Italian Movie Stars: Olive-skinned Beauties

Italian Movie Stars: Olive-skinned Beauties

Ciao bella,

Mirror, mirror, on the wall who’s the fairest of them all? — “Olive” them”

Keeping the rhythm in celebrating Italian Heritage Month, let’s remember some of the beautiful women of Italy from the silver screen.

Silvana Mangano, born in Rome, 1930. Famous for her role in the earthy Bitter Rice. She was so sexy working in the rice fields. Later Lucille Ball did a hilarious spoof of this story in one of her I Love Lucy episodes. Remember “Bitter Grapes,” when Lucy was spotted by a famous Italian movie director and was chosen to play a part in his new movie? It ends with her now famous grape stomping vat scene.

In 1947 Silvana won the Miss Italia contest and became “The Queen.” The third runner-up in that contest was another beauty queen, Gina Lollobrigida. She was born on July 1937, also in Rome. In Hollywood she was well-known for her break-out movie with Humphrey Bogart, a John Huston film, Beat the Devil. In 1955, as her popularity and fi lm roles increased, she was tagged as “the most beautiful woman in the world.”

And then there’s Sophia Loren, also born in Rome, in 1934. She may have been the voluptuous sex goddess as an adult, but as a skinny child growing up in Naples she was nicknamed, “the stick.”

In 1961, she received an Academy Award for Two Women. That certainly advanced her budding career in Hollywood. In 1991 she also received a second, special Academy Award for the whole of her outstanding career.

Here’s a quote from Sophia, “A woman’s dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”

Isabella Rossellini, born in Rome in June 1942, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Boston at a book signing! Besides being a well known Italian actress she was a filmmaker, philanthropist, model for Lancôme, and an author. Her movies were quite memorable such as Blue Velvet, Big Night, Death Becomes Her and she received a Golden Globe nomination for Crime Of The Century.

A beauty from Umbria, Italy, born in 1964 is Monica Bellucci. She started her career as a successful model and went on to a film career, debuting on TV in 1990. She starred in Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. Her career shot to stardom when she won the French equivalent of an Oscar nomination for the French thriller, L’Appartement in 1996.

And last, but not least, what we know her best for is her fabulous portrayal of Mary Magdalene in the The Passion of the Christ.

I’m sure you’ll agree these beauties are to be celebrated.

38C-24-38 — can anyone guess whose form this is? Check this space for the answer in my next column!

Buona Giornata and God Bless the USA!

Mary N. DiZazzo-Trumbull

Read prior weeks' "All That Zazz" columns at www.allthatzazz.com. Mary is a third-generation cosmetologist and a Massachusetts distributor of Kosmea brand rose hip oil products. She may be contacted at (978) 470-8183 or mary@mary4nails.com.