Fashion Entertainment

(ANSA) - Milan, February 8 - The Italian fashion group Prada had a better than expected year in 2009 and despite the economic downturn posted more earnings than the previous year, a company statement said.

This was in part thanks to the performance of Prada's retail chain which saw sales climb by more than 14% over 2008, the statement added.

The group said it was satisfied with the results which allowed Prada to fully self-finance its development plan with investments of over 120 million euros.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 3 - Italy's state-owned film company on Wednesday said it would file suit over a top-selling Apple iPhone application that plays film clips and speeches by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Cinecitta' Luce, which manages the historic Italian studio's film archive, alleged the material on the user-made mobile phone application had been copied off a DVD without permission for sale on Apple's online store ''with flagrant disregard for international copyright laws''.

(ANSA) - Los Angeles, February 2 - Italian screenwriter Alessandro Camon received an Oscar nod Tuesday for anti-war drama The Messenger, one of three Italian nominations including cinematography for Avatar and make-up for Il Divo.

Camon, 46, son of novelist Ferdinando Camon, said he was thrilled at the recognition for the original screenplay he co-wrote with director Oren Moverman.

"I was sleeping when a friend rang up and told me. I told her I'd never talk to her again if she was joking," Camon told ANSA.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 1 - Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney has decided to try his luck playing Italy's popular SuperEnalotto game with a promise that, if he wins, its whopping jackpot prize will go to help relief efforts of Haiti.

The American actor last month hosted a star-studded telethon event which raised over $61 million for the survivors of the January 7 catastrophic earthquake which is believed to have left upwards of 200,000 people dead.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 29 - Fashion designer Caterina Gatta, recently tagged by Vogue as one of Italy's bright new talents, uses vintage fabrics to create one-off pieces that are fast becoming collectors' items.

Gatta told ANSA she has no interest in turning out mass- produced items and plans to continue distributing her pieces to a select group of boutiques in New York.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 25 - Oscar-winning Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore will chair the jury at this year's Rome Film Festival, organisers announced Monday.

The festival, Italy's second cinema fest after Venice, runs from October 28-November 5.

Festival President Gian Luigi Rondi called Tornatore, 53, "one of the most acclaimed" figures in Italian cinema.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is a persona non grata for many women in a town near Rome where he is scheduled to make an appearance at a local nightclub on Friday.

''He's a brute and a convicted rapist,'' said Viterbo's Equal Opportunity Councillor Daniela Bizzari, who fears the retired puncher could set a bad example for the town's youth.

Bizzari said that sexual assault rates in the area were on the rise and that ''inviting a bunch of young people to revel at his feet definitely sends the wrong message''.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is a persona non grata for many women in a town near Rome where he is scheduled to make an appearance at a local nightclub on Friday.

''He's a brut and a convicted rapist,'' said Viterbo's Equal Opportunity Councillor Daniela Bizzari, who fears the retired puncher could set a bad example for the town's youth.

Bizzari said that sexual assault rates in the area were on the rise and that ''inviting a bunch of young people to revel at his feet definitely sends the wrong message''.

(ANSA) - Los Angeles, January 21 - Italy's ten-year wait for Oscar glory will have to continue after Giuseppe Tornatore's Baaria failed to make the long list for the best foreign-language film.

"The important thing was that the film got to the United States and had a good run," a seemingly resigned Tornatore said before his Sicilian epic was knocked out of the running along with Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces.

"It got a good reception from audiences and I would have been happy for some awards too, but that would have been icing on the cake".

(ANSA) - Rome, January 19 - Italian director Gabriele Muccino is to produce a two-part TV movie on Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, one of Muccino's co-producers said Tuesday.

Pavarotti's widow Nicoletta Mantovani is working with screenwriter Ivana Massetti to make sure the tale of Big Luciano's rise from humble beginnings to operatic superstardom is as accurate as possible, said Fabrizio Danvito, a co-owner of Muccino's production company Indiana Production.

(ANSA) - Milan, January 18 - A Milan court on Monday adjourned until January 25 a trial of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in which his Mediaset group is accused of tax fraud in the sale of film rights.

The court outlined a schedule until April 12, when defence witnesses will start to be heard.

On March 22 the judges are expected to visit Monte Carlo to hear prosecution witnesses who live there.

Another trip, to the United States, has not yet been scheduled.

(ANSA) - Los Angeles, January 18 - The Oscar hopes of Giuseppe Tornatore's Sicilian epic Baaria took a knock Sunday when the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film went to Michael Haneke's White Ribbon.

The other losers were Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces, Chile's The Maid and, from France, A Prophet.

Austrian director Haneke's Cannes Golden Palm winner becomes an even hotter tip for an Aacademy Award after the Golden Globe, which is awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and is the second most prestigious prize after the Oscars.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 18 - James Cameron's Avatar set a record at the Italian box office over the weekend, beating Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

The 3-D fantasy took some 9.6 million euros in three days despite the higher ticket price for 3-D pictures, the Cinetel cinema agency said.

Last year's biggest opener was New Moon, the second episode in the Twilight series, which raked in more than 6.6 million euros on its first weekend and claimed what was then third place in the all-time rankings.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 13 - Sophia Loren says she's thrilled with playing Federico Fellini's mother in the new hit film Nine.

"When Rob Marshall called me I was happy," Loren said Wednesday ahead of the Italian premiere of the musical by the director of Chicago.

"It was a dream of mine to do an American musical like the ones I used to watch as a child," said the screen icon.

"I didn't know I was going to play the mother at the start but I've played a mother's role many times and it didn't frighten me".

(ANSA) - Turin, January 12 - Starting next Valentine's Day, couples in this northwestern Italian city will be able to get married in a theatre, the Teatro Cargignano, thanks to a resolution passed by the city council on Tuesday.

Couples will be allowed to tie the knot in the Baroque jewel on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings.

The proposal to allow civil weddings in the 300-year-old theatre came from the councilor for civil services, Michele Del'Utri, and was supported by the Teatro Stabile Foundation, which operates the Carignano and other leading theatres in Turin.