ITALY: Italian actor Gina Lollobrigida yesterday said her wedding to her long-time boyfriend had been moved to Rome and would be held on January 27th.
Lollobrigida, once dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world" after the title of one of her movies, is getting married, aged 79, to a man 34 years her junior, Javier Rigauy Rafols, of Barcelona, Spain.
The couple were set to wed in New York later this month, but decided to hold the ceremony in a Rome church "given the interest and the affection of many European friends, in particular Italian and Spanish ones", the two said in a joint statement.
They met at a party in Monte Carlo and have been dating for 22 years.
It will be the diva's second wedding, following her 1971 divorce from Yugoslavia-born doctor Milko Skofic.
Lollobrigida embodied the prototype of Italian beauty and began making movies in Italy just after the end of the second World War. Highlights of her career include The World's Most Beautiful Woman in 1955, Golden Globe winner Come September and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
She has played opposite some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Humphrey Bogart, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery and Tony Curtis.