Varitey:
3/29/01
''Boheme'' is Broadway-bound

Puccini's ``La Boheme'' is expected to make its Broadway debut sometime in 2002, courtesy of Baz Luhrmann, the Australian director of ``Strictly Ballroom'' and the upcoming Nicole Kidman film ``Moulin Rouge.''...

...``These are hot, young, sexy people on stage,'' Azenberg said of the Sydney Opera production. ``Its success there was stupefying. You could not get tickets.'' Referring to Luhrmann's ``Moulin Rouge'' as well as his Leonardo DiCaprio film ``Romeo +Juliet,'' Azenberg added: ``Luhrmann is able to transcend time. He takes classics and makes an effort to find a young audience. That is his strength.''

Full Story
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LA Times:
3/29/01
She'll See You in Her Dreams

The hostess of surreally charming Bar Marmont is the queen of her realm--and the stars love her. Constance is a reigning queen in Hollywood, Bar Marmont is her castle, and this is a tale with a happy ending. It all began in the back of Andre Balasz's limo in 1994. The hotelier, who owns L.A.'s Chateau Marmont and the Standard, was shuttling around his pals Constance and Joey Arias--two world-class exotics in the mostly underground world of drag. He told them about the bar he planned to build next door to the Chateau on the Sunset Strip, and that's when Connie sprang it on him: "And of course, I'll be the hostess." Constance, a baldheaded queen who'd been supporting herself for a year as a go-go dancer at the dance club Cherry, needed the work. She'd left good gigs in New York to take one last stab at being an actress in L.A. Voila. A year later, Constance was starring in her own nightly drama at the bar with the prestigious pedigree and even more prestigious opening party: Leonardo DiCaprio's star-studded birthday bash, which till this day I'll always remember as the night even movie stars got turned away. As hostess, Constance has reigned over a mind-boggling kingdom. In one corner, there's Joan Collins nuzzling with Billy Wilder. In another corner, there's Cher. The backdrop for the nightly nookying is the stuff of CinemaScope dreams. The bamboo-gated bar is a surreal paradise--a cultural fusion of Vietnam and Cuba--with butterflies pinned to the ceiling and a peacock running up a wall. There's an odd parrot on the bar who seems to be winking at you. Although it's been open for six years, it seems even more current now. Quite simply, the venue's a mind-melding partnership that borders on brilliance. Credit Balasz for teaming Sean MacPherson--a creator of L.A. hip in the '90s with such venues as Small's K.O., Good Luck, El Carmen, Jones, the Olive--with designer Shawn Hausman to create the space, which includes an outdoor patio, an intimate restaurant and a step-down bar. Although open nightly, on the third Sunday of each month everything gets cranked up to 11. That's when Connie hosts "The Bad and the Beautiful," a night with a title copped from an old Lana Turner movie and Coyote Shivers playing DJ. On those Sundays, she gets gussied up to full-glam and "warbles a few tunes," as she likes to say. And she gets noticed too. Back in New York, she was one of Robert Mapplethorpe's favorite models. Here, fans include Val Kilmer and Depeche Mode. The band hired her a few years ago to appear in its music video and gave her full star treatment--including use of the band's trailer. On a recent "Bad and Beautiful" night, the A-list crowd was ready. At the stroke of midnight, Connie waltzed down the stairs from the restaurant to the bar and sang the optimistic anthems "The Best Is Yet to Come" and "I've Got the World on a String." I don't know--maybe you just had to be there. But what I do know is that for Constance, life truly is a cabaret.

Bar Marmont, 8171 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 650-0575. 21 and older. No cover.
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Washington Post:
3/28/01
Near record low ratings dull Oscar's

Only 26.2 percent of all households with televisions watched the 73rd Annual Academy Awards broadcast Sunday on ABC, the Nielsens reported Monday. Among those homes with their sets actually on from 7:30 p.m. to nearly 11 p.m. when the ceremony wrapped, only 40 percent were tuned to the Steve Martin-emceed program. Oscar's average viewership of nearly 42 million was down 7 percent compared with last year. It was not a record low but was the second-smallest audience since 1991. (Because the population increases every year, viewer numbers don't parallel the percentage of households watching.) It did not draw as many viewers as the first episode of "Survivor" this season and had far fewer viewers in the all-important 18-to-49 demographic than that show had. "Survivor" scored a 21.8 rating with that group; the Oscars scored a 17.8. Why the diminished numbers? Maybe it's because there are so many movie trophy shows walking up to the Oscars that by the time it aired nobody cared that Julia Roberts was named Best Actress, Russell Crowe Best Actor, "Gladiator" Best Picture and Chow Yun-Fat Handsomest Man in Hollywood. Possibly it's because the winners were a virtual replay of January's Golden Globe Awards on NBC, so 22 million had already seen Roberts' gushing "spontaneous" acceptance speech and knew how golly gosh darned happy she was with her life. Perhaps it's because the Oscar director wouldn't let us see Jennifer Lopez's sheer bodice when she was introducing Bob Dylan as one of the Best Song nominees and instead zoomed in on her face and held on for dear life. Or maybe it's because right around the time they were handing out the awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing, presenter Mike Myers helpfully told us how boring these categories were and that HBO was telecasting an original episode of "The Sopranos." And maybe, despite the classy act by emcee Steve Martin, the inclusion of the likes of Myers, Lopez and Julia Stiles as presenters reduced the Oscars to the stature of its many made-for-TV trophy show imitators. Or could it be because four broadcasts of Britney Spears hawking Pepsi is just three too many? An ABC exec told The Associated Press that "any event that reaches 72 million people and is one of the highest-rated entertainment programs of the year has to be viewed as a tremendous success." The network was spinning that number Monday; it represents lucky devils who watched as little as six minutes of the show -- and so probably only saw that Spears ad once. The actual number to beat is the average audience of 55.2 million that watched the Oscars in 1998. America apparently doesn't feel as passionately about Russell Crowe and "Gladiator" as it did about Leonardo DiCaprio and "Titanic." The year after "Titanic" swept the Oscars, ABC moved the show from Monday night to Sunday, when viewing levels are at their highest, and started it 30 minutes earlier to attract more East Coast viewers. But for the second year in a row, the awards show, traditionally the highest-rated entertainment broadcast in any TV season, took second seat to "Survivor." About 45.3 million people watched the debut of "Survivor: The Australian Outback" right after the Super Bowl in January, and there's no telling how many will tune in for the finale during the May sweeps. Last August the summer finale of the first "Survivor" series copped 51 million viewers to become the most watched entertainment broadcast of that TV year.
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JAM Showbiz:
3/28/01
Oscar-winning cinematographer dies

Academy-award nominated cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski -- best known for his work with the late director Krzysztof Kieslowski -- has died in his sleep in Vancouver, according to The Hollywood Reporter...

...Sobocinski also worked with Mel Gibson on "Ransom" and was director of photography on "Marvin's Room," which starred Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Full story
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News Of The World:
3/27/01
Leo’s a gone-dola!

Leo DiCaprio is planning a romantic wedding in Venice. Dry those Titanic tears, girls By Arianna Eisenberg OK, so he proposed, and handed over a £125,000 diamond and platinum engagement ring. But most Leonardo DiCaprio fans didn’t really believe he’d see it through. After all, he and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen had split up before - she even had the audacity to run back into a former lover’s arms, complaining of Leo’s temper tantrums. But sorry folks, their love is back on and romantic Venice could be the venue for this summer’s hottest - and maybe wettest - wedding. “I’m very much in love with Leo,” Gisele recently gushed to a pal. “Of course I’ve accepted his proposal of marriage. I would be an absolute fool not to!” Reports have been swirling around Tinseltown for the past year on the status of Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio’s relationship with the lanky Brazilian bombshell. “Leo appears to be this young, innocent guy but he’s really a stud muffin,” says a close pal. “Bobbie Brown, the sexy video actress and one-time playmate of Tommy Lee before Pamela Anderson, says he was the sexiest guy she’s ever been with.” Indeed, blonde Bobbie herself raved about Leo’s performance between the sheets. “I met him at a party years ago and he was persistent,” she says. “He gave me his number and one day when I was bored I called him. “This was about a year before he did Titanic and he wasn’t all that famous. We got together and one thing led to another and, wow, he was amazing! I couldn’t believe this young guy was so experienced in the ways of lovemaking. He was simply astounding!” With that sort of endorsement, it’s easy to see why Leo is so popular with his ex-girlfriends. However, Leo, 26, has learnt to keep his private life private - even some of his closest friends don’t know what’s going on! “Half the time we don’t even know when Leo is going to be home,” says a close pal. “One day he’s halfway around the world and the next you’re getting a call that he’s home and let’s go party. “This happened just this month. He’s been in Rome filming his latest movie for Martin Scorsese, Gangs Of New York. “Then I get a call that he’s back in Los Angeles for two weeks for a brief holiday before returning to Rome to finish the film. “While he was here, Gisele flew into town to be with him so there wasn’t much time for his friends. We could all tell, however, that something was really different this time. Leo’s walking around with this Cheshire cat grin all over his face and Gisele’s all smiles as well. Leo with Kate Winslet in the blockbuster movie, Titanic “Leo admitted to me before he left that they were engaged and would wed this summer, probably in Venice, Italy. He’s travelled to the city over the weekends while in Italy and he loves the place. “It’s evidently a very romantic place and it’s one of Gisele’s favourite cities as well.” For her part, Gisele, 20, had denied rumours of an engagement for the past year. “I’m only 19,” she insisted last year. “I’m too young to get married. I want to have some fun first.” Evidently she’s having all the fun she can handle with Leo, even though a pal of Gisele says it’s not all glamour and excitement. “They’re so busy that when they do hook up they’re just like any other couple,” says the pal. “Gisele loves to cook and she and her five sisters try to get together as much as possible to whip up their favourite dishes. “She’s of German descent but has grown up in Brazil, so she has a wide repertoire of dishes she loves to make. Leo is half-German, on his mother’s side, so he appreciates all her delicacies. “Leo’s mother, Irmelin, below, is very fond of Gisele and is pleased about the German connection as well. “Leo loves his mother very much and has ended relationships with other women because his mother didn’t approve of them.” But no matter how blissfully happy he is, Leo’s not above having the odd tantrum. “The only negative thing about the relationship is that Leo is extremely jealous where Gisele is concerned,” says the pal. “She’s a gorgeous woman and is very stunning. She attracts guys wherever she goes and Leo doesn’t like all the male attention she gets. “It’s funny because he’s even jealous of her little Yorkshire terrier, Vida. Gisele adores her little dog, carrying her with her all over the world, but Leo is jealous of all the attention she lavishes on Vida. “Gisele just laughs it off. She knows it’s only because Leo is so in love and devoted to her.” And so what does the future hold for the couple? “Gisele loves her career but is showing signs of becoming bored with it,” says the pal. “So it makes sense that maybe now she’s looking at going from supermodel to superwife. Who knows, maybe in a year or so she’ll be supermum!”
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Variety:
3/26/01
News from the Oscars

