- Bull Not Raging so Intensely
December 31, 1997
- Robert De Niro is known for the in-depth way he's prepared for roles, such as learning to play the
saxophone for "New York, New York" and getting a year's worth of boxing training for "Raging
Bull." But now he's pulled back a bit and the preparation isn't quite so intense. "I'm more relaxed
about the moment now as opposed to working up a lot of angst and wasting a lot of energy before
the actual scene," De Niro told the Miami Herald. "Some things that are thought less about turn out
better than things that are thought about over and over again."
Source: Mr. Showbiz
- Seen and Heard
December 24, 1997
- Robert De Niro, now in "Wag the Dog,"
wants to direct again. "There's a political thriller I
want to do," he told friends the other night. "I can't
talk about it." What a surprise . . .
Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy
- Surveillance
December 18, 1997
- Robert De Niro sent a bottle of Champagne over
to "Raging Bull" inspiration Jake LaMotta the
other day at Gallagher's Steak House. LaMotta sent
back a note: "Don't you remember that I drink Scotch?" . . .
Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy
- De Niro on Cover of Esquire Magazine
November 14, 1997
 Esquire's December issue hits the mean streets in search of the man
behind many of the most potent acting performances of our time. God may not
grant one-on-one interviews, but His inaccessibility is only slightly more
notorious than that of Robert De Niro. The man doesn't care much for journalists.
But Esquire's Mike Sager makes a connection, finding that De Niro's need
for privacy stems from his earnest belief that "he's a man, just a man... A noble
sentiment, not quite at home in our age."
Source: Esquire Magazine
- De Niro a Narrator?
November 14, 1997
- (LOS ANGELES) - The Vatican is in talks with German music publishing group BMG to recruit
Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Gerard Depardieu and Sophia Loren as narrators for a CD series
featuring poems penned by Pope John Paul II, which they plan to launch globally. Presenting the
first CD of the series in Vatican City last week, Vatican officials and BMG execs said they hope to
release as many as six CD volumes of papal verses, three in Italian, one in English, one in French
and one in Spanish. The first CD, narrated by Italian star Vittorio Gassman, will provide followers
of the pontifical poetry with 15 lyrics that he wrote in Polish between 1950 (when he was bishop of
Krakow) and 1975. They have titles such as ``The Floor,'' ``Actor'' and ``In Memory of a Work
Mate.'' The second CD will be narrated by Italian movie stars Monica Vitti and Alberto Sordi.
Agents for De Niro and Hoffman did not return calls by press time. But the pope might make an
offer they can't refuse.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
- Aging Bull Going Another Round
October 21, 1997
- Robert De Niro is going to be a daddy again, say sources. Grace Hightower, who wed the "Cop Land" star in June, is said to be about four months pregnant.
De Niro watchers had predicted that a little one might be on the way. Ever since the 54-year-old actor helped to father twins with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith, Hightower has watched while Mr. D showered affection on his new sons, Julian and Aaron.
This isn't to say that Hightower isn't fond of the boys, but friends say she longed for a child of her own. Now, with the help of a fertility specialist, the 42-year-old former flight attendant is said to be getting her wish.
De Niro's reaction? Although he has reared two grown children, Raphael and Drena, with ex-wife Diahne Abbott, the star has really been getting into late-life fatherhood. His only beef has been that Smith wasn't letting him see the twins as often as he wanted, but a Family Court ruling now entitles him to the toddlers more often, say sources. By the summer, you may see the Raging Bull pushing a three-seat pram around Tribeca.
Meanwhile, De Niro's latest boxing film just took an uppercut to the chin. Shooting on "Out on My Feet" was due to start today, but two private financiers on the $11 million project bailed out of the deal. Director Barry Primus is saying that the show will go on, eventually, with De Niro and Mark Wahlberg playing coach and fighter.
For now, De Niro is headed to Europe for work on "Ronin," John Frankenheimer's thriller about a group of former spies on a private assignment.
Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy
- Pistol Packers
October 2, 1997
- Robert De Niro, Donald Trump, radio "shock jock" Howard Stern and actor
Chazz Palminteri are all licensed to carry guns in New York City, according
to New York's Daily News. Sony Music head and Mariah Carey-ex Tommy Mottola
is also one of the city's 8,505 legalized civilian pistol packers, whose
numbers are decreasing after a NYPD crackdown, the paper says.
