'Sex and the City' Actor Jason Lewis to Visit Sicily’s Taormina Fest

ROME – Sex and the City star Jason Lewis will appear at the 58th edition of the Taormina Film Festival, event organizers said Wednesday.

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It's the first announcement from the Sicilian fest since former International Rome Film Festival sidebar head Mario Sesti was named artistic director three weeks ago.

The festival, one of the oldest in Europe, had been in disarray since the departure of five-year artistic director Deborah Young in February amid budgetary worries. Young, who left Taormina over what she called "incompatible views" with the festival's oversight body, is the international film editor for The Hollywood Reporter.

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But in recent weeks, organizers have been putting the event back on track, naming veteran public relations specialist Tiziana Rocca as general manager in mid-April, and in early May appointing Sesti, who until that point had been best known as the director of Rome’s often provocative Extra sidebar.

Lewis, a former model who starred in both installments of the Sex and the City films and in 16 episodes of the hit television series the films were based on, will host a master class in Taormina.

The festival, which will run June 22-28 in the cliffside town, will announce its full lineup in June.