From Army Archerd, Daily Variety Senior Columnist:

It was inevitable that I ask Harvey what's happening with Martin Scorsese's ``The Gangs of New York,'' starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in Rome. He happily said principal photography ends in a week, followed by a week of ``action'' scenes.

Source
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Excite News:
3/26/01
Oscars Recognize Few Minorities

While 19 percent of the Screen Actors Guild and 8 percent of the Directors Guild of America are black, Hispanic or Asian, minorities have received only 19 nominations in the top five Oscar categories in the last decade, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday....

...Hollywood is increasingly looking to foreign investors to finance films. Those investors, mainly from Europe and Japan, often prefer casts with white lead actors, which reduces the number of roles given to minority actors. "There is a historical shading in favor of the European American actor for the international marketplace," said Peter Graves, an independent marketing consultant who was president of marketing for Polygram Films in 1999. American producers say they are forced to negotiate content and casting with foreign investors because they provide as much as 70 percent of a movie's financing, and films with white male stars tend to be most successful internationally. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "The 6th Day," which made only $34 million here, garnered $67 million overseas. Leonardo DiCaprio's "The Beach," which made $39 million at home, raked in $110 million abroad, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Full story
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Cinema.com:
3/25/01
DiCaprio And Gisele To Wed In Venice

Hollywood heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio is to marry his supermodel lover Gisele Bundchen in Venice this summer. The TITANIC star decided the Italian city was the perfect wedding venue after spending time in Italy while filming Gangs Of New York (2001) with Cameron Diaz. School friend ANDREW PATTON reveals, "Leo travelled to Venice while in Italy and he loves it. It's evidently a very romantic place and it is one of Gisele's favourite cities as well." The couple are reported to be planning a low-key ceremony with family and close friends in attendance. The Brazilian beauty is expected to wear a simple white slip dress and will be accompanied by her five stunning sisters
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Today in History
3/23/01
Titanic wins BIG, three years ago today

Three years ago today, the movie "Titanic" swamped the Oscars, winning a record-tying 11 statuettes at the 70th Academy Awards ("Ben-Hur" also won 11 in 1959). "Titanic" failed, however, to land any honors for its stars. Instead, "Titanic" won in the categories, among others, of Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Music/Original Dramatic Score, and Best Song and Best Lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On," performed by Celine Dion.

Checkout the sites below to find out more about the movie and the people involved on making it such a blockbuster hit.

The Official Leonardo DiCaprio Site

The Kate Winslet Site

Titanic the Movie Site

The Official Celine Dion Site

The Oscars

Fan Pages:

MSNBC:
3/23/01
Cabaret at Cannes

Cannes will rock to the sound of a cabaret cancan this year when Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge” opens the film festival on the Croisette. The musical, set in the world-famous Montmartre cabaret in the hedonistic Paris of the 1890s, stars Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and John Leguizamo. It will also be competing for the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize. “Moulin Rouge” will be screened May 9. The festival runs until May 21. “It’s wonderful news because I have great memories of the presentation of my first film, ‘Strictly Ballroom,’ at the festival,” Luhrmann said in a statement the festival’s organizers released Tuesday. “Strictly Ballroom,” a self-parodying take on the world of ballroom dancing, screened at Cannes in 1992. Luhrmann also directed the 1996 film “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. “It is particularly gratifying that a film financed by the United States, almost entirely created in Australia and based on the French history and culture, should be received in Cannes,” Luhrmann said.
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NY Post
3/22/01
At Blooper Sites, the Fun Is in the Details

The movie "Titanic" is known for having one of the heftiest production budgets in filmmaking history. But visitors to movie-mistakes.com, the Nitpickers Site and other sites dedicated to spotting gaffes in movies also know that "Titanic" includes a boatload of continuity and factual errors. Of the 1,375 movies listed at movie-mistakes.com, "Titanic" has the highest number of spotted mistakes, with "The Matrix" close behind. Visitors to sites focusing on movie mistakes are probably either going to a movie and want to know what mistakes to watch for or have just seen a movie and want to post mistakes they have caught. Movie-mistakes.com (www.movie-mistakes.com), Movie Bloopers Online (moviebloopers.com), The Nitpickers Site (nitpickers.com) and similar sites encourage moviegoers to watch more closely. "To err is human, to point the finger, divine," wrote a visitor to movie-mistakes. Jon Sandys, a recent university graduate in Southampton, England, created movie-mistakes in 1996. It now includes more than 8,000 mistakes, which are sent via e-mail to the site by movie watchers. Most people send in continuity mistakes, Mr. Sandys said, where the appearance of a scene changes from one shot to the next. He has been alerted many times to a scene in "Titanic" where Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Jack, is shown through a porthole with the waterline above his head, then later with the waterline below his head. Some mistake spotters focus on factual errors. When "Almost Famous" was released last fall, Mr. Sandys received entries noting that Patrick Fugit's character, William Miller, is shown in 1969 looking through a pile of records, including Joni Mitchell's "Blue," which was not released until 1971. Mr. Sandys said his favorite mistake is in the original "Star Wars." When C3PO is hiding in a control room, a group of storm troopers come charging through a door frame. Mr. Sandys said one of the troopers bangs his head against the door frame as he walks through. "These storm troopers are supposed to be so organized," he said. "It definitely looks like an accident." Mr. Sandys receives about 100 mistakes a day and updates the site about once a week. Advertising on the site was allowing him to support himself while running it full time, but he has had to look for another job recently because of a lack of advertising. He reads all of the mistakes and posts the ones that look reasonable, but he does not check the validity of every submission. If someone contradicts a note that has been posted, Mr. Sandys will display the argument in brackets under the note. The Nitpickers Site, run by Brendan Johnson, a computer programmer in Birmingham, Ala., organizes movies alphabetically by title, genre and type of mistake (like editing, historical fact or special effects). It includes a top-15 nitpickers list, acknowledging movie watchers who have sent in the most mistakes. Besides an alphabetical list of movies with mistakes, Blooperman (www.geocities.com/ottopallone) includes a list of generic mistakes, like movies set in space that depict sound (there is no air in space, therefore no sound) and movies that show two round holes to depict a view through binoculars, which is not the view that a person actually sees. Blooperman also lists things that do not count as bloopers, like detectable body doubles and mistakes that can be seen only if played in slow motion. Some people who visit these sites say it has changed the way they look at movies. "I usually just notice the really obvious mistakes, like when 18 bullets are shot out of a revolver," said Philip Albinus, a movie buff in Ossining, N.Y., who checks movie- mistakes.com every so often. "It makes me realize there are people who are watching movies a lot more closely than I am." Mr. Albinus said he first understood how mistakes could get under people's skin after his father, a retired electrical engineer, saw "Radio Days," set in the 1940's, and noticed power-line equipment that was not built until after the 1960's. "For him it was like seeing an Edsel in the middle of `Dances With Wolves,' " Mr. Albinus said, "and he just couldn't get into the story. It's amazing how even with budgets in the millions, these things sneak through."

