De Niro 'Leaked'

A Robert De Niro related story getting leaked the day of the Righteous Kill release? How strange. Hang on though; this tale is less than complimentary... then again, so is Righteous Kill, so it kind've ties in.

On with the story. A taped conversation between Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino has been leaked - and it only took 11 years to reach our ears. Seemingly the chat took place while they were both working with De Niro on Jackie Brown (he had a small enough part as a washed up crim called Louis Gara. He mostly smoked a load of bongs and had his way with Bridget Fonda over a couch). At the time, De Niro wasn't happy with the wage he was getting for the role. The content of said phone call goes something like this… Weinstein: " This is a great actor and actually a great guy, who's going through a difficult time... I think he's really having like a scratching-his-head session, you know, with his own life and his own career." Tarantino: "He's still dealing with, subconsciously, the fact that he's not going to get paid for doing the thing that he's created after 20 years... He's built his reputation on roles like Louis... 'How can you not pay me?'"

The New York Post adds: "At another point, Weinstein warns Tarantino he might get a 'weird midnight phone call' from the star. Tarantino rages: 'Tell Bob not to call me yelling and screaming... I don't know if I'm going to be nice (if) the guy calls up yelling and screaming at me like a maniac, calling me a (bleep)er!' Weinstein's lawyer, David Boies, said, 'We are disappointed that any member of the press is trafficking in illegal tape recordings and compounding the damage by taking them out of context,' referring to the tape that was sent anonymously to the Post. De Niro's rep said, 'Unless you were privy to actual conversations... I would draw an analogy to the blind man who picks up the tail of an elephant and exclaims, 'This animal must be quite slender and very wiry.' "  

That rep deserves a raise. I can barely remember what the phone call was about now; too busy contemplating what animal would best suit an elephant's tail... Greyhound is too obvious. An anteater? An armadillo? Ooooh, a wombat! A donkeeeeey...