JAM Showbiz:
4/27/00
Phish, Leo advisor charged

Dana Giacchetto, the high-flying financial advisor to stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and the rock group Phish, has formally been charged with misappropriating $9 million of his clients' money, Reuters is reporting. Giachetto, owner of the Cassandra Group investment company, was also charged with lying to the Securities And Exchange Commission and altering a passport. His client roster also included Cameron Diaz and Ben Affleck. Giachetto, 37, allegedly used client funds to pay for his loft-space offices in Soho, as well as his own personal travel and entertainment expenses. He allegedly used his clients' money to donate $90,000 to the New York Arts Academy, make a $12,000 down payment on a Mercedes Benz, and buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in airline tickets, stereo and computer gear, Reuters reported. When clients complained about disappearing money, Giachetto allegedly found new clients, took their cash, and paid off the other clients. Reuters said documents show Phish lost $750,000 they had invested with Cassandra. All together, he is accused of stealing more than $8 million from 25 unnamed clients. If convicted, Giachetto could face 35 years in prison.
###

NY Post:
4/26/00
Hondo's Tall Order

According to Hondo's sources, here are two of the questions edited out of ABC newsboy Leonardo DiCaprio's Earth Day interview with Peyronie Bill Clinton:
1) How does that thing with the stogie work?
2) Can I have your rejects?
###

Chicago Sun-Times:
4/25/00
Earth lovers spend day celebrating,improving

Thousands of people converged Saturday upon the muddy grass of the National Mall to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Earth Day in a festival that mixed passionate environmentalism with the mellow atmosphere of a weekend outing. Holding small tree saplings and wearing assorted environmental stickers, celebrants wandered through displays of electric cars and solar panels under leaden skies while various religious leaders offered prayers for the Earth. Vice President Al Gore helped kick off the daylong festival of speeches and songs, calling the next 10 years "the environment decade." "When it comes to our air, our water and the earth itself, we all have a responsibility to look not just to ourselves, not just to the politics or profits of the moment, but to future generations," he said. "We have to stand against the apologists for pollution, those who believe in the old politics of environmental irresponsibility." Locally, people celebrated with festivals and cleanups. Hundreds of volunteers fanned out across 125 Chicago parks to pick up litter and beautify the areas. An Earth Day Fair at Garfield Park on the West Side included a giveaway of hundreds of trees. Other festivals were held in Lincoln Park and at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. In DuPage County, volunteers learned about area flora and fauna as they scooped up litter from the shores of Deep Quarry Lake in the West Branch Forest Preserve in Bartlett. Children in Lake County dressed as their favorite local plants and animals for an "All Species Parade." Kane County nature lovers planted trees, seeded prairie areas and hiked around the Campton Forest Preserve in St. Charles. Gore outlined his environmental priorities for the next decade, including protecting public land, encouraging livable growth and taking steps to reverse global warming. He also stressed the need to cut air pollution generated by power plants. Earlier, actor Leonardo DiCaprio drew loud screams and whistles as he spoke of the need to invest in renewable energy sources. "Enough is enough," said DiCaprio, chairman of the Earth Day celebration. "We must now set an example, and move environmentalism from being a philosophy of a passionate minority, like everyone here at Earth Day, to a way of life." Earth Day also was the topic of President Clinton's weekly radio address to the nation Saturday. Clinton, who did not attend the Earth Day celebration, announced two new initiatives to help reduce greenhouse emissions and prevent global warming. Clinton issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to reduce petroleum use by 20 percent in the next five years, and announced a program allowing federal workers to spend up to $65 a month tax-free for public transportation.
###

USA Today:
4/25/00
Earth Day: Leo's crusade isn't spoiled by protesters

Earth Day 2000 honorary chairman Leonardo DiCaprio urged the crowd at Saturday's Earth Day festivities on the Mall to ''move environmentalism to a way of life.'' Vice President Gore thanked the actor for ''bringing a new generation to our environmental crusade.'' Not everyone shared Gore's sentiments. A few protesters held signs reading ''Leo spoiler of beaches'' and ''Not Leo's career,'' referring to the environmental controversy surrounding DiCaprio's most recent film, The Beach. But DiCaprio's fans had a more positive take. Said Lara McCarter, 13, of Strasburg, Va., ''It's nice that he's doing Earth Day, because that'll get his fans into the Earth.'' Third Eye Blind, Carole King, David Crosby, James Taylor, Keb Mo and the Indigo Girls entertained the crowd, estimated at 500,000. Celebrity speakers included Chevy Chase, Donna Mills, Esai Morales, Tom Arnold and Edward James Olmos. Earlier, at a breakfast hosted by the OneWorldLive.com network, co-founder Melanie Griffith discussed the impact the first Earth Day, in 1970, had on her. She also revealed that she and husband Antonio Banderas hope to have another child. ''I'm on fertility drugs right now,'' she said.
###

NY Daily News:
4/24/00
Itemizing

Leonardo DiCaprio's duties as Earth Day chairman this weekend don't preclude him his usual nightclub rounds. "The Beach" star toasted model James King at her 21st birthday party at Saci Thursday. Leo came with Harold Perrineau, who plays the wheelchair-using narrator on HBO's prison drama "Oz" and who worked with DiCaprio on "Romeo + Juliet."
###

NY Daily News:
4/24/00
Bulk of Leo's Prez Chat On Cutting-Room Floor

After all the fuss, Leonardo DiCaprio's debut in a news role was a bit part. The actor's 20-minute chat in the White House with President Clinton about global warming was edited down to two minutes on ABC's Saturday special, "Planet Earth 2000." DiCaprio was seen asking the President three questions. The interview prompted a flood of criticism from people — including some within ABC News — who wondered why the "Titanic" star was being sent to do a journalist's job. Not only was DiCaprio playing the role of a reporter, he was playing the role of a reporter with a conflict of interests. He's chairman of the Earth Day 2000 celebration committee and approached ABC with the idea of a special on global warming. ABC executives, who said they enlisted DiCaprio to entice young viewers to a news show, were embarrassed when they originally said the actor visited Clinton at the White House's request without the understanding of an interview. But the White House said ABC asked for an interview ahead of time. His interview with Clinton wasn't shown until 52 minutes of the hour-long special had passed.
###

Fox 411:
4/24/00
'Chairman' Leo and Cuomo Lack Full Disclosure

Each of the network news organizations has had its share of embarrassments. Saturday night, ABC had its turn. And it was a doozy. Some ABC News stalwarts have complained publicly about the network sending Leo to the White House. After all, what credentials does he have? But maybe if they looked a little more closely at how this program was staged, Sam Donaldson, Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel would launch their own investigation. Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio, the 25-year-old actor, interviewed President Clinton for "Planet 2000," the network's Earth Day special. Leo, you see, is Earth Day chairman — whatever that is. His "interview," as shown, lasted two minutes. It included the word "wow" when Clinton described how the White House had installed energy-saving lightbulbs and new computers. Wow. An embarrassment? Certainly. But no more embarrassing than Chris Cuomo, the latest addition to ABC's 20/20 team . Cuomo, lacking the fiery oratorical talents of his father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, is somnolent. His diction is just this side of Slip Mahoney. If he's writing his own material, he should stop. What he doesn't tell us, and what ABC doesn't tell us, is that Cuomo is DiCaprio's former money manager and business adviser. You see, before Chris went to work for ABC last year as an instant correspondent (after getting his start at Fox News), he worked for now-jailed money manager Dana Giacchetto as an attorney at the Cassandra Group. At this time last year, DiCaprio and Giacchetto were bestest friends, practically living together in Giacchetto's downtown loft. Small world, huh? Of course, Cuomo's connections to DiCaprio and Giacchetto are even sharper than that. Giacchetto eventually went into business with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, the former dentist from Long Island who went into public service 20 years ago. He has long been aligned with the Cuomo family personally and professionally. Derisively, Sachs has been called "the Cuomo's walker" to me by his enemies. His supporters swear by him, however. Last fall, when Giacchetto's business soured, it was Sachs who took measures to oust him from their partnership in Chase Cassandra Entertainment. What followed was Giacchetto — now in a federal lockup awaiting a trial for looting his clients and SEC infractions — suing Sachs for defamation of character last winter. Guess who's defending Sachs in that case? Why, Mario Cuomo, now a private attorney. And then there's Leo, Earth Day chairman. While Chris Cuomo was advising him, and working for Giacchetto, Leo — according to my sources — may have placed $20 million with Dana for investments. He lost about $1 million altogether. DiCaprio may be into "green" things right now, but under the Giacchetto/Cuomo plan he lost a lot of his own green. As for the rest of "Planet Earth 2000": you can see why it was broadcast, without advance screening, at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night. A children's hour if ever there was one, the show was slow-paced and sort of dim-witted. You got the feeling that Nickelodeon would have produced a more sophisticated package about global warming. Elizabeth Vargas' explanation of the ozone was painful. Anything positive to say about "Planet Earth 2000"? The program did have nice photography of clouds and stuff. Sort of like a video for a Windham Hill album.
###

ABCNEWS.COM:
4/21/00
Green Day

Organizers of the 30th anniversary of Earth Day predict 500 million people will take part worldwide. And with giant crowds of activists expected, presidential candidate Al Gore, the Democratic contender, wouldn’t miss a chance to appear at the U.S. celebration here in Washington. Gore is using the anniversary to publish an updated version of his book Earth in the Balance. Of all the issues in a recent ABCNEWS poll, environment is the one on which Gore polls an impressive 24 points ahead of Republican candidate George W. Bush. And the environment is a popular issue, though not an urgent one according to voters interviewed. But politics is not the big draw on Earth Day. Leonardo DiCaprio is. Heartthrob With a Cause The new champion of the global warming cause, who was born five years after the first Earth Day was staged, is the star of Saturday’s festival here, and its live Webcast from the festival stage, which is powered by wind, solar, and biomass energy. DiCaprio is also the main attraction on the Earth Day Web site, which features give-aways, auctioned eco-vacations, and a new online magazine. In what’s billed as DiCaprio’s first-ever online chat, he declares, “Now I am in a position to make a difference … not only for the future of mankind, but for all living things.” DiCaprio says he’s going to buy a hybrid car that’s fuel efficient. Door Prizes The celebration on Washington’s Mall will give away a Toyota Prius, the 50 mpg vehicle powered by gasoline and electricity that will go on public sale later this year. (Register to win on the Earth Day Web site.) To benefit Earth Day events, Amazon.com has a charity auction under way online. As of this morning, bids are up to $535 for a weeklong adventure in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Among the celebrity items, bids hit $435 for a leather jacket worn by Dana Delany on the TV series China Beach, although some environmentalists frown on wearing animal skins of any kind. Media Green-Out Even big corporations, long considered the enemy by greens, are into the environmental spirit. Washington, D.C., radio stations are airing commericals from the BP-Amoco oil company calling Earth Day the most important holiday all year long. The television networks are into Earth themes as well. Several weekly entertainment series have featured environmental themes for the last week. And ABCNEWS will air an hourlong special Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, which explores global warming — with a rock ’n’ roll touch — from the thinning ice of an Eskimo village to coral bleaching in the Florida Keys, Atlanta’s sprawl and crawl to DiCaprio explaining the poetic metaphor of butterfly wings. Grist Magazine is an Internet newcomer, devoted to Earth Day issues. Calling itself “a beacon in the smog,” Grist’s stories take an irreverent tone — but hit sober issues like campaign finance reform. After all, money is green. Politically Green Which leads us to the Green Party and Ralph Nader, a candidate for the party’s presidential nomination. The famous consumer crusader says he’s running to win at least 5 percent of the vote this November so that the Green Party will qualify for federal matching funds. While the Nader campaign says it will have an information table at the Earth Day celebration here, Nader himself will be in San Francisco, “at a fund-raiser,” according to his staff.
###

Complete Seattle Post Intelligencer article
Seattle Post Intelligencer:
4/21/00
Earth Day 2000: Local efforts reflect global goals

As 20 million people gathered across America in 1970 to celebrate the first Earth Day, a much-heard phrase captured what the environmental movement would do for the next three decades: Think globally, act locally...

...With environmentalism entrenched in the American psyche, the Seattle-based Hayes is taking Earth Day 2000 to the world. Hayes, who has recruited actor Leonardo DiCaprio to host the nation's celebrations, hopes for an event that will be "bigger than Christmas." An estimated 4,500 affiliated organizations in 185 countries are working toward the goal of turning out 500 million people.
###

Washington Post:
4/21/00
Earth Day Festival

Enjoy performances by James Taylor, Carole King, Clint Black, Keb' Mo', Indigenous, Third Eye Blind, David Crosby, Sweet Honey in the Rock and others; see Leonardo DiCaprio in person; and tour dozens of exhibits on wind energy, conservation, wildlife and other environmental subjects at EarthFair 2000, Saturday from 10 to 5 on the Mall between Fourth and 10th streets NW (Metro: Federal Triangle, Archives/Navy Memorial/Smithsonian). The main stage is at Fourth Street. All activities are free. Call 202/408-3325.
###

Washington Post:
4/21/00
Loose Lips Sink Jokes

Fictional president Martin Sheen, Josiah Bartlet on "The West Wing," has blown the cover on the real president's secret video produced for the April 29 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Appearing on Wednesday's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno," Sheen revealed the comic premise: that White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart has a nightmare in which he wanders around the "West Wing" White House set looking for President Clinton--"and he ends up with me." Yesterday Lockhart declined to confirm Sheen's claim. "All I can say is that the White House did not participate in an interview," he said in a (humorous, we think) reference to the Leonardo DiCaprio flap. Leno, meanwhile, told us from Burbank: "I guess it sounded funny, but I think it's supposed to be a surprise. I don't know why Martin Sheen was talking about it on the show. I mean, we're not in a living room. But maybe that's the Hollywood idea of a surprise." Leno, who will be performing at the dinner after Clinton's comedy stylings, said the president is a tough act to follow. "He's an excellent communicator, and like Reagan he's very funny. I will try to do my best to keep up with him."
###

The Irish Times:
4/21/00
Millions prepare for Earth Day 2000 campaign

Millions of people from 180 nations will campaign for a cleaner environment during Earth Day 2000 tomorrow. Clean power, clean air, clean cars and clean investments are the four aims of the event. Car-free days have already been staged in Italian cities where more than 2,000 streets were reclaimed by pedestrians earlier this month. Many cities in other countries will be doing the same this weekend. The "Cities Without Cars" campaign aims to raise awareness of air pollution and educate people about alternative means of transport. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio will host Earth Day festivities in Washington. EarthFair 2000 on the Mall is the flagship event in the US. "As far back as I can remember, environmental issues have always been of the utmost importance to me," he said during a webcast announcing his participation. Earth Day 2000 was ushering in "a new millennium for the environment and no issue was more critical to our future than global warming", said Mr John Adams, president of the Natural Resources Defence Council and Earth Day Network board member. Irish environmental group VOICE is again hosting "a ritual of respect for the Earth" to mark the day. It is being held in Iveagh Gardens (to the rear of the National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, - access also from Harcourt Street, via Clonmel Street) at noon.
###

Chicago Sun-Times
4/20/00
Celebrity about more than fame

Chicago actor John Cusack, livid as hell, came into the Sun-Times newsroom on a sleepy Sunday afternoon about 10 years ago. He wasn't as well-known as he is today but he had a familiar face. Anyway, Cusack had been to a rap concert at the Aragon Ballroom where he witnessed what he considered police brutality. He wanted some ink--not for himself but on the incident itself. As Cusack animatedly explained the situation to an editor, a reporter wandered over to the city desk. "Hey," said the reporter. "That movie . . . you know . . . this one?" Unable to remember the name of the film, the reporter stretched his hands above his head as if holding a boombox stereo, imitating a scene from Cusack's 1989 film "Say Anything." "That one wasn't too bad," said the reporter before walking on. Cusack responded with a weak smile (or was it clenched teeth?), caught in a situation celebrities frequently find themselves in. Their fame attracts attention but when they try to use it for something other than selling their latest movie, TV show or CD, they're dismissed by some as just that guy with the boombox. Increasingly, though, celebrities are trying to flex their muscles by linking themselves to various political and social activities. They realize that the spotlight that inevitably follows them around can be reforced on more serious issues. This month, George magazine features an arresting cover photo of the actor Michael Douglas, posing with the words "No Nukes" scribbled on his face. Douglas, who raises money for nuclear disarmament, notes that the topic has all but fallen off the American political agenda. Cold War? Gee, didn't we win that one? As a Hollywood figure, Douglas understands his magnetism in a society with a seemingly insatiable appetite for the famous. As long as he has the attention, Douglas figures he'll drop in a few words about what he wants to talk about: The bombs and missiles are still cocked and loaded. Singer Bono of the rock band U2 is focused on Third World debt--another cause not exactly burning a hole into the American consciousness but a situation that is crushing the viability of many poor nations. "It's a hard sell," acknowledges Bono, 39. "That's why you need to get pop stars in a photograph with a pontiff before people will pay it any attention." Douglas and Bono are two winners of George magazine's "Save the World" award, a designation that by its very name recognizes the uneasiness with--even mockery of--celebs who try to be anything other than celebs. There's jealousy behind that notion, I think. A person couldn't really be talented, good looking and smart, could he? Aw, just shaddup and sing. Another dig is that some celebrities are only nominally involved in their causes. And, in George's list of a hundred or so other "active" famous faces, some of the connections do seem slight. Yet, you have to wonder how much image-polishing could be harvested in working for women's rights in Afghanistan (actress Geena Davis) or menopause research (actress Kathleen Turner). Earth Day is Saturday and, according to some polls, environmental issues don't have the same urgency factor with the public that they once did. Enter Leonardo DiCaprio, movie heartthrob and chairman of Earth Day 2000. In both capacities he'll host an environmental special on ABC-TV this Saturday, featuring that interview with President Clinton that had the "real" journalists in a fit. Earth Day officials complain of a relentless attack on the 25-year-old DiCaprio, including a recent New York Times piece that suggested that DiCaprio, as a fan of gas-guzzling Lincoln Navigators, was unsuitable to represent environmentalists. Give the guy a break. Is there some scientist who knows more about global warming than DiCaprio? Certainly. But more of us would rather tune in to watch Leo. We ought to admire DiCaprio--and any other celeb who authentically tries to use his or her celebrity to "save the world." They understand that the true power of their fame lies in talking about something other than themselves.
###

NY Daily News:
4/20/00
Leo Outshines Hillary

Hillary Clinton played second fiddle to Leonardo DiCaprio Tuesday when she came under questioning by 8-year-old Jason Sunshine. The young man was a guest at a fund-raiser thrown by Jason's dad, PR powerhouse Ken Sunshine, record honcho Danny Goldberg and lawyer Craig Kaplan. And when the younger Sunshine caught sight of the candidate, he didn't mince words. "Are you more famous than Leonardo DiCaprio?" asked Jason, whose father is the spokesman for the "Titanic" star. "Oh definitely not," said Hillary, who has never met the actor. "But I can interview the President and it won't cause a big deal." Jason, who may or may not be aware of the flap over DiCaprio's ABC chat with her husband, wandered off, muttering, "Everything about Leonardo is a big deal." The party at Goldberg's West Village townhouse raised close to $100,000. Meanwhile, Phyllis George told us at Monday's National Arts Awards gala that she's "definitely supporting" Hillary — despite the fact that George dates Charles Gargano, Gov. Pataki's development czar.
###

Complete Philadelphia Inquirer article
Philadelphia Inquirer:
4/20/00
Movies showing restraint

This month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by three families who contended that the Leonardo DiCaprio film The Basketball Diaries inspired the 1997 shooting of their daughters in a West Paducah, Ky., high school. But another suit - which holds Natural Born Killers' creators and distributors responsible for encouraging "imminent lawless activity" that led a Louisiana woman to be shot and paralyzed - is still on the table.
###

Washington Post:
4/20/00
Labor Secretary, in Earth Day mode

Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, in Earth Day mode, Tuesday donned a heavy protective suit to clean up toxic waste at a training center in Cheverly, Md., and yesterday shared her career advice for Earth Day chairman and sometime ABC News correspondent Leonardo DiCaprio: "If he gets tired of being a television journalist, Leo should check out my 'Work Green, Earn Green' campaign and help clean up the environment," Herman told us, adding that she'll spend her own environmentally correct Saturday in Front Royal, "pruning my azaleas and planting my pansies."
###

Philadelphia Inquirer:
4/20/00
Dear Oprah Winfrey,
Well, as your new, much-anticipated magazine hits the newsstands today, I want you to know I'm rooting for you.

