)

Tom Bronson (costume designer)

James Caan (actor)

Michael Callan (actor)

Donn Cambern (editor)

Irene Cara (songwriter)

Gary W. Carlson (sound)

Marvin Chomsky...

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will be a streaming event for the first time on the Netflix YouTube channel. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute.

Among that group will certainly be Oscar winners Louise Fletcher, William Hurt and Irene Cara, plus nominees Angela Lansbury (a SAG life achievement recipient) and Melinda Dillon. Emmy champs Mary Alice, Kirstie Alley, Leslie Jordan, Ray Liotta, Stuart Margolin, Robert Morse and Barbara Walters.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2023: In Memoriam Gallery

Here is our expansive list of over 100 people who died since last year’s ceremony, several of whom will be honored on Sunday’s event:

Ralph Ahn

J. Grant Albrecht

Mary Alice

Rae Allen...

Actors John Wayne and Ronald Regan both know what it’s like to be a star in Hollywood. The Western actor was undeniably the bigger movie star, but they both understood what it felt like to receive good and bad headlines in the press. As a result, Wayne kindly went out of his way to ensure that Reagan and his wife, Nancy, had a cheerful phone call to warm their hearts.

Ronald Reagan took heat over a Hollywood strike L-r: John Wayne, Nancy Reagan, Gina Lollobrigida, and Ronald Reagan | Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

Reagan was once the president of the Screen Actors Guild, where he made quite some noise in a showdown with major studio executives over the residual payment system that remains in place. He had difficulty getting them to even engage in the conversation, let alone have any sort of intelligent negotiations.

Hollywood is mourning the loss of Cindy Williams, the optimistic foil to Penny Marshall’s Laverne in the hit 1970s sitcom Laverne & Shirley. Williams died in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a brief illness, her family told The Associated Press.

Related Story Cindy Williams Dies: ‘Laverne & Shirley’ Star Who Appeared In ’American Graffiti’ & ‘The Conversation’ Was 75 Related Story Sylvia Syms Dies: 'The Queen' & 'Victim' Star Was 89 Related Story Gina Lollobrigida Dies: Italian Cinema Diva Was 95

“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” reads the statement from her children, Emily and Zak Hudson.

After news of Williams’ death, Hollywood shared their thoughts on social media remembering the star.

Ron Howard remembered his frequent on-screen partner. “Her unpretentious intelligence, talent, wit & humanity impacted every character she created & person she worked with,” he wrote on Twitter.

In a missive sent around to 2022’s Oscar nominees, stars were told to “read the room” when delivering speeches at the Academy Awards this month. Translation: Get off the stage before the orchestra is forced to awkwardly play you out.

In 1943, Greer Garson set a Guinness World Record for Longest Oscars Acceptance Speech, with her address upon accepting her Best Actress award forMrs Miniver clocking in at five and a half minutes.

Garson isn’t the only winner guilty of indulgence though. Hilary Swank, Adrien Brody and Al Pacino have all ignored the 45-second limit and consequently found themselves at the receiving end of a passive aggressive “Will you wrap this up?” stare.

Some actors, however, know that not every story needs to be so long and that brevity is an undervalued quality. Franklin D Roosevelt’s adage – “Be sincere, be brief, be seated” – could very well be the tagline for this year’s ceremony.

In a missive sent around to 2022’s Oscar nominees, stars were told to “read the room” when delivering speeches at the Academy Awards this month. Translation: Get off the stage before the orchestra is forced to awkwardly play you out.

In 1943, Greer Garson set a Guinness World Record for Longest Oscars Acceptance Speech, with her address upon accepting her Best Actress award forMrs Miniver clocking in at five and a half minutes.

Garson isn’t the only winner guilty of indulgence though. Hilary Swank, Adrien Brody and Al Pacino have all ignored the 45-second limit and consequently found themselves at the receiving end of a passive aggressive “Will you wrap this up?” stare.

Some actors, however, know that not every story needs to be so long and that brevity is an undervalued quality. Franklin D Roosevelt’s adage – “Be sincere, be brief, be seated” – could very well be the tagline for this year’s ceremony.

