Kiefer Sutherland's African Safari Doubles as Popular TV Movie

· Kiefer sighting! 12 million of them, in fact, as Sunday night's 24: Redemption returned Jack Bauer to sneering, skull-cracking form with modest (at best) ratings. His next appearance is scheduled for January — when 24 returns as a series — or in a heartwarming holiday video, should the inspiration strike this year. [THR] More »

Pitt Says 'Uncool' Was Itself Not Cool

• Brad Pitt said it was uncool for ex Jennifer Aniston to say his wife Angelina Jolie is uncool. Or, as he puts it, he was "totally thrown." [Sun-Times ]
• Who wouldn't want to be on John Mayer's 1960s-style variety show?? Other than Brad Pitt? [Daily Star]
• Justin Timberlake is buying a condo in TriBeCa. Jessica Biel is moving in and Robert De Niro's son brokered the sale. [Post]
• Ari Emanuel screamed at poor, helpless kids playing soccer in Los Angeles, and Barack Obama still hasn't apologized. What terrible things will his chief-of-staff's family do next? [P6]
• Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson marrying? That was so yesterday. Now they're fighting because Lindsay wants to have an open relationship and sleep with guys, and their flack is denying the whole marriage thing.
• Thank you, Barack Obama, for convincing Alan Cumming to grace us with his citizenship. [P6]
• Former HBO president Chris Albrecht is trying to work things out with the girlfriend he choked at a boxing match. Page Six headline? "Rocky Love." [P6]
• Manolo Blahnik, the man, is not familiar with this "Sex And The City." [P6]

Violent Mark Wahlberg Kicks Dogs, 'W.' Out of His Way at Multiplex

Welcome back to Defamer Attractions, your one and only guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially noxious at the movies. This week sees Oliver Stone officially establish the land-speed record for producing an Oscar contender, joined by skull-cracking Mark Wahlberg, sex-driving Seth Green and our diva-colored underdog. As always, someone's gotta lose; we'll call our shot there, too, along with cherry-picking through a new crop of DVD's. As always, our opinions are our own, but we have little doubt they would look great on you. Try them on after the jump. More »

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Hypothetically Together Again

· In their highly anticipated return to rumors of reuniting, Martin Scorsese is attached to direct Robert De Niro in I Heard You Paint Houses, based on the story of a mob hit man reputedly linked to the death of Jimmy Hoffa. Steven Zaillian will adapt the source book. [Variety] More »

AUDIO: Leaked Harvey Weinstein Tapes Warn Tarantino Of 'Midnight Phone Call' From Enraged De Niro

As if suffering through Righteous Kill and a stultifying Letterman Top 10 weren't career punishment enough for Robert De Niro, the actor has found himself the subject of just-leaked phone calls between Quentin Tarantino and Harvey Weinstein during the making of Jackie Brown — and the conversation paints the supposedly money-grubbing De Niro in a light more unflattering than the entirety of Rocky & Bullwinkle: More »

Robert De Niro's Golf Game a Prime Suspect in Recent Job Loss

Robert De Niro has been picking up work where he can — a speaking engagement here, a morning-show gig there — so we were more than little surprised last week when we heard he'd backed out of the thriller Edge of Darkness, currently shooting in Boston. That's not the De Niro who jumped to ostensibly greener pastures at Endeavor a while back, and it's definitely not the consummate professional whom producers brought aboard to make alpha-male magic with Mel Gibson and director Martin Campbell. But a report today out of Massachusetts offers no fewer than four scenarios making the rounds — chief among them being a sort of fantastically Kubrickesque golf-course torture: More »

'Appearing on Letterman' Strangely Left Off Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's Acting-Perk Top 10

Clearly exhausted from their earlier morning-show rendezvous with Brian Williams, Righteous Kill co-stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino last night indulged David Letterman with one final on-camera tryst before returning to the anonymity of their respective solo careers. And what a fitting send-off, with the pair teaming up on the "Top 10 Reasons I Like Being an Actor" — a droll bit of thanksgiving that still won't make us forget Heat, but may yet be proven our lone cultural reward for tolerating the existence of Righteous Kill at all. See what kind of magic is possible when less than 12 producers are involved? Next time, guys, next time. [CBS]

Robert De Niro Woos 'Righteous Kill' Viewers With Delicious 'Endangered Tuna Value Meal'

The marketing squad behind Robert De Niro's latest film may not have an especially well-developed touch with movie posters, but you can't say it isn't getting its money's worth with the brilliant new cross-promotion, "Righteous Kill Tuna — Only at Nobu!" While the summer's blockbuster superhero crop nickel-and-dimed their way through Happy Meals and Whoppers, De Niro and restaurant's London outposts ventured waaay outside the box recently with high-priced helpings of the rare Atlantic bluefin tuna — a species that activists contend has been overfished to the point of near-extinction and which Nobu should apparently know better than to serve: More »

Five Reasons Why the 'Righteous Kill' Poster Makes Us Want to See Anything But 'Righteous Kill'

Our visit to the multiplex last weekend went well enough for the most part; we liked The House Bunny just fine, and the Babylon A.D. trailer looked suitably career-ending for our tastes. It wasn't until we exited the theater that our nerves deadened and our hearts sank: There, in a lobby dotted with orphaned popcorn kernels and bereft souls, we had a closer look at a poster for the upcoming Al Pacino/Robert De Niro cop flick Righteous Kill. And while it might seem too easy to write the film off as a gimmicky genre exercise at first blush, it would hardly be fair to do so without seeing it. That said, we noticed five things off the bat that not only implied an alarming sloppiness, but seemed to actively discourage our viewership. After the jump, our essential wake-up call for studios, poster designers and casual fans alike. More »

Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are

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Robert De Niro Calls Out SAG Leadership In Terrifying, Apostrophe-Free Missive

It's time to break out your SAG vs AFTRA Celebrity Turf War Map™ for an update, albeit a bit of a confusing one: Robert De Niro is the latest star to