Italian emissary goes from Oscars to O.C.

COSTA MESA — It was a homecoming in more ways than one for Giovanni Castellaneta. The Italian ambassador spent Sunday night at the Academy Awards watching two of his compatriots win Oscars — or three, if the Italian-American director Martin Scorsese counts.

The next day, Castellaneta found himself in South Coast Plaza on a tour of Costa Mesa's wealthiest side, and it still felt uncannily like Rome.

"I feel at home because there are so many Italian brands," the ambassador said. "Everything I'm wearing I could have bought here."

With Gucci, Fendi, the Pucci Boutique and the Antonello Espresso Café dotting the upscale shopping center, South Coast Plaza has a definite Italian flair. Werner Escher, the center's executive director of domestic and international markets, said South Coast Plaza has 26 Italian-based stores and restaurants — the most of any non-American nationality.

For several hours on Monday, Escher led Castellaneta, Consul General Diego Brasioli, Italian film commissioner Paola Bellusci and others through South Coast Plaza, the Orange County Performing Arts Center and Balboa Island. Castellaneta said he had heard about South Coast Plaza through his office in Washington, D.C.

He added that he hoped to organize a media event there in the fall — though he declined to offer specifics.

Regardless, Castellaneta and Bellusci said, it was a privilege to meet the Oscar winners on Sunday. Bellusci said she was thrilled by costume designer Milena Canonero, who took home the prize for "Marie Antoinette."

A three-time winner, Canonero had been nominated five times without a victory since 1982.

"She's been nominated several times, so finally she made it," Bellusci said.