In a missive sent around to last year’s Oscar nominees, stars were told to “read the room” when delivering speeches at the Academy Awards this month. Translation: Get off the stage before the orchestra is forced to awkwardly play you out.

In 1943, Greer Garson set a Guinness World Record for Longest Oscars Acceptance Speech, with her address upon accepting her Best Actress award forMrs Miniver clocking in at five and a half minutes.

Garson isn’t the only winner guilty of indulgence though. Hilary Swank, Adrien Brody and Al Pacino have all ignored the 45-second limit and consequently found themselves at the receiving end of a passive aggressive “Will you wrap this up?” stare.

Some actors, however, know that not every story needs to be so long and that brevity is an undervalued quality. Franklin D Roosevelt’s adage – “Be sincere, be brief, be seated” – could very well be...

In a missive sent around to this last year’s Oscar nominees, stars were told to “read the room” when delivering speeches at the Academy Awards this month. Translation: Get off the stage before the orchestra is forced to awkwardly play you out.

In 1943, Greer Garson set a Guinness World Record for Longest Oscars Acceptance Speech, with her address upon accepting her Best Actress award forMrs Miniver clocking in at five and a half minutes.

Garson isn’t the only winner guilty of indulgence though. Hilary Swank, Adrien Brody and Al Pacino have all ignored the 45-second limit and consequently found themselves at the receiving end of a passive aggressive “Will you wrap this up?” stare.

Some actors, however, know that not every story needs to be so long and that brevity is an undervalued quality. Franklin D Roosevelt’s adage – “Be sincere, be brief, be seated” – could very well...

English actress Sylvia Syms has passed away in the UK aged 89, according to her family.

Syms was best known for roles in movies including Ice Cold Alex, Victim, The Tamarind Seed and Stephen Frears’ The Queen, in which she played The Queen Mother.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Gina Lollobrigida Dies: Italian Cinema Diva Was 95 Related Story Chris Ledesma Dies: 'The Simpsons' Longtime Music Editor Was 64

Syms passed away this morning at Denville Hall, a care home in London for those in the entertainment industry. In a statement shared with The Sun, Syms’ family said: “She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end. Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed.

“We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Denville Hall for...

InterviewThe 90-year-old starred in Malayalam film ‘Thiramaala’, directed two others, worked in Hollywood, is a published author, and more.CrisThomas Berly at his houseWhile we were looking for his house in the lanes of Fort Kochi, he was trying to hide a dead body under a couch, 90-year-old Thomas Berly (Burleigh) Kurishingal says, cooking up a story as he speaks. He is trying to explain time splicing to us, a film-making technique where time is edited instead of film, something he learnt many decades ago in the United States of America. Thomas, who started off as an actor in Malayalam cinema in 1953, went off to the US and worked in Hollywood with the likes of Frank Sinatra before coming back to Kerala and making a couple of films. His seafood business had kept him away from the movies, but he is once again ready with seven little stories to be made into films.

The beginning of 2023 has seen a number of beloved celebrities pass away, including rock icon Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley and Earth Wind & Fire drummer Fred White.

Here is a running list of those who have been mourned already this year.

Gangsta Boo

The pioneering rapper and former member of Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia died on New Year’s Day aged 43. Her cause of death was not disclosed.

Fred White

The former drummer of Earth, Wind & Fire died aged 67, his family announced on 2 January. Lenny Kravitz remembered the musician as a “true king”.

Earl Boen

The veteran character actor, best known for his role as criminal psychologist Dr Peter Silberman in The Terminator franchise, died on 5 January in Hawaii.

Jeff Beck

The legendary rock guitarist, who played with the Yardbirds and fronted The Jeff Beck Group, died on 10 January at the age of 78 after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis”.

The English musician,...

The beginning of 2023 has seen a number of beloved celebrities pass away, including rock icons David Crosby and Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley and Earth Wind & Fire drummer Fred White.

Here is a running list of those who have been mourned already this year.

Gangsta Boo

The pioneering rapper and former member of Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia died on New Year’s Day aged 43. Her cause of death was not disclosed.

Fred White

The former drummer of Earth, Wind & Fire died aged 67, his family announced on 2 January. Lenny Kravitz remembered the musician as a “true king”.