Source: The People Online Daily
- Is Film Fan De Niro Really Up to Snuff?
August 23, 1997
- De Niro displayed little more than detached curiosity about pornographers who kill when he viewed a grisly movie in Paris in 1995, investigative reporter Yaron Svoray contends in his forthcoming Simon & Schuster book, "Gods of Death."
Svoray, who went undercover to expose the snuff trade, writes that De Niro asked him to arrange a screening of one of the gruesome videos because the actor was having trouble with a script that dealt with the subject.
Hoping that De Niro would help him prove that the murderous industry does exist, Svoray told porn peddlers he had a customer who was shopping for a snuff film. After getting a quick taste, De Niro was supposed to tell them he found the video boring.
According to the book, DeNiro and an associate went to a small hotel and witnessed footage of a woman being dismembered. De Niro said he wasn't impressed. Svoray writes: "I said, 'OK, then . . . Let's get out of here,' expecting Robert to take my lead. To my surprise he shook his head. He told me to settle down; maybe there was something coming up that we would like."
After watching more gore, De Niro decreed it was all "crap" he'd seen before. Svoray paid his porn contacts for the screening. Later, at his own hotel room, Svoray said De Niro told him he was convinced the killing was real. But Svoray was disappointed by the reaction of the actor and his associate:
"They asked questions, but not the right ones. They didn't ask how what they had seen could've been allowed to happen, or what they could do about it . . . Although I knew Robert and his friend had been affected by what they had seen, they were still Hollywood. They were interested in motivation . . . the psychology of what we had done. They did not seem interested in the fact that they had just witnessed murder."
Svoray says that De Niro, who he says paid him about $10,000 to cover his expenses, asked if he had any other snuff films. "I didn't," writes Svoray. "He was on a plane back to New York the next day."
Having seen his previous investigation of neo-Nazi groups become an HBO movie, Svoray had hoped De Niro would attach himself to a project that would "make a big noise and expose the depths of porno," according to producer Ray Errol Fox, who is now shopping Svoray's story to Hollywood.
De Niro spokesman Stan Rosenfield was unable to reach the Oscar-winning star, who is on vacation abroad. But Rosenfield offered that if Svoray found De Niro's reaction subdued, that didn't mean he wasn't outraged.
"Bob plays life close to the vest," said Rosenfield. "He's not a public person. He often doesn't show strangers what he's feeling. When people try to interpret him, they end up misinterpreting him."
Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy
- De Niro Vacations in Italy
Friday, August 22, 1997
- FILICUDI, Italy (AP) -- Robert De Niro was so taken with the wild
beauty of the island Filicudi he decided to stay a while.
De Niro, whose new movie "Copland" will be featured at the
upcoming Venice film festival, has been vacationing in the Aeolian
Islands off Sicily.
The actor, who married former flight attendant Grace Hightower in
June, found the remote island Filicudi so enchanting that he anchored
his 150-foot chartered yacht there and rented a villa, Italian
newspapers reported Thursday.
The food's not bad, either. De Niro and his entourage feasted at a
restaurant with a menu of Sicilian specialties -- fresh tuna ravioli, wild
fennel risotto, swordfish, tuna sausage, octopus with eggplant, and
stuffed squid -- all washed down with white wine.
Source: Mr. Showbiz
- The Docket
July 31, 1997
- A former waitress at Robert De Niro's Nobu is suing the power boite for
$7 million. Dylana Accolla claims the restaurant's owners and their landlord
are responsible for the two bullets she took in her leg and buttocks when
burglars robbed the place last August. Accolla's suit argues the proprietors
should have kept their doors "locked and secured." Nobu maitre d'Richie Notar
calls the suit "a little disheartening. We carried her for a long time after
the burglary and offered her job back."
- Stars Visit Moscow Film Festival
Tuesday, July 29, 1997; 6:55 p.m. EDT
- MOSCOW (AP) -- "Marvin's Room" took the grand prize Tuesday as the
Moscow International Film Festival trumpeted its star-studded guest list by
giving special honors to Sophia Loren, Catherine Deneuve and Robert De Niro.
