Trevi Fountain in the 1960 Federico Fellini classic ‘La Dolce Vita’,
is destitute and asking for help.
Ekberg, 80, has been living in a care home near Rome for the past
three months after she broke her thighbone in a fall. She hasn`t
returned to her apartment which was robbed of furniture and jewelry.
A fire has rendered it unfit for habitation, according her accountant,
Massimo Morais, who was appointed to help manage her affairs.
Morais has written to the Fellini Foundation of Rimini appealing for
financial help and posted on the Foundation`s Facebook page.
"We ask the Foundation to help share with other benefactors that
possibility, however modest, to help a good actress," Morais said in
the letter. "A small present is always a big gift."
Ekberg`s iconic role saw her act opposite Italian Marcello
Mastroianni. Playing dreamy American movie star with only the first
name Sylvia, donning an elegant evening dress she calls out "Marcello,
come here. Hurry up", beckoning Mastroianni`s philandering character
Marcello Rubini to join her in the 17th century Baroque fountain.
Starring in more than 20 movies, including "Abbott and Costello Go to
Mars", 1953 and "War and Peace" 1956, she was married twice and
romantically linked to Mastroianni, Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper.
Prior to film stardom, curvy Ekberg was a popular pinup girl and won
the Miss Sweden contest in 1950.
"She would dearly love to go home but the fact is she can`t as she
does not have the money to restore the house where she lives which was
damaged in the fire," Morais said.
"She also has no family to help look after her and lives on her own.
That`s why she is asking the Foundation for help."
The Rimini, Italy-based Fellini Foundation, founded in 1995, said it
plans to hold an event for Ekberg but has not yet worked out the
details.
"I feel a bit alone," Ekberg told Italian newspaper Corriere della
Sera in a September interview to commemorate her 80th birthday. "But I
have no regrets. I`ve loved, cried, been crazy with happiness."
Speaking of the movie that launched her into the pantheon of screen
icons, she said, "It was 1960. A lifetime ago."
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