It’s one of the funniest, fiercest, and most famous photographs in all Hollywood history: Two Hollywood sirens, Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield, sat at a table at a Paramount Pictures party in 1957—with Loren throwing the shadiest side-eye imaginable at the busty blonde sat beside her. (If you’ve never seen the picture before, type it into Google and enjoy!)
For years, the context of the photograph was unknown. Had the two fallen out? Had they even met before? Was Loren genuinely unimpressed with Mansfield’s appearance, or was it just an ill-timed photo? Finally, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2014, 80-year-old Sophia Loren explained the story behind the image. And yes, she did mean to look that unimpressed!
The story began in 1955 when a 21-year-old Loren had captured every photographer’s eye at the Cannes Film Festival, where she was promoting her latest picture, The Gold of Naples. Already an established star in Europe, her arrival at Cannes that year catapulted her into the international spotlight. An invitation to Hollywood soon followed, and in 1957 Loren found herself the recipient of a gala welcoming party at Paramount, attended by all the studio’s biggest hitters and much of the Hollywood press. Plus, of course, Jayne Mansfield.
Mansfield arrived late to the party, looking every inch the Hollywood blonde bombshell. She marched across the room to Loren’s table—capturing everyone’s attention on the way—sat in the seat directly beside her, and immediately began posing for photos in a scandalously low-cut dress. “She knew everyone was watching,” Loren recalled, some 57 years later. “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!”
Whether the two women remained on good terms or not after this memorable picture was taken is unclear—though tellingly, Loren now refuses to sign any copies of it that come her way, no matter how many times she’s asked…