Related Sites These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability.
• www.movie-mistakes.com
• moviebloopers.com
• nitpickers.com
• www.geocities.com/ottopallone
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Variety:
3/21/01
''Moulin Rouge'' to open Cannes

Australian director Baz Luhrmann's ``Moulin Rouge,'' starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, will open the 54th annual Cannes Intl. Film Festival in competition on May 9, organizers said Tuesday. The 20th Century Fox musical set in the world of the infamous Paris nitery of its title, will be the first Cannes opener to compete for the Palme d'Or since Patrice Leconte's ``Ridicule'' in 1996. Following reaction to early test screenings and the unspooling of a promo reel, Fox also announced Tuesday that it has moved the film's U.S. release date up to a summer slot. Fox will platform ``Moulin Rouge'' in a single run each in New York and Los Angeles bowing May 18, followed by a national launch June 1. The New York/L.A. run was originally set to begin May 2. ``I am particularly happy to welcome to Cannes a studio film that is in the finest show tradition to launch the festival,'' festival chief Gilles Jacob said of ``Moulin Rouge.'' Festival organizers have made an extra effort this year to lure quality mainstream fare that Hollywood sometimes is reluctant to hand over. Jacob pointed out that the festival ``discovered'' Luhrmann in 1992, when it presented his first film, ``Strictly Ballroom.'' The $3 million film, which won the Prix de Jeunesse and was runner-up for the Camera d'Or, went on to earn nearly $30 million worldwide. The director followed that with ``William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet,'' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Luhrmann said he had ``marvelous memories'' of his Cannes debut, and that he was ``especially gratified that a film financed by the U.S., almost entirely created in Australia and about French history and culture should be chosen by Cannes. ``I think the opening night of Cannes should be about heralding a new energy, and not just for the festival,'' Luhrmann told Daily Variety. ``I hope that night will mark the beginning of the return of musical cinema.'' Although featuring modern tunes, ``Moulin Rouge'' is set in the legendary Paris cabaret at the turn of the 20th century. McGregor plays a writer, plunged into the decadent world of the nightclub, who falls in love with its most notorious star (Kidman). The picture also stars John Leguizamo (as Toulouse-Lautrec), Jim Broadbent and Richard Roxburgh. Festival staff said Tuesday that the last Cannes opener to win anything at the festival was ``The Victory Prize,'' by Japan's Nobulo Chibuya, which picked up best short film in 1964. Last year's Cannes opener, ``Vatel,'' was a commercial and critical flop. Coincidentally, it was a knee injury sustained in ``Moulin Rouge'' that forced Kidman to pull out of David Fincher's ``The Panic Room'' earlier this year. In turn, Jodie Foster stepped down as Cannes jury president to replace her. The festival then appointed Liv Ullmann as jury president.
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Yahoo Business Wire:
3/21/01
Chick Flicks

Chick Flicks is a series of three-minute shorts that parody movies primarily marketed to female audiences. Famed stop-motion animator, Corky Quakenbush, will unleash spoofs of chick flicks such as: ``Pretty Woman II: Runaway Hooker Bride'' in which Gere and Roberts re-unite for a third time in this parody on the two ultimate chick flick movies, ``Pretty Woman'' and ``Runaway Bride;'' ``Bi-Tanic'' in which Kate Winslet falls in love with Leonardo DiCaprio, but then, also catches the eye of the ship's comedian, Ellen Degeneres, who opens her eyes to the possibility of even more forbidden love; ``Dirty Riverdancing'' in which Romance blooms between Patrick O'Swayze and Jennifer Grey, bringing her closer to womanhood, while also giving her a better appreciation for the repetitive, synchronized Irish dance; and ``Castaway II'' in which none other than Jennifer ``JLo'' Lopez has to adapt to life on a deserted island- with no one to pamper her, no gym to work out in and no entourage to tell her how beautiful she is.

Full story
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NY Daily News:
3/20/01
Quick Hits

Someone, please, shake People magazine's chatter column from its slumber. This week's offering quotes James Gandolfini saying how he's looking forward to playing an FBI agent opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the crime drama "Catch Me If You Can." In fact, it was announced weeks ago that neither DiCaprio nor Gandolfini would be in the film after it became obvious that Leo could not make a start date due to delays on "Gangs of New York." Dreamworks has "Catch Me" on hold right now, and in an uncasted state.
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Salon:
3/20/01
He actually looks great." Got that? Great. Not titanic

"Gangs of New York" executive producer Graham King is sick and tired of people saying the upcoming film's star, Leonardo DiCaprio, has packed on the pounds like nobody's business. Leo's increased size has nothing -- nothing whatsoever -- with him indulging in too much pasta during filming in Rome, Italy. "I think there was some misguidance about working out and putting on weight," King tells the World Entertainment News Network. "[Director Martin] Scorsese told him to go and get buff and work out for the role, and the press all mistook that when he came back and was bigger. He actually looks great." Got that? Great. Not titanic
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Leonardio DiCaprio Official Site
3/19/01
Checkout the O Site if its been a while

Checkout all new things going on at the Ofifical site.

Leonardo DiCaprio Official Site

+ Visit the new Art Corner where up and coming young Artists are profiled

+ Travel Series Stories from On Location in Italy This Month Florence

+ Szukalski Exhibit Take a Virtual Tour of the Szukalski Exhibit that took place at the Laguna Art Museum

and a whole lot more.
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Forbes.com:
3/15/01
Movie Stars Moonlight In Japan

Schwarzenegger was especially miffed that his goofy 15-second spot promoting DirecTV was posted by Zero One Design at www.gaijinagogo.com. Lawyers for DirecTV and Dentsu warned the Web site last summer to cease and desist from showing the video clip because it infringed on the star's intellectual property rights. Ironically, the site went from around 500 hits a month to about 4 million hits in the two weeks following the publicity, says Alexander. More recently, Leonardo DiCaprio's lawyers called the Web site two months ago to ask that the young star's commercial for Orico credit cards also be taken down.

Full story
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Variety:
3/15/01
Director rings up ``Tick-Tock'' gig

British director Danny Boyle (''Trainspotting'') is on board to shoot ``Tick-Tock,'' a suspense thriller set to begin production in the fall. The Columbia Pictures project focuses on an amnesiac who wakes up in FBI (news - web sites) custody, the prime suspect in a series of bombings in Los Angeles. He must help a young FBI agent race through the city in a desperate search to find and disarm the remaining bombs, as he tries to recover his memory enough to figure out whether he actually planted the explosives. Boyle, who made his feature directing debut on the celebrated 1994 indie film ``Shallow Grave,'' is best known for directing the controversial 1996 drugs tale ``Trainspotting.'' He was last in theaters with the 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio drama ``The Beach''
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The Dallas Observer:
3/15/01
Up the Academy

Gil Cates takes a long, deep breath before answering the question: Is producing the Academy Awards show the ultimate no-win situation? Cates has produced nine of the past 11 Oscar telecasts, and he returns March 25 after a year's layoff

"The Oscars is almost an anthropological research study," Cates says, sounding less like a Hollywood director (he's helmed a handful of TV series and 25 films, including Oh, God! Book II and the 1979 tearjerker The Promise) than a college professor. "If you want to study what the world was like in 1955, you'd do pretty good looking at the Oscars. You'd see what people wore, how they spoke to one another, what was on their minds, the movies they made. You'd get a great sense of the country. In one sense, the Oscar show reflects a broader spectrum of human nature than any other show, because the movies are truly universal. They are seen all over the world, they reflect the broadest possible culture, and to the degree that any show synthesizes that broad culture, the Oscars really do. It also brings to date your current mythology in terms of who the current stars are. The star this year is Ben Affleck or Leonardo DiCaprio or Russell Crowe, and that gives a sense of what we are, so I think that the show is a unique phenomenon that way.

Full story
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3/15/01 Kiss and Tell

You can kiss Leonardo all day!

Not just any Beautiful Boy
3/14/01

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was surfing sites on the internet when I came across this one link and decided to check it out. The site was called Beautiful Boy and Leonardo DiCaprio was the main feature. The site which had tons of pictures of Leo was the first of many sites that I have grown to love over the years.

The Beautiful Boy site has grown from its early beginnings and has shifted its focus to cover the gay youth movement. The site has movie, TV, and book reviews, Celebrity profiles, fashion, discussion boards and so much more.

While the site has moved beyond Leonardo DiCaprio the roots of the site are still in tack and I'm happy to say that I play a small part in keeping that page current. A little over a year ago I was contacted by the site administrator and was asked if I would like to take over updating the news section.

I was more then happy to take on the duties that were assigned to me. Being part of a site that I have enjoyed for so many years is truly an honor.

This site has also given back so much in return. I received an e-mail one day from the mailing list on the Beautiful Boy site. They started a new message board at Yahoo clubs a place were people could go and discuss Leonardo. It was called 'The Gay Leonardo DiCaprio chat'

Until this time I had never looked or even heard of Yahoo clubs. I signed up, picked a user name 'dicaprio69' and joined the club never knowing how much that day would change my life.

That was back in April of 1999 for the first few weeks all I did was read the posts from the other members. It was not long after that I started posting myself. I've met so many new people from the club and created life long friends.

It was not long after that I created my first Yahoo club. I picked a name one that I had been using for a long time now Dicaprio69 and off I went. In the course of my daily searching for DiCaprio related news I created a web site to help me keep track of all the sites. Along the way I decided to share that listing with other DiCaprio fans and the Dicaprio69 web site was born.

Now, with several Yahoo clubs under my belt and I'm sure more to come along the way I wanted to take the time to say Thanks to all the members of DiCaprio69. The club has gown to become the largest DiCaprio club on Yahoo

I also want to take the time to thank one other person individually. Who without stumbling across his site so many years ago none of this would have happened. Some of you might know him as Frail, or Josh. I however would like to call him a friend.

Thank you Josh for all your hard work and dedication. I wish you continued success with Beautiful Boy the place were for me it all started.

Steve

This is a listing of sites mentioned above:

Beautiful Boy

DiCaprio site on Beautiful Boy

Gay DiCaprio Chat Board
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LeonardoDicaprio.com
3/13/01
Environmental sites

Checkout these Environmental sites that are near and dear to Leo's heart.

Earth Day 2000 Speech

Earth Day Action Network

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund

Reef Check

Rainforest Foundation


Camero-Diaz website
3/12/01
Video clip from "Gangs of New York" which can be found on the Cameron Diaz web site

CLIP
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Guardian Unlimited
3/12/01
Lasse Hallstrom talks about Leo

Lasse talked about Leo while promoting his new movie Chocolat in UK.