I don't know what it is about you, girlfriend, that makes me want to see you swell that $725 million bank account even more. (You and Martha Stewart aren't in some weird "first one to a billion!" contest, are you?) Maybe it's that, every once in a while, you fail, hugely and publicly, at something we know means the world to you...

...Since you already have an editorial staff telling you what to do, I thought I'd offer some equally valuable don'ts, learned during my years as both reader of and writer for this strange genre of journalism...

7. No stories written by celebrities. It's bad enough that Leonardo DiCaprio interviewed Bill Clinton about global warming for ABC News. Once Shania Twain gets a byline for covering starvation in Mozambique, you'll have Madonna pleading for a 6,000-word take on the Queen Mum. You show me a celebrity journalist, and I'll show you someone making a painful mockery of both professions.
###

Excite News:
4/20/00
Solar Powered concerts planned for U. Connecticut event

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Earth Day and promote renewable energy, UConnPIRG is organizing the first Solar Fest at University of Connecticut Saturday from 12 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the quad near the Young Building on Rte 195. There will be three concerts powered entirely by solar energy, featuring two Hartford bands, Spun and Jevulde Kool, and one local band, Chair 13. Bob Maddox, from the Connecticut Energy Cooperation, will give a speech about renewable energy at noon, and two Honda Hybrids, cars powered half by gas and half by electricity, will be shown at the event. "Our goal is to raise awareness about renewable energy, show that the technology is out there and have fun at the same time," said Emily Hadidian, a 2nd-semester undecided major and PIRG intern. Jerry Nash, a 7th-semester peace studies major and PIRG intern, is the main organizer of the Solar Fest which he experienced as a student in Keene Hew Hampshire State College in 1995. The event coincides with Earth Day, which takes place late in April. The first Earth Day celebration was implemented by students and activists, April 22, 1970, Nash said. "It was a day to celebrate the planet and consider the impacts of pollution and other things like weapons and hunger," he said. This year there will be a big anniversary celebration April 22 in Washington in front of the White House, where Leonardo DiCaprio will speak. Nash said they decided to celebrate Earth Day a week earlier because they thought a lot of students would go home for Easter weekend. Saturday is also UConn¹s Open House, which means that a lot of students who have been accepted at UConn will come visit the campus. Nash said he was surfing on the web and found about the Solar Fest Company from Vermont, which bought a solar roller and organizes three-day concerts with solar energy every summer. Ed Updike, head of the Solar Fest Company, will take part in the event. "A solar roller consists of solar panels which absorb the sun, store its energy in battery cells and save it," Nash said. He said the solar roller could work at full energy for three days straight, even on a cloudy day, since it was a saving system. He said the common denominator of music was a good occasion to inform people about renewable energy and also about PIRG's other campaigns against hunger and homelessness. Nash said he believed renewable energy could be developed and used a lot more, but the process is being hindered by economics. "Renewable energy does not represent so much of a profit as electric, oil or coal energy," Nash said. "Wind, sun or water aren't things you can sell; you can't charge people for them." But car companies are taking a step in the right direction, he said, by releasing hybrid cars such as the two Hondas which will be shown Saturday. The event, which takes place from 12 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the quad near the Young Building on Route 195, is cosponsored by SUBOG, UConnPIRG and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
###

Boston Globe:
4/20/00
Mass. delegation forges ties with Cuba

HAVANA - As they ended a four-day trip to Cuba yesterday, representatives of several Massachusetts universities said they had laid the groundwork for ongoing exchanges of students and scholars, exhibits of Cuban art, and shared research in marine science, pharmacy, and medicine. Massachusetts Congressmen J. Joseph Moakley and James P. McGovern, both strong critics of the US trade embargo against Cuba, organized the delegation of 48 college presidents and scholars, the largest US group to travel to Cuba in 40 years. The goal, they said, was to forge links with Cuban academics and open lines of communication shut down by 39 years of US sanctions. The delegation returns to Boston tonight. Moakley said he was excited by the results, especially by the one-on-one talks outside the tightly organized and sometimes sterile meetings between the educators and Cuban government ministers. ''The problem with these meetings is that often there is no follow-up,'' Moakley said. ''This group has been jubilant about the meetings and the contacts. It has been a kind of awakening.'' As a result of those meetings, the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, agreed to send up to 50 post-doctoral researchers to work in Cuba and to accept a Cuban doctoral student on a fellowship. The institute and the University of Havana signed a letter of intent yesterday. The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, one of only three independent pharmacy schools in the United States, plans to send faculty to study alternative medicine, a growing field among US doctors. Herbal medicine is standard practice in Cuba, where shortages of mainstream medications are common, said Charles Monahan, the college's president. ''Seeing what they have brought me back 30 years to when I was in pharmacy school and we used to make our own cough syrups and suppositories,'' Monahan said. ''They had little brown bags of medicine in drawers. I would like to send our faculty to see their alternative medicine.'' Assumption College in Worcester, which is launching a Latin American studies program next fall, would like to bring Cuban graduate students to work as teaching assistants and as ''role models of Cuban culture,'' said Thomas Plough, college president. ''There is also potential for our students, who could come here for immersion Spanish, and Cuban history, and mission work in community service projects,'' Plough said. The greatest challenge, as the educators saw it, is how to establish these relationships without contravening the financial intricacies of the embargo. Many were unsure whether they could legally pay or financially support the Cubans while in the United States. In an impromptu meeting late Tuesday, Cuba's minister of culture, Abel Prieto, complained that the embargo has kept Cubans from reading the latest American literature. Speaking in Spanish, he described a visit last fall of playwright Arthur Miller and novelist William Styron, who met Cuba's top writers. The youthful-looking Prieto, wearing black jeans and a simple cotton shirt, was not what the US group expected in a high-ranking Communist Party official. By some accounts, Prieto is one of very few people known to have disagreed, and even argued, in public with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. A noted novelist and short-story writer who organized writers and artists against government crackdowns in the mid-1990s, Prieto became minister in 1996. ''There was surprise that Prieto was picked as culture minister. He has quietly pushed the envelope,'' said Geoff Thale, Cuba specialist for the Washington Office on Latin America, the private group that organized the educators' visit. During the Tuesday gathering at the Ministry of Culture's colonial mansion, the presidents of Lesley College, the Massachusetts College of Art, and other colleges with art and writing programs asked Prieto to help them organize a traveling exhibit of Cuban art and perhaps even send an artist, writer, or poet to visit. ''Send a curator to choose what you want to display,'' Prieto told Katherine Sloan, president of the Massachusetts College of Art. Sloan stressed that she wanted to learn about Cuban artists not well known in the United States. ''There is much interesting work from the various generations. We would support that one hundred percent.'' Prieto said cultural ties would help break down stereotypes on both sides. He said Cubans adore American movies, have read Mark Twain and Gore Vidal, and love entertainer Harry Belafonte and actors Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and Leonardo DiCaprio, all of whom have visited here. ''Nicholson knows well the history of Cuba. DiCaprio came full of innocence,'' Prieto said to much laughter. ''But both caused an interesting chemistry here.''
###

Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
4/20/00
No Time for balance on Earth Day

There's something very scary about Time's "Earth Day 2000" edition. It's not the endless train of worried articles about world population growth, continuing resource depletion, deteriorating ecosystems and shrinking biodiversity. It's not the fretting over the trash in the oceans. Not the whining over the land-swallowing sprawl of the suburbs. Not the relentlessly negative, aren't-we-humans-awful tone we've come to expect of special issues that bear cover lines that read "How to Save the Earth." It's not the conscience-stricken, I'm-almost-ashamed-to-be-a-human blather of essayist-for-hire Roger Rosenblatt. Nor even the absurdity of enlisting journalist/scientist Leonardo DiCaprio, host of Earth Day 2000's big celebration in Washington on Saturday, to urge us to "Get Wise to Global Warming." (Leo wants us to drive more fuel-efficient cars, ride more buses and carpool -- like he and other celebrity environmentalists do when their limo drivers go on strike.) No, the scariest thing about Time's Earth Day worryfest, which is more like a religious tract than an exercise in respectable journalism, is that it is going to be delivered free to the homes of several million people who already subscribe to Time -- without a warning label. With a few exceptions, the editors were so busy sharing the planet's pain and lionizing the enlightened humans who devote themselves to saving it, they forgot to include a few things like perspective and balance. They could have reminded everyone, as Ronald Bailey does in Reason's May cover story, "Earth Day's Happy 30th Birthday," of the hilarious predictions of apocalypse we were hearing when Earth Day was first celebrated 30 years ago. You remember 1970? When science class was taught by Woody Allen? Paul Erlich was all over the media telling us 4 billion earthlings would soon die of starvation, including 65 million Americans. Magazines like Time and Life were quoting scientists who said a new Ice Age was coming and that urban dwellers would all need to wear gas masks to survive. Scientific American articles were predicting we'd be out of virtually all nonrenewable resources by the year 2000. Didn't happen that way. It turned out "Soylent Green" was a dumb Hollywood movie, not a documentary. As Bailey's article shows, today rivers and air are cleaner, world food production is up, population growth is slowing down, important resources are as plentiful as ever. What Time doesn't seem to know -- or have time to mention -- is that rich, productive, smart societies pollute less, use less land and bear fewer children. They also create the enormous wealth that spawns resource-saving technologies and gives lots of people time to save huge hunks of the planet themselves (a la Ted Turner, owner of Montana). This is the main point of Bailey's long article: that Earth and the clever people on it will be in even better shape 30 years from now. Time's editors don't have to believe anything Bailey says. But at least they could have found a few column inches to acknowledge that not everyone believes, as Time, DiCaprio, et al. apparently do, that "the Earth is in pain."
###

Excite News:
4/20/00
Gore, Bush, Nader Invited to Speak at Earth Day on the Mall in Washington D.C.

Earth Day Network Chairman Denis Hayes today extended invitations to presidential candidates Al Gore, George W. Bush, and Ralph Nader to speak at the Earth Day 2000 celebration in Washington, D.C., on April 22nd. Earth Day is celebrating its 30th year with events across the US and in more than 180 countries around the world. For the first time, Earth Day will focus on a single theme: clean, renewable energy as the solution to global warming. The flagship event in the U.S. will be held on the National Mall in Washington DC and will be hosted by actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend. "This is a great opportunity for those seeking the nation's highest office to communicate their environmental vision for the future," said Hayes. Denis Hayes was the National Coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970. He currently chairs Earth Day Network, the international organization coordinating Earth Day 2000 events worldwide. For more information on Earth Day 2000 and the 4500 organizations in more than 180 countries worldwide, please visit www.earthday.net.
###

Fox News:
4/20/00
Earth Day Turns 30

Earth Day celebrations are planned across the globe this week, marking the 30th year for the annual attempt by organizers to band the masses together in an effort to save the planet from environmental decay. Millions are expected to attend events from Tel Aviv to Washington to Tokyo, stoked to join the special anniversary celebrations climaxing on Saturday via the Earth Day Network and its Internet links. Television will be a featured promotional tool in Washington. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is chairman and host of EarthFair 2000 from the Mall near the U.S. Capitol on Saturday. The Hollywood teen idol, and strident environmental activist, will introduce musical acts and other celebrities, live from stages and exhibits powered by renewable fuels, like wind, solar and biomass, organizers say. Before the weekend there will be events in 185 nations, like South Africa, where on Tuesday people will stage a mock nuclear evacuation from the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station near Cape Town. Journalists will broadcast live from a decorated bus leaving the South African city in rush hour, testing what would happen for fleeing citizens in the case of a nuclear disaster. Less ominous were efforts in Chile last weekend to plant the first of 1,000 seedlings to green the Santiago area. Founder Says Clean Energy Is Theme for 2000 This year's global Earth Day theme is clean energy, according to Denis Hayes, one of the event's founders in 1970, and now head of the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation which funds environmental projects in the Pacific Northwest. "We presently have the technology ... fuel cells, solar cells, hydrogen ... the opportunities are amazing for clean energy," Hayes said. He said this year's celebration needed a global focus, and the theme of clean energy applied to all countries and a call by environmentalists for ratification of the Kyoto global climate change treaty. Hayes said only 17 nations ratified the 1997 accord to date, holding up the pact's goals to cut sharply the pollution generated by fossil fuels in major industrialized economies. U.S. ratification is not expected anytime soon, due to opposition in Congress and the fact final agreeable treaty terms are not complete. Progress Made, Much to Do Hayes said he can point to clear progress in many areas of the environmental movement, and specifically the Earth Day events. The 1970 inaugural was an effort to highlight the need for national legislation for setting clear standards for clean water, land and air. Eventually the Environmental Protection Agency came into being under President Richard Nixon, and the original Earth Day has been credited with raising the environment as an important political and societal issue. By 1990 Hayes said the 20th anniversary was keyed on personal responsibility and the environment. "Things like curbside recycling and not dumping motor oil down storm drains; it was on individuals," he said. There are now some 6,000 curbside programmes, making recycling as normal as taking out the trash for many Americans. Still, despite raising consciousness and instituting a certain personal pride in people about the environment, the planet is endangered now more than ever, according to many environmental experts. They cite earth's warming trend as a potential disaster, which may be accelerating dangerous weather patterns, spreading disease, reshaping land and water boundaries the world over and altering the earth's nature. That is where Earth Day 2000 hopes to grab attention, pointing out the need to develop and employ clean fuels for transportation, heating and lighting, Hayes said. Hayes praised DiCaprio, 25, and said stars have been involved with American causes forever, from Woody Guthrie and his support of the labor movement in the World War II era to Tom Cruise participating at the 1990 Earth Day
###

MSNBC:
4/20/00
Growing up greener, Earth Day 2000 targets youth

He played the bohemian, idealistic hero on a doomed ocean liner. Now Leonardo DiCaprio is stepping up to a more titanic real-life role — figurehead for millions of young activists on environmental and health issues. Can global warming and America’s fossil fuel habit be turned around? With Leonardo and a blossoming new generation, Earth Day organizers hope so. LEONARDO DiCAPRIO made a promise last November when he announced becoming chair of Earth Day 2000’s big event on the Washington, D.C., Mall: to invest in a hybrid car that runs on both electric and gasoline. “You fill it up at any service station, it gets 60 miles per gallon and has 80 percent fewer emissions than most cars,” says DiCaprio. “It runs like any other car.” No sweat. But to tackle global warming, we need to do much more, he said, such as “to dramatically increase the amount of power we get from clean sources, like the sun, the wind and bio-fuels.” DiCaprio is pushing Earth Day 2000’s focal issue: Given our choices at this turn of the century, do we continue with “19th century production methods that harm the environment and create myriad health problems?” Or instead, do we turn to “new clean, innovative technologies?” This millennial year, perhaps more than ever, Earth Day organizers are reaching out to youth. The timing couldn’t be better: Just this week, the group Environmental Defense released a survey that found the “younger generation is remarkably skeptical about past progress [on air and water quality], with 62 percent believing conditions are worse today and only 29 percent seeing conditions as better.” The Web generation The new generation of green activists, not given to writing checks or even opening direct-mail solicitations, is turning to the Internet. Among Web resources: Readying himself for April 22, the 30th Anniversary of the watershed event he helped launch as a college student, Denis Hayes, director of the Earth Day Network, revealed only faint traces of exhaustion over a campaign that promises to bring together half a billion people around the world to put forth “new environmental visions for a sustainable future.” “Young people bring energy and fresh ideas, and if you say ‘try it,’ they’ll go out and actually do it,” says Hayes. While government leaders wrangle over whether to institute carbon or gas taxes to create disincentives for using coal, gas, and oil, the fossil fuels, young people are coming up with better tactics, he says. “Students began organizing boycotts of recruiters from petroleum companies and others that contribute to the problem,” he says. Egged on by students, he adds, universities began voting shareholder resolutions against companies in the Global Climate Coalition, the major lobbyists against carbon cuts in the Kyoto climate change negotiations. “Now British Petroleum, Shell, GM and Ford have all stepped off the coalition, and they have no corporations left — just trade associations.” As the original environmental movement grays, it is being supplanted by younger and younger ranks of activists undertaking scores of volunteer actions, from reforesting urban trees, to weeding and removing invasive species, to adopting parks and putting on “sustainable energy” fairs. In contrast to the typical profile of an environmentalist with greater buying power — the suburban white woman — the new face of the movement, says Michelle Ackermann of Earth Day 2000, is “young and multicultural.” DiCaprio, Ackermann says, was chosen by Earth Day campaigners as an apt “role model for young people,” and because of his stated interest in nature from an early age. The actor also knows how thorny environmental issues can be, from personal experience. During the filming of The Beach, in which DiCaprio stars, a local environmental controversy erupted after the film producers arranged for a beach location to be stripped of native vegetation and replanted with imported palm trees. The area as since been restored and the issue resolved. EDUCATION CURRICULA During the last 10 years, environmental education curricula have spread widely in U.S. schools. And since Earth Day 1990, some 70,000 schools nationwide actively commemorate the event. “More teachers are integrating environmental stewardship into all subjects, says Rene Alexander, an environmental educator in Seattle schools. “You have more and more examples of teachers presenting what they learned — about pollution in air or streams — to city hall.” For the young, says Ackermann, conservation and care for nature is intuitive: “They haven’t lost the wonder of discovery.” Not yet jaded by pessimistic forecasts, they can still be shocked into action. ‘They’re astounded to realize the connection between our habits and the destruction of the world,” says Alexander. “Here, kids are learning about native birds, fish and amphibians and how they are dying out thanks to explosive housing growth. “They can’t believe that plastic comes from oil,” she says. “Some tell me, ‘I’m not buying a ‘Lunchable’ anymore, because I know how many resources they expend — paper from trees, plastics from oil, water to make both, and aluminum — for a single serving.” A YOUTH-LED MOVEMENT Much of the new movement is youth-led. “Instead of being generated by parents to keep kids busy, it is driven by passionate young people who are really concerned about the environment,” says Diana Smith of the YMCA’s Earth Service Corps, which has involved 20,000 young people in a variety of community leadership efforts in 30 states since its inception 10 years ago. Seattle’s YMCA teenagers staged a mock debate in which they role-played different interests at the Kyoto climate change talks — some acting as oil company lobbyists, others as representatives from developing countries. Out of the event, says YMCA’s Fran Lo, came a commitment from clubs to “encourage carpooling, and walking or biking to school.” The last 10 years, too, has seen the rise of even younger children involved in volunteer and activist efforts, much of it environmental. The Big Help, a program of the Nickelodeon TV channel, boasts that since 1994, when the program began, more than 28.5 million children have pledged more than 300 million child-hours to volunteer efforts — from helping the homeless to cleaning up parks. INFECTIOUS ENERGY “Kids have an incredible amount of energy that goes untapped,” says Marva Smalls of The Big Help, “Their energy is infectious. You can’t show up at one of their events without being drawn into picking up a shovel yourself.” Lauria Moen, a school resource conservation specialist, agrees. “Waste is a habit—-we like to waste resources. But kids don’t have them yet,” says Moen, who has seen the 19 schools in the Kent School District in Kent, Wash., save some $38,000 a year in energy, water and solid waste. Much of that savings has come from student-run recycling and conservation “patrols” that enlist kids for spot inspections of teachers and staff. Adults? “I find them very, very difficult to motivate,” says Moen. “It’s only been through the spirits of the kids that I’ve ever seen any action.”
###