Earl Boen

The veteran character actor, best known for his role as criminal psychologist Dr Peter Silberman in The Terminator franchise, died on 5 January in Hawaii.

Jeff Beck

The legendary rock guitarist, who played with the Yardbirds and fronted The Jeff Beck Group, died on 10 January at the age of 78 after...

Sandra Seacat, actress and renowned acting coach to stars including Laura Dern, Andrew Garfield, Harvey Keitel and Michelle Williams, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, a rep confirmed to TheWrap on Thursday.

She was surrounded by loved ones in her home in Santa Monica, California, friend of the family Stan Rosenfield said in a statement shared with TheWrap.

“She was a revolutionary, a culture-changing teacher of acting and storytelling,” said actor Andrew Garfield, who costarred with Seacat in what would be her final acting role in FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.”

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Garfield added that Seacat, who played his mother in the limited series, was “a beacon for all of us of what a life of deep meaning and beauty can look like. And she was irreverent and forever playing like a joyful unbridled child. I feel grateful beyond...

Italian big-screen diva Gina Lollobrigida was due to be laid to rest in her native hilltop town of Subiaco, after a televised funeral ceremony on Thursday at the Church of the Artists in nearby Rome.

The actress’s only son Milko Skofic, grandson Dimitri and Spanish ex-husband Javier Rigau were among those in attendance alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Cultural Under-Secretary Vittorio Sgarbi as well as film and entertainment world figures Mara Venier, Milly Carlucci, Adriano Aragozzini, Daniel McVicar, Giulio Base and Barbara Bouchet.

The actress’s long-time personal assistant Andrea Piazzolla, who was caught up in a legal battle with Skofic at the time of Lollobrigida’s battle over control of her finances, was also present with his parents.

The burial comes just five days after Lollobrigida’s death on January 16 at the age of 95 years old. Her coffin has been laying in state at the Campidoglio in Rome since then.

Helena Bonham Carter embodies British soap opera star Noele “Nolly” Gordon in the forthcoming three-part drama series hailing from “Doctor Who” showrunner and “It’s a Sin” creator Russell T. Davies. The ITV Studios production that has found its U.S. home on Masterpiece on PBS, with an airdate to be announced.

“Nolly,” which was announced back in late 2021, marks the first production from Nicola Shindler’s new production company Quay Street Productions. The multi-bafta TV Award winner was an executive producer on “It’s a Sin” and “Queer as Folk.”

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Gina Lollobrigida, Italian Screen Legend, Dies at 95

Carter, known for her roles in “The Crown,” “Harry Potter” and “The King’s Speech,” will portray one of the most famous faces on British TV in the 1960s and 70s, whose unceremonious firing from her hit show at the height of her career was front-page news. Billed as a “bold exploration of...

Former “American Idol” contestant C.J. Harris has died after suffering a heart attack Sunday, TheWrap has confirmed

Harris, who was a contestant on the singing competition show, died in Jasper, Alabama, while being transported by an ambulance to Walker Baptist Medical Center. CPR attempts failed.

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Gina Lollobrigida, Italian Screen Legend, Dies at 95

“I’m completely shocked. Your talent and smile will be missed, and the world is definitely a darker and eerily quieter place without you in it,” Jessica Meuse, a fellow “American Idol” Season 13 contestant, wrote in an Instagram post remembering Harris. “I’ll miss your random phone calls asking for life advice and talking about the music world.”

Harris appeared on “American Idol” for the first time when the show held its 2014 auditions with judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. in Salt Lake City. During his time on the show, he performed standout versions of “American Woman,...

Sophia Loren said Monday that she is “deeply shaken and saddened” by the death of Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian actress who passed away Monday at the age of 95.

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The two Italian actresses were often considered rivals, with both regarded as among the most beautiful international stars of the post-World War II years. They often competed for similar roles in films.

In a 2015 Vanity Fair article, Lollobrigida said the feud was started by Loren, and that she herself found it “really boring.”

Also today, director Giulio Base tweeted, “Ciao Gina. With You the last diva has left us,” and Italy’s Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano tweeted that her “charm will remain eternal.”

