Dear Gossips,
On the weekend when I was prepping Monday’s column, I came across a couple shots of Sophia Loren arriving in Taiwan on Sunday. Wasn’t sure how I would be able to use them. Entertainment Weekly just gave me a reason. (Thanks Victoria!)
In May when I posted photos of Sophia at Cannes (click here for a refresher), I wrote that “I never mention Sophia on this blog without referencing her infamous cut-eye on Jayne Mansfield”. It is the probably the most famous, most spectacular cut-eye of all time. And, in a new interview to celebrate her upcoming AFI achievement and the release of her memoir, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: My Life, EW actually asks her about it!
Even Sophia thinks what went down was “amazing” – that’s her word, not mine. That Jayne was the last to arrive that night in an attempt to upstage her.
“She came right for my table. She knew everyone was watching. She sat down. And now, she was barely… Listen. Look at the picture. Where are my eyes? I’m staring at her nipples because I am afraid they are about to come onto my plate. In my face you can see the fear. I’m so frightened that everything in her dress is going to blow—BOOM!—and spill all over the table.”
EW tries to downplay the gossip at this point, suggesting that everyone kinda just Photo Assumed a rivalry and there are other images from the night that are less bitchfacey and judgy but Sophia, BLESS THIS WOMAN, wants none of that. Sophia doesn’t want to call it anything else but bitchfacey and judgy:
“No, no. Well, there may be other photos, but this is the picture. This is the one that shows how it was. This is the only picture.”
Of course it’s the only picture. It’s EVERY picture. And Sophia understands, even after all these years, some photos never, ever lose their power. She’s still giving it its power right now. She’s STILL bitchfacing and judging!
“Actually, many, many times I am given this photo to autograph it. And I never do. I don’t want to have anything to do with that. And also out of respect for Jayne Mansfield because she’s not with us anymore.”
I posted the link before but if you missed it or if you’ve forgotten, click here for the full story behind how that image came to be. It’s Important Gossip History. You don’t think that sh-t still goes on today?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
