SHORT TAKES : ‘Paradiso’ Star Is Toast of Italy

His friends include Marcello Mastroianni and Vanessa Redgrave. The mayor of Rome gave him a “Most Likable Person” of the year prize. From Milan to Naples to Florence, people stop him in the streets for autographs.

Not bad for a 10-year-old.

“I get letters saying to maintain my naturalness,” said Salvatore (Toto) Cascio, the projectionist’s invaluable assistant in “Cinema Paradiso,” which won the Academy Award for best foreign film of 1989. “Everyone wants to have my picture.”

“Cinema Paradiso” was Salvatore’s film debut. In fact, he had never seen a movie, because there was no theater in his hometown of Palermo, Sicily.

“They made the selection among 300 children,” he explained recently through an interpreter. “After this selection, myself and another boy were chosen. They then had another rehearsal, and I was ultimately picked.

“I wasn’t nervous. I slept very well.”

Now, Salvatore is almost everywhere. He has completed five more films, appearing with Mastroianni, Redgrave and Peter Ustinov, among others, and says he’s seen “Cinema Paradiso” 16 times.

“Maybe I’ll do another picture this summer,” he said. “Then I will go on vacation.”