SOPHIA LOREN - PRODUCER PONTI BURIED

PRODUCER PONTI BURIED

LATEST: SOPHIA LOREN'S film producer husband CARLO PONTI has been buried in a private ceremony in his hometown in northern Italy. Relatives and close friends attended a Mass at a church in Magenta, 20 miles west of Milan, where Ponti was born in 1912, before the late producer was buried in his family's tomb at a nearby cemetery yesterday (12JAN07). About 200 locals congregated to watch Loren and her sons enter the church, and the town later opened the cemetery to allow the public to pay their respects to Ponti, who produced more than 140 movies, including LA STRADA and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. Ponti died on Tuesday (09JAN07) at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. He was 94.