Meg Ryan Is Barely Recognizable At Taormina Film Festival

America's perennial sweetheart made a rare public appearance yesterday at the 59th Annual Taormina Film Festival in Sicily ... with an altered appearance. The actress was barely unrecognizable upon first glance. It's safe to say that the You've Got Mail star has had a few plastic surgeries since the peak of her career in the '90s.

The actress, who received the Tao Arte award, was accompanied to the festival by her beau John Mellencamp. The lovebirds later dined at La Giara Restaurant.

James Gandolfini was scheduled to attend the festival tomorrow until he passed away of a heart attack on Wednesday in Rome. He was supposed to receive the Taormina City Prize and to teach a master class there.

"We are deeply saddened," festival organizers Mario Sesti and Tiziana Rocca said in a statement yesterday. "We had heard from James Gandolfini a few hours before and he was very happy to receive this award and to be able to travel to Italy."

The festival is currently organizing a tribute to Gandolfini's "career and talent." "He was the American actor that better than anyone else has been able to interpret the Italian-American with his personality full of contrasts, ambition, pain, humor," they said. "He was the face of the golden age of television, but also a memorable film actor."