Of all the classic movie stars, I think my dad loved Sophia Loren the most. Ingrid Bergman was possibly right up there, but I do think that for men of a certain age, Sophia was IT. She was everything. She had a stunning beautiful face and a body that could stop traffic. Her beauty slayed some of the most prominent men in Hollywood and beyond. But at some point – the ‘80s or ‘90s, I think – Sophia did get some work done. And it wasn’t the best work in the world. She’s never really looked the same and even now, when you could argue that she doesn’t give a crap and she’s mostly going natural, you can sort of see where she’s messed with her face previously. I say this all as background, because Sofia is throwing some shade at actresses who get too much work done.
Sophia Loren doesn’t approve of selfies and says today’s starlets need to watch it with the plastic surgery. The legendary Oscar winner, well-preserved at 81, told us at Cipriani 42nd Street, “These young girls really need to be more careful and selective of what they are doing to their bodies and their faces. I mean, you do not know for sure if you are going to a good doctor . . . you can end up looking worse than what you thought you originally were.” So true!
“In my time,” Loren added, “an actress’ merit and skill was based on her talent. Now when people meet me, they pull out their phones to take pictures. I do not know much about social media, but it seems that that’s what makes people more famous. My era of Hollywood was much better — you were known for your skill and talent.”
The lady didn’t name names, but the Kardashian œuvre comes to mind.
“I was very lucky to be a part of that time,” added Loren, dressed in Armani.
First of all, if you are born looking like Sophia Loren, of course it would be a travesty to mess with your face. Like, she was one of the most beautiful women in the world, of course she doesn’t believe women should mess with themselves. But I don’t even think she’s saying “don’t get anything done, ever.” If you really parse what she’s saying, it sounds more like “be very careful about what you get done, don’t go overboard, make sure you still look like yourself.” As for what she says about selfie culture and the importance of social media in today’s fame game… sure, she’s swiping at the Kardashians. She’s also swiping at the new generation of “models” who use social media to make names for themselves.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
#SophiaForever
Well my mom was a Loren fan, while my dad was more of a Bardot fan (which was like the wide toothed Kate Moss of back in their day) he had some of her posters from his young days…lol…and were always arguing about who was the most beautiful. I thought neither was. I’ve never thought of Loren as beautiful, to me she really wasn’t, i’m not saying she wasn’t pretty, elegant and stunning in her own right and her own way but beautiful she was not. I think her thing was more that she had somewhat exotic/unusual, strong facial features but her face lacks the girlish fullness, angelic baby face softness of say Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor. It also lacks the perfect symmetry and definition of Raquel Welch or Vivien Leigh (Vivien is the PERFECT beautiful bitchface, gosh if only my bitchface looked like hers! lol i mean just look at that “bitch please!” expression: http://tiny.cc/BitchFace ).
I’m more of a Monroe-Taylor-Welch fan. They were breathtakingly gorgeous.
This nitpicking is exactly why so many women get plastic surgeries. “Oh, you are beautiful but your face is lacking this or has too much of that… if only… then you would be PERFECT.”
I also consider her one of the most beautiful women ever, If I saw her on the street I would gawk too!
and agree that messing with your bodies and face at a young age and taking selfies every 5 minutes is sad.
I heard not sure if it’s true that her grandmother pimped her and get sister out at age 10 or 11. hops it’s not true because this rumour also had very sick details.
What a looker. Class, grace and beauty, the full package. Listen to this wise woman, and maybe learn a thing or two.
She said, her key to the beauty: vanity and discipline.
Maybe she’s holding up her plastic surgery as a cautionary tale? And I can see someone of her generation being horrified by selfie culture, where image/self promotion trumps the actual work–it’s a long way from her formative experiences in WWII.
“In my time, an actress’ merit and skill was based on her talent.”
I love Sophia Loren, but this is just laughably untrue. Hollywood has always been obsessed with image, and that was arguably even more true during the studio system era than it is today. She’s being nostalgic for something that never existed.
