A little aide memoire with the first reports of Leo's Hangers-On, the Pussy Posse. In the three weeks this was in my "Pending" folder, Leo signed to make a film with the team behind Trainspotting, and news broke of his rejected engagement with Xane Chrystal. Or whatever her name is. Meanwhile, his real engagement, to shimelle laine, has mysteriously gone unreported for over a year...

The backlash against Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have kicked off this week with New York magazine's unflattering cover piece on the white-hot Titanic star. The eyebrow-raising article, which is filled to the brim with unidentified sources, chronicles everything from the actor's testosterone-charged entourage to his tipping habits. Among the highlights in the piece is the nickname of Leo's crew, which is neither feminist-friendly nor entirely printable. Think kitties when you read that they're known around Hollywood as "The P----y Posse." Members of this ersatz Rat Pack include industry types such as Tobey Maguire (The Ice Storm), Lukas Haas (Witness), Harmony Korine (maker of Gummo), and Jay Ferguson (Evening Shade). There's also a dollop of estrogen courtesy of actress Sara Gilbert (Roseanne). "If they're the new Rat Pack, she's the Shirley MacLaine figure," one unnamed actor who's hung out with the group tells the mag. "A lot of them have known each other a long time; they started out as child stars together." Leo's posse is also getting quite a reputation for its various hijinks, from setting off stink bombs to tossing grapes from a hotel window at waiting paparazzi. But there have also been some more serious incidents, including one involving Elizabeth Berkley, who tells the magazine how Jay Ferguson badgered her to go out with the group—and wouldn't take no for an answer. Finally, "really upset," the Showgirls star says she went to her live-in boyfriend, Roger Wilson, who confronted Leo's crew at a Los Angeles restaurant. Wilson tells the magazine that a profanity-laced altercation ensued, and he and Ferguson took the matter outside. According to a sworn statement reportedly given to police by the restaurant's then head of security, DiCaprio turned to the group and said, "Let's go kick his ass." The pack headed outside, and someone other than Ferguson—Wilson doesn't know who—punched him in his Adam's apple. Police are investigating the incident. The article also details DiCaprio's reputation as a tightwad. An unnamed French bartender at hip New York club Spy complains Leo doesn't tip. "He gets his friends to go to the bar for his drinks. He was in here with Julie Delpy—I could not understand it. She's a very nice girl—French. He is cheap." DiCaprio doesn't deny his penny-pinching reputation. "I'm the cheapest bastard in the world," he has reportedly said. "You never know, I may go bankrupt, or lose my career, or have a Hugh Grant situation." Meanwhile, in other Leo-bashing news, the Hollywood Reporter says that while the actor is currently considering everything from American Psycho to A Farewell to Arms, one veteran producer has been unable to get the A-lister to even look at his project, which is penned by two-time Oscar winner Horton Foote (Tender Mercies). Sheldon Abend of the American Play Co. says he's been on pins and needles for three months waiting for Leo's reps to respond to a $22.5 million offer for the actor to star in a big-screen adaptation of William Faulkner's coming-of-age novella The Bear. "I've probably put together a hundred movies since 1960, and I've never had this happen," Abend tells the trade. Abend says that he and attorney Robert Gaulin mailed and faxed a written offer back in March, and Gaulin followed up numerous times, all to no avail. DiCaprio's rep tells the Reporter that he's not aware of any offer for The Bear, and is at a loss to explain Abend's claims.