Sophia Loren at Pirelli calendar 2013 launch in Rio de Janeiro

Five years ago, Sophia Loren became the oldest model to ever poise for the legendary Pirelli calendar at the grand old age of 72 and now she still managed to put the younger models in the shade at the launch of the 2013 iconic calendar.

Sophia Loren, now 78-years-old, looked stunning in a glittering pearly-white gown in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday evening.

With her brown hair worn over her shoulders and tinted glasses, the star added diamond earrings and a necklace to her dazzling outfit.

Sophia Loren looked thrilled to be in the Brazilian city among a slew of much-younger models, smiling and waving to photographers.

The Oscar-winning star was one of five actresses to appear on the calendar’s 33rd edition back in 2007.

Sophia Loren joined Penelope Cruz, Hilary Swank, Naomi Watts and French star Lou Doillon on the iconic calendar which has been published since 1964.

She was pictured on a bed wearing black lingerie underneath white sheets.

“I had a lot of fun, like a young girl” Sophia Loren said of posing for the calendar.

Sophia Loren said she was thrilled by the experience, adding she had “absolutely no problem” posing semi-nude for Dutch photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

“I didn’t think they would ask me such a thing,” she said of the shoot, which took place in California.

“I started to laugh a lot, I found it ridiculous, I was a little bit afraid,” she added.

“I asked a lot of questions, then thought, <<What the hell, I am going to do it anyway>>.

“When you start to feel good, you give it everything you’ve got.”

Sophia Loren even once told her fans her unusual beauty secret: “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

She later took to the stage on Tuesday alongside the Pirelli President Marco Tronchetti Provera and Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro to launch the new calendar.

The Pirelli calendar is never sold but is distributed each year by the tire firm to some 40,000 VIPs, top customers, politicians and other personalities.

Meanwhile models from the world over were also in attendance including Petra Nemcova who plumped for a subtle gold long sleeved gown, and American model Kyleigh Kuhn, who took the plunge in a daring black number.

They were joined by beauties Liya Kebede, Hanaa Ben Abdesslem and Summer Rayne Oakes.