That’s true.
Exactly.
It was even worse back then.
*And Sophia’s plastic surgery (which she disdains), makes her looks like a muppet in the above pics.
I agree. I love her, too, but if she had been ugly but every bit as talented as she is, she wouldn’t have gotten her foot in the door. She’s not famous for her talent. She’s famous for her looks.
I was thinking the same thing. I don’t know much about Ms Loren, I’ve heard she turned in some fine performances in her day. However, the most focus seems to have been given to her amazing beauty. Would her acting have stood out with or without her beauty? Would she have gotten her foot in the door in HW on talent alone? I think she means well but I think she is really romanticizing old Hollywood.
Not true at all. Look up Italian actress Anna Magnani. Not the most attractive woman, but she not only “got her foot in the door”, but ruled the European cinema.
Good point, Paris, but I think she was the exception.
Eh…not exactly true.
Were actresses selected for their beauty and looks? Certainly. But they still needed at least a minor amount of actual talent. She’s from an age when movies had no special effects, no CGI, none of that. Movies were carried by the actors’ skill. She came up in an age when bad acting couldn’t be disguised as easily as it can be now. No matter how good looking Meagan Fox might be, I can’t see her ever working out in the Hollywood Golden Age.
So yeah, Hollywood has always looked beautiful women, but it’s also true that a woman of absolutely no talent wouldn’t have stuck around very long.
I didn’t mean to imply that she had no talent, though I can see how my post read that way. I just meant that without her looks, she could have had all the talent in the world and she would never have been a star.
That’s right, but I think the point they are making is looks were just as important back then. I think beauty standards for women were even harsher back then. Sure, there was Bette Davis and Marlene Dietrich who had more unconventional beauties, but the vast majority of them were total stunners. Megan Fox wouldn’t have had a career back then, but I don’t think an ordinarily pretty woman like Shailene Woodley or Kate Winslet would, either.
Yes. But I’ve always thought of her as the brunette bombshell for the gawkers of her era. She didn’t get where she is based on talent. She got where she is because she was good-looking and had/has huge boobs. She has said she never had any acting training or education in that area. She won a beauty contest in Rome and was immediately put in films in bit parts or as an extra. She also had relationships with many prominent men in Hollywood that helped her career. She has been around for a long time and I understand the respect that comes with longevity, history, and sentimenality. I don’t think she’s a role model though. She came through everything okay and I’m happy for her. Her childhood sounds like Hell and she used what she had to survive and make a better life for herslef, but make no mistake, she was expoited by her mother and men, and would not have left her small town if she hadn’t been beautiful.
Yes, not without talent, but her beauty, charisma, and sexuality directly resulted in her success.
I agree. She had talent but Sofia got her big break after she met and began a relationship with a big producer. They married eventually but she was just one of many starlets before him, trying to get to the top.
So, I love you Sofia, but, please!
But her beauty was very unconventional, and she really had to be her own advocate, using makeup very carefully to minimize a long nose and maximize her eyes. She was no Grace Kelly. Her determination/confidence/sex appeal put her farther than her looks alone, and anyone who’s seen Two Women knows she was very talented. Perhaps this is what she meant?
Right? She got her first film roles, wherein she was primarily nude, because of her body, more specifically her breasts. Later she was svengalied by her much older, more powerful husband, but sure, he totally would have guided her through her career and created opportunities for her if she’d been a Plain Jane.
A lot of her fame came from how she looks, more so for her than most of her peers. She had talent, but her better films are Italian and her Hollywood work wasn’t particularly great. None of her films are up there with the best classics. The only reason she’s still so famous outside of Italy is because even now she has a great body. Most of her peers are dead or in nursing homes and she’s still out there showing off that killer cleavage. Her breasts and the spaghetti quote are what she’s famous for today, not her acting. A lot of people think she was a model.
