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Nicole Kidman,
Monica Bellucci and
Sean Connery were among
those in attendance at the inaugural RomaCinemaFest this week,
Loren found herself left out of the party. La Stampa newspaper
ran a front-page headline: "La Loren Furiosa." But there were no apologies Wednesday for the iconic star
from the organizers of RomaCinemaFest. "We had already decided to make Sophia Loren the star of
the second edition of the festival, so there should be no
controversy," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said Wednesday. "We
didn't invite her this year because we hoped she would be the
guest of honor next year, just as Sean Connery was this time." It was Veltroni who came up with the idea for the Rome
festival two years ago. Loren confirmed in a statement that she would be "honored
and pleased" to play a central role in next year's festival. Loren's decision to accept the invitation for the second
RomaCinemaFest had been the subject of speculation for several
days, ever since Italian Parliament member Alessandra Mussolini
-- granddaughter of Italy's fascist dictator and Loren's niece
-- blasted festival organizers for excluding the actress. The spat, however, did not deter from the day-to-day
business of the festival, which returned to a full schedule
Wednesday after many events were postponed or canceled the day
before in the wake of a Rome metro accident that left one
person dead and more than 100 injured. Full houses greeted the highly anticipated screening of
Giuseppe Tornatore's "La Sconosciuta" (The Unknown) and
Shane Meadows' "This Is England" on Wednesday. Meadows' feature tells
the story of a group of British skinheads in the early 1980s. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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Well, goodness gracious me!
Rome failed to invite its own doyenne of cinema Sophia Loren to
its big new film festival -- and looked to make good by asking
her to come next year instead. 