Guardian: Were you surprised with the way Leonardo DiCaprio's career took off after Gilbert Grape?

Lasse Hallstrom: I remember saying he was going to be a big star one day. Go back into the archives and look it up! I really thought he was brilliant. I think he'd be good at anything he'd do. The Titanic experience must have been horrifying for him but things are sort of back to normal now.

Whole article
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National Enquirer
3/12/01
WHO'S MAKING THE MEGABUCKS IN HOLLYWOOD

OPRAH WINFREY is the queen of entertainment -- with a mind-blowing yearly income of $150 MILLION. And life is just a box of greenbacks for Tom Hanks. "Forrest Gump" pocketed a rich $71.5 million in 1999, the last year for which figures are available. The talk show diva and Oscar-winning actor head the list of Hollywood's highest-paid entertainers, according to figures obtained by The ENQUIRER. Here's a look at how they earned their pay -- and who else is rolling in the dough. Oprah's syndicated daytime talk show is a money tree, shedding cash like leaves on an autumn day. She also owns some four million options of CBS stock, has her own magazine and produced the movie "Beloved" and the Emmy-winning TV movie "Tuesdays with Morrie." Hanks pockets an estimated $20 million salary per picture, plus an average of 12 percent of the gross box office receipts. He earned up to $50 million for the gritty 1998 war drama "Saving Private Ryan," after banking $70 million for "Forrest Gump."

In the $20 million category are Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Douglas, Richard Gere, Eddie Murphy, Regis Philbin, Will Smith and Robin Williams. While the big bucks usually go to big-screen names, you don't have to feel sorry for TV's "Friends." Their deal pays the show's six stars $750,000 per episode for the next two seasons of 24 episodes each, plus a percentage of future profits from syndication. Their estimated take: more than $40 million each!

Source
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Vanity Fair - April 2001 issue:
3/11/01
Legends of Hollywood Issue

There is a 12 page article on Michael Ovitz. It’s a very interesting article. Since Leo is his client. Leo’s name is mentioned as well as Gangs of New York. I’ll post the parts that I found to be interesting.

This part talked about Rick Yorn, Leo’s manager, his personality and managing style.

In Hollywood you leverage depends solely on that talent, so it has to be A-list. Enter the Yorns (i.e. Rick Yorn and Julie Yorn), who, prior to joining AMG, were two of the most promising managers in town, having corralled such rising stars as Leonardo Dicaprio, Cameron Diaz, and Samuel L. Jackson while working at a smaller management firm. Addis-Wechsler, now part of IPG. (This being a Michael Ovitz Situation, their decision to bolt for AMG two years ago did not transpire without the requisite amount of rancor and intrigue.) Without the Yorns’ hot young clients, it could be argued, Ovitz would have no AMG. That’s what many of the Yorns’ acquaintances told them at the time. “No one wanted me to do this,” Rick Yorn says, laughing. “I think they warned me, but I just didn’t – I guess I wasn’t prepared.” He’s referring to the onslaught of publicity, mostly negative, about the electric partnership. “I had no idea of the level it would reach… Unlike Michael, I don’t really care what anyone writes or anyone else thinks.” He smiles a Cheshire-cat smile. “I feel like it’s gotten better, press-wise. I think it definitely has. We’ve sort of nipped it a little bit. But just the reality of the first six months-if someone would have said that was going to be that bad, I’d have said, ‘No way.’”

Ovitz’s and Rick Yorn’s demeanors are, as if by design, almost freakishly divergent. If the duo didn’t exist already, a sitcom team would have invented them: the staid executive with his old-school clients (Clancy, Michael Crichton, directors Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese) and the happenin’ young buck with his stable of hotties (Leo, Cameron, Ed Burns, Heather Graham). The apotheosis of synergy! “I think that a lot of their management styles differ based on generational differences,” says Stephanie Davis, 35, who works in the company’s film department. “Rick is very of-the-moment. He’s got a sort of streetwise, very hip, very, very likable thing.” She smiles. “I think it’s just a veneer of Rick. Rick has a way of seeming like he is doing everything off the cuff, and I would suggest that that’s not really the case.”

Ask to contrast and compare, Yorn, who’s not nearly as press savvy as Ovitz, looks you in the eye. “You know,” he says and laughs. “You know.”

In the early days of AMG, when the offices were still filled with crates, Ovitz would pace the halls in a sleek Armani suit, looking like a corporate astronaut, thanks to an endless cord which tethered him to his phone. (Ovitz is aware that people find the cord funny, but he doesn’t care.) Yorn, by contrast, would sometimes slouch in, drowsy and unshaven, wearing a rumpled sweatshirt, after a long night of client courting, which he does as well as anyone in Hollywood. “Bad one last night,” he’d say, grinning. Little has changed since then. “Today,” Ovitz says incredulously, “Rick had an outfit on that defied imagination.” Yorn had been wooing a big shot musician who may or may not be joining AMG. Music is Yorn’s first love – the company represents acts as different as Missy Elliott, Blues Traveler, Liz Phair, and LL Cool J – and Ovitz defers on such matters. After all, his tastes veer toward Bach.

As it stands now, APG (AMG’s film production unit) has a whopping 37 films in development with other studios and 15 in various stages of production, including Richard Donner’s adaptation of Crichton’s Timeline, Edward Burns’s low-budget romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York, and Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, an $80 milion co-production with Miramax.

That the last film features two of the top stars in Hollywood, Dicaprio and Diaz, is no coincidence. Both, along with Scorsese, are AMG clients – or, as critics would say, THE AMG clients. (Ovitz dismisses the rumor that his top clients pay him a discounted commission or no commission at all. “When you manager,” he says, “10 percent is pretty much the floor.”)

Without the collective clout of the stars and the director, coupled with the diplomatic savvy of Ovitz and Yorn, it’s unlikely that the movie, a long-dormant Scorsese pet project about the mid-19th-century proto-Mafia, would have been made, and AMG’s commitment to the picture stands as the best example of its viability. As such, the company has a lot riding on the film, tentatively scheduled for release next winter. If it and/or the Crichton project hits big, AMG will be an 800-pound gorilla. If they don’t – and no Scorsese film, however acclaimed, has ever entered blockbuster territory – you can bet that Ovitz and Yorn will hear catcalls from the back booths at The Grill in Beverly Hills.

To some degree, they already are. “Say what you want about al those big names and titles,” says one of the top producers in town, a big hopefully. “By swinging for the fences, churning it out fast and furious, they’re setting themselves up to take a huge fall. They flop and Studio Canal (i.e. the company where AMG receives 60% of its film financing from) gets cold feet, it’ll be over by halftime.”

“If we bomb out because we make bad movies,” Schulman (i.e. the head of AMG’s film unit) says, “we deserve to fail. If we make good movies, there’s nothing bad that can happen. And the same for the clients.”
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LA Times:
3/9/01
To Heck With Stylists

Backstage after the Dolce & Gabbana show, a certain Brazilian supermodel was getting as much attention as the designers. Gisele Bundchen, who has been romantically linked to Leonardo DiCaprio and is rumored to be wearing a huge rock reportedly given to her from the "Titanic" star--was absent on the runways of New York and London last month and will be a no-show in Paris next week. Only last season, Bundchen was here, there, everywhere: on the catwalk, every magazine cover, fashion award shows. In fact, the only runway show she has appeared in this season was Dolce & Gabbana's. The invitation for their show was a clue that the statuesque and leggy Bundchen would be there--the invite paid homage to the beauty with five photographs of her from their past shows. At show's end, Bundchen led the models onto the runway for the collection's finale, which also was her own. "I'm not leaving modeling, but this is my last runway show," she told an Italian newspaper. Before she made her runway exit, Dolce and Gabbana grabbed Bundchen and did the catwalk thing, smothering the model with kisses and gratitude. Backstage, Gabbana said Bundchen agreed to appear in their show because he and Dolce were the first designers to use the model four years ago. "She is a beautiful woman on the outside and the inside. And really, she is just an ordinary and simple girl, but she also is very spectacular," Gabbana said. Dolce added that Bundchen is a hard worker in the world of fashion. "But Gisele doesn't live in this world like a diva, and that is the best thing about her."
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LA Times:
3/8/01
A More Sophisticated Palette

Artist Jeff Gillette takes heart that he's not alone in melding his fascination with pop culture and fine art. His idol, he thinks, would approve. "Robert Williams was my introduction to art, period," said Gillette, 41, a Cal State Fullerton graduate art student. Williams, an underground comic-book illustrator of the 1960s, crossed over to the fine-art world as a painter, taking his "low art" to new heights and paving the way for like-minded artists. In the last decade he has permeated the Orange County scene as local artists, venues and collectors embrace his paintings. His work resonates in the land of surf culture and hot rods. Its influence can be seen in Gillette's paintings that juxtapose religion, sex, cartoons, philosophy and Mickey Mouse. Artist Josh Agle, a.k.a. Shag, has been compared with Williams too. Agle paints crowds of swank swingers in lounge settings. "I was influenced by Williams and artists like him, to an extent, because I did try to pattern my career as a painter after what they had done," said Agle, 38, of Orange, a former graphic designer and illustrator who now paints full-time. Williams' new series of 18 oil paintings are on exhibit at Cal State Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. The show, "Best Intentions," comes after a New York debut at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. The West Coast premiere kicks off the center's second anniversary and Williams' 58th birthday. "He's an artist who has gained a cult following," said Grand Central director Mike McGee. Williams' collectors read like a Who's Who list: Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio and Yoko Ono among others. His name catapulted into the "high" art world in 1992, when his paintings were shown in the controversial exhibition, "Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s" at the Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art. He has since been featured in Orange County: the 1993 "Kustom Kulture" group exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum; a 1998 solo show, "Robert Williams: New Work," at the Huntington Beach Art Center; and now the Grand Central show. Williams' oil paintings are playful, graphic and fantastical but they also address such matters as evolution, human foibles, sex and violence. "It's hard to call his work mature because it has so much adolescent verve bursting at the seams," McGee said. There is nothing subtle about Williams' style. The lines and shapes are exaggerated, and incongruent images are placed together. The paintings don't just grab your attention, they assault the eyes. Blame it on the psychedelic '60s with its liberating, even dizzying, use of color schemes, Williams said. A color theorist's worst nightmare, Williams is known for his bright palette. He layers cool, turquoise-greens next to warm, orange-reds. He uses grays and muted contrast hues to make the colors appear to leap off the canvas.
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Variety:
3/8/01
Fox locks Italian rights to Scorsese pic