I was around when Sophia was a big film star, also Bridget Bardot. My impression, back in the day, was that Sophia was a huge woman. Just checked – she is 5’9″!
Liz Taylor, the reigning beauty, was 5’3″. Marilyn Monroe, perhaps 5’5″. I never thought Bardot was pretty. She did have a good body, though. I saw “Two Women”. Sophia was excellent, and Silvana Magnano, superb. A must watch for film buffs. At this point, Sophia should get a new wig. She is still a stately woman. Her early life was tragic and poverty ridden. Best to her.
Sophia ascent in Hollywood was partially aided the old-fashioned way:
she had an affair with a powerful and very married director/producer–Carlo Ponti–old enough to be her father!
Yup. The irony.
Not really just an affaire when they Ended up Being one of the longest marriage in mivie business. He could not divorce because of the Italian law did not allow it back then. He had to get a quickie divorce in Mexico, and he married Sophia by proxy in Mexico too.
They struggled to have children.
Sophia regards her children as miracles, and she seemed to Cheri’s her old Carlo up until he died.
Not just an affair, IMO.
The story I’ve always heard was that there was no affair, technically speaking. Carlo Ponti was separated from his wife and they were not living as a married couple. However, Italy did not recognize divorce at the time, so they wound up in the weird situation of her husband still technically being married in Italy. They had the marriage annulled so Ponti could go back to Italy without having to risk bigamy charges. His first wife and he were finally about to get divorced in France and he then re-married Sophia, legally. But everything I’ve read says that he and his first wife were over before Sophia took up with him. But the age difference always did sort of seem weird (he was 22 years older than her).
Here autobiography is amazing and yeah they were pretty much over when Sophia came on the scene and they lasted to his death, even his first wife tired to end the marriage. The only bit that’s not ok is that she was around 15 when he took interest in her.
I know it seems tawdry and like he must have been a perv, but she has said herself she persued him. She only ever saw her father maybe 6 times her entire life. He was abusive to her mother and never acknowledge his other daughter. Sophia has said she sought older men who were not only her lovers, but also a father figure. She wanted to feel protected and safe. I don’t think Ponti stood a chance. It’s easy to say he should have had nothing to do with her because she was only 15, but I’m almost kind of sympathetic because having Sophia at 15 coming on to you like gang busters would be difficult if not impossible for him to deny.
I read numerous articles about Sofia and interviews with her. She once mentioned that Carlo Ponti totally smacked her across the face when he found out about her short lived affair with Cary Grant. She talked about it as if it was an OK thing for him to do b/c she was in the wrong and it was a “hurt pride” and they worked it out…
Wow, Tess, that’s quite a shocker. Did she really feel as if she deserved it as lesson of sorts?
I’ve read countless (auto)biographies from famous actresses who were in crappy, abusive relationships. These women just made bad romantic choices all around. For example, Kate Hepburn was frequently hit by Spencer Tracy. She never ended their relationship. Certainly Sophia and Kate, amongst others, lived in a different time but it’s never right to shyingly condone domestic abuse.
@Joaneu
She made it sound like she understood where he was coming from. I think it happened on a plane too, on their way home. He hit her and she knew why he did and they never discussed the affair or the hitting after that.
Sofia did make a point of saying she understood it might sound quite shocking but I got the feeling she kind of made peace with it.
I read Sophia’s first autobiography in the early 1980s, and I really like her. She has her own look, and once said she refused to change her face as a Hollywood newcomer years ago. Apparently some thought her nose was too long and mouth too big.
I would love to chat with her over a plate of pasta. Nosy as it would be, I would love to know more about why she turned down Cary Grant.
So would I. I can’t imagine turning Cary Grant down.
Cary was married so many times and not once happily, so I can see how she dodged the bullet on that one.
She and Cary Grant were both in love with other men.
Well, actually I read somewhere that there may have been a little fling with a handsome crew member that gave her pause.
