Simone Before Sophia

Regarding Liz Smith’s item on Sophia Loren (April 1): The statement that “the Neapolitan beauty won an Oscar for ‘Two Women,’ the first and only time a foreign actress in a foreign film had been so honored” is in error on both counts. Simone Signoret, a French actress, won the Oscar for best actress in “Room at the Top,” a British film, in 1959. Because Loren’s award came in 1961, she was neither the only nor the first.

BASIL HOFFMAN

Los Angeles