For nearly 30 years, the studios shied away from the period gangster drama ``Gangs of New York.'' However, with the picture's production nearly complete in Rome, one of the companies that turned down domestic rights to the Martin Scorsese-directed picture has snagged one of the last international territories: Italy. In a pact with producer Initial Entertainment Group (IEG), which co-financed and is selling the picture's international rights, 20th Century Fox Intl. is believed to have committed roughly $7 million upfront for the Italian theatrical, video and TV rights. The deal also includes a sweet profit participation for Fox. Currently shooting in Rome, ``Gangs of New York'' stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz and Liam Neeson. The epic drama chronicles the criminal exploits of immigrant gang members, outlaws, crooked cops and corrupt politicians who flourished in New York City in the middle of the 19th century. IEG put up $65 million to help finance the $80 million-plus ``Gangs'' in exchange for foreign rights. Miramax Films is handling domestic distribution. Jay Cocks penned the ``Gangs'' screenplay, based on the book ``Gangs of New York'' by Herbert Asbury.
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National Post
3/7/01
French dressing

A behind-the-scenes look at the saucy store that caters to Hollywood celebs Outside, the walls are painted a shocking pink. Inside are thousands of pairs of panties, elaborate corsets and transparent body stockings. Welcome to Trashy Lingerie, probably the world's most exclusive lingerie store, which sits opposite an all-nude strip club in Los Angeles. Trashy Lingerie is where such screen beauties as Cameron Diaz, Sharon Stone, Drew Barrymore and Pamela Anderson come to splash out on the sexiest underwear money can buy. Shopping here is not for the impecunious. A pair of silk knickers can set a screen queen back $500 (all figures in US$). A bra can cost up to $1,700 and a garter belt, a snappy $250. And it's not just the bosomy rich and famous who flock through Trashy's Beverly Hills doors. Jack Nicholson, Burt Reynolds and even Leonardo DiCaprio pop in to buy saucy gifts for loved ones. Cult filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is also a regular customer. "In the panty line he's particularly fond of the colour purple with rather fetching floral motifs over the crotch area," Mary Loomis says. "Usually he comes in by himself. I don't know how many women he's currently entertaining -- but he buys an awful lot of panties." Declares Loomis, daughter-in-law of store owner Mitchell Shrier: "It's great fun serving all the stars. They're special people who want the best and will pay for it." Madonna, for example, once forked out an astonishing $12,000 on an elaborate corset and Barrymore blew more than $3,000 one rainy afternoon on 20 pairs of multi-coloured knickers and a bra. It's not unusual to wander into the exclusive shop to find semi-naked stars waltzing in and out of changing rooms or exposing sensitive parts for cup checks and hip measurements. "We had Gwyneth Paltrow and Cher here semi-naked and giggling like schoolgirls trying on different bras. It would have been a field day for any paparazzi photographer. But for the staff, who see half-dressed celebrities here all the time, it was no big deal." "Drew Barrymore is another fantastic lady," she continues. "She's very sweet and full of life. One time she came in and tried on a pair of '50s-style hip-hugging panties. When she saw herself in the mirror she decided to buy a pair in every colour -- it cost her thousands of dollars for 20-odd pairs. She was so pleased with them she commissioned us to design several outfits for Charlie's Angels." For Trashy, working for the big studios is no great deal. "One of our biggest orders ever was supplying dozens of outfits for the last Austin Powers movie," Loomis says, "everything from psychedelic negligees to golden bras with matching knickers." Shrier says the company keeps all customers' vital statistics on disc so whatever they try on, from a pair of panties to a corset, fits perfectly. "Very often they come to us when they want to impress a new lover or want a jaw-dropping outfit for some private party or function," she says. "When Cameron Diaz needed something super-sexy for a New Year's Eve party at the Playboy mansion, we provided a skin-tight, cream Rhonda slip, with garter belt and matching thong, silk stockings and five-inch Cinderella-style heels. "As she walked into the room that night even Hugh Hefner blushed. She's a fun girl, and the outfit really played up her devilish streak. Gwyneth Paltrow always likes to dress sexy underneath. Red Chantilly lace is her favourite."
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LeonardoDiCaprio.com:
3/7/01
Small Town, One Giant Art House

Of all the priceless works of art in the world, UNESCO, a leading company covering all things art, said 60% of these works are in Italy, and half of those are in the modest Tuscan town of Florence. Ah yes, Florence, meaning 'to flourish,' which it certainly did, acted as the main pulse of the Renaissance some 600 years ago. The birthplace of Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci and where the DeMedici family ruled and sponsored great artistic endeavors for nearly one hundred years, Florence is the heart and soul of Italy's great artistic past. To many, Florence is a stock-house full of the world's great art works. But none of these could have been possible without a distinct sensitivity to man's wild surroundings, helping us to see the importance between a creative world and a natural one. It was at the Florentine observatory that Galileo formed his revolutionary theories on the nature of the universe. Galileo was the first person in the Christian world to propose that the earth revolved around the sun, instead of being the center of the universe. During his lifetime, the powers of the church were so prevailing that it was not until after Galileo's death that his theories were made known. How symbolic that Galileo formed his theories in a town that was the "center" of the artistic world, indeed, the center of all creative life and new ways of thought.
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Leonardodicaprio.com
3/7/01
Pictures from Set of Gangs Of New York

Salon.com:
3/6/01
Catwalk fever

Sometimes it's hard to be a model, giving your attention to all those fans. Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen says she's ditching the fashion-show circuit. And no, it's not because she wants to spend more time with her beloved beau, Leonardo DiCaprio. It's because -- at age 20 -- she's sick of the grind and is ready to trade it in for cushier ad work. "Enough, it's over. It's the end when it comes to catwalks," Bundchen told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "I'm very tired of going from one stylist to another, running here and there -- your cellphone's always ringing and someone's always fussing over you with a blow-dryer." All that for only $7,500 an hour? Oh, the exploitation!
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Peoplenews:
3/5/01
Gisele quits the catwalk

Supermodel plans to act Gisele Bundchen has walked down the catwalk for the last time. ‘Enough,’ says the 20-year-old Brazilian supermodel, who made her final strut at Milan Fashion Week this weekend. ‘It’s over. It’s the end when it comes to catwalks. I am tired of going from one stylist to another, running here and there, your cell phone is always ringing and someone is always fussing over you with a blow dryer.’ Gisele, 20, has said that she may now pursue a career in acting, possibly on the advice of her fiancé Leonardo DiCaprio. However, Bundchen is not expected to give up modelling altogether, having recently secured a contract worth an estimated $25 million with lingerie firm Victoria’s Secret. It has also been speculated that she may make the occasional appearance for her close friends Dolce & Gabbana. Bundchen and DiCaprio recently confirmed their engagement, and the pair are expected to now spend more time together at their Malibu beachfront home.
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NY Post:
3/5/01
RESCUED FROM A 'TITANIC' DISASTER

DANNY Nucci has just settled into a corner booth at a hip midtown restaurant. "Hey, I haven't seen this yet," the actor says, reaching for a folder stuffed with publicity materials for "Some of My Best Friends," a new CBS sitcom starring Nucci and Jason Bateman. "I did the show because it's funny. I love it because it's funny. I can't stop laughing," says Nucci, 32, whose resume leaned toward films and TV dramas before "Some of My Best Friends." A working actor since age 14, Nucci's been a familiar face in good, small roles in a range of movies including independents like "The Big Squeeze" and studio releases such as "Eraser," "The Rock" and "Crimson Tide." In 1999, he had the historic privilege of appearing in "Snoops," a rare TV flop from megaproducer David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "The Practice," "Boston Public.") "I prefer the word 'miss,'" Nucci chides. "The show didn't know what it was at first, and when it did it took so long to get there nobody cared anymore." Then there's his biggest credit: "Titanic," in which Nucci played Leonardo DiCaprio's buddy, Fabrizio. Much of Nucci's role hit an iceberg, however, and sank from audience view on the cutting-room floor. "What an experience to be in a film that was so honored and accepted; in that sense, it's great. But the role that I did is not in the film. It's hard not to go 'What if, what if.' "It didn't hurt the film at all, so in that sense it was the right decision. But when I'm thinking about how it affects me, then it was somewhat disappointing." After "Titanic," Nucci was able to deflect the public's where-have-I-seen-you-before questions with a one-movie reply. But if films aren't always the breakthrough opportunity they seem to be, TV series work has turned out to be more than Nucci expected. "When I do a film I've got a two-hour script - 'Titanic,' 31/2 - and I look and I see what my character does, how he serves the piece. For television, I build this character. "I don't know what the writers are writing, I don't know what I'm doing to have to play. " In that sense, it's really exciting, because you never know what's coming down the pike," Nucci says.
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NY Post:
3/5/01
GISELE: I'M FASHIONING NEW CAREER

Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen has strutted down the catwalk for the last time, saying she is fed up with the frenetic pace of the runways. "Enough, it's over. It's the end when it comes to catwalks," the sultry supermodel told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "I'm very tired of going from one stylist to another, running here and there, your cell phone's always ringing and someone's always fussing over you with a blow dryer." The 20-year-old beauty - engaged to movie heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio - said this weekend's Milan fashion show would be her last. "There's more to life than just the catwalk," said Bundchen, who reportedly earns $7,000 an hour. Bundchen, who was discovered at age 14 while eating a hamburger with her friends at a McDonald's in a Rio shopping mall, has become famous for displaying eye-popping lingerie for Victoria's Secret and modeling such labels as Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Versace and Ralph Lauren. Her last catwalk appearance is expected to be today. She says after giving up modeling
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Telegraph:
3/5/01
'Queen of curves'

THE Brazilian supermodel, Gisele Bundchen, who currently commands £5,000 an hour as one of the highest-paid models in the world, made a catwalk comeback in Milan yesterday, five months after announcing that she had quit. Catwalk comeback: Gisele Bundchen models two new looks from the Dolce and Gabbana autumn/winter collection in MIlan The 20-year-old model said that she had given up the catwalk last year, shortly after signing a contract valued at more than £5 million with Victoria's Secret, the American lingerie company. However, Bundchen, who is known as "the queen of curves" because of her voluptuous figure, was the surprise star of the Dolce and Gabbana show at the Milan Collections for this autumn and winter. To the delight of the audience, she strode out as a "nomadic hippie" in a floral print plunge-bra with ropes of pearls decorating her cleavage. The ensemble was completed with a glitter-lace coat trimmed with Mongolian lamb, and leather drainpipe jeans cut low enough to reveal her silver navel stud. Bundchen, who moved from New York to Hollywood in December, showed off her new California beach style, sporting a golden tan and blonde "surfer" streaks in her long coffee-coloured hair. She was also wearing the large platinum and diamond ring on her left hand which has led to rumours that she is engaged to the film star Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been a regular companion recently. She denied this, saying: "I'm only 20. I'm far too young to get married." The ring was "a present to myself"; she had bought identical ones for her five sisters, including her identical twin. Bundchen last modelled on the catwalk in the Christian Dior show during the last Paris pret-a-porter season in October. A stunning 5ft 11in brunette with blue-green eyes, she was discovered in a shopping mall in Sao Paolo when she was 14. Since her catwalk debut in New York in l997 she has revolutionised the modelling scene with her sensual "carioca" walk and curvaceous 35-22-34 figure. Brotherly love: Gisele with designer Domenico Dolce Designers clamoured to use her in their shows, generally ensuring she was given the most revealing see-through outfits. After she modelled a black and white polka dot leather bra at the Ralph Lauren show in New York last year, Women's Wear Daily wondered if there was not too much of her on display. Bundchen never minded the attention. "I was born with breasts. There is not much I can do about it," she said. However, the pressure of the catwalk circuit became too much. "I stopped after Christian Dior in Paris last October. I was really ill. I even didn't do the last two days of shows. I had just had enough," she said yesterday. Since then she has bought a house in Beverly Hills with a heated swimming pool and five acres of land which will soon become home to her latest purchase, a black Brazilian stallion called Dark Winter. Of her new home, she said: "I look out over all of Hollywood. I feel so free, so happy, so full of life and energy." However, she says that she has no plans to go into movies - or to rejoin the modelling circuit. "I only came back to the catwalk for this one day because I love Stefano and Domenico [the Dolce and Gabbana designers]. They are like my fathers, my brothers, my family."
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Zap2it:
3/5/01
Best Friends Star Tries to Avoid Iceberg

Some of Danny Nucci’s best work is on the cutting room floor. The 32-year-old actor, who stars in the new CBS sitcom "Some of My Best Friends," played Leonardo DiCaprio’s friend Fabrizio in "Titanic," but many of his lines got cut from the iceberg-sized film. "What an experience to be in a film that was so honored and accepted; in that sense, it's great," Nucci told the New York Post. "But the role that I did is not in the film. It's hard not to go 'What if, what if.' It didn't hurt the film at all, so in that sense it was the right decision. But when I'm thinking about how it affects me, then it was somewhat disappointing." Nucci also appeared in David E. Kelley’s unsuccessful "Snoops," about which he says, "The show didn’t know what it was at first, and when it did it took so long to get there that nobody cared anymore." So he relied on his own tastes when taking on "Best Friends," in which he plays Jason Bateman’s straight roommate. The show struggled in the Nielsens its first night, but, Nucci says, "I did the show because it's funny. I love it because it's funny. I can't stop laughing."
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The Village Voice
3/4/01
Berlin's Body Politic Forces of Nature

No longer NATO's front line, Berlin functions these days as the European launch site for the spring slate of Hollywood movies. Still, the threat of impending strikes by the screen actors and writers unions served to keep most American stars on their various sets. Whereas last year, The Beach confirmed Berlin as a glamour event by producing heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, this year's festival had to make do with the virtual DiCaprio provided by the world premiere of RD Robb's infamous Don's Plum. An ensemble piece shot in 1995, Don's Plum was effectively banned by its most famous participants, DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, who evidently warned potential distributors that they had believed they were participating in an acting exercise, and that the ensuing feature was a form of entrapment. Several years of litigation (including one suit reportedly triggered by a sarcastic ad placed in Daily Variety thanking the pair for "their amicable spirits, gentlemanly behavior and wisdom beyond their years") resulted in a settlement preventing the movie from being shown in North America. At that point, the filmmakers took their footage to Lars von Trier's Zentropa and reconfigured Don's Plum as a Danish coproduction. In fact, this grainy, black-and-white yakker is a sort of acting exercise—albeit one that is indebted less to the much cited Cassavetes and Mamet than to a pair of mid-'90s Miramax hits, Swingers and Clerks. Four twentysomething guys gather, with their dates and pickups, for a long, largely improvisational evening of put-downs and confessions, interspersed with cameos by an assortment of producers, crackheads, and waitresses. The movie may be awful but it isn't dull, and although Maguire's performance is embarrassingly goofy, the relaxed DiCaprio effectively acts his colleagues into the ground.

Link
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LA Times
3/4/01
A Mogul Plots His Dream Home

Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz and his wife, Judy, have purchased a Beverly Hills home in the $6-million range. The superagent-turned-supermanager and his wife, who breeds horses on the couple's 90-acre ranch in Ojai, have long had a home on the Westside, but they always wanted a view, real estate sources said. The property they just bought is on more than two acres with city-to-ocean views, a tennis court, a pool, cabanas and a guest house. However, the main house--a three-bedroom, nearly 5,000-square-foot traditional built in the 1940s--is in need of a total renovation. It is expected to be torn down. Ovitz's dream is to have a house designed by I.M. Pei, according to local Realtors. The renowned architect, 83, has designed only a couple of houses, among them his own. He is known for his museums and commercial buildings, including the one housing the Beverly Hills offices of Creative Artists Agency, which Ovitz, 54, co-founded in 1975. Ovitz arranged to have Pei design the CAA building in 1986. Ovitz left CAA in 1995 to become president of the Walt Disney Co. A year later, he left Disney with a severance package valued at more than $90 million. About two years ago, he co-founded Artists Management Group (AMG), Artists Television Group (a TV production company) and Artists Production Group (a movie production company). AMG puts together film or TV deals with its own talent. AMG manages such big-name actors, writers, producers and directors as Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Crichton, Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese. A 15,000-square-foot Holmby Hills home with a screening room and a tennis court has been sold for close to $14 million.
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Inside.com:
3/2/01
The story behind the Howard Hughes Film

DiCaprio Dumps Spacey, Mann Dumps Producer, and New Line and AMG Get Sued Over Howard Hughes Film Charles Evans Jr., nephew of Robert, cries foul as industry players allegedly do him out of a passion project.

