MESSINAWOOD

Looking across the Strait of Messina

Here, at last, is some news to cheer Sicilians up and boost tourism on the island: The messinese actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, along with Massimiliano Cavaleri, president of the cultural association Prima Stella, has come up with the idea of creating a "Walk of Stars", inspired by the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along the shores of the Messina Strait.

The idea is to put Messina back on the film map of the world and celebrate its cinematic heyday in the fifties and sixties. At that time, film stars from Italy and beyond would come to the Rassegna Cinematografica Internazionale di Messina and let themselves be seen there as they do now in Hollywood, Cannes and Taormina, where the Festival was relocated in the 1970s. The project, which looks to the future, too, has won support from all quarters of the Messina Council and Port Authority and architects have already been appointed.

It is envisaged that there would be a permanent commission to choose which stars would be honoured and now two star designs are being considered: a traditional star to be inserted into the existing paving or a three-dimensional design with room for some biographical details about the film star it represents.

I have just one tip for you, Messina:  if you don't want a certain politician lobbying for a place on the Walk, keep calling it the "Walk of Stars" and not the "Walk of Fame"!