The Golden St. George prize for best film went to "Marvin's Room", the
critically acclaimed American film about two sisters, played by Diane Keaton
and Meryl Streep, and tense family relations surrounding the care of their
aging father. Jerry Zaks directed the film.
De Niro, the film's producer, accepted the award in the ceremony at the newly
renovated Pushkin movie house in the center of Moscow.
He also won an honorary award for outstanding contributions to the film
industry, as did Loren, Deneuve, Gina Lollobrigida and top Russian director
Andrei Konchakovsky.
- Crossroads of My Life
Tuesday, July 22, 1997 at 7:00 am EST on A&E Television
- Six "achievers" relate how they faced "crossroads"
and what decisions they made. Featuring financier and philanthropist Michael
Milken, actor Robert De Niro, and entertainment entrepreneur Quincy Jones.
Source: A&E Television Listings
- Caging Bull
June 27, 1997
- Grace Hightower, the new Mrs. Robert De Niro, is staying
in town while her hubby finishes "Jackie Brown" in L.A. Some
of the actor's friends are still wondering how the former airline stewardess
snagged the two-time Oscar-winner. It seems that the strong-willed Hightower
alienated a few of De Niro's friends and associates, who did their best
to discourage him from remarrying.
But De Niro has never cared much whether those who love him don't love
one another. "In fact," claims one source, "he almost encourages
it."
Some think the Raging Bull may have been nudged toward the altar by
his custody battle with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith. The theory goes
that De Niro figured a court would be more likely to let the twin boys
live with the busy actor if he had a wife. Whatever the reason, De Niro
and Smith are said to have worked out an arrangement that their lawyers
will be proposing to a judge shortly.
Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy
- Raging Romance
June 24, 1997
 No need to spell things out for John Novi. Early last month the owner of
the Depuy Canal House restaurant in the picturesque Upstate New York town of
High Falls got a call asking him to open his four-star bistro -- normally
closed Monday through Wednesday -- to a private party Tues., June 17. The
caller, Grace Hightower, 42, Robert De Niro's longtime girlfriend, offered
no explanation. And Novi asked for none. "She told me, `Just write,
Love, Bob and Grace, on a special menu,' " says Novi. "So I sort
of surmised something was up."
A wedding reception, to be exact. A year and a half after De Niro, 53,
reportedly gave the former flight attendant a 10-carat emerald-cut diamond
ring, the two cemented their on-again, off-again romance in a private ceremony
in New York. Afterward the party of 11, including De Niro pals Harvey Keitel
and Joe Pesci, feasted on a five-course meal that featured wakami and lobster
in rice paper and poussin breast with cranberry quince stuffing -- and
listened to Pesci crack jokes till past midnight. Says a staffer: "There
were congratulations all around."
But not a whisper about the Raging Bull's rocky romantic past -- including
a 12-year marriage to actress Diahnne Abbott that ended in 1988 and a relationship
with former model and restaurateur Toukie Smith that ended after about
a decade in the early '90s. Actor Chuck Low, De Niro's friend and Manhattan
neighbor, calls Hightower "the most stable of his girlfriends,"
adding that the couple married for the best possible reason: "They
are in love."
Source: People, mostNEWYORK, Mr. Showbiz, E! Online
- Robert De Niro at AFI Awards
Broadcasted Wednesday, May 28, 1997 (10:00 - 11:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS
-
Robert De Niro Congratulating Martin Scorsese on his AFI Award.
Ladies and Gentleman, Robert De Niro...
As I was flying in from the set in Bakersfield tonight, I was thinking
about what I could say about Marty that hasn't already been said. So I started
thinking of ways that knowing him has affected me in my life and I realized
that one of the ways is, if it wasn't for Marty I'd be spending tonight
in Bakersfield (audience laughs). Anyway I came here this evening to honour
Marty and his films even the ones I wasn't in because if anybody deserves
this award it's Marty Scorsese if for no other reason alone but his directing
but also for his love of film and what he's done in the way of honouring
film and film preservation. Those of us who know him, know that he thought
at one time of becoming a priest but I really know his vocation was to become
what he is today, the high-priest of film. So congratulations Marty on the
Life Achievement Award I know Charlie and Katie are watching tonight and
they're very, very happy.
Related Web Sites: AFI Online, Audio format (wav, 850k)
|