Official DiCaprio Website:
4/19/00
LEONARDO DICAPRIO WRITES ARTICLE ABOUT THE PERILS OF GLOBAL WARMING FOR TIME MAGAZINE SPECIAL EDITION

GET WISE TO GLOBAL WARMING
By Leonardo DiCaprio

It’s a great honor for me to chair Earth Day 2000, especially because the primary focus of this year’s campaign is global warming. Global warming has to be the greatest misnomer of the new millennium, as it is such a benign, almost soothing name of the single most important environmental threat to the future for our planet and all living things on it. This new millennium balances us on the edge of history. If we continue to ignore the issue of global warming, we will almost certainly suffer the drastic effects of climatic changes worldwide. I recently came upon a magazine article describing the problem facing the islands of Kiribati. If you don’t remember the name, Kiribati is an obscure group of Pacific islands that became instantly famous as the location of the first televised sunrise of the new millennium. Not only are the islands experiencing more cyclones and droughts, but the fact is that rising ocean levels are eroding and contaminating the land. The dancing islanders we watched on television may now become environmental refugees. This scenario seems destined to be re-enacted on a much larger scale. The predicted effects of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere include climate changes that will cause more severe typhoons, hurricanes and floods, plus the bleaching of coral reefs, the melting of polar ice caps, an increase in insect-borne tropical diseases and much, much more. Thirty years ago in the U.S., Earth Day 1970 and the subsequent Clean Air Act of 1970 helped spur worldwide changes that started to have a positive effect on the environment. Some governments began to eliminate lead in gasoline and to clean up power plants. Now it’s time to take the next step – to do for energy conservation and clean energy what was done for clean air back in 1970. Fortunately, there are things we can do, and that’s what Earth Day 2000 will try to emphasize. One of the most important and immediate things we can do is drive fuel-efficient, high-gas-mileage cars - cars that have fewer toxic emissions and produce less carbon dioxide, the main culprit behind global warming. Hybrid cars, which have both electric motors and gasoline engines, are coming to the market. Using public transportation and carpooling are ways that people can reduce fuel consumption as well. And of course, we can be part of the biggest Earth Day ever on April 22, 2000. Events will be taking place in every time zone on the planet in cities such as New York, London, LosAngeles, Tokyo, Tel Aviv and Manila, creating a continuous, 24-hour Earth Day celebration. And it will be an honor for me to chair the Earth Day 2000 event in Washington. It’s time to send a message that politicians and corporations can’t ignore.
###

NY Post:
4/19/00
ABC Goes Globetrotting

ABC's upcoming Earth Day special, "Planet Earth 2000," will take viewers from Alaska and Key Largo, Fla., to the White House, according to information released yesterday. The ABC News-produced program, set to air Saturday at 8 p.m., has come under fire for the network's use of Leonardo DiCaprio to interview President Clinton on environmental issues. Elizabeth Vargas will anchor the show, which is reported by correspondent Chris Cuomo.
###

LA Times:
4/19/00
Bank Under Scrutiny in Giacchetto Case

Unlike those of his celebrity clients, Dana Giacchetto's autograph was worthless . . . except, apparently, when it was on the back of a check made out to one of his clients. The money manager to the stars allegedly cashed 58 checks totaling $11 million that were made out to celebrity investors such as Matt Damon, Ben Stiller and the rock group Phish. To Giacchetto's investors, the shock of his brazenness is matched only by the astonishment that nobody ever raised an eyebrow. "If I misspelled my name on a check, my bank would bounce it," says David Comarow, a lawyer who is representing two Giacchetto investors, artists Robert Ginder and Cara Wood Ginder. Cara is Comarow's stepdaughter. Apparently, Comarow doesn't bank at Boston-based U.S. Trust, where a critical breakdown in normal banking protocol seems to have taken place in the Giacchetto case. Cassandra Group, Giacchetto's company, had an account there and the bank cashed his clients' checks for him, no questions asked. Two weeks after Giacchetto was charged with stealing more than $6 million from his clients, an internal bank investigation as well as Securities and Exchange Commission and federal criminal investigations, are searching for answers. Was it incompetence at following normal banking procedures? Did Giacchetto's stature as a money manager cause the bankers to look the other way? Or did he have an operative inside the bank? How Giacchetto managed these transactions will go a long way toward identifying who will be left holding the bag for Giacchetto's alleged scams, who will be liable for money lost by investors. Already, lawyers are organizing investors for potential lawsuits, with Giacchetto's banking relationships at the heart of their efforts. "You've got to follow the bouncing ball, which means you have to follow the banking transactions," said Howard Meyers, a former SEC lawyer in New York who is lining up Giacchetto investors for a possible class-action lawsuit. Court records suggest that Giacchetto, 37, who could face up to 20 years in prison on three federal criminal counts, never even had to deal with the kind of routine banking procedures that are supposed to prevent such abuses. "Should this have happened? Absolutely not. He did not have, and should not have had, the ability to withdraw money for the benefit of Dana Giacchetto," said Steven Cohen, a court-appointed receiver who now oversees the assets of Giacchetto's operation. Authorities still do not know whether to attribute Giacchetto's success at pulling off the alleged scam to the same charm that enabled him to cozy up to Hollywood stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and major entertainment figures such as Michael Ovitz. Or whether it was the kind of influence that came as a manager of some $100 million in funds for the rich and famous. And there's that question of whether he might have had an arrangement of some kind with a bank insider. "What happened is at least in part the result of a system that didn't have the usual checks and balances. Whether it was designed to be that way intentionally, or happened inadvertently, isn't clear to me," Cohen said. Keeping Tabs on Clients According to court papers and tape-recorded phone messages on file with the SEC, Giacchetto over a period of more than two years would call up Chase Manhattan Bank's discount brokerage unit, Brown & Co., where his client investment accounts were held, often fishing around to find out what balances were available. He was familiar to Brown's employees. On one tape, a Brown employee tells another that Giacchetto is "a money manager . . . a pretty big account." On at least 58 occasions, he allegedly ordered checks without the permission of his clients and had them delivered to his SoHo loft office via Federal Express. This despite promises in promotional literature given to clients that, "for maximum safety," he did not take possession of clients' money, which "assures the client security of his or her account." Chase would not comment, but sources there have insisted that the brokerage followed "procedures." People close to the case suggest that Brown will argue that it also was duped, and that it did nothing wrong because it wrote the checks to the clients, not to Giacchetto. Brown also is expected to argue that it was following the instructions of an authorized representative in Giacchetto, and had no way of knowing Giacchetto would be the one cashing the checks. Once in hand, records show, Giacchetto deposited the checks into the accounts of his Cassandra Group at U.S. Trust. Authorities allege that he used the money to fund his lifestyle and to keep his elaborate juggling act from unraveling. Even though the checks were made out to clients, many of them famous, Giacchetto endorsed them in his own name. Although at least $6 million is unaccounted for, authorities allege he misused some $20 million in unauthorized transactions by shifting the money in and out of client accounts to reimburse clients he had taken money from earlier. Wealthy people, including some movie stars, who are too busy or unsophisticated financially to handle their own money, often give business managers and advisors wide discretion over their funds, allowing them to cash checks, pay bills and make investments. The key difference is that the money is supposed to be deposited in a client's account, not find its way into an account of someone who oversees the money, as it allegedly did with Giacchetto. While U.S. Trust was the bank that allowed Giacchetto to cash the checks, another institution, Citizens Bank in Boston, may ultimately be on the hook. Citizens bought Boston's U.S. Trust three months ago, after the majority of Giacchetto's questionable transactions took place and before federal authorities pieced them together. A spokeswoman for Citizens would say only that the bank is investigating the relationship with Giacchetto. Giacchetto's lawyer, Andrew Levander, has declined to comment on the case. Banking lawyer Gene R. Eldering, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and former assistant general counsel at First Interstate Bank, says that banks should be able to quickly spot such abuses. "When they see checks payable to a third part in the hands of a fiduciary going into the fiduciary's own account, a red flag goes up," said Eldering, who is not involved in the Giacchetto case. "Banks take it on the chin when they allow it to happen. Ultimately, assuming a bad guy does have the funds, the bank that took the check is responsible for it." In this case, that would be U.S. Trust of Boston, or now Citizens Bank in Boston.
###

Salon.com:
4/19/00
Leogate is over

Leogate is over -- and not a moment too soon. After much hemming, hawing and hemming again, ABC News has decided to air its controversial Leonardo DiCaprio-on-Bill Clinton interview after all. The segment will run as part of an Earth Day special on April 22. "Everyone is comfortable with the decision," an ABC spokeswoman told the press. "But we're not going to discuss our editorial process." At least, not anymore.
###

Washington Post:
4/19/00
Partying for Planet Earth

Riding your bike, swimming in a river, reading under a shady tree or just drinking a cold glass of water are good things to do, right? Well, they're all better when the air and water are clean. In celebration of a healthy environment, people across the world are participating in the 30th annual Earth Day this Saturday. There will be a big party on the Washington Mall, with "Titanic" star Leonardo DiCaprio hosting a crowd of celebrities on a solar-powered stage. (See box below for details.) This is only one of hundreds of celebrations around the world. Earth Day organizers expect 500 million people to mark the day. Earth Day is a lot bigger than when it started in 1970. Then, a group of environmentalists organized people to try to persuade the U.S. government to stop businesses from dumping toxic chemicals into the air and water. "Twenty million Americans, more than half of them students, came together on the first Earth Day to focus attention on an environment that was polluted and damaged," said Denis Hayes, national coordinator of the original Earth Day and chairman of this year's event. "That first campaign led directly to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency," Hayes said. It also spurred Congress to pass laws protecting the air, water and endangered species. Since 1970, the government has forced businesses to develop cleaner technologies and reduce harmful waste. People in their everyday lives are acting more responsibly to preserve natural resources. In 1990, 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day, which focused on recycling. Teachers and students throughout the United States collected trash--tin cans, glass, newspapers and scrap metal--from businesses, residential areas and creeks and streams. Before 1990, only 10 percent of our cities had curbside recycling. Now 52 percent recycle, say Earth Day organizers. "It's the kids who are going to change behavior," said Scott Sklar, who runs the Solar Energy Industries Association. "If you look at recycling, kids learned about it from school and came home and told their parents this is a good thing to do." This year's goal is to reduce global warming. Earth Day 2000 is urging businesses to develop cleaner sources of energy from solar and wind power; reduce power plant emissions; and put cars on the road that pollute less. Kids and their parents can help by buying energy-efficient products. "Young people always play an important role in social movements," said Hayes. "Earth Day 2000 is no exception. The youth of the world are demanding a clean, healthy planet, and grown-ups had better listen."
###

Mr. Showbiz:
4/18/00
The Next Jude Law … and the New Spidey?

Heath Ledger's already a rising star, thanks to his buzzed-about performance as Mel Gibson's son in this summer's The Patriot. The Aussie star, whose only other stateside offering has been the teen Shakespeare update 10 Things I Hate About You, is being tapped to replace Jude Law in the World War I drama Four Feathers. Negotiations are still underway, reports Variety. Last week, the trade paper also bandied Ledger's name about as one of the top candidates to play the lead in Spider-Man — along with young hotties Wes Bentley and Chris Klein, as well as more established types like Ewan McGregor and Tobey Maguire. Leonardo DiCaprio's also been mentioned as a potential webslinger, although he's all tied up filming Gangs of New York for Martin Scorsese. Columbia is looking for an actor to commit to three Spider-Man pics, says Variety. Cult-fave director Sam Raimi, who's given us Darkman and the Evil Dead series, will direct the superhero flick.
###

NY Post:
4/18/00
‘Psycho’ to ‘Star Wars’?

Christian Bale — whose currently starring in the yuppie slicer movie “American Psycho” — may be using a light saber to do his next slicing. Rumor is that Bale is in talks to star as Anakin Skywalker in the “Star Wars” prequel. If the buzz is true, it would be the second time that Bale has taken a role expected to go to Leonardo DiCaprio, who was originally slated to star in “American Psycho” and who, until recently, was rumored to play Anakin Skywalker. The Bale rumors were further fueled when the actor declined to answer questions about it during a recent publicity tour for “American Psycho.” When asked by the London Free Press if he would be playing Anakin Skywalker, Bale said, “You wouldn’t have heard that from me. My lips are sealed. End of subject.”
###

Christian Science Monitor:
Leo: good news or bad?

It's not as easy as it looks to produce responsible, engaging news. ABC is taking a lot of heat for employing teen idol Leonardo DiCaprio to interview President Clinton on global warming. An article in the New York Times - written by an old-style journalist who has never kissed Claire Danes - quoted the president of ABC News defending this latest innovation: "'A first-rate news division of any sort has to be moving forward,' David Westin said. 'We can't keep programming news programs just the way we did five or 10 years ago.'" Or apparently even five or 10 minutes ago. Mr. Westin faces a battle against the august forces of the journalism establishment. TV celebrities Sam Donaldson, Peter Jennings, and Ted Koppel are alarmed at this latest attempt by a Hollywood celebrity to interview a political celebrity. (Mr. Koppel was reportedly so upset that he yelled at his hair stylist.) After all, when's the last time People magazine called Sam Donaldson a "hottie"? Westin knows that young people don't like network news because they rarely feature characters from "Friends" investigating new skateboard styles. "If we don't add a younger audience," Westin explained, "sooner or later our audience will die." (Here's a ripe exposé for ABC News: Why don't young viewers grow up to become old viewers anymore? Get Dick Clark on this immediately.) If Westin is right, prepare yourself for more news shows aimed at that valuable MTV generation eager to spend its weekly allowance on new Volvos and hair loss tonic. Here are a few projects under consideration: Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunning portrayal of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, makes her an obvious choice to interview Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin. Enquiring teens want to know: What's up with those gnarly Chechen dudes? James Van Der Beek understands Dawson's Creek so well that the time is ripe to unleash the dreamy TV star on Amazon River polluters. (Note: Use frosted lens for shot of James standing on a Brazilian raft among recent fish kill.) Consultants are burning the midnight oil to figure out how Bart Simpson could cover the Democratic convention this June. Main sticking point: How to shuttle the little rascal across town during the notorious LA traffic jams. When CBS's "48 Hours" changes its name to "24/7," Calista Flockhart will replace Dan Rather in a tribute to the aging anchor, who, like so many of the show's old loyal viewers, sooner or later will die. (Order Ricky Martin theme music to attract crucial Latino demographic.) To stanch the ratings drop among 14-year-old girls at "Washington Week in Review," PBS plans to replace the roundtable of insider journalists with the five singers of 'N Sync and rename the show "Providence Week in Review."
###

