NEWS OF THE ARTISTS AND THE STARS
Photo: Egyptian actor Omar Sharif gestures during a photocall to present his movie Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran (Monsieur Ibrahim and the flowers of Quran) out of competition at the 60th Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy. (AP/Luigi Costantini)
And at 71, he still has those dark, penetrating eyes and the Valentino sex-appeal that he displayed in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. In a small but endearing French movie Monsieur Ibrahim, he plays a grizzled Muslim shopkeeper named Abraham who tutors and eventually adopts an orphaned Jewish boy in 1960s Paris. He also has a part in the new horse-racing film Hidalgo, starring Viggo Mortensen. "I have had trouble for 25 years now in finding parts, ever since I stopped being a big star in the box office," Sharif said during a recent interview in Toronto. "When I was, they used to write parts for me, or adapt parts to fit me," says Sharif. "But when you get older and you are not a box office star, you have to find parts yourself, parts that fit you." For instance, he says, "they won't ask me to play an old American, because they have old American actors who can play those parts. "So I have been doing rubbish for 25 years, and I lost my self-respect, my self-esteem. Even my grandchildren make fun of me." So he decided, in order to get his dignity back, "if something good happens, I will do it, and if something good doesn't happen, I should spend my time with my grandchildren, my son," who, he points out, is Canadian. Then along came the offer to star in Monsieur Ibrahim. Luckily, it appeared to be the perfect fit Sharif was looking for. "You know, I have one son," says Sharif. "And he married a Jewish girl, and I have a grandson, from the Jewish woman. "Then he married a Catholic woman. A Canadian. He is Canadian, my son and my family. They're from Montreal. So the second one was Catholic, but she didn't have children." And now, says Sharif, "he is married to a Muslim girl. He's with his third wife, and I have a little grandson who is Muslim, in principle, but I will bring up everybody with tolerance." -CP
