This article originally appeared in
October 20, 2007
RomaCinema's case of two
Depardieus

By ERIC J. LYMAN

ROME --  A look-alike pretending to be French actor Gerard Depardieu
walked into Rome's Hotel de Russie and walked out with the real
Depardieu's festival gift basket, the local press reported Friday.

    Depardieu is scheduled to come to the
    RomaCinemaFest, which got under
    way Thursday, to promote his out of
    competition film "La Abbuffata" -- in
    which he plays himself -- and as part of
    a retrospective that includes his 1976
    film "1900," directed by Bernardo
    Bertolucci.

    Police said Friday that they are looking
    for the Depardieu doppelganger who
    walked into the Hotel de Russie looking
    and sounding enough like the real thing
that staff members allowed him into the gift suite, where he reportedly took
a purse, a bikini, a pair of sunglasses, a cashmere sweater and a designer
bra. The error was discovered a short time later, but by then the look-alike
was long gone.

"We're on the lookout for someone who looks like Gerard Depardieu but who
is not Gerard Depardieu," a spokesman for the Rome-based Carabinieri
police said Friday.

The actor has not yet arrived in Rome, and festival officials said that when he
did arrive he would have his own chance to take a few gifts from the suite.


The festival concludes Oct. 27.
(c) 2007 The Hollywood Reporter
All rights reserved.
Volume 77; Number 9
Volume 77; Number 9
The real Gerard Depardieu
October 28, 2007
RomaCinemaFest ends
strong; Popular 'Juno' wins
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