Sacramento Bee:
4/18/00
Nothing against Leo, personally

Good news. After a fair amount of dithering and hand-wringing and public ridicule, ABC News has announced it will air portions of "Titanic" heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio's videotaped chat with President Clinton. Of course, Leo isn't a trained broadcast journalist. He's an actor. Oh, the shock, the horror, the looming threat of cross-pollination between news and entertainment, the ethical boundaries being breached. Next, we'll have Britney Spears reporting live from Kosovo and, as one editorial cartoon suggested, 'N Sync covering the latest on the Elian Gonzalez case and Elton John standing by with the Bush camp. Ha. Ha. Ha. In any case, the Leo interview will air. Then Leo can go back to his successful acting career, and a grateful nation can breathe a sigh of relief that we've survived another silly fuss over the entertainment industry intruding on the serious news business. We'll just slink back to our ordinary lives - with our memories from decades past of actresses Candice Bergen and Mariette Hartley being given lengthy on-air tryouts on, respectively, "Today" and CBS' morning show, and with the chirpy daily spectacle of local and national TV news reminding us that in many ways, entertainment long ago took over broadcast news. Leo's not the problem. "I've noticed that colleagues with acting courses in their past tend to be better communicators on the air," says Alice Scott, the veteran Channel 3 reporter who left several years ago to form her own Sacramento media consulting firm. And so to actress Andrea Thompson, the "NYPD Blue" co-star who will leave the show at the end of this season to become a TV news reporter in Albuquerque. No kidding. She has no training in journalism, no experience in the field, no college education. But she's attractive, and she can act, and she's always wanted to be on the TV news. "Maybe she'll be credible on the air," says Scott. "Being able to communicate effectively on TV does require a certain amount of presence in front of the camera. If you can't make that visual connection with the audience, you're not going to communicate effectively. "But it also requires a certain journalistic skill to put things into context - simple things like getting your facts straight and covering both sides of the story." Facts and fairness: What a concept. Thompson, who says she's taking the SAT soon, tells People that she'll be a weekend anchor as well as a reporter. "I'll be doing longer stories on issues I'm interested in - global economics, politics and social issues," she says. Sure you will, sweetie. But first, there's this puppy that fell down a drainpipe, and there's a fire raging in an empty warehouse downtown. There are murders and blizzards and 4-H shows and city council meetings to cover and grieving parents to interview and long, dry, dusty autumn days to spend at the pumpkin patch for that in-depth Halloween expose. Global economics may have to wait. At least, you know, until you actually know how to report. Thompson says her ultimate goal is to work for shows like "Face the Nation." "Oh, she's got to be kidding," Scott says. She's not. Still, to Thompson's credit, she's willing to wait and learn, to pay her dues in Albuquerque instead of jumping straight to the White House for the presidential interview along with DiCaprio. Lord only knows why she feels the need to bother, though. Up next, Sarah Michelle Gellar covers repercussions of the Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal, Cybill Shepherd analyzes U.S. relations with China, Giovanni Ribisi reports on new discoveries in the field of cancer research, and Jennifer Love Hewitt brings us the weather. Stay tuned.
###

Yerbatim:
4/18/00
Quote of the day

'This new millennium balances us on the edge of history. If we continue to ignore the issue of global warming, we will most certainly suffer the effects ...'
— Actor LEONARDO DiCAPRIO, in an essay in this week's Time magazine
###

USA Today:
4/18/00
How broker to the stars came to be behind bars Feds say he stole millions from clients' accounts

Dana Giacchetto's story is a Hollywood melodrama.
Giacchetto, 37, was a hot, young financial adviser to the rich and famous until he was charged two weeks ago with bilking clients out of at least $6 million. Last week, after allegedly violating his terms of his bail, he was arrested in Newark, N.J., getting off a flight from Las Vegas with $4,000 in cash, a doctored passport and a passel of first-class airline tickets. Now, he is being held without bail in New York City. If Giacchetto's fall from grace is notable, it is largely because of his clients, who included hot, young actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz and Lauren Holly. If not for them, Giacchetto's alleged crimes would be run-of-the-mill financial fraud -- the type that can and does happen to anyone. ''He didn't invent the technique of fabricating account statements,'' says Wayne Carlin, associate regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission. And not all his clients have marquee names. ''He had clients who are not people with recognizable names and for whom these losses represent a large chunk of their savings,'' Carlin said Friday. Giacchetto (Gee-a-KET-o) wasn't available to discuss his case. His lawyer declined to comment. And most of his celebrity clients aren't talking. But his story can be found in SEC documents, court records and his past statements. Dana Calogero Giacchetto was born and raised in Medford, Mass. An aspiring rock musician, he attended the University of Massachusetts, where he received a degree in English and economics in 1990. He has boasted that he was only a few credits shy of a Harvard MBA. In fact, he took four courses through Harvard's Division of Continuing Education. He excelled in a Fiction Skills Workshop, for which he received an A-. In 1991, he set up an investment management firm, the Cassandra Group, in New York. A brochure explained that Cassandra was a mythological Greek figure ''who is often equated with one who knows the future but is never believed.'' It also said: ''Of paramount importance to us is that clients' investment objectives be adhered to in a manner that allows for significant return with minimal risk.'' Giacchetto began cold calling art galleries, looking for clients, according to the New York Observer. Soon he was hobnobbing with artists and movie stars and jetting to Los Angeles. By 1998, the investment guru was so well established he formed a private fund with Chase Capital Partners, a unit of Chase Manhattan Bank, to invest in small entertainment companies. A year ago, a GQ article dubbed him the ''rock-and-roll broker.'' His roster of clients included singer Alanis Morissette, Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz, and Friends star Courtney Cox Arquette. He boasted in print that he managed $400 million for more than 400 clients. Superstar-struck Giacchetto not only managed the money of superstars, he socialized with them. DiCaprio is said to have stayed in his loft in Soho, the trendy Manhattan neighborhood, and hosted him in Thailand, on the set of The Beach. Giacchetto also reportedly vacationed with Cox Arquette's family. But last fall, Giacchetto's fortunes took a turn when Chase severed its ties with him and Cassandra Group. Chase declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Around that same time, a number of high-profile clients began to defect. On Oct. 25, DiCaprio wrote a letter to terminate his relationship. ''Please cease all trading activity and cancel all open orders to buy or sell,'' the letter said. DiCaprio's father, George, also a client, wrote a similar letter, as did actor Tobey Maguire. A spokesman for DiCaprio says the actor lost money, but refused to say how much. Apparently, some clients were noticing abnormalities in their statements. For instance, Giacchetto managed the employee profit-sharing plan of film production company Good Machine. According to an SEC affidavit, one of the co-owners noticed an unauthorized $150,000 withdrawal on the November statement. When questioned, Giacchetto said the money had been invested in AT&T bonds. In December, Cassandra issued a check to Good Machine for $150,890. Also in December, Giacchetto sued his former partners at Cassandra-Chase Entertainment Partners for $300 million. The lawsuit complains that partner Jeffrey Sachs spread false rumors about Giacchetto as a pretext for removing him from the partnership. In August, Sachs allegedly told Chase executives that Cassandra Group was having unspecified administrative problems. The complaint claims Sachs also told others, including DiCaprio, that Giacchetto would be arrested. After several magazine and newspaper articles raised questions about Giacchetto's handling of his celebrity clients' accounts, the SEC launched an audit. According to the agency, the company failed to provide many documents it requested. The latest blow came April 3, when the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan charged Giacchetto with looting at least $6 million from client accounts. At the same time, in a civil lawsuit, the SEC charged him with a scheme to unlawfully divert at least $20 million in client funds. Despite Giacchetto's claim that he did not have direct access to client assets, which were held in brokerage accounts, and that he conservatively managed those assets, the SEC claims he issued checks payable to his clients without their authorization. Then, the agency says, he endorsed and deposited those checks into Cassandra's accounts. Between Jan. 1, 1999, and April 3, 2000, checks totaling about $11 million from 58 clients were deposited. When clients discovered the transfers, Giacchetto would tell them he bought conservative bonds or other securities with the money, the SEC says. If clients questioned the withdrawals further, Giacchetto repaid them with money stolen from other clients, the agency says. SEC documents show, for example, that on Oct. 12, Giacchetto allegedly took $185,000 from the account of Marianne Boesky, daughter of financier Ivan Boesky. The same day $100,000 was transferred from Cassandra to actor Tim Roth's account. The SEC says Giacchetto was looting his clients' accounts to cover Cassandra's losses. According to the criminal charges, Giacchetto also used his clients' money to pay personal expenses, including rent on his Soho loft and his credit card bills. If convicted on the criminal charges, Giacchetto, who is in jail waiting to be arraigned, faces 10 years in prison. A court-appointed receiver will determine what assets are left and who should get them. ''Typically, in these situations there are fewer assets left than the victims lost,'' Carlin says. ''It remains to be seen what the situation is going to be here.''
###

NY Post:
4/18/00
Q & A THE CELEBRITY WAY

FROM Frank and Dino and Sammy stumping for JFK to Warren Beatty flirting with his own presidential run, the sinful, decadent world of Washington, D.C., has been corrupting the virginal purity of Hollywood for years. Well, this week the thin line between show business and politics got a little thinner. Soon, the American people will finally get a chance to read the long-awaited transcripts of the interview conducted by Leonardo DiCaprio with Bill Clinton. The controversial sit-down has caused a stir - chiefly among journalists. Should the environmentally concerned heartthrob have that kind of access to the president in place of a competent journalist? Well, Sam, Diane, Larry, Peter, Dan and Tom - get used to it. This may be the beginning of a trend. After all, if there's one thing today's media-savvy politicians understand, it's the power of a good Nielsen share. And let's face it, who's got more sex appeal ratings-wise, the Capital Gang or the Backstreet Boys? With that in mind, here are some excerpts of interviews we'll probably be seeing soon: "A Couple of Divas Dish the Dirt: Whitney Houston Discusses the Crisis in Micronesia With Secretary of State Madeleine Albright"
Madeleine: "Now you see, Whitney, the intricacies of the situation in Micronesia are very delicate ... "
Whitney: " ... the record's not over yet! I love you all."
Madeleine: "Uh ... I'm sorry, were you talking to me?"
Whitney: " ... mmnffIdunhafta ... wherzathing... ?"
Madeleine: "Right. Maybe we should do this some other time ... "
"Puff Daddy Sits Down With Al Gore"
Puffy: "Thank you for agreeing to the interview. I hope you aren't disturbed by the charges written about me in the press, Mr. Vice President."
Al: "What charges? Oh, sorry. I probably wasn't really paying attention when this interview was arranged. I might have been out of the room."
Puffy: "Just as well. Anyway, it's all a setup. People are out to get me."
Al: "I hear ya, Puff Guy. Would you like some iced tea?"
Puffy: "Would I like some what? And don't call me Ice-T!"
Al: "What?"
Puffy: "Huh?"
"Calista Flockhart Gets the Skinny From Janet Reno"
Calista: "So, Attorney General Reno, this Elian Gonzalez thing is such a mess. What are you going to do?"
Janet: "I am fully prepared to enforce the law."
Calista: "Yes, but what about - ooh, celery sticks! Could you pass the celery?"
Janet: "I am fully prepared to pass the celery."
Calista: "Great, I'm starved ... uh, Ms. Reno?"
Janet: "I am fully prepared to pass the celery."
Calista: "OK, but could you pass it?"
Janet: "I am fully ... "
Calista: "Oh, never mind, I'll get it myself."
"Girl Power: Britney Spears and Hillary Clinton"
Britney: "I'm so, like, excited to be sitting here. I don't even, like, know what to ask."
Hillary: "Yes, Britney. Well, I think I have a role, as you do, too, to protect our children and give them hope."
Britney: "Um, OK, whatever. Say, can your husband, like, introduce me to Leonardo DiCaprio?"
Finally, America's eternal teenage heartthrob, Bill Clinton, repays the favor to veteran journalist Leonardo DiCaprio by asking the actor a substantial question:
Bill: "So, Leo, can you introduce me to that zaftig girl from ‘Titanic'?"
###

MSNBC:
4/18/00
ABC to air DiCaprio’s interview

ABC got publicly spanked for its celebrity snafu, but network executives have announced they still will air a portion of Leonardo DiCaprio’s interview with President Clinton. The network deemed Leo’s 15-minute presidential eco-chat fit for the airwaves, in spite of complaints from ABC News staffers that a kid was sent in to do a real reporter’s job. PORTIONS OF THE interview will appear during ABC’s Earth Day special, airing April 22 at 8 p.m. The network released a statement saying execs checked out the footage and gave it the green light. “It was an editorial judgment made here with many senior management people involved,” says ABC News spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. “Everyone is comfortable with the decision. But we’re not going to discuss our editorial process.” The interview was one of several good deeds Leo planned for Earth Day, including heading the EarthFair 2000 celebration in Washington, D.C. DiCaprio’s questions reportedly were developed with the help of segment producers. But his work took a back seat when ABC’s journalists groused that the line between entertainment and news was blurred. It’s still not known how much of the “Titanic” hunk’s chat will air for the special. But Murphy says the final product “will meet with ABC News editorial standards.” SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WAS PLANNED The network initially backpedaled from the whole ordeal, saying Leo initially was scheduled for a White House tour, not a sit-down interview. But White House officials say ABC always planned a face-to-face between Leo and Clinton. “It’s always been clear that [ABC News] wanted [DiCaprio] to come in and interview the president on the issue of climate change,” White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. ”[Leo] was fine. He didn’t pretend to be a journalist, he made it clear he was acting as a concerned citizen.” And the White House had its own fun with ABC’s debacle. During a dinner with TV and radio broadcasters last week, Clinton took some playful jabs, reveling in the chance to turn the tables on the media. “Don’t you news people ever learn?” Clinton joked. “It isn’t the mistake that kills you. It’s the cover-up.” Leo’s people, meanwhile, say they were pleased with ABC’s decision, but never assumed DiCaprio would end up on the cutting room floor. Well, at least not without being recycled.
###

Excite News:
4/18/00
ABC To Run Parts Of DiCaprio Interview

ABC has decided to broadcast portions of an interview with President Clinton conducted by Leonardo DiCaprio that had raised questions about why a movie star was fulfilling a role usually handled by a journalist. The network announced its decision in a terse news release on Tuesday, a day after ABC News executives screened the March 31 interview. DiCaprio, chairman of the Earth Day 2000 celebration committee, talked to Clinton about global warming. The interview will appear as part of an Earth Day special produced by ABC News on Saturday, April 22 at 8 p.m. ET. "It was an editorial judgment made here with many senior management people involved," said ABC News spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. "Everyone is comfortable with the decision. But we're not going to discuss our editorial process." It's still not clear how much of the reported 20-minute chat between the "Titanic" star and Clinton will make it on the air. Murphy said the final product "will meet with ABC News editorial standards." "In the end," she said, "we'll be judged by what is on the air." Many journalists within ABC, particularly in the Washington bureau, were angered when they heard DiCaprio was granted the interview. There was some dispute last week between ABC, the White House and DiCaprio's representatives over how it was set up. ABC News President David Westin said DiCaprio was visiting at the White House's request, with the understanding that the president might appear on film walking through the White House with the actor. The White House said ABC had requested an interview and DiCaprio's spokesman, Ken Sunshine, said the actor was prepared to conduct one. Westin had told ABC News staffers in an e-mail that there was a chance DiCaprio's White House footage would not be used at all. He was not available to talk about Tuesday's decision to go ahead, Murphy said. Sunshine said that "we're delighted and always assumed that the interview would be included." He said DiCaprio will be consulted during the editing process of the special. "He's perplexed that this became such a big deal," he said. "All he ever wanted and wants is for lots of people to learn a lot about global warming." The special, with "20/20" correspondent Chris Cuomo as host, includes segments on coral bleaching off the Florida coast, urban sprawl in Atlanta and the effects of global warming on Alaskans.
###

NY Daily News:
4/17/00
Voice of the people, Letters from readers

Top Bill-ing Manhattan: Why the fuss about President Clinton being interviewed by Leonardo DiCaprio? Clinton is the greatest actor of this generation. Leo could learn a lot from him.
Dean Lage
###

NY Daily News:
4/17/00
This Sweet Life's too short for...

If we're lucky, we get to spend seven sets of 10 on the journey through this thing called life. If we dodge all the reckless cabbies and hit the gene-pool lottery, we might even get eight or nine sets — with at least one spent dribbling on our shirts.
Time is precious because life is short.
For this reason, the clutter in our lives must be edited out.
And so every year, right after another birthday, I go through my junk drawers, old notebooks and various jackets and fish out scraps of paper on which I have scribbled notes over the previous year. These odd scraps contain people, places and things for which, as I get older, LIFE'S TOO SHORT — an LTS survival list to get me through another year.
LTS for the "serious" journalists who are frothing at the mouth over Leo DiCaprio interviewing President Clinton for a TV network. Some of them are the same serious journalists who wanted us to take them serious as they chased around Warren Beatty and Donald Trump as serious presidential contenders.
###

NY Post:
4/17/00
Down-to-Earth guys

YOUNG hunks Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Cuomo are linked by more than the upcoming, storm-in-a-teacup ABC-TV Earth Day special, hosted by Chris and starring Leo interviewing President Clinton. Until sometime last year, Cuomo was working for accused swindler-to-the-stars Dana Giacchetto at Dana's Cassandra Group. (In retrospect, the financial company was aptly named.) I hope the former governor's son didn't lose his shirt in the debacle, and I'm pleased that he and Leo, who did drop a bundle, are still great chums.
###

