Sophia Loren, 78, Outshines Supermodels at Pirelli Calendar Launch. Proves Hips Don't Age. No Lie

This is what 78 looks like...if you're Sophia Loren. The iconic Italian actress put models 50 years younger to shame when she arrived at the launch of Pirelli's of annual calendar on Tuesday night in Rio de Janeiro.

2013 Pirelli Calendar features something new

Dressed in a low-cut sparkling, crystal-white gown that hugged her waistline, and boldly displayed her famously age-defying curves, she proved that beauty isn't wasted on the young.

Joined by models in their '20s like Karlie Kloss and Isabeli Fontana, the 78-year-old, held court at the event celebrating 40 years of the iconic publication.

The Pirelli calendar, sponsored by the Italian tire company, is annual flipbook of some of the world's most stunning women. For the past 40 years it has featured everyone from Heidi Klum to Kate Moss posing in the outfits they were born to wear--that is to say practically nothing.

Sophia Loren's purse sold for staggering six figures.

In 2007, at the age of 72, Loren was one of five actresses (including Penelope Cruz and Naomi Watts) to appear in the racy European calendar. Back then she posed for photographer Inez van Lamsweerde with tousled bedroom hair in a black bra, looking no different than she did during her early '60s breakout moment as cinema's leading sex symbol.

This year's photographer, Steve McCurry, actually covered up his models for the shoot, which included Sonia Braga, Petra Nemcova and a very pregnant Adriana Lima.

Loren wasn't included in the 2013 calendar but after Tuesday night's red carpet appearance, the publishers may be regretting that decision.

See Sophia Loren at last year's Oscars

Posing with actors Owen Wilson, Stephen Dorff and Afef Jnifen, all eyes were on Loren, who seems to counter everything we know about aging.

Her secrets? "I go to bed very early and wake up at 5 in the morning and have coffee and exercise and do things in the house when it's quiet," she told People Magazine back in 1991.

In the age of surgical reinventions, you''d imagine there's more to her preservation than just early rising. But in 2009, she told the magazine she's never had plastic surgery. "I don't believe in having work done, because then everybody looks the same."

Secrets to aging well

Instead, the actress, who now has four grandchildren, the kind homegrown self-esteem that comes with age.

"When you feel good in your skin, it's because you lived the life you always wanted to live." she said in 1991. "I'm very well in my skin."

She also famously believes in the power of pasta. "Everything you see here I owe to spaghetti," she once famously said of her flawless figure. Forget the stem-cell creams, the frown line injections and the juice detoxes: I'll have what she's having.

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