There is no doubt that Cary loved women; he was discovered/”taught” by THE one and only Mae West. Though I really do believe he was bisexual, even if Dyan Cannon insists that he wasn’t. (She talked such trash about him in her book that I don’t understand why she held out on the subject of his sexual orientation …)
The more that comes out about that supposed gilded age of Hollywood, the more I realize how sleazy it all was. The only thing that has changed is today there is more self promotion. Apart from that, it has always been a cesspool.
Cary Grant was a drunk and secretly bisexual and back then, maybe Sophia wasn’t ready to handle that.
Sophia Loren is a goddess. It’s very amusing to hear today’s actresses called “stunning” because that term gets tossed about so freely now, it no longer means anything. To me, Sophia is what stunning looks like. And her body was astonishing, without butt lifts and fake boobs. She was just naturally gorgeous.
My dad had a mad crush on Sophia too! I think everyone’s dad did.
Totally agree! My grandfather always said she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She’s still incredible at her age.
Yes her time was different. It’s not her time anymore. Legend yes but have a seat.
I adore this woman but if I’m not mistaken, she had a nose job when she was younger. I get her point though. The stigma is totally gone from plastic surgery and on one hand and it creeps me out.
I’m 29 and there are a lot of things in current society that I find very bizarre. I don’t understand this new school of thought that if you don’t fit into the traditional beauty standards, you can just nonchalantly go to a plastic surgeon and get a new face or body. I agree with the article that Kardashians come to mind. They’ve done a lot to make plastic surgery commonplace. I don’t personally find that to be a positive thing.
The stigma is not gone regarding plastic surgery! Unless the recipient is an accident victim or burn victim, the stigma is in full force as far as I am concerned.
Vanity is destructive. Vanity is fugly. Vanity is a billboard for foolhardiness.
I agree. I always think of these women’s children. I have a weak jaw line. My son has it too. If I get it “fixed” what am I telling my son? Well, I’m old enough and control the money, so I’m getting mine fixed, but what can I say? You’re stuck with yours. Sorry.
What a horrible message to convey to your kids – basically that their natural features are ugly and there’s nothing they can do about it.
Plastic surgery on the face is bad enough when it’s not medically necessary or because there’s something so distracting or rejectable that you’ve literally been tortured and traumatized by it. But now this thing with the butts – it’s so weird. Are people in other countries doing this or is it just a bizarre American thing?
Sophia has said that she chose Carlo over Cary because she gravitated to how he was more traditional, “old school” and more so because he was Italian and there was that cultural connection.
But, most importantly, Carlo was both a lover and a father figure to her.
Sophia never knew her father. She grew up in poverty and was born out of wedlock.
She considers herself a survivor and married who she had to because the odds were stacked against her.
Later she disavowed of her Italian citizenship and became a Swiss resident because of tax issues. Sophia is a fighter.
I have no doubt that if Sophia had the opportunity to use social media to advance her career and earnings she would do so.
And I say that completely without any shade because she grew up with the most dire circumstances and made things happen.
I just think she “forgets” because she owned up to her way of taking advantage of all opportunities to promote her standard of living in her autobiography and past interviews.
She knew her dad but he didn’t want to acknowledge her existence. Apparently her mother and father were not married. He also fathered her sister.
It’s true that Hollywood has always been image obsessed, but I still think talent was still valued a little more in her era. Of course, there were actors (men and women) who were just there as scenery, but they were usually just a flash in the pan. Nobody elevated them to a greater status than they were. They didn’t get book deals or their own TV/radio shows. If they were B-grade, they stayed B-grade.
Now, everyone’s quick to defend the Kardashians just because they make money.”Respect the hustle.” There are plenty of quick and dirty ways to make money, but that doesn’t mean I have to applaud that. You shouldn’t hate the Kardashian women because they’re women, or for owning their sexuality, but don’t confuse talent with surrounding yourself with the right people.
If you want to call an impoverished, fatherless 16 year old girl meeting a married 38 year old married man “a great love affair,” that’s just sick and bizarre.
