It is one of the most famous photographs taken in Hollywood in the 1950s.

Sophia Loren is caught staring down at Jayne Mansfield's ample cleavage as they sit side-by-side during a fancy cocktail party at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1957.

This week the 80-year-old Italian movie star finally explained to Entertainment Weekly what happened when the flashbulb went off.

Scroll down for video 

The photo that raised millions of eyebrows: Sophia Loren gave a disapproving look at Jayne Mansfield in 1957 during a cocktail party at the Beverly Hills Hotel; the beauty told Entertainment Weekly she was 'afraid' of the blonde's cleavage

'Look at that picture. Where are my eyes?' Sophia told the publication.

'I'm staring at her nipples because I am afraid they are about to come onto my plate.'

Indeed, the beauty - whose new memoir Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life will be released on Tuesday - looks put out that Jayne would let her chest be on such blatant display.

Quite a career: The 80-year-old movie star, seen in 2012, has written a new memoir that is out Tuesday

The Boy On A Dolphin star added, 'In my face you can see the fear. I'm so frightened that everything in her dress is going to blow - BOOM! - and spill all over the table.'

While Loren looked stylish in a black dress with a halter style strap, Mansfield chose a very low-cut dress in satin.

Though both were big movie stars at the time, each was in a different orbit.

An icon, always: The Italian looker in an alluring set-up shoot in her home in Naples in 1952

Sophia was considered nearly Italian royalty for her work in The Pride And The Passion and Legend Of The Lost (both 1957), while Jayne was seen as a C class Marilyn Monroe thanks to parts as cheap, bubble-headed women in The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1958).

While Loren went on to star in dozens of more films such as El Cid (1961), The Fall Of The Roman Empire (1964), Arabesque (1966), Man Of La Mancha (1972), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Mansfield died in June 1967 in Slidell, LA during a car accident.

The blonde bombshell's daughter is Mariska Hargitay, 50, of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fame. 

Bella, bella: The actress here in 1957 would go on to star in dozens of movies

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKymqLWww8GisWiZoqm2pLjEZmlxaWdnfnR7sqinoaGRYpmwvsSnZHFoXZu2r63LpbBmnailuaK1zaxkn5mdpMK0ec%2Bhpq2nXX%2BuurrEZoSapqObtqa4w2armqOVo3pyhZRwZaGsnaE%3D