MSNBC:
4/17/00
Growing up greener, Earth Day 2000 targets youth

He played the bohemian, idealistic hero on a doomed ocean liner. Now Leonardo DiCaprio is stepping up to a more titanic real-life role — figurehead for millions of young activists on environmental and health issues. Can global warming and America’s fossil fuel habit be turned around? With Leonardo and a blossoming new generation, Earth Day organizers hope so. LEONARDO DiCAPRIO made a promise last November when he announced becoming chair of Earth Day 2000’s big event on the Washington, D.C., Mall: to invest in a hybrid car that runs on both electric and gasoline. “You fill it up at any service station, it gets 60 miles per gallon and has 80 percent fewer emissions than most cars,” says DiCaprio. “It runs like any other car.” No sweat. But to tackle global warming, we need to do much more, he said, such as “to dramatically increase the amount of power we get from clean sources, like the sun, the wind and bio-fuels.” DiCaprio is pushing Earth Day 2000’s focal issue: Given our choices at this turn of the century, do we continue with “19th century production methods that harm the environment and create myriad health problems?” Or instead, do we turn to “new clean, innovative technologies?” This millennial year, perhaps more than ever, Earth Day organizers are reaching out to youth. The timing couldn’t be better: Just this week, the group Environmental Defense released a survey that found the “younger generation is remarkably skeptical about past progress [on air and water quality], with 62 percent believing conditions are worse today and only 29 percent seeing conditions as better.” Readying himself for April 22, the 30th Anniversary of the watershed event he helped launch as a college student, Denis Hayes, director of the Earth Day Network, revealed only faint traces of exhaustion over a campaign that promises to bring together half a billion people around the world to put forth “new environmental visions for a sustainable future.” “Young people bring energy and fresh ideas, and if you say ‘try it,’ they’ll go out and actually do it,” says Hayes. While government leaders wrangle over whether to institute carbon or gas taxes to create disincentives for using coal, gas, and oil, the fossil fuels, young people are coming up with better tactics, he says. “Students began organizing boycotts of recruiters from petroleum companies and others that contribute to the problem,” he says. Egged on by students, he adds, universities began voting shareholder resolutions against companies in the Global Climate Coalition, the major lobbyists against carbon cuts in the Kyoto climate change negotiations. “Now British Petroleum, Shell, GM and Ford have all stepped off the coalition, and they have no corporations left — just trade associations.” As the original environmental movement grays, it is being supplanted by younger and younger ranks of activists undertaking scores of volunteer actions, from reforesting urban trees, to weeding and removing invasive species, to adopting parks and putting on “sustainable energy” fairs. In contrast to the typical profile of an environmentalist with greater buying power — the suburban white woman — the new face of the movement, says Michelle Ackermann of Earth Day 2000, is “young and multicultural.” DiCaprio, Ackermann says, was chosen by Earth Day campaigners as an apt “role model for young people,” and because of his stated interest in nature from an early age. The actor also knows how thorny environmental issues can be, from personal experience. During the filming of The Beach, in which DiCaprio stars, a local environmental controversy erupted after the film producers arranged for a beach location to be stripped of native vegetation and replanted with imported palm trees. The area as since been restored and the issue resolved. EDUCATION CURRICULA During the last 10 years, environmental education curricula have spread widely in U.S. schools. And since Earth Day 1990, some 70,000 schools nationwide actively commemorate the event. “More teachers are integrating environmental stewardship into all subjects, says Rene Alexander, an environmental educator in Seattle schools. “You have more and more examples of teachers presenting what they learned — about pollution in air or streams — to city hall.” For the young, says Ackermann, conservation and care for nature is intuitive: “They haven’t lost the wonder of discovery.” Not yet jaded by pessimistic forecasts, they can still be shocked into action. ‘They’re astounded to realize the connection between our habits and the destruction of the world,” says Alexander. “Here, kids are learning about native birds, fish and amphibians and how they are dying out thanks to explosive housing growth. “They can’t believe that plastic comes from oil,” she says. “Some tell me, ‘I’m not buying a ‘Lunchable’ anymore, because I know how many resources they expend — paper from trees, plastics from oil, water to make both, and aluminum — for a single serving.” A YOUTH-LED MOVEMENT Much of the new movement is youth-led. “Instead of being generated by parents to keep kids busy, it is driven by passionate young people who are really concerned about the environment,” says Diana Smith of the YMCA’s Earth Service Corps, which has involved 20,000 young people in a variety of community leadership efforts in 30 states since its inception 10 years ago. Seattle’s YMCA teenagers staged a mock debate in which they role-played different interests at the Kyoto climate change talks — some acting as oil company lobbyists, others as representatives from developing countries. Out of the event, says YMCA’s Fran Lo, came a commitment from clubs to “encourage carpooling, and walking or biking to school.” The last 10 years, too, has seen the rise of even younger children involved in volunteer and activist efforts, much of it environmental. The Big Help, a program of the Nickelodeon TV channel, boasts that since 1994, when the program began, more than 28.5 million children have pledged more than 300 million child-hours to volunteer efforts — from helping the homeless to cleaning up parks. INFECTIOUS ENERGY “Kids have an incredible amount of energy that goes untapped,” says Marva Smalls of The Big Help, “Their energy is infectious. You can’t show up at one of their events without being drawn into picking up a shovel yourself.” Lauria Moen, a school resource conservation specialist, agrees. “Waste is a habit—-we like to waste resources. But kids don’t have them yet,” says Moen, who has seen the 19 schools in the Kent School District in Kent, Wash., save some $38,000 a year in energy, water and solid waste. Much of that savings has come from student-run recycling and conservation “patrols” that enlist kids for spot inspections of teachers and staff. Adults? “I find them very, very difficult to motivate,” says Moen. “It’s only been through the spirits of the kids that I’ve ever seen any action.” Francesca Lyman is an environmental and travel journalist and editor of the American Museum of Natural History book, “Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest” (Workman, 1998).
###

LA Times:
4/17/00
If Actors Can Be Presidents, Why Can't They Be Journalists?

Why are the top journalists at ABC so upset that the president was interviewed not by them but by Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor, when those same journalists spent eight years interviewing an actor as president ("ABC to Air Parts of DiCaprio-Clinton Talk," by Elizabeth Jensen, April 12)? Back in 1980, to no avail, I warned anyone who would listen that electing a broken-down, old, third-rate film hack to the White House would make a mockery of the presidency; 20 years later, the process of turning politics from anything serious into pure show biz has now simply come full circle. And why not? We have long practiced this lunacy that actors--people who make their livings by pretending to be other people--actually have something of value to say. For years after retiring from TV, "Dr." Robert Young expressed amazement that people asked him for real medical advice, as if his "Marcus Welby, MD" role had actually taught him medicine. What's next, "Fail Safe" veteran George Clooney for secretary of Defense in the next administration? THOMAS E. BRAUN Palmdale
* * *
This is only an issue because Leonardo DiCaprio is a sex symbol and not known for his journalistic ability. If Oprah Winfrey was interviewing the president, nobody would blink an eye. Of course, she's acted in plenty of movies (and has an Oscar nomination for "The Color Purple"). This flap is about egos, not journalistic integrity. ABC News staffers should examine the size of their heads. CHIP HUTZLER Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
* * *
Unlike Diane Sawyer or any of her news colleagues at ABC, Leonardo DiCaprio has the ability to get many young people to watch a program on the environment. I think this makes him a good choice for the job of interviewer. I also think he will show more mature judgment than Sawyer and her older associates who were involved in the famous Elian Gonzalez interview. DON BENDER Burbank
###

Bergen.com
4/17/00
Leo, Diane, and Barbara bring you the news

From the way some people at ABC News are carrying on, you'd think Leonardo DiCaprio might not have what it takes to front a network news show, much less interview the president of the United States. Did these guys not see the box-office numbers for "Titanic"? Like Peter Jennings or Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters, DiCaprio is paid millions of dollars because of the perception that he brings in an audience. Sure, he was never America's Junior Miss, like Sawyer. And no, he never worked for Richard Nixon, who left office in disgrace a few months before Leo was born and was followed into exile by Sawyer. He has -- at least as far as we know -- never dated one of Elizabeth Taylor's ex-husbands, which does put him a step below Walters on the life experience scale. And if Monica Lewinsky knitted him a scarf, he's kept quiet about it. DiCaprio may, however, share something with Jennings, whose formal education ended in the 10th grade. The young actor, who got his start in television as a 5-year-old on "Romper Room," left Los Angeles' John Marshall High School in his senior year. It's not clear whether he ever got a high school equivalency degree. Not that lack of education or experience would necessarily disqualify him from interviewing Clinton, who six years ago answered a 17-year-old girl's question about his choice of underwear on MTV. The sad truth is that it doesn't exactly take a brain surgeon -- or a Ted Koppel -- to talk to a president anymore. Sock puppets may be more challenging. (Ask Sawyer, who, it turns out, is no Shari Lewis.) If Clinton's not insulted by being queried about global warming by the star of "The Beach," who else should be? Not ABC News, which invited DiCaprio along for the White House visit in the first place, no doubt hoping he'd bring a few teenage girls into the tent for its Earth Day special, scheduled to air Saturday with the actor's contribution intact. Like its counterparts at other networks, ABC's news division for years now has slapped its name on enterprises more dubious than Leo's Big Adventure, from a Michael Jackson interview that included a prime-time plug for his video to an unending stream of "newsmagazines" without news. Last week, the network shelved its fledgling drama "Wonderland" after its ratings dived against an original "ER," and announced it will replace it with, yes, more ABC News programming. Not because we need more "news," but because ABC needs more than "Wonderland's" 7.5 million viewers at 10 p.m. Thursdays. "20/20 Downtown," which will return next week, has already proven it can deliver them, having averaged 11.2 million viewers a week for the season to date. That's show business, folks. With all the fuss that's been kicked up over DiCaprio, I've been waiting to hear some complaints about Andrea Thompson. When word broke earlier this month that the "NYPD Blue" actress would be leaving the show and had signed on for a three-month stint as an anchor-reporter at the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, N.M., most people just thought she was crazy. While 40-year-old actresses may not have many good years left on television, the shelf life of fortysomething women anchors can be measured in nanoseconds in many local markets. Add in the report that Thompson, a former model who never attended college, is planning to take the SATs, and you have one hell of an interesting midlife crisis. What you don't have is a scandal. Because even without the overlay of celebrity that's become so important in TV news -- and that at one point led former congresswoman Susan Molinari into an ill-considered stint as a CBS News anchor -- journalism's never been a game restricted to people who went to the right schools and followed a particular career path. My issues with the Wellesley-educated Sawyer, for instance, have nothing to do with her pageant background or her Nixon connection: I'm just tired of seeing an apparently intelligent woman reduced to rolling around the floor with sextuplets or chatting up dot-com mascots (or anyone else with something to sell). It's not news, even if it's why she gets paid the big bucks. Who cares where Peter Jennings went to school as long as he continues to do his job professionally? Barbara Walters' love life wasn't a problem until she attended Clinton's 1997 inaugural with U.S. Sen. John Warner and reported on it from areas that were off-limits to other press. And while it seems unlikely that DiCaprio's "interview" with Clinton will yield news, it's difficult to imagine even Sam Donaldson digging anything worthwhile out of what sounds like little more than an environmentally themed photo op. If the medium is indeed the message, there's no reason to shoot Leo: He's not even the messenger.
###

SF Gate:
4/17/00
DiCaprio Loves His Mother Earth

``This new millennium balances us on the edge of history. If we continue to ignore the issue of global warming, we will most certainly suffer the effects . . . including climate changes that will cause more drastic typhoons, hurricanes and floods, plus the bleaching of coral reefs, the melting of polar ice caps, an increase in insect-borne tropical diseases and much, much more.'' The above quote comes from, no, not some crackpot alarmist writing a scare-the-pants-off-you-book but young Leonardo DiCaprio in an essay written for next week's Time magazine. DiCaprio, the honorary chairman of Earth Day 2000, will host a rally in Washington calling for clean energy and a renewed focus on the environment. Unlike some of the stuffed shirts at ABC-TV, Time staffers had no problem taking Leo seriously. (In my humble opinion, ABC News should be celebrating the forwardlooking, youth-oriented efforts of David Westin instead of condemning them.) -- This 'n' that: New Line's hotly awaited ``Lord of the Rings'' is a hot number online. Promos for the film racked up 1,671,000 hits, beating out last year's ``Star Wars'' advance peek on the Internet . . . Kenneth Branagh's ``Love's Labour's Lost'' is a quirky blend of Shakespeare and 1930s-style musical comedy. Some will love it, some won't. But you can't fault Branagh for slacking off. He produced, directed, adapted and stars in the movie. Nathan Lane -- who nearly walks off with ``LLL'' -- says, ``It was like working with Orson Welles, he did everything but the catering!'' . . . In Palm Beach, delicate sensibilities will not allow the word ``damn'' to be used in print ads for the show ``Damn Yankees.'' Instead of spelling out the word, they're replacing the A, M and N with a ball, bat and glove, respectively. -- We received a long, passionate defense of Diana Ross the other day in regard to the aborted reunion of Diana, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong on the Supremes tour. ``No one seems to take into account that out of her $15 million, Diana has to pay for the production: the band, the arrangements, the travel, the lights, the sets, the designers, the costumes and countless other items, which add up to millions of dollars. . . . This is standard practice when an artist takes out a tour.'' The writer also points out that the $3 million or $4 million offered Wilson is hardly a pittance and that out of her salary, Mary would not have to pay for anything connected to the tour. You know what? Ross is well into the fourth decade of stardom, and she remains a controversial figure -- the Kathie Lee of songbirds. And it's not going to change! It was she, after all, who was chosen by Berry Gordy as the star attraction of the Supremes and the star of his private life for a while. She had the stellar quality, if not enough humility, to please some people. Let's face it, if Wilson had been the chosen one, how much of her time and empathy would she have given to Diana? But whatever Ross' drives, compulsions and eccentricities, I want to emphasize that this great star has raised five beautiful children, none of whom has ever had the slightest public trouble. I feel there is quite a measure of the woman in that simple fact.
###

LA Times:
4/17/00
Why Can't the Famous Speak Up?

The political punditocracy has decided that the "story" regarding Leonardo DiCaprio's interview with President Bill Clinton is, in the words of the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, "How did the network of Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel wind up morphing its journalistic image with that of a Hollywood hunk?" According to this conventional wisdom, someone at ABC News made a mistake by arranging for DiCaprio to interview the president as part of an Earth Day network special, and ABC News President David Westin compounded the error by fudging the truth, implausibly denying that the network had arranged the session. "It Hollywoodizes the most serious subjects," intoned Kurtz's co-host on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Bernard Kalb. "If we start moving into this terrain, we're going to offer shallowness." Yet, the appropriate "story" the media analysts should be pursuing is why a clique of media insiders should bamboozle a network into a waffling on a reasonable idea. The interview was not conducted for the "Evening News" or "Nightline," but for the "Planet Earth 2000" special, to be aired this week in connection with Earth Day, which DiCaprio is chairman of this year. Undoubtedly, DiCaprio was briefed in his questions by Earth Day experts just as Sam Donaldson would have been by the ABC news staffer who actually covers the environment. One big problem facing American democracy is decreasing voter turnout and public ignorance of important issues; and the younger people are, the less likely they are to vote. The political media, whatever their expertise or intentions, have clearly demonstrated severe limits in the kinds of people they can reach. DiCaprio, at 25, is half the age of virtually all ABC's senior reporters. His youth gives him a different perspective in questioning the president--and also an edge in attracting and relating to TV viewers. More important, the environment is an issue directly affected by mass public attention and behavior. The point of Earth Day is to focus public attention on an issue that politicians, and the media, underplay most of the year, if only because most environmental problems are complicated and unglamorous, and solutions are slow and incremental. What is the moral or journalistic benefit of demeaning celebrities who choose to give their time on behalf of civic issues instead of restricting their public activity to the entertainment and fashion pages? If more celebrities got involved with public education, there might be greater interest in public affairs. Of course, if they say something stupid, they should be criticized, but it's hard to see what is served by the familiar ritual of Washington insiders ridiculing artists and entertainers for having the temerity to care about public policy. Notwithstanding the frequently excellent work of the best of TV news, such as "60 Minutes" and "Nightline," Kalb is lionizing the same TV news divisions that devoted one-hundredth as much airtime to the environment as they did to either the O.J. Simpson trial or the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal, not to mention such passing obsessions as Tonya Harding. The glory days of Edward R. Murrow's standards went out around the same time Dan Rather starting testing different sweaters to see which researched the best, and local newscasts adopted as their unofficial slogan, "If it bleeds, it leads." TV news leaders cannot be blamed for responding to ratings pressure put on them by a new business environment, far different from the one that held sway before the age of cable and the Internet. But there is a rigid, incestuous clique that defines an ever-narrower notion of what is "legitimate" news, often crowding out such issues as the environment to fixate on the horse-race aspects of partisan competition. This seems to serve no interest other than preservation of the news elite's status quo. It's an Earth Day special, not the evening news, for which DiCaprio did the interview, or whatever euphemism ABC comes up with to mollify its in-house critics. If ABC News stars such as Donaldson and Cokie Roberts were really as enraged as press reports have it, they were probably jealous of Clinton. Is there any doubt that Sam and Cokie wouldn't have sought an interview with DiCaprio, as the chair of Earth Day, just as they so frequently feature Charlton Heston as a spokesman for the National Rifle Assn.? The spiteful, snobbish petulance of the political media was evident in a recent Salon magazine piece, in which a reporter mockingly wrote of DiCaprio, "Beware of movie stars with ideas." Again, the elitist gets it wrong. The message of this story is: Beware of political journalists who ignore the public, who condescend to average people, who say they love America but have contempt for Americans.
###