Sophia grew up in war-torn, rat-infested slums of Naples.
She owns up that she married Carlo because he was her mentor.
Girl was going to bed hungry every night and Carlo promised to make her a star. Cary had his own career. He wasn’t a wealthy producer.
Besides, Sophia admits to cheating on her older husband. She refers to it as a very European marriage. It worked for them but this was not a union based on love.
Sophia totally owns up that her marriage was based on economy, not love.
And again, I give her props for being such a survivor.
I have actually met Carlo when I was a kid. He and Sophia were acquantances of my parents. I remember Carlo being very warm and friendly with everyone, didn’t matter who you were. And I remember Sophia and Carlo being very loving, affectionate and lovely together. I do believe Carlo was the love of her life, even though she had an affair at one point in their marriage – afterall Carlo was much older than her.
Having said that, Hollywood was always about looks. She was an amazing actress for sure but her looks helped her with her success as film star for sure.
Timeless grace, beauty and class right here. Love this lady! I remember seeing the movie More than a Miracle and the dishwashing scene still sticks in my memory.
They don’t make stars like this anymore, unfortunately.
Yeah, Sophia. No one was ever famous for their looks before five minutes ago, other than (for example) a long list of actresses who used to be your rivals. Ursula Andress, anyone? Capucine? Gina Lollabrigida? I could go on.
It’s great that she later proved she was a good actress, but Loren got initial attention because of HER LOOKS, not her talent. That’s true for most of the greats. Hepburn and Davis (and maybe Magnani) were the exceptions.
Streisand, Masina, Girardot were superstars. Shirly Maclaine was not a great beauty, but captivating and talented. Monica Vitti was beautiful, but it was her amazing presence and talent that made her into a star. Humphrey Bogart was no looker. These were not the exceptions. There was a place for everyone: people who looked like amazing gods and people who looked like people. In european cinema more so, but still. Nowadays, I can’t watch american movies, not because they are bad, but because there are barbie people playing life in them. Actors don’t look like real people anymore. The last film I saw where people looked like people and the directing, script and acting were not by template was Jack in love.
I have a big collection of old movies. How oft do I look at the actors and think they wouldn’t stand a chance now. And their teeth? They had actually natural teeth! God, I think I sound like Tarantino, this is terrible.
In agreement with you about Shirley Maclaine. She was not what is referred to a classic beauty by Hollywood standards but I, personally, think she was lovely. Not sexy, per se, but attractive and approachable. Her talent speaks volumes.
Captain, I would love to see your collection of movies! 🙂
Tarantino is not that bad. He gets really excited when speaking about film to the point where he can sound a bit geeky. You are spot on with your observations about body type and teeth, btw.
I would like to enjoy the gallery images in this post, but all of the images are squished and look as though they are caught between elevator doors. Do you see that, too? Can the aspect ratio be corrected, please?
Yes, of course, there was love between them.
Sophia openly asserts that, because of her disadvantaged position in life, she needed a father, an agent to help her with her career and a lover.
Carlo was the Svengali that she needed and wanted and appreciated.
Was it this great love story to be emulated?
She admits to feeling gratitude to Carlo for developing and placing her in his movies. In return, they had an inappropriate relationship. Sophia has openly stated that they had to keep their relationship a secret when she was his 16-year old mistress.
I’m assuming it’s universally agreed upon that a 16-year-old having an affair with a married 38-year old is toxic.
She admits that she learned to love him and developed great affection for him and that she loved him simultaneously as husband and lover.
Sure, Sophia, but it wasn’t your acting talent that got you your first dozen movies, was it? And it wasn’t Jayne Mansfield’s “talent” that you were looking sideways at in that famous picture. The golden age of respect for female acting talent you’re trying to talk about never existed.
She’s had a lot done. Her face is pulled tighter than a drumskin. How she can claim to be all natural or never or little work is laughable.