The most famous side-eye in Hollywood history

 
 

The most famous side-eye in Hollywood history

 One of show business's most glamorous – and notorious – images, there's more to this 1957 snapshot of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield than might first appear.

 The photograph's long legacy

There are troubling implications linked to the prolonged prevalence of the image, however. It highlights the media's tendency to exaggerate female rivalry, pushing the harmful stereotype that women are always in competition. In reality, this was the only time they ever met, and Loren was perhaps worried that Mansfield was about to have a wardrobe failure in front of the press. In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Loren recalled, "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."

In her new documentary My Mom Jayne, Mansfield's daughter Mariska Hargitay, who was three years old when she died, explores the actress's career in a bid to discover the mother she barely knew. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Hargitay admits that she struggled with the photograph as a youth. "That was a rough one. To see another woman look at your mom like that was excruciating for me as a little girl." 

Growing up, she developed a demure style that was the opposite of Mansfield's glamorous public image. In the documentary, Hargitay admits that she decided to become a different kind of actor with a different image to her mother, whose career struggles she was keen to avoid. Now 61, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actor is reclaiming Mansfield's story in the documentary – after all, this was a woman who could play violin and piano, spoke three languages, and who Life magazine called "Broadway's smartest dumb blonde".

 Carolan acknowledges that Mansfield helped to "pave the way for actresses like Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, and Claudia Cardinale", as she broke down barriers in the male-dominated industry by proudly owning her beauty and sexuality. And while their paths might have only crossed fleetingly, Loren told Entertainment Weekly that she is still repeatedly asked to sign the famous picture. She always refuses, though. "I don't want to have anything to do with that. And also out of respect for Jayne Mansfield because she's not with us anymore."