The pretty Italian seaside town of Vasto in Abruzzo, has offered French movie superstar Alain Delon a haven to help him fight a major bout of the blues.
Delon, who recently told a French magazine he was struggling with depression, could "live for long spells in a friendly little place like Vasto, seeking the sincere and profound human relations that are ever rarer in today's world," said Mayor Filippo Pietrocola.
Pietrocola said he would be delighted if Delon agreed to direct the twice-a-year Vasto Film Festival, which featured a retrospective on the veteran French actor last month. The festival's two directors said they would be "honoured and immensely pleased" to take a back seat to the screen legend.
In the latest edition of Paris-Match, Delon speaks of his sadness at a recent split from his young wife and the added unhappiness of only being able to see his two young children every other weekend.
The screen legend, who will be 70 in November, admits that he has thought of suicide.
"It won't be God who decides the day of my death," he is quoted as saying.
The once drop-dead handsome star of Italian classics like Luchino Visconti's Rocco And His Brothers and The Leopard is still said to set women's hearts fluttering - as was seen during his rapturous reception at the Vasto fest. But he wryly tells Paris-Match that any woman who thinks
she can revive his lust for life "had better hurry up."