NY Times:
4/17/00
When Celebrity Hearts Bleed

HE public image of Leonardo DiCaprio, circa 1998: a party boy with a reserved table in every V.I.P. room, hopping from Moomba to Chaos to Veruka in a Lincoln Navigator with his posse of male friends. The image of Leonardo DiCaprio, circa April 2000: the chairman of Earth Day, leading a four-hour rally in Washington next Saturday to raise awareness of global warming, a subject about which he says in a Web chat, "I personally feel this is the most highly ignored, yet important issue facing the world today." In recent years, few Hollywood stars have worked to transform their off-screen image as strikingly as Mr. DiCaprio, the "Titanic" heartthrob who seems intent on exchanging the hard-partying persona for that of an advocate alarmed about the fate of the earth. Mr. DiCaprio is also writing an essay on the environment to appear in Time magazine this week, and his interview with President Clinton, the subject of a media dust-up the last two weeks, will finally be seen on ABC's "Planet Earth 2000" special on Saturday. The suddenness of Mr. DiCaprio's emergence as an environmental champion -- he had not publicly flexed his social consciousness before -- suggests some intriguing questions about the relationship between celebrities and the causes they espouse. To what degree are a star's motives altruistic, and to what degree self-promotional? When is an actor using a high profile to draw the spotlight to a worthy cause, and when is he or she hoping for a more flattering form of personal media coverage? Is there any downside for nonprofit groups who enlist celebrities? Professional environmentalists are happy to have Mr. DiCaprio in their corner. "He's a new name to the movement, but a well-known one, so we say go for it," said Jay Watson, a West Coast director of fund-raising for the Wilderness Society. But he has some concern about the actor's credibility on global warming, which is caused in part by driving gas-guzzlers like Lincoln Navigators and heating big homes. "When you get into things like overconsumption of resources, a movie star like him has to be careful, because it's no secret many live very lavish lifestyles," Mr. Watson said. The questions about celebrities and causes seem more relevant than ever as so many stars line up behind do-good issues that nearly every Hollywood party is a stop on the charity circuit. "I have seen a major increase in the number of invitations I get for celebrities and benefits," said George Christy, the columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, who has covered the party scene for decades. "There are still birthday parties and premieres, but they are now overwhelmed by events that are about something." The latest issue of George magazine uses its cover to "applaud" the no-nukes activism of Michael Douglas and, inside, lists 109 stars and their causes, from David Schwimmer and the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center, to Christina Aguilera and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, to Charlton Heston and the National Rifle Association. "A celebrity is expected to have an issue now as much as he or she is expected to have an agent," said Robin Bronk, coordinator of the Creative Coalition, which acts as a sort of issues clearinghouse for the entertainment industry. (You don't like global warming? How about doing this censorship benefit?) The coalition, whose advisory board includes Alec Baldwin, Ron Silver and Robin Williams, makes no bones about mixing Hollywood careers with social activism. "The reality is that issues are searching for celebrity voices," Ms. Bronk said, "and that is relatively new. It's just the nature of our celebrity culture." News coverage is increasingly fixated on celebrities, so causes recruit famous spokesmen, who in turn reap the benefit of coverage that is more flattering than usual. The campaign to build a World War II memorial in Washington with private money was stalled for years until its co-chairman, former Senator Bob Dole, recruited Tom Hanks as spokesman. Now, a $100 million drive has been kicked into high gear thanks to the actor's announcements and appearances. "Every time he goes on Leno or Letterman, he mentions our 800 number, and the phones ring off the hook," said Doug McKinnon, Mr. Dole's communications director. Mr. Hanks, one of the public's most beloved stars, said he was not motivated by the prospect of more personally flattering coverage. "As we enter the new millennium, a lot of us are realizing there's more than just cranking out the product," he said. He had no hesitation at all about supporting the World War II memorial, he added, "once I saw the plans and knew that it was a tasteful design, not some huge combat boot in the middle of the Mall." Philanthropy experts, by and large, see little downside to the tightening embrace of celebrities and causes, and even if the motives are mixed on both sides, they say, little harm is done. "You always have to ask, is it pure altruism or an attempt for some new kind of warm glow?" said Alan Abramson, director of nonprofit studies for the Aspen Institute, a policy research group. "The second possibility may be more the case with these people, but I guess I say, so what? For those in the public eye, there are always doubters." But William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard magazine, questions whether the trend represents momentum in the march of humanity. "You have to ask if the most successful causes had celebrities as their spokespersons," he said. "Did antismoking? Did drunk drivers? But this has become an increasingly unserious country, so unserious politics may make sense." One example of serious politics driven by a celebrity endorser was Proposition 10 in California, a 1998 ballot initiative that raised the tax on cigarettes 50 cents a pack and uses the $680 million a year collected to pay for health, nutrition and child care for preschoolers. Proposition 10 was also known as the Reiner Initiative, for the actor-director Rob Reiner, who essentially quit his day job for two years to research and raise money for the issue. "He drove it all the way through, the way a lot of political people couldn't have," said John Emerson, a longtime Democratic operative in California. Mr. Reiner compared the effort to a political campaign, as opposed to a one-night stand at a charity fund-raiser at the Beverly Hilton. "It's one thing to put a spotlight on an issue, it's another to get into the inner workings of creating public policy," he said. By comparison, movie making now feels like recess to him, he said. He continues his advocacy through his I Am Your Child Foundation, for which he has convinced Meg Ryan and Bruce Willis to do ads. "When people see my name on their phone list, they groan where once they were thrilled," he said. "They know it's probably not about a movie. But they still call me back because maybe it's about a movie." Such serious-issues advocacy in Hollywood has given rise to a new kind of personal assistant, one who helps stars sort through the competing claims of charities and channel their time and money. Call them P Girls, as in "political," as distinguished from the D Girls, who develop film projects for stars. The P Girl sisterhood -- nearly everyone in this line of work seems to be a woman -- includes Lara Bergthold, who navigates social causes for Norman Lear; Marge Tabankin, who works for Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg; Joyce Deep, with Robert Redford; and Donna Bojarsky, with Richard Dreyfuss. "There's lots outside of movies I'd like to do, so it makes sense to have someone who knows that world," said Mr. Dreyfuss, who founded the volunteer organization L.A. Works in 1991 and recently sponsored a conference at Columbia University on journalism and the Mideast. Most of the P Girls have political experience in Washington and, in the words of Ms. Bojarsky, "We constantly pass things back and forth, and there's a lot of 'I'll do yours if you'll do mine.' " P Girls should not be confused with press agents, though at times they may be hard to distinguish. Mr. DiCaprio entered the world of social activism through Ken Sunshine, who calls himself a "P.R. consultant," though he has deep political roots. He is a former chief of staff for Mayor David N. Dinkins and is informally advising Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign. Mr. Sunshine got to know Mr. DiCaprio on a trip to Cuba about a year and a half ago. Six months ago, he became Mr. DiCaprio's sole press agent when the actor dismissed his longtime Los Angeles publicity agent, Cindy Guagente. With Mr. Sunshine's help, Mr. DiCaprio, 25, who had no previous record of lending his name to social issues, began seeking to position himself as an environmental spokesman about a year ago. He met with several environmental groups, including the National Resources Defense Council, before deciding to represent Earth Day. Mr. Sunshine said the movie star's interest in things environmental was neither sudden nor designed to dignify his image. Mr. DiCaprio himself declined to be interviewed. "Leo reads more scientific magazines and books than anyone I know and knows more about global warming than most reporters covering it," Mr. Sunshine said. "I've worked with phonies trying to use issues to enhance their images, but Leo isn't one of them." Maybe not, although Mr. DiCaprio's public embrace of environmentalism did follow some bad press during the making of his last movie, "The Beach." Ecologists in Thailand protested in February 1999 that the filmmakers had desecrated a national park. In an open letter decrying Mr. DiCaprio's Earth Day role, posted on an environmental Web site, envirolink.org, Michael Babcock, an American visitor to the beach where the movie was made, wrote that film crews had damaged the root systems that hold sand in place, and monsoons have subsequently flattened and "denuded" the dunes. (The 20th Century Fox studio, which made the film, maintains the beach was left in better shape than it was found.) Dennis Hayes, the national coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970, who is also a leader of this year's effort, recalled his first meeting with Mr. DiCaprio last year. "I flew down to Los Angeles to meet him at his office and found him both knowledgeable and passionate," he said. "Since we were looking to reach a new generation, he seemed a natural fit, and he agreed right at that meeting to be our chairman." Mr. Hayes said he did not worry about image problems the star, who had his parents with him, might have had. "I guess if I had any concerns," Mr. Hayes said, "it was that he is the best actor of his generation, and you always wonder, is this the real thing or another performance?" While Mr. DiCaprio was signing on with Earth Day and doing an interview for its Web site ("Buy the same T-shirt worn by Leonardo DiCaprio"), he and Mr. Sunshine approached television networks about an environmental special. NBC turned them down. But Mr. DiCaprio's friend Chris Cuomo, a correspondent for "20/20" on ABC convinced his producers to do a one-hour show, with what must have sounded like a coup: the Hollywood star would chat with President Clinton. When word of Mr. DiCaprio's March 31 interview at the White House leaked out, ABC News was instantly ridiculed for sending an actor to do a news reporter's job, with some of the harshest criticism coming from ABC's Washington bureau. After internal debate, ABC has decided to use at least some of the 20-minute interview on the 8 p.m. broadcast this Saturday. "ABC has a history of bringing the fight, which is why I came here," said Mr. Cuomo, the son of the former New York governor Mario M. Cuomo. "Who knew we'd be attacked from the inside?" "I feel tons of guilt about bringing Leonardo in on this," he added. "He went with me because we are friends, not pal-around, close friends, but friends, and he felt he'd be protected in a sense. I think that for him to put up with this -- and he knew he was going to get a whipping even before we started -- shows how committed he is to the issue. He did it anyway, even though this doesn't help him one bit. He's not doing this in a celebrity fashion." In the end, Mr. DiCaprio may decide it's easier to go back to club-hopping.
###

TNT's Rough Cut
4/14/00
Here's what readers had to say about Leonardo DiCaprio's interview with Bill Clinton.

We received so many great responses to yesterday's Daily Special, that we just couldn't wait to post them in Monday's Open Forum. Here's what your fellow roughcut.com readers had to say about Leonardo DiCaprio's interview with Bill Clinton.

"I suspect that Leo didn't view his work as the work of a "journalist", but that of Chairman for Earth Day 2000. I understand the journalists wanting their opportunity to interview the President, however, Leo is serious about the environment and think he may ask exceptional questions and be a good interviewer. I read that one journalist was afraid we would become too "shallow" in the news if actors get to do serious interviews. I for one, cannot imagine the news getting more "shallow". Our journalists now cover moment by moment news as it is happening and it is not "in-depth" coverage or analysis. It seems the nightly news is more entertainment than ever and as an entertainer Leo has proven to be one of our best. I look forward to hearing the interview! " -- pennylee

"If you really want an opinion about Leo, don't look to the magazines. He is either their super hero, or the nasty villain. The poor kid is every girl's dream, and every leading man's nightmare. Now, he isn't the best actor in the bunch, but he does do a fairly good job. Of course we all loved him in Romeo and Juliet, and he was spectacular in What's eating Gilbert Grape?, but the fact of the matter is the boy is trying to take too much on. I feel as an actor, he should do what he does best, be an actor. It has worked in the past. I don't think Jack Nicklson paid any attention to the environment, so why should Leo? The boy is just trying to please everyone, and that is not going to work. He should relax, film a good movie and be on with his life. I mean, he hasn't filmed a good movie in quite some time. I saw both The Beach and Titanic, and let me tell you he was not the best part of either one of those movies. If he is chosen for Star Wars: Episode 2 then their better be ten times more Ewen McGregor and Natalie Portman then Leo. " -- Marcus M.

"Leo spoke to the president as the chairman of Earth Day. I doubt he's after Sam Donaldson's job. I think ABC generated some great publicity for the special. DiCaprio has been interested in the environment since he was a little boy. As Army Archerd said the other day, he is using his celebrity to support a good cause,as many have done before him. He's a fine actor and a good person, who gets a bad rap from the media. " -- TW

"I don't think that the reporters at ABC should be upset at the fact that Leonardo interviewed the president. He has every right to do this because he is chairman of Earth Day 2000 and this is also something he strongly believes in. I don't think that he will be leaving acting to become a reporter anytime soon. He just wanted to get our country's biggest voice on record about the enviroment. " -- Erica M

"I think this stir about the interview would not have been a big deal if it were someone other than Leo DiCaprio. Why are people so quick to trash anything he does lately? People make the quick and wrong assumption that Leo jumped on the environmental wagon after The Beach and the Thai controversy. Anybody who would take the time to learn some facts knows that this is not true and that Leo has been involved and cared about many environmental issues for many years. As far as crossing the line between entertainment and news, I think that is a real issue but in this particular case, I think most people realize Leonardo DiCaprio is not a journalist and not pretending to be - the most important point is bringing awareness to the problem of global warming. I think instead of receiving criticism, Leo should be commended for sticking his neck out and using his celebrity to bring awareness. " -- Aimee M.

"I think Leonardo is very capable of having an interview with the President of the US. I'm from the Netherlands, and have been a fan of Leonardo for a couple of years now. He's just one of the nicest people that walk this earth, and he's very committed to the Environment, and a great actor. I'm sure he did a wonderful job in the White House, because nobody can resist his charm. Punto! I'm convinced Leonardo is going to achieve a lot (more) in his life; for himself and for this planet. He's just incredibly special. " -- annabelle
###

Chicago Suntimes:
4/14/00
Media critics of ABC News irk DiCaprio

Sounds like Leonardo DiCaprio has yet another reason to despise the press. A source close to the actor says he "was first amused, then annoyed by all the the pompous posturing by self-appointed media watchdogs" who were outraged that ABC News used DiCaprio in the role of a reporter interviewing President Clinton about environmental issues. The interview occurred during a 15-minute White House chat March 31. DiCaprio reportedly told close pals, "I really think the public won't be confusing me with Sam Donaldson or Ted Koppel or Peter Jennings." In addition, the actor wonders why no one criticizes "hard" news reporters when they show up "joking around with Jay Leno or David Letterman or hosting the Rose Bowl Parade." At any rate, ABC has decided to go ahead and broadcast the DiCaprio-Clinton conversation, airing at 8 p.m. April 22 on WLS-TV-Channel 7. It will be part of "Planet Earth 2000," a one-hour special on global warming and other environmental issues hosted by Chris Cuomo, the son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo. DiCaprio is involved because he is celebrity chairman of this year's 30th annual Earth Day celebration. In an official statement, DiCaprio spokesman Ken Sunshine said: "We are delighted and always assumed that the interview would be included. . . . [Leo's] perplexed that this became such a big deal. All he ever wanted and wants is for lots of people to learn a lot about global warming."
###

Variety (Army Archerd)
4/14/00
LEONARDO DICAPRIO’S CALLED BACK

LEONARDO DICAPRIO’S CALLED BACK to tape additional spots for the ABC “Earth Day” special airing on the 22nd. No additional footage with the president … Pierce Brosnan winds Panama locations of “Tailor of Panama” April 21, wings here to host, with fiancee Keely Shaye Smith, the L.A. Earthday 2000 gala at the Coliseum. As part of this celebration, he’ll present an award to the people of Mexico for blocking construction of a salt refinery at the San Ignacio Lagoon, which would have destroyed the only breeding waters of the Pacific grey whale. Brosnan and Smith headed that campaign, which brought about the environmental victory … Ford Motor Car Co. sponsors A&E’s May 20 (7-8 p.m.) “Heroes for the Planet” featuring special guests Charlotte Church and Haley Joel Osment … At the Kennedy Center tonight, Tipper Gore catches Liza in “Minnelli on Minnelli.” And Thursday night, the Sean Connerys in the Center’s Eisenhower Theater Presidential box caught Judd Hirsch in “Art.” Micheline Connery also has an exhibit of her work at D.C’s Women’s Museum … Meryl Marshall, CEO and chairman of the Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, and attorney Raymond Daniels are engaged to wed … Sherry Lansing receives SHARE’s Shining Spirit Award at the May 13 Boomtown — the gals’ 47th bash, is at CBS Radford in Studio City. Joel Grey, Joely Fisher and David Brenner head the entertainment — but you know who’ll really star — the Sharettes.
###

Fox 411:
4/14/00
GOP Fund-Raiser May Have Stars' Missing

If imprisoned former celebrity money manager Dana Giacchetto did indeed steal $4 million — which the government claims — I think I know where a couple hundred thousand of it may be stashed. A source familiar with Giacchetto’s business dealings says that Republican mega-fund raiser Lawrence Bathgate, the New Jersey attorney who has served as the head of the party’s finance committee, was given the money by Giacchetto, even though it belonged to other people. (We can assume Bathgate did not know that when he received it — he would not have known where Dana got it.) I’ve called him repeatedly this week and last but so far no return calls. Mr. Bathgate entered into a deal with Giacchetto last summer to merchandise and market Leonardo DiCaprio’s name and likeness in Asia, as well as the rest of the world. The deal, according to one person familiar with the details, would have been "incredibly lucrative" for Leo. It has been suggested that DiCaprio would have gotten around $25 million in a lump payment. Bathgate is incredibly adept at raising money — witness his Olympian skills helping the RNC. He and his partners at Bathgate, Wegner, and Wolf were planning to launch a titanic (forgive me) marketing enterprise using little Leo as the centerpiece. They were going to call it Artists Marketing Corporation. For reasons that are not completely clear, Bathgate required of Giacchetto a binder of some kind — maybe a show of good faith that Giacchetto had the bucks to go in business with him. Giacchetto agreed, and according to records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he wrote a check for $500,000 and placed it in escrow with the law firm of Frankfurt, Garbus, Selz in New York City. The date was Sept. 30, 1999. Initially the check bounced, like many others, but Giacchetto lucked out. On October 5, he deposited checks totaling over a million dollars into the same account. By the time the escrow check was redeposited, the money was there — mostly because, according to the SEC, Giacchetto looted funds from other accounts, including that of actress Lauren Holly, to make up the difference. Here, the plot thickens: Giacchetto deposits a check for $100,000 from the Bathgate group on October 20, 1999 into his main account. At the time, the Giacchetto account balance is around $16,000 — yet the money manager has just issued a check for $100,000 to one of his non-celebrity clients. The Bathgate money saves the day, for a short time. By mid-November, Bathgate hears the bad stories about Giacchetto and decides not to do the AMC deal with him. DiCaprio has pulled his money out of Giacchetto’s investment firm, the Cassandra Group, and Bathgate follows suit. Giacchetto informs the Frankfurt Garbus Selz law firm to distribute the escrow funds back to him. But on Nov. 29, the law firm returned only $200,000 to the Cassandra Group account. What happened to that other $300,000? According to a source within the labyrinth of cases, Frankfurt Garbus was ordered by Giacchetto to send it all to Bathgate. Assuming that one third of it was a return of the October 20 money, that still leaves $200,000 unaccounted for. Was it a non-refundable deposit? Only Lawrence Bathgate knows, and so far he’s not talking.
###

Newsday (Liz Smith)
4/14/00
He's King of the Earth

'THIS NEW millennium balances us on the edge of history. If we continue to ignore the issue of global warming, we will most certainly suffer the effects...including climate changes that will cause more drastic typhoons, hurricanes and floods, plus the bleaching of coral reefs, the melting of polar ice caps, an increase in insect-borne tropical diseases and much, much more." The above quote comes-no, not from some crackpot alarmist, writing a scare-the-pants-off-you-book-but young Leonardo DiCaprio in an essay written for next week's Time magazine. DiCaprio, the honorary chairman of Earth Day 2000, will host a rally in Washington, D.C., calling for clean energy and a renewed focus on the environment. Unlike some of the stuffed shirts at ABC-TV, Time staffers had no problem taking Leo seriously. (In my humble opinion, ABC News should be celebrating the forward-looking, youth-oriented efforts of David Westin, instead of condemning his efforts.)
###

Newsweek:
4/14/00
An alleged con man to the stars surrenders to the FBI

Leonardo Dicaprio used to hang out at Dana Giacchetto's loft. Courteney Cox took him on vacation. Everyone—Ben Affleck, Cameron Diaz, Alanis Morissette—gave the hip investment adviser money. Giacchetto promised to invest it conservatively. "A lot of numbers make me nervous," Cox said once, "but Dana really cares about helping me understand how it works." According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Giacchetto borrowed $825,000 from Cox's portfolio, apparently to pay office bills and cover losses on other accounts. He probably never explained that part to Cox—that would have made her really nervous. Last week Giacchetto, 37, surrendered to authorities at the FBI office in Manhattan. The Feds say that the money manager, who ran an investment company called the Cassandra Group, illegally took control of about $20 million in client funds. At least some people got their money back, but Giacchetto still faces a $1.25 million fine and 15 years in prison. Giacchetto's lawyer declined to comment. The SEC says the investment guru managed a Ponzi scheme in which celebrities he deemed important enough were paid with money stolen from less famous clients. "Dana was someone who'd do anything to salvage his relationships with his clients," says a source familiar with Giacchetto. "He saw Brad Pitt as more important than the president." In 1998 Giacchetto formed a $100 million partnership with Chase Manhattan, and allegedly began funneling his clients' money into risky investments. Clients began asking questions about inconsistencies in their financial statements. Late last year at least 17 of them dropped him. According to court papers, the Cassandra Group is $2.2 million in the red. Giacchetto is believed to be penniless. "He is an investment adviser with no long-term planning for himself," says the source. Not to worry. The government has plans for him.
###