Addio ad una diva del grande schermo,...

Film actor of the 1950s and 60s who went from early Italian roles to become an international star

The actor Gina Lollobrigida, who has died aged 95, was one of the great film stars of the 1950s and 60s, and an icon of Italian cinema who became known as “the most beautiful woman in the world”.

The movie that launched her as a sex symbol was Altri Tempi, an anthology film directed by Alessandro Blasetti, in which Vittorio De Sica was the lawyer who defends the honour of a woman (Lollobrigida) accused of being too sexy. She was signed up the following year to play opposite Errol Flynn in Crossed Swords and in what was to become a cult movie, John Huston’s tongue-in-cheek adventure yarn Beat the Devil, in which she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones.

Roles included ’The Hunchback Of Notre Dame’ (1956), ’Come September’ (1961) and ’Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell’ (1986)

Italian actor Gina Lollobrigida, best known for roles in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1956), Come September (1961) and Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1986) has died at the age of 95.

No cause of death has been announced but the actor is said to have died at a clinic in Rome, Italy.

Born in Subiaco, Italy, Lollobridiga began her career as a model and made her screen debut in 1946 with Italian drama The Black Eagle.

She was brought over to the US by Hollywood producer Howard Hughes before rising to...

Italian actor Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international film stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed 'the most beautiful woman in the world' after the title of one her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95. At the height of her fame in the 1950s and 1960s, Lollobrigida, who was known simply as La Lollo, was the internationally recognised star of Italian post-war cinema, rivalled only by Sophia Loren. When she stopped making films, Lollobrigida developed new careers as a photographer and sculptor and was also a Unicef  goodwill ambassador.

Gina Lollobrigida, Italian star of the 1950s and 60s, dies aged 95

Gina Lollobrigida: a life in pictures...

Former X Factor contestant Katie Waissel has retrained as a lawyer in order to sue Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment for “ruining her life”.

Competing in 2010 on the popular British singing show, Waissel was considered the “most hated” contestant of the series by audiences.

At the time, she received acid attack threats online and death threats, allegedly from al-Qaeda, which she said caused her to suffer panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.

Since then, she’s seen therapists to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The show ruined my life,” Waissel told The Times in a new interview.

In April 2021, she established the Owhl Foundation, a charity aiming to “oversee the welfare, human rights and liberty within the creative industry sector”.

A year later, she “fought tooth and nail” to join Bpp University in London’s postgraduate law course after deciding to retrain as a lawyer. Qualifying in July, the 36-year-old Waissel is...

Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian screen legend known for her post-World War II work through the 1950s and 1960s, has died. She was 95.

Lollobrigida will be remembered as one of the most prominent Italian actresses of her time, starring in films like “Fanfan la Tulipe,” “Beat the Devil,” “Trapeze” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” and working with leading men in America like Humphrey Bogart, Rock Hudson, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Frank Sinatra.

Coming from humble beginnings, Lollobrigida was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer in the mountain village of Subiaco, Italy. She began modeling and pursuing acting in the 1940s, and she had a break of sorts after being a finalist in the 1947 competition for Miss Italy.

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After working consistently and becoming an Italian cinema mainstay, Lollobrigida never found mainstream footing in Hollywood.

Actor and photojournalist best known for appearances in films such as Beat the Devil, Solomon and Sheba and Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell

Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian actor once called “the most beautiful woman in the world”, has died at the age of 95. Corriere della Sera reported the news, saying she had been “hospitalised for some time”.

Through the 1950s and 60s, Lollobrigida was one of the world’s most desired performers and starred in a number of European and American films opposite many of Hollywood’s leading men of the day.

Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95.

The agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details. Lollobrigida had surgery in September to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall. She returned home and said she had quickly resumed walking.

A drawn portrait of the diva graced a 1954 cover of Time magazine, which likened her to a “goddess” in an article about Italian movie-making. More than a half-century later, Lollobrigida still turned heads with her brown, curly hair and statuesque figure, and preferred to be called an actress instead of the gender-neutral term actor.

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“Lollo,” as she was lovingly nicknamed by Italians, began making...