The story behind the bringing of Howard Hughes's life story to the big screen appears to involve almost as much intrigue as the life of the industrialist, aviator and film producer himself. It's got claims of Leonardo DiCaprio ousting Kevin Spacey, a thieving Michael Mann and, of course, a lawsuit. Producer Charles Evans Jr. and his Acappella Pictures sued New Line Cinema, Artists Management Group and director Mann Wednesday, claiming they took the project he had nurtured and put his heart into for years and left him in the dust. ''No one has worked harder to bring the story of Howard Hughes to the screen in contemporary Hollywood than Evans,'' Hughes chronicler Pat H. Broeske, who co-wrote the book on which Evans's project is in part based, said when informed of the suit. ''It is a passion of Charlie Evans.'' (Evans is the nephew of legendary producer and former Paramount chief Robert Evans.) Evans claims he came up with the idea to use the young, pre-recluse life of Hughes for a film in 1993. He spent countless hours learning about Hughes's life and times, becoming an expert in the events and accomplishments that made Hughes famous, his lawsuit states. Besides research, Evans gave the project legs by hiring a writer, with whom he worked closely on five drafts of the screenplay, the suit adds. In 1996, Acappella obtained an option to acquire all rights to the book Howard Hughes: The Untold Story, written by Broeske and Peter Harry Brown. Broeske confirmed this, adding that Evans recently picked up the lapsed option. Giving the project even more oomph, Evans hired Spacey to direct the film and together they secured financing from New Regency. New Regency at first agreed to pay Acappella a $15,000 development fee and $400,000 in fixed compensation, but the development fee was later raised to $25,000. In addition, New Regency hired writer Jack Fincher to draft a screenplay based on the Broeske/Brown book. Evans then set out to convince heartthrob actor DiCaprio to play the lead, and had various discussions with DiCaprio's manager at AMG, Rick Yorn. ''As a result of these discussions, Yorn, acting on behalf of AMG, informed Evans that DiCaprio would never join the project as long as any director (i.e., Spacey), not selected by DiCaprio, was attached,'' the suit states. Forced to choose between DiCaprio and Spacey, Evans, ''after many sleepless nights,'' terminated Spacey in November 1998. Yorn then told Evans that DiCaprio was committed to the project, according to the suit. DiCaprio chose Mann, based on his impressive resume, which includes The Insider, Heat and the upcoming Ali, and the project appeared to be moving forward. Yorn told Evans not to do anything else, and Yorn and Mann periodically kept Evans apprised of developments, such as the hiring of screenwriter John Logan, whose credits include Any Given Sunday, and who worked on the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Gladiator. In addition, over the course of about a year, Yorn repeatedly promised to keep Evans in the loop and assured him that he would not be cut out, the suit states. In March 2000, however, Evans discovered that Mann and DiCaprio had made deals with New Line for the Howard Hughes project. Evans was told by Yorn to make his own deal, but New Line told Evans's attorney it was not interested in him for the project, the suit alleges. Despite claims by Yorn and Mann, moreover, the suit maintains that DiCaprio was never firmly committed to the project, and Mann had never intended to move ahead with Evans, but instead intended from the beginning to cut him out. Evans's attorney contacted Mann's attorney, and was allegedly told: ''Mann did not believe that he had engaged in any wrongdoing and that Evans and Acappella did not possess any viable legal claims,'' the suit says. Evans's attorney, Gerald Sauer of Sauer & Wagner, said in an interview that a lawsuit was necessary at this point because Evans has been waiting ''on the sidelines forever,'' and attempts to resolve the matter with talks were unsuccessful. Sauer said he did not know the status of the Howard Hughes project, noting that Mann is in production on Ali and the recent shake-up at New Line. Messages left for Mann's attorney and publicist and for Yorn were not returned. A New Line attorney declined to comment.
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S.F. Gate
3/2/01
Woes from the set of Gangs of New York

And if you think there's trouble there, here's a list of woes from the set of "Gangs of New York," which is being filmed in Rome: Martin Scorsese was assaulted by a gang of what Zap2it.com called "disoriented pigs" (oriented ones climb quietly between pieces of bread and become ham sandwiches); and Leonardo DiCaprio threw horse pucky at paparazzi when they started snapping pictures of a carriage that had overturned mid-shooting.
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S.F. Gate
3/2/01
Woes from the set of Gangs of New York

And if you think there's trouble there, here's a list of woes from the set of "Gangs of New York," which is being filmed in Rome: Martin Scorsese was assaulted by a gang of what Zap2it.com called "disoriented pigs" (oriented ones climb quietly between pieces of bread and become ham sandwiches); and Leonardo DiCaprio threw horse pucky at paparazzi when they started snapping pictures of a carriage that had overturned mid-shooting.
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USA Today
3/2/01
Hollywood smoke signals

Talk about starstruck youth. Young filmgoers whose screen idols smoke in several movies are three times more likely to light up than those who favor non-smoking stars. And even non-smokers partial to on-screen smokers, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Sharon Stone and John Travolta, are more likely to hold positive attitudes toward the deadly habit. So says a new study by Dartmouth Medical School researchers, adding weight to what earlier studies and common sense already suggested: Millions of dollars in anti-smoking ads are no match for one puff taken by Leo or Sharon. The Dartmouth news follows other studies showing how prevalent cigarette smoking remains on film more than a decade after the tobacco industry pledged to stop paying for film placement of its products. About 87% of the top-grossing films from 1988 to 1997 showed tobacco use, and in 20 films, actors could be seen using an identifiable brand, according to another Dartmouth study. Where in the 1970s it was mostly the bad guys who smoked, now it's often the heroes. For instance, Julia Roberts lit up a Marlboro in My Best Friend's Wedding. Marlboro maker Philip Morris asserts that it does not pay for the placement of tobacco products in films. Then again, why would Big Tobacco bother when Hollywood remains addicted to smoking on its own? In earlier dust-ups over Hollywood's love affair with the cigarette, the film industry clung to the First Amendment and artistic license. Quite right. Trying to regulate free speech is not the answer. But how about common sense? The product hooks 3,000 teens each day and kills more than 400,000 Americans each year. In 1997, when the Clinton White House criticized a surge in film smoking, director Barry Sonnenfeld huffed, ''We probably shouldn't let anyone smoke on screen to the same extent that we shouldn't let the Road Runner drop an anvil on Wile E. Coyote.'' Sorry, Barry. No sale. The Road Runner's anvil antics are part of the action that moviegoers pay to see. But does anyone really go to the movies to see a film star smoke? Smoking in films is gratuitous. Worse, the new research confirms that it's dangerous, contributing to kids' decision to smoke. Last fall, the federal government found Hollywood executives marketing R-rated films to Camp Fire Girls. Making smoking look glamorous to teens shows just about as much sense.
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LA Times:
3/2/01
Talent Manager in Spotlight Over Loans

One of Hollywood's top talent managers improperly received more than $1.3 million in loans and advances from a company controlled by former New York money manager and convicted swindler Dana Giacchetto, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. But the manager, Rick Yorn, through lawyer David Stern, denied any wrongdoing. Stern called the action typical for trustees in bankruptcy cases who aggressively try to dig up funds wherever they can. "Fraud is often alleged, rarely proved and not present here," Stern said. The allegations against Yorn, a partner in Michael Ovitz's Artists Management Group, which represents such stars as Leonardo DiCaprio, were made in a filing by Robert L. Geltzer, trustee in the bankruptcy proceedings related to Giacchetto's Cassandra Group. Although listed as counts in the filing, the allegations are not criminal and are more analogous to a civil complaint. The documents allege that Yorn was paid $737,467 by Giacchetto on Sept. 2, 1999, which Giacchetto represented as a sale of stock in Paradise Music & Entertainment, a small Los Angeles entertainment company that formerly had ties to Giacchetto. At the time, the papers allege, both Yorn and Giacchetto knew Cassandra was insolvent. The papers also allege that Yorn received four loans and advances for $606,521 in 1998 toward the purchase of a home, only $50,000 of which he returned. Stern said that the $737,467 came from the sale of Paradise stock, and the borrowed funds were from normal margin loans on stock. He said Yorn had no knowledge that Giacchetto's transactions were improper, and Yorn relied on a business manager for his financial transactions. Yorn was hired by Ovitz in 1998 in a celebrated hiring that shook up the management world.
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People Magazine
3/2/01
Otherwise Engaged

Leo Dicaprio and Gisele Bundchen say they’re not going to the chapel, despite what you read in the press Blame it on an overeager press corps. An enigmatic diamond sparkler and the subtle nuances of the Portuguese language. But for the record, rumors that Leonardo Dicaprio, 26, is engaged to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, 20, are bunk. “She’s not getting married,” says Bundchen’s exasperated agent, “not, not, not!” Dicaprio’s rep also denies the rumors. So why did so many sources – from the tawdriest U.K. tabloid to the usually gossip-resistant Washington Post – print news of the pair’s clandestine betrothal? Proposal rumblings began in October, when Bundchen appeared on the catwalks of Milan sporting a diamond ring after a visit from Dicaprio. (Her agent said at the time she bought it herself.) Next the couple and their respective parents reportedly spent New Year’s together in Malibu in what seemed suspiciously like a meeting of future in-laws. But mere speculation exploded into breaking news when, according to a translation in British tab, Bundchen told the Brazilian magazine Veja that the actor “is my fiancé. I never went public with it before because I don’t think it’s anybody else’s business.” What she had actually called Dicaprio was her “namorado,” which, correctly translated, simply means “boyfriend.” Bunchen, who has been celebrating Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro with four of her sisters (Dicaprio is in Rome filming Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic Gangs of New York,) seems clear on matters. “For sure, I am not getting married,” she recently told reporters at a fashion event. “Not for now. I am only 20 years old, and I have a great deal of time ahead of me.”
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
3/2/01
Teens open minds to 'that music'