Post Gazette:
4/14/00
A 'Titanic' heartthrob washes ashore

President Clinton was beaming at the recent Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner. For once, the tables were turned and it was a news organization - not his administration - that was embroiled in controversy. ABC News is consumed by "Leogate." Many of its veteran journalists are furious that the network sent heartthrob actor Leonardo DiCaprio, best known for his role in "Titanic," to interview the president for an Earth Day special. "Interview" is too strong a term, according to ABC News President David Westin, who defended the idea of having the president give Leo a tour of the White House, showing off some of the mansion's environmental features. Mr. Westin says the White House called off the half-hour tour at the last minute and instead offered the actor what looked suspiciously like a 15-minute interview. Despite the uproar, ABC will air the chat. The White House said an interview had been part of the deal all along and Mr. Clinton chided the network at the correspondents' dinner last week: "Don't you news people ever learn? It isn't the mistake that kills you, it's the coverup." The allusion to his impeachment was tasteless, but the jab at the news media was well aimed. To understand the uproar at ABC News, it's important to note that Leogate is merely - pardon the Titanic reference - the tip of the iceberg. Veterans of the news division feel that Disney's desire to aggressively embrace corporate synergy has blurred the lines between entertainment, news and commerce. Synergy means that if your Hollywood studio backs Leo DiCaprio's next movie project to the tune of $35 million, you'd be crazy not to have him bolster your TV network's ratings and have your news division endow him with a dash of gravitas along the way. Such synergy makes sense with entertainment, but Disney would be best served in the long run by insulating its news division from such temptations. The appearance of Pets.com's sock hand-puppet on two ABC News shows is far more troubling from an ethical standpoint than Leo's Earth Day endeavor. The sock puppet, a pitchman for the online pet supplies retailer, was included among a panel of notable cultural observers discussing the significance of the Peanuts comic strip on Nightline in early February. The puppet was an odd choice. He is hardly a well-known icon. Worst of all, at no point did the network disclose that its parent Walt Disney has a stake in Pets.com. Nor did it do so in March when the sock puppet was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. After its initial public offering last fall, Pets.com has seen its stock price sag. What better way for Disney to hype its dog than by having it appear on ABC News programs? This newspaper did not oppose the Disney acquisition of ABC or the recently announced America Online-Time Warner merger, tending to view some of the more strident critics of media conglomerates as overly paranoid. It's true the network's core news-gathering function hasn't been compromised yet, and we hope Disney won't prove us wrong over time.
###

LA Times:
4/14/00
DiCaprio makes the grade

DiCaprio makes the grade in Dave's top ten list. The Essential David Letterman
Top Things Elian Gonzalez's Dad Said His First Day in the U.S.
6. "I will only be interviewed by respected ABC newsman Leonardo DiCaprio."
###

NY Daily News:
4/13/00
Celebrity Broker Has Bail Yanked

A broker to the stars charged with cheating his glittering clients was in jail last night after he was busted for skipping town with 80 airline tickets, $4,000 in small bills and an altered passport in hand. Dana Giacchetto, 37, allegedly bought nine of the tickets to places like Tokyo, Singapore and Rome after he was charged last week in Manhattan with stealing $6 million from clients such as Courteney Cox and Ben Stiller. A federal magistrate, rejecting Giacchetto's explanations that he was planning to propose marriage to his girlfriend in Rome, quickly revoked Giacchetto's $1 million bail and tossed him into jail. Giacchetto's attorney, Andrew Levander, said the government was "overreacting" by pulling the bail. "He's a confused young man that made an error of judgment," Levander said. But Giacchetto's conduct after April 3, when he was charged with massive securities fraud, was "absolutely extraordinary," said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lewis. Although Giacchetto's assets were frozen to the point of allowing him only a $100 daily allowance, that didn't stop him from several unsuccessful tries to make automated-teller machine withdrawals last weekend in amounts ranging from $300 to $1,000. About 8 p.m. Sunday, while at LaGuardia Airport, he allegedly bought $8,500 worth of tickets for a round-the-world trip: from Denver to Las Vegas to Los Angeles to Honolulu to Tokyo to Singapore to Frankfurt. An hour later, he charged a $7,622 trip from Los Angeles through New York to Rome for a flight leaving Tuesday. Prosecutors tracked him to a hotel in Las Vegas, and on his lawyer's instructions, he quickly flew back to New York. When he was arrested, agents found $4,000 in cash in a bag, plus 71 more tickets to global locales that had been purchased before the fraud charges. Although Giacchetto had been ordered to surrender his passport after his arrest, agents also found a passport with the page showing the expiration date removed. Late yesterday, Giacchetto, who once lunched with Leonardo DiCaprio and partied with Matt Damon, was remanded to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
###

Washington Post:
4/13/00
I didn't see 'Titanic.' I hate to confess

Much of the national security establishment, including CIA Director George Tenet and Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, showed up at last night's Uptown Theatre screening of the WWII submarine thriller "U-571." QUOTE: "I didn't see 'Titanic.' I hate to confess, almost the last movie I saw at a theater was 'Mutiny on the Bounty.' " -- 83-year-old former senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.), who founded Earth Day 30 years ago, explaining that he isn't up to date on the fuss that this year's Earth Day chairman, Leonardo DiCaprio, kicked up with his ABC News interview of President Clinton. We hope that Nelson, who is being feted tonight by the Wilderness Society, means the 1962 version of "Mutiny," not the 1935 one.
###

Mr. Showbiz:
4/13/00
Leo's Clinton Chat Makes the Grade

ABC has changed its tune (again) about Leonardo DiCaprio's informal interview with President Clinton. Here we go again. ABC News honcho David Westin has changed his tune about the network's controversial meeting of the minds between Leonardo DiCaprio and President Clinton. The tape will air. Senior Variety columnist Army Archerd reported that Westin had told him that the network would broadcast "a small portion" of DiCaprio and Clinton's environmental discussion during its one-hour Earth Day special April 22. Westin further agreed with Archerd's opinion, expressed in his Tuesday column, that the 25-year-old Titanic star was an "ideal" spokeperson to excite young minds about the program's environmental message. Last week Westin found himself caught in a crossfire after word leaked out that DiCaprio had chatted up the commander in chief about environmental issues for ABC's forthcoming Earth Day special. A host of prominent media members criticized the network's decision to enlist a mere actor for so plainly journalistic an enterprise, and Westin hastily explained that the network had not intended Leo's visit to be any kind of interview. White House spokespersons and reps for DiCaprio insisted that both the actor and the president had been told that their meeting would take the course of an interview. Westin — who reportedly endured sharp criticism even from media mucketymucks at his own network — said ABC had intended merely for Clinton to lead his young guest on a tour of the new, green-friendly White House, highlighting features such as weather-stripping and energy-efficient lightbulbs. Westin said that Leo's visit had turned into an interview only at the president's urging. White House flacks insisted they'd been told an interview was on the agenda when ABC initially requested a DiCaprio-Clinton summit. DiCaprio's PR point man, Ken Sunshine, tells the New York Post's Neal Travis that the entire affair has been much ado about nothing: "Everyone knew that Leo would be talking to the president about a cause that, hopefully, we can get young people interested in. Do [Westin's ABC critics] think Leo is trying out for Sam Donaldson's job, for heaven's sake?"
###

Variety:
4/13/00
LOOSE TALK

After a web of rumors preceded Sam Raimi’s signing as director of Columbia’s “Spider-Man,” it’s no surprise they’d be followed by speculation on who’ll sign a three-pic deal to play Peter Parker/Spidey in the Marvel franchise. Dish hears that the lead candidates are “Patriot” star Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley (“American Beauty”), Chris Klein, Tobey Maguire and Ewan McGregor. And don’t forget Leonardo DiCaprio. Col sez no decision yet … While Tom Hanks is being courted for Col’s Spike Jonze-directed “Adaptation,” he’s also being hotly pursued for “The Lookout,” the Scott Frank-scripted and Laurence Mark-produced pic at DreamWorks that will mark the “American Beauty” followup for Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes … The long-simmering feud between Miramax and New Line over colliding Ben Affleck pics “Reindeer Games” and “Boiler Room” is over, courtesy of NL prexy Mike De Luca. While each accused the other studio of invading its early-2000 release pattern, De Luca — who initially lambasted Miramax on the Roughcut website — did a recent mea culpa. “I have since come to learn that not only was I operating half-cocked with incomplete information, I was operating with just absolute dead wrong information,” he wrote. “We indeed made a change in October that I was completely unaware of. I offer my apologies to Miramax. I was the weenie on this one, not the other way around” … When New Line pursued remake rights to the 1956 sci-fi classic “Forbidden Planet,” the studio had James Cameron or Frank Darabont in mind. Darabont’s now in talks to board “Planet” as scripter-director … When this columnist first wrote about WB’s “Ready to Rumble,” reps for fight announcer Michael Buffer were quick to demand a retraction. Buffer owns the phrase he coined when introducing prizefighters, and reps said they’d never allow his catch-phrase to be used for a wrestling movie. Now the movie’s released; why’s it called “Ready to Rumble”? Dish hears that a payment of about $250,000 and a bit part in the pic were contributing factors … Dave Eggers, who has held Hollywood at arm’s length despite interest in his book “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” might be ready for his closeup. Dish hears he’ll soon be listening to pitches from filmmakers and producers on how they’d adapt his story of losing both parents to cancer and raising his brother. Eggers just closed a trade paperback deal for his book with Vintage worth $1.5 million, or five times what he got for hardcover. Lit agent Elyse Cheney declined comment on the movie prospects … CAA signed Tom Tykwer, the “Run Lola Run” writer-helmer who was chased by every agency … UTA has signed Clark Gregg, the actor who made a high-profile scripting debut with “What Lies Beneath,” the DreamWorks pic that stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, directed by Bob Zemeckis.
###

Fox 411:
4/13/00
Bail Revoked for Leo's Money Manager

Former money manager to the stars Dana Giacchetto learned his own rules of engagement Wednesday when a federal judge jailed him and revoked his bail. Among Giacchetto’s mistakes: claiming that he had bought two tickets from New York to Rome so that he could propose to his girlfriend. It was only one week ago that another judge made him surrender his passport and forbade Giacchetto from leaving the country or even traveling in the U.S. without express permission from the court. Now Giacchetto, who’s used to hanging out in the hippest spots, will spend the all the time leading up to his eventual trial in a federal lock-up in downtown Manhattan starting Wednesday night. When he arrived in court earlier Wednesday, Giacchetto was disheveled, his hair standing on end, and wearing a dirty gray sweatshirt. Last week, Giacchetto had been arrested and indicted for misappropriating $20 million and stealing about $6 million from his celebrity clients. They included Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, uberagent Michael Ovitz and dozens of lesser known artists. At that hearing, Judge Andrew Peck ordered Giacchetto to surrender his passport, which he did, and told him he could only travel in the United States for business with prior permission of the court. This afternoon, federal prosecutor David Lewis revealed in front of Judge James Francis that Giacchetto had violated his bail terms and had been traveling in the days since that hearing with an old and mutilated passport that he had crudely altered so that it looked current. Lewis also charged that Giacchetto had in his possession 80 first class airline tickets to various destinations, including some in Europe, a bag full of cash totaling $4,000 — all in small bills. The government also discovered that Giacchetto had used frozen American Express and Diners Club cards to purchase two tickets to Rome (for himself and his girlfriend) and a seven coupon ticket that would have taken him from La Guardia Airport in New York to (in this order) Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Tokyo, Singapore and Frankfurt. Altogether, Giacchetto had managed to charge over $16,000 in air tickets to frozen accounts — and all in just one Sunday afternoon. Rather than seek advance approval for any traveling, Giacchetto-his lawyer, Andrew Levander said, left messages on the voice mail of the Prison Services Unit. When prosecutor Lewis found out that Giacchetto was missing, he alerted the FBI. "We made an all out effort to surround him," Lewis told the judge. Levander argued that Giacchetto returned to New York voluntarily, but "It was not voluntary," Lewis said. Lewis also laid out for the judge a pattern of Giacchetto trying to get cash out of ATM machines, also from frozen accounts, over last weekend. Giacchetto, who has been barred from doing business as a money manager, also attempted to manipulate funds in various accounts, according to Lewis, by using internet passwords. At one point, Lewis said, Giacchetto had called the receiver now trying to unsort the mess he created at the Cassandra Group and told him that a former client still wanted to do business with him. "His conduct," Lewis said, "is absolutely extraordinary."
###

MSNBC:
4/13/00
When ‘talent’ turns reporter

It’s take two on the controversy over Leonardo DiCaprio’s interview with President Clinton for ABC News. The latest point of contention, according to several insiders, is that Leonardo DiCaprio did re-takes on his interview. “AFTER BILL CLINTON left, the cameras were focused on Leo, and he re-asked the questions as though he were asking them for the first time,” says one insider. “It’s not unheard of. It happens sort of a lot in television journalism. But purists frown on it.” Says one such purist: “He’s a fine actor. But he’s not a fine journalist. Actors do re-takes. Real journalists don’t.” The source says that on the re-takes, DiCaprio asked the questions with more emotion and more aplomb. The outraged journalists are saying that DiCaprio “did a William Hurt.” They’re referring to a pivotal scene in the movie “Broadcast News,” in which the highly principled Holly Hunter character becomes outraged when she realizes that the William Hurt character re-asked questions of a subject, the second time feigning “spontaneous” emotions. An ABC spokeswoman didn’t return calls, but DiCaprio’s spokesman says, “I didn’t stay around for the entire interview, but, sure, I wouldn’t be surprised if he re-asked the questions. Name me a television journalist who hasn’t done that. . . . Leonardo is not some dumb talking head. He knows more about global warming than most of these supposedly high-minded journalists.”
###

LA Times:
4/13/00
ABC to Air Parts of DiCaprio-Clinton Talk

The world will soon get to evaluate actor Leonardo DiCaprio's journalistic skills: ABC News said it will air its Earth Day special--complete with excerpts of DiCaprio's controversial interview with President Clinton--at 8 p.m. on April 22. After screening a raw version of the program, the network decided Tuesday to include portions of the March 31 interview, which had sparked internal dissent among ABC News journalists who said the plum assignment to interview the president shouldn't be ceded to an actor. ABC News spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said that the DiCaprio material was included because "we think that, based on what we've seen, it's entirely appropriate that in the end there is a way to do a program like this and include someone like Leonard DiCaprio and meet our editorial standards." ABC News President David Westin, who found himself in the middle of the dispute between the White House, the show's producers and opposing staffers, would not comment Tuesday. Murphy said: "He believes we should be judged by the program we put on the air." The controversy grew when ABC executives, who had hoped to lure younger viewers by using DiCaprio in the special, blamed the White House for turning what ABC insisted had been scheduled as a "walking tour" of the landmark's energy-saving features into an "interview." Westin insisted in an e-mail to his staffers that "all roles of journalists must be played by journalists" at ABC News. The White House, which said that the encounter had been planned as an interview all along, got its revenge at the recent annual Radio and Television Correspondents Assn. dinner, where the president quipped, "Don't you news people ever learn? It isn't the mistake that kills you, it's the cover-up." The one-hour special on global warming and other environmental issues, dubbed "Planet Earth 2000," will be hosted by ABC News correspondent Chris Cuomo. He'll be joined by DiCaprio, a celebrity chairman of this year's 30th annual Earth Day celebration, which is also on the 22nd. ABC is expected to air only portions of DiCaprio's 15-minute sit-down with the president; other segments will include a look at an underwater habitat in Key Largo, Fla., and the impact that global warming has had on a Native American community in Alaska.
###

Excite News:
4/13/00
Romanian Admits DiCaprio Deception

A Romanian film company said Wednesday its announcement that Leonardo DiCaprio would make a film here was just wishful thinking. Romania's Castel Film Studios had announced Monday that DiCaprio would star in a science-fiction movie, "Librium," to be shot in Bucharest in August. DiCaprio's agents, Ken Sunshine Consultants Inc., denied it Tuesday and Castel Film Studies backed off its previous statement. "It is common in the movie business to air well-known names before the casting is actually being done ... and DiCaprio's name was aired as a wish of ours, not as a certainty," Castel spokeswoman Calina Pirotici said. Castel had used DiCaprio's name while seeking permission from the Romanian Chamber of Deputies to use the parliament building for location shots, Pirotici said. DiCaprio's alleged travel to Romania was on the front pages of most newspapers here Tuesday.
###

Official DiCaprio website:
4/12/00
EARTH DAY 2000 WEBCAST

On Saturday, April 22nd, LEONARDODICAPIRO.COM will feature LIVE coverage of Earth Day 2000 from the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Check back for a complete broadcast schedule. In the meantime, visit EARTHDAY.NET for more information about Earth Day 2000 and EARTHACTION.ORG to make your voice heard.
###

NY Daily News:
4/12/00
Itemizing

At MO night's PEN Literary Gala at Lincoln Center, we asked CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl to weigh in on Leonardo DiCaprio's controversial interview with President Clinton for ABC News, but she referred the question to her husband, Aaron Latham, who interviewed the star of "The Beach" for Talk magazine. "There's a First Amendment, and anybody who wants to interview anyone else is fine," Latham told us."
###

NY Daily News:
4/12/00
ABC Will Air Leo's Clinton Interview April 22

After a week of hand-wringing, ABC News yesterday said it will air Leonardo DiCaprio's chat with President Clinton. However, according to a source, it's possible that as little as a minute of DiCaprio's 15-minute interview with Clinton will make it onto the small screen. The network officially announced yesterday that its Earth Day special will be broadcast April 22 at 8 p.m. Exactly how much of the DiCaprio-Clinton interview will make it on the air is still under discussion. "He's in it," an ABC News spokeswoman said, adding that she wasn't in a position to say how much of DiCaprio will make the show. "It's definitely not done," a source said of the special. "I think there's a lot of extra sensitivity and extra issues put into this." Having DiCaprio talk to the President under ABC News' auspices launched a firestorm of controversy inside and outside the network. Old-liners felt it was wrong to have a celebrity talk to the President under the ABC News banner. "I think they had to stick to their guns," said Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the Tyndall Report, a newsletter that tracks news coverage. "If they would have backed down, there would have been no confidence in their judgment." Such ABC News stars as Sam Donaldson, Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel reportedly were upset by the DiCaprio interview. Koppel declined to comment. "At this time, Sam has no comment," said Donaldson's assistant. Besides talking with the President, DiCaprio will appear in a variety of segments talking about environmental issues. The actor is the celebrity chairman of Earth Day.
###

Variety (Army Archerd)
4/12/00
Interview with Bill Clinton will air

Leonardo DiCaprio’s White House interview with Bill Clinton will air. ABC News president David Westin told me, "It was always our intent to try to bring the message (of Earth Day) to the younger generation of TV viewers." He agreed with this reporter’s Tuesday column: What better young messenger than Leo (25), who is also chairman of Earth Day? The one-hour special will air Earth Day, April 22, at 8 p.m. While DiCaprio taped 15-20 minutes with Clinton, "only a small portion" will be used, said Westin, who emphasized that time is usual for an interview in an hourlong special. The interview is still being edited, he added, and could not give me an exact timing of their global-warming warning seg. The show is hosted by Chris Cuomo (30). Other segments include Alaska and the depletion of its snow and ice, another on the disappearing coral reefs and the urban sprawl of Atlanta, etc.
###

Complete Observer story
New York Observer:
4/12/00
Who Was Stung By Dana Giacchetto? Talk to Fred Schneider of the B-52’s

Two days after celebrity money manager Dana Giacchetto put on a silly hat and surrendered to the F.B.I. on charges that he had bilked his clients out of more than $6 million, comic Jerry Stiller gripped a vodka martini at a premiere party for his son Ben Stiller’s new movie, Keeping The Faith. The ice in his drink was almost all melted, and his son was in a clatch of young people just a few feet away. "I never knew about it until I read it yesterday," said the elder Mr. Stiller. He was referring to a Daily News story that had run a smiling picture of his son under the heading, "Who Lost What." The article had reported that Mr. Giacchetto had allegedly used $250,000 of Ben Stiller’s money to buy artwork. Père Stiller stared at the cocktail onion floating in his glass. "Ben doesn’t talk about these things with me. I said to him, ‘Where’d you get $250,000?’ My God!" Mr. Stiller took a little sip. "He did call us and say, ‘Don’t worry Dad. I didn’t lose anything, which did relieve me. You know, a quarter of a million is not chicken feed!" Mr. Stiller shook his head. "I think sometimes that maybe I shouldn’t have taught him how to play Monopoly when he was a kid. You can be railroaded into poverty if you don’t watch your step." At the bar, the younger Mr. Stiller didn’t seem eager to talk about Mr. Giacchetto. "I didn’t get hurt by that guy, so I’m lucky," he said, slowly edging away from the Transom. "I got my money out six months ago. I probably shouldn’t talk about it anymore." Nearby, magician David Blaine was saying how he’d gotten his money out two weeks before, and how Mr. Giacchetto had made him 30% on top of his investment. "He did all right for me," he said. "This thing’s been blown all out of proportion." Mr. Stiller and Mr. Blaine are among the lucky ones. They, like toothy boy-stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were likely high-fiving each other and celebrating that they had taken their dough out of Mr. Giacchetto’s money management firm, The Cassandra Group, before Mr. Giacchetto spent it at Balthazar.
###

MSNBC:
4/12/00
Ovitz on their minds

Is Mike Ovitz facing a financial squeeze — or are his detractors spreading rumors about him? The once-invincible Ovitz, when he ran Creative Artists Agency, was considered by some to be the most powerful man in Hollywood. The former head of Creative Artists Agency was given a $115 million cash and stock buyout when he left Disney, but various Hollywood and agency insiders are saying he’s in trouble because of a series of questionable investments and associations. Since leaving Disney, Ovitz invested at least $20 million in Livent, a theater production company that went belly-up. More recently, Ovitz’s money manager, Dana Giacchetto, who Ovitz has been quoted as calling “my life advisor,” was accused of bilking his clients — including Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz — out of millions of dollars. Several Ovitz detractors say that these financial events have caused a hit on Ovitz’s bottom line as well. Ovitz doesn’t agree. Ovitz said he let Giacchetto invest only $300,000 and insists he lost no money. And a spokesman for Ovitz flatly denies any financial woes by either Ovitz or his company, Artists Management Group. Several sources, however, say that Artists Management Group has been dragging its feet paying bills. A defender, though, says that may be just shrewd business practice and attributes talk about Ovitz’s finances to “sour grapes.” “When you have someone who was as high-flying as Ovitz,” says one Hollywood insider, “everyone is wishing for him to fall.”
###

NY Post:
4/12/00
Leo's not pointing fingers

LEO DiCAPRIO wants me and the Los Angeles Times to know that he is not angry at, nor thinking of suing, his personal managers, Mike Ovitz and Rick Yorn, for getting him involved with alleged swindler Dana Giacchetto. Leo, who's in Japan promoting "The Beach," made it clear to his PR rep, Ken Sunshine, that as far as he's concerned, the financial fiasco was "no one's fault." (Of course, no one has suggested that Ovitz or other Hollywood managers knew that dashing Dana was allegedly misusing investment funds.) As for the media row about Leo's Earth Day interview with President Clinton, I couldn't agree more with Sunshine that it's a crock. "Everyone knew that Leo would be talking to the president about a cause that, hopefully, we can get young people interested in," says Sunshine. "Do [the protesters at ABC] think Leo is trying out for Sam Donaldson's job, for heaven's sake?"
###

E! Online:
4/12/00
ABC to Air Leo's Clinton Chat

ABC got publicly spanked for its celebrity snafu, but network execs announced today they will still air a portion of Leonardo Koppel's... er, DiCaprio's interview with President Clinton. The network apparently deemed Leo's 15-minute presidential eco-chat fit for the airwaves--this, in spite of complaints from ABC News staffers that a kid was sent in to do a real reporter's job. Portions of the interview will appear during ABC's Earth Day special, airing April 22 at 8 p.m. ET. The network released a statement saying execs checked out the footage and gave it the green light. "It was an editorial judgment made here with many senior management people involved," says ABC News spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. "Everyone is comfortable with the decision. But we're not going to discuss our editorial process." Aaahh, the shrouded curtain of editorial secrecy. The interview was one of several good deeds Leo planned for Earth Day, including heading the EarthFair 2000 celebration in Washington, D.C. DiCaprio's questions were reportedly developed with the help of segment producers. But his work took a back seat when ABC's journalists groused that the line between entertainment and news was blurred. It's still not known how much of the Titanic hunk's chat will air for the special. But Murphy says the final product "will meet with ABC News editorial standards." The network initially backpedaled from the whole ordeal, saying Leo initially was scheduled for a White House tour, not a sit-down interview. But White House officials say ABC always planned a face-to-face between Leo and Clinton. "It's always been clear that [ABC News] wanted [DiCaprio] to come in and interview the president on the issue of climate change," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. "[Leo] was fine. He didn't pretend to be a journalist, he made it clear he was acting as a concerned citizen." And the White House had its own fun with ABC's debacle. During a dinner with TV and radio broadcasters last week, Clinton took some playful jabs, reveling in the chance to turn the tables on the media. "Don't you news people ever learn?" Clinton joked. "It isn't the mistake that kills you. It's the cover-up." Leo's people, meanwhile, say they were pleased with ABC's decision, but never assumed their boy would end up on the cutting room floor. Well, at least not without being recycled.
###

Excite News:
4/12/00
ABC OKs DiCaprio-Clinton Interview

ABC is going ahead with a broadcast next week that shows President Clinton being interviewed on global warming by movie star Leonardo DiCaprio. The interview, which had angered some at ABC who wondered why an actor was fulfilling a role usually handled by a journalist, was screened by top ABC executives who said Tuesday that portions would make it on the air. DiCaprio, chairman of the Earth Day 2000 celebration committee, talked to Clinton at the White House on March 31. The interview will appear as part of an Earth Day special produced by ABC News on Saturday, April 22 at 8 p.m. EDT. "It was an editorial judgment made here with many senior management people involved," said ABC News spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. "Everyone is comfortable with the decision. But we're not going to discuss our editorial process." It's still not clear how much of the reported 20-minute chat between the "Titanic" star and Clinton will make it on the air. Murphy said the final product "will meet with ABC News editorial standards." "In the end," she said, "we'll be judged by what is on the air." Many journalists within ABC, particularly in the Washington bureau, were upset when they heard DiCaprio was granted the interview. There was some dispute last week between ABC, the White House and DiCaprio's representatives over how it was set up. ABC News President David Westin said DiCaprio was visiting at the White House's request, with the understanding that the president might appear on film walking through the White House with the actor. The White House said ABC had requested an interview and DiCaprio's spokesman, Ken Sunshine, said the actor was prepared to conduct one. Westin had told ABC News staffers in an e-mail that there was a chance DiCaprio's White House footage would not be used at all. He was not available to talk about Tuesday's decision to go ahead, Murphy said. Sunshine said that "we're delighted and always assumed that the interview would be included." He said DiCaprio will be consulted during the editing process of the special. "He's perplexed that this became such a big deal," he said. "All he ever wanted and wants is for lots of people to learn a lot about global warming." The special, with "20/20" correspondent Chris Cuomo as host, includes segments on coral bleaching off the Florida coast, urban sprawl in Atlanta and the effects of global warming on Alaskans.
###

NY Daily News:(Letters) Playing Reporter
4/11/00
Voice of the people

Brooklyn: Instead of being upset that ABC News got Leonardo DiCaprio to interview President Clinton, Sam Donaldson should be glad that they did not have Jennifer Lopez interview the Pope.
Gary Madovoy
###

NY Daily News:
4/11/00
A First Look at DiCaprio, ABC News

ABC News executives late yesterday got their first look at a rough sample of the muchmaligned Earth Day special featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Chris Cuomo. The special, scheduled to air April 22, has been at the center of a firestorm over ABC's use of DiCaprio to interview President Clinton. ABC News staffers were upset that ABC would have an actor talk to the President. At the height of the debate late last week, there was some question as to whether ABC would use the interview at all. Sources said that the special, as reviewed by top ABC News executives late yesterday, did include some of the DiCaprio-Clinton sitdown, but in a form that is believed will conform with the original concept of having the "Titanic" star discussing the Clinton administration's efforts to be more eco-sensitive at the White House. A decision on the fate of the DiCaprio footage is expected this week.
###

Variety: (Army Archerd)
4/11/00
Leonardo DiCaprio interview with President

Why does ABC’s Leonardo DiCaprio interview with President Clinton remind me of an old Warner Bros. billboard? WB’s huge sign on Burbank’s Barham Blvd., the approach to the studio, proclaimed: “Combining Good Citizenship with Good Picture Making.” Of course it was war (WWII) time and the message was clear. Ever since, celebs and politicians have teamed for recognition of humane issues, such as the March of Dimes, War Bonds, the Boy and Girl Scouts, and you-name-the-disease. What is so important about Leo and Bill teaming on ABC? Another war — this one, of course, to save the world. The interview was about global warming and the environment … No use kidding ourselves: Sure, I love ABC’s Sam, Peter and Ted and I’d watch a special hosted by any one of ’em, on anything. But how many other viewers would, compared to the numbers ABC will attract with that great team of Leo & Bill, excuse me, Bill & Leo? During their interview, the president noted to Leo how important it is for young people to get involved and how much he admired Leo putting himself out there to help raise awareness. Despite so-easily-written comedy comments about DiCaprio as a White House correspondent, the young (25) thesp, at the outset of his interview with the president (with some questions on cards submitted from ABC), stated, “Mr. President, I want to thank you very much for your time, and as you know, I came neither as a politician or a journalist — but being given the opportunity to sit down with you here and talk about an issue like global warming was an opportunity as a concerned citizen that I could not pass up” … As of late Monday, ABC News president David Westin and senior management were screening the rough cut of the proposed one-hour special, deciding whether to air it. DiCaprio was, of course, hopeful it would. The decision has to be made quickly, since April 22 is Earth Day (of which, you recall, Leo is chairman). He’ll make a speech at the giant rally at the Mall in D.C. where other celebs are planning to attend and perform, again combining good citizenship and showbiz. Sunday night, as the ABC decision was being made in N.Y., Leo was in Tokyo for the opening of “The Beach.” His next film is Martin Scorsese’s “The Gangs of New York,” circa 1850, with Leo a gang leader. N.Y. will be re-created on the stages and back lot of Rome’s Cinecitta, starting in September. As for Leo’s other newsworthiness during my week’s vacation, I am told he has no plans at present to take legal action against his ex-financial adviser (!) Dana Giacchetto or his (still) personal managers Mike Ovitz and Rick Yorn. Leo’s had enough tsouris for one week.
###

USA Today:
4/11/00
Leo heated up over global warming

Leonardo DiCaprio is in Tokyo, promoting The Beach, far from the flap over ABC's Earth Day special, due next week. But he'll be back this week and will be involved in the editing of the show, as agreed from his signing on, says his spokesman, Ken Sunshine. DiCaprio "is shocked that there is any controversy regarding this," Sunshine says. "All he wants to do is allow millions of people who don't normally watch network TV specials to learn something about the terrible problems of global warming." (ABC journalists went into snits when they found that DiCaprio had interviewed President Clinton for the show.) "He doesn't take his role as chairman of Earth Day 2000 lightly. That's the only reason he did this. He has done everything ABC asked him to do," and then some. Now there's a mess, "but he's game to hang in there. He wants to make a difference." DiCaprio did parts of the show beyond the Clinton chat. Earth Day is April 22. ABC hasn't set an airdate, and a spokeswoman said that although DiCaprio will see it in advance and may make comments, the network has final cut. The Titanic star, 25, is a remarkable actor and a very bright guy. He never went to college, but he's dead-serious about this issue. He knows "more about it than most of the reporters caricaturing him," Sunshine says. He has read about it since he was a kid. Rain forest gala: Hey, Leonardo! Trudie Styler says right on! She's the founder, with hubby Sting, of the Rainforest Foundation, which celebrates its 10th Carnegie Hall gala Thursday , with a lineup including Ricky Martin, Elton John, Billy Joel, Tom Jones, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves, Percy Sledge and James Taylor. At a lunch Monday given by In Style for Styler, who is the "Cause Celeb" in its May issue, Styler said of DiCaprio, "It's an amazing thing he's doing, and God bless him for trying!" Of his critics, she said: "The same was true when we began. Now we're legit and establishment, but . . . there was an awful lot of mud thrown at us." The press said, "'You should do what you do best, Sting, just be a pop singer. What do you know about conservation?' Of course, one knew very little, actually." But they wanted to help. She hopes their endowment will jump from $3 million to $5 million with this concert, featuring soul music with the theme "Respect," notably for the planet. Laurie Parise, the foundation's U.S. exec director, notes the focus now is on helping indigenous peoples fight their own battles in South America, Africa and Asia. Says Styler, "They're saying we want to live safely in our home, the rain forest." Madonna won't be there Thursday, but Styler is the one who introduced her to director Guy Ritchie, with whom Madonna expects a child. Styler, a producer of Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, said, "She's my friend, and they were both at my house for lunch. I'm very fond of him. . . . I think they'll be spending a lot more time in America. I think his career's going to ignite, and he'll be offered (more movies here)." Martha Stewart, at the lunch in what she described as a robin's-egg-blue coat, fielded questions about her plans to leave Westport, Conn., which she wrote about in Sunday's New York Times. "I'm not selling my home, I want everybody to know that," she said. She'll spend more time in Manhattan. But her TV studio is in that posh community, "and all my animals." Divorced, her daughter grown, she's just not a real suburbanite anymore. "It's not about Westport, it's about life change." She wrote she doesn't know her neighbors there anymore. Since the piece came out, "the nice thing is that so far I've gotten seven dinner invitations from neighbors!"
###

JAM Showbiz:
4/11/00
DiCaprio shooting Sci-Fi film in Romania

Leonardo DiCaprio plans to shoot a science-fiction movie in Romania this summer, with parts to be filmed in the palace of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed in the bloody anti-communist revolt in 1989. Romanian lawmakers at first rejected Miramax's request to shoot in the People's House, which houses the Parliament. Andrei Chiliman, vice president of the Deputies Chamber, said that those who initially opposed the project last month "suffer of some psychological blockages" connected with the building. Shooting for the film, called "Librium," is to start in August and will last roughly two months, said Calina Pirotici, spokeswoman for the Romanian Castel Film Studios, which is collaborating with Miramax
###

NY Post:
4/10/00

H'WOOD'S HOT FOR DANA'S DOWNFALL

YOU have to love Hollywood. I hear that at least three spec scripts about disgraced Manhattan money-manager-to-the-stars Dana Giacchetto are doing the rounds in Tinseltown. I hope one of them gets made into a movie, because that's the only way anyone in the entertainment industry is going to make a buck back from this alleged fraud. The rest of his alleged victims, notably Leonardo DiCaprio, are going to have to sue. But sue whom? My sources say that Giacchetto is down a whole lot more than the $6 million he allegedly stole from the accounts of his star clients. Try $20 million in the hole. Dana is nada when it comes to assets. DiCaprio, I'm told, is weighing an action against his personal managers, Mike Ovitz and Rick Yorn. The young star of "Titanic" has lost around $1¤million through his involvementwith good buddy Dana, to whom he was recommended by Ovitz and Yorn. Over the weekend, the normally industry-friendly Los Angeles Times reported that Dana's doings may bring a lot of agents down. It reminded its readers that Ovitz late last year described Giacchetto as "my life adviser." (How smart does that make the former "most powerful man in Hollywood" look, coming after his totally lost $20¤million investment in the firm of Canadian crook Garth Drabinsky?) The LAT story suggests that heavy hitters like Ovitz got paid by the allegedly Ponzi-scheming Dana at the expense of clients, including DiCaprio. Leo's flack, Ken Sunshine, says his guy doesn't want to talk about his relationship with Dana, but my sources say Leo isn't going to take this financial hit without a fight.
###

Washington Post:
4/10/00
Fool for a Day

Cesar Soriano, a USA Today editor, was none too pleased after falling for an April Fools' Day gag. "You all ought to be ashamed of yourself and I don't find this funny and we're left looking like a bunch of morons," he told the perpetrators by e-mail. The newspaper was deceived by Chip Giller, editor of the online magazine Grist, which is affiliated with Earth Day Network. Grist sent out some phony items, including: "Pamela Anderson Lee announced yesterday that she will be joining Leonardo DiCaprio as cohost of the EarthFair 2000 event. . . . 'I've always been into animals and, like, plants and stuff,' she said yesterday through a publicist." The other spoofs were less obvious. After Soriano used a few lines in USA Today's Lifelines column, Giller told him of the gag and asked for a correction, which the newspaper ran the next day. "April Fool's pranks are best left to high school kids and fr