Pia's Answer

In a Los Angeles courtroom last week, Cinemactress Ingrid Bergman's lawyers were fighting for the court's permission to let her daughter Pia, 13, visit her in Italy. Pia herself was finally asked how she felt about it. A well-poised child with a hint of the freshly scrubbed beauty that made her mother's face world famous, Pia had graduated from junior high school only the day before. Her testimony, coming after a spate of harsh charges made by her father, Dr. Peter Lindstrom, against Ingrid's present husband, Italian Movie Director Roberto Rossellini, was candid enough to set her elders straight. Judge Mildred Lillie and Ingrid's suave lawyer, Gregson Bautzer, asked the questions.

Q. Do you understand what this case is about? What your mother is seeking . . .?

A. Yes. She wants me to come to Italy and I don't want to go.

Q. Don't you love your mother, Pia?

A. I don't love my mother. I like her. I don't want to go to Italy to be with her. I love my father.

Q. Have you ever written your mother telling her that you love her?

A. I always sign my letters: "Love, Pia."

Q. Does that express the way you feel about her?

A. No. That is just the wording of the letter.

Q. Do you feel that your mother doesn't care about you now?

A. Well, I don't think she cares about me too much . . . She didn't seem very interested about me when she left. It was only after she left and got married and had children that she suddenly decided that she wanted me.

Bautzer's next question was about the time in 1949 when Rossellini was a guest in the Lindstroms' Los Angeles home.

Q. Did you have any conversations with Mr. Rossellini at that time?

A. Well, he lived in our house, so I guess I talked to him, but I don't remember anything we talked about.

Q. Did you find him to be a considerate, gentlemanly man?

A. I don't remember. I didn't find him anything.

Q. What sort of discussions have you had with your father about Mr. Rossellini?

A. . . . We discussed that he used to stand in front of the fireplace and tell how religious he was, and he used to--he borrowed all my father's money and bought presents for me with my father's money.

Pia indicated that her mother had been a bit weary of the Hollywood scene for some time before leaving for Italy.

Q. How do you know [your mother] was tired [of home life] ?

A. Because she got tired of staying home.

Q. You mean bored?

A. Yes. When she couldn't find anything else to do she would swim and take sun baths. When she got tired of sun baths and swimming she went to New York.

Meanwhile, in Rome, Ingrid Bergman awaited the birth of twins while her husband waited to hear whether he would be granted a U.S. entrance visa to permit him a chance to answer, at first hand, Lindstrom's "calumnies." To a reporter, Actress Bergman complained: "I cannot understand why my former husband and myself cannot deal with problems involving [Pia] as grownups."

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