About 10 years ago in Denver, sitting alone among a couple hundred teen-agers, I settled into my seat to watch The Doors, a movie that turned out to be surprisingly good. Val Kilmer proved a convincing specter of Jim Morrison and, mostly, the story felt genuine. When the credits rolled, a distinct melancholia overwhelmed me. It was sad watching the decline not only of a great band, but of Morrison himself, as the great Dionysian singer devolved into a pig. However, upon mentally re-entering the world of the movie theater, I slowly became aware of bursts of energy amid excited commentary filling the air: "Man, he was so cool!" "God, what a beautiful man!" "That music ... man, that music!" Suddenly, I began to wonder if I had daydreamed the version I had sat through. The problem, of course, was that I had seen the movie through my own tainted, cynical, and wrinkled-up perspective. Yes, the story of Jim Morrison is a sad one, if that's what one chooses to focus upon, but that should not detract from the other truths: he really was cool and beautiful. And that music ... man, that music. Years later, when I went to see Romeo + Juliet with my wife and 15-year-old daughter, I sat down prepared to hate everything that came out of pretty-boy DiCaprio's mouth. Then he appeared through the sunny, flittering haze of the movie screen and a hundred girls let out a collective sigh like a spring breeze. It was humbling to realize that I hadn't come to watch Shakespeare, but to confirm to my own "educated" mind that, once again, Hollywood could not possibly understand anything of value. Fortunately, all the teen-agers around me had arrived with open minds and, as a result, I came away with an entirely new understanding of a play I had read and analyzed a dozen times. Except when they are trying to conform to the often arbitrary codes of conduct inflicted by adults, teen-agers are far more honest in their responses to the world than we are, and perhaps that is why so many adults resent teen-agers. Our society spends so much time and effort attempting to regulate and constrain the minds of teen-agers (but that's a whole other essay) that we too often deny them the opportunity to think for themselves. Consequently, we deny ourselves the opportunity to learn from them. Now that my daughter has gone off to college, it dawns on me that of all the things I will miss, watching movies with her rates near the top of the list. Granted, some of her movie-watching habits can be downright irritating: She and my wife can watch sections of movies ("Hey, let's catch 20 minutes of Amadeus before dinner!"), while I cling to my old-goat notion that two or three hours should be set aside for proper viewing. But her sheer intensity is intoxicating. Watching Gone With the Wind with my daughter is not the same as watching any movie with anyone else. It is a lesson in Zen consciousness: As we consume the movie, so the movie must consume us. Tara is life; life Tara. Aristotle understood: "The young have exalted notions because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations ... They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else." There is not much about being a teen-ager that I would wish to revisit except this: to watch a movie, to read a book and to view a painting as if it truly mattered. Granted, on clear days, I uncover glimpses of this state of mind, but not nearly enough.
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NY Post:
3/2/01
GIACCHETTO'S SEQUEL

Hollywood heavyweight Rick Yorn has been slapped with a suit claiming the power talent agent participated in a stock scam with his former money manager, Dana Giacchetto, that netted him over $700,000. The charges, which include 10 counts of fraud, were brought by Robert Geltzer, the bankruptcy trustee responsible for recouping the millions of dollars stolen by the disgraced money-manager- to-the-stars. Yorn, who is partners with Michael Ovitz at Artists Management Group, represents some of Hollywood's biggest players - including Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. In fact, the top celebrity powerbroker just returned from the Italian set of Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," DiCaprio's latest project, when he was welcomed by the lawsuit. The court papers allege that the 32-year-old Yorn received a check in September 1999 from Giacchetto's firm, the Cassandra Group, for $737,000. The words "Paradise Sale" were written on the memo line of the check, referring to the sale of stock in Paradise Music & Entertainment, a small media company run by Bob Dylan's son, Jesse Dylan, and the late talent agent Jay Moloney. But, according to the lawsuit, Yorn never owned any shares of Paradise. Yorn "never signed any statements or agreements" needed to purchase the shares," the suit said, but he "insisted that Giacchetto give him the benefit" of the sale of the stock. "Yorn's insistence that Cassandra make the Sept. 1999 transfer was made with actual intent to hinder, delay and/or defraud Cassandra's creditors," the suit claims. Yorn is also accused of failing to repay interest on more than $600,000 in loans he got from the Cassandra to purchase a house. Yorn's lawyer said the charges are baseless. "The allegations of fraud are provably wrong," said lawyer David Stern. "The U.S. Attorney [that prosecuted Dana Giacchetto] declined to prosecute Yorn." Asked whether Yorn intends to pay back the money or fight the charges, Stern said, "The only fees Rick Yorn will wind up paying are legal fees." Stern said the two sides will hopefully meet within the next few weeks and "this whole thing will end with a whimper." Still, the mere presence of Yorn's name on a lawsuit associated with the fallen money manager who was sentenced on Feb. 7 to 57 months in federal prison could elicit concern among AMG's roster of movie stars. Stern maintains that Yorn's "reputation and skill is well-recognized" and that those who know Yorn will not be swayed by the charges. Indeed, many inside Yorn's inner circle fell victim to Giacchetto's unsavory business practices. Fox News' Roger Friedman reported that movie executive Stacey Sher, casting director Margery Simkin, and director Ted Demme - as well as AMG client Cameron Diaz - were all invested in Paradise, which was a pet project of Giacchetto's. Giacchetto joined the board of Paradise in the summer of 1999, and ran the stock up from $4 to $9 by investing his clients money in the floundering company. When his clients began asking for their profits, Giacchetto started selling off Paradise - triggered a stock slide. The money manager was then forced to steal from celebrity clients including Courtney Cox, Ben Stiller, Tobey Maguire and Lauren Holly to make up the difference. In a recent hearing, Giacchetto claimed his crimes were linked to his Hollywood lifestyle. "I lived in a world of fantasy but I am not this one-dimensional mendacious con," he yelled to the court.
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Variety:
3/1/01
Producer sues over Hughes picture

Producer Charles Evans Jr., the nephew of Hollywood veteran Robert Evans, has filed a lawsuit claiming he was ousted him from his own project, a motion picture based on the life of Howard Hughes. His complaint, filed Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court, targets movie studio New Line Cinema, management firm Artists Management Group (AMG) and director Michael Mann. The suit says Evans had been developing a film project based on the life of Hughes since 1993. In 1997, Evans began discussions with Kevin Spacey about serving as a director. Spacey also agreed to assist Evans in finding financing. Shortly thereafter, Evans and Spacey met with production company New Regency, which agreed to assist in the development of the project. Spacey agreed to direct and Jack Fincher (father of ``Seven'' director David) was hired to draft a screenplay. In 1998, Evans attempted to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to play the part of Hughes, according to the lawsuit. Following discussions with DiCaprio and AMG principal Rick Yorn, who represents the actor, Evans was informed that DiCaprio would never make the project with a director he hadn't selected. Evans finally decided to terminate Spacey, and Yorn advised him DiCaprio was in. Yorn then told Evans DiCaprio wanted Michael Mann (''The Insider'') as the director and further discussions ensued. John Logan (''Gladiator'') was hired by Mann to do a screenplay. After many months of believing Mann and DiCaprio were planning to do the Hughes film at New Regency with him, Evans learned last March that Mann had made a deal with New Line to do a Hughes project. The complaint alleges fraud, breach of implied contract and intentional interference with economic advantage. New Line declined to comment and AMG could not be reached for comment.
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Hollywood Reporter:
3/1/01
Yorn facing 10 counts of fraud

Artists Management Group partner Rick Yorn has been accused of 10 counts of fraud in connection with his dealings with his former money manager Dana Giacchetto, including an alleged stock scam that netted Yorn more than $737,000, according to U.S. bankruptcy court papers. The charges were levied by Robert Geltzer, the bankruptcy trustee responsible for recouping investors' funds stolen by Giacchetto. Yorn is also accused of failing to repay interest on more than $600,000 in loans he received from Giacchetto's firm, the Cassandra Group, to purchase a home in 1998. The loans were only repaid after Yorn was asked by auditors to do so, according to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Court papers further reveal that Geltzer is seeking punitive damages against Yorn in the case because of "Yorn's willful, intentional and wanton malfeasance" in connection with the alleged bogus transactions. If found guilty, Yorn would be required to pay back the funds. Yorn, who returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday from the Italian set of the Martin Scorsese-helmed Leonardo DiCaprio starrer "Gangs of New York," denied the charges against him. "The claims are completely unfounded and are absolutely false, and the matter has been referred to my bankruptcy counsel," he said in a statement. "The Cassandra situation has been thoroughly investigated by civil and criminal authorities, and the appropriate parties have been held accountable for this unfortunate fraud." According to the documents filed by Geltzer last week in a Manhattan federal court, Yorn received more than $737,000 in September 1999 for the sale of a stock he allegedly never owned. In a strange twist, the stock Yorn is accused of illegally profiting from was for Paradise Entertainment & Music, the company led by the late former CAA agent Jay Moloney. Giacchetto held a stake in the company while at the same time advising his clients to invest in Paradise. Giacchetto, the disgraced financial manager who once invested funds for Yorn and his AMG partner Michael Ovitz, as well as Yorn client DiCaprio and other Hollywood stars, was recently sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to repay about $9.9 million to his victims after he plead guilty to cheating his high-profile clients (HR 2/8). The court-appointed Geltzer is attempting to recover funds from Giacchetto's estate to repay bilked investors. The adversary proceeding filing recounts how Yorn received the more than $737,000 from Giacchetto's Cassandra Group in September 1999, after the Cassandra Group sent Yorn a check that had "Paradise Sale" written in the memo line. But, the filing alleges, "Yorn never legitimately purchased any Paradise securities, never signed the statements or agreements necessary to purchase Paradise securities and knew or should have known that he needed to sign such statements and agreements in order to purchase" Paradise securities. The court papers go on to say that Yorn "requested, insisted upon and received several substantial transfers of money from Cassandra as purported loans and/or advances for his acquisition of a new home during the period commencing on or about August 24, 1998," and that "Yorn has never paid applicable interest accrued on any portion of the 1998 transfers." Yorn later fully repaid the loans in March 1999 only when the transfers were discovered by "Cassandra employees and independent audits and the demand was made of Yorn for repayment," according to the filing. The filing accuses Yorn of either knowing he was committing fraud or being reckless. The bankruptcy trustee is seeking a total recovery from Yorn of $737,467.08 and interests and transfer fees from loans totaling $606,521. Geltzer, an attorney for the New York firm of Tendler, Biggins & Geltzer, is being represented by Robert Wolf of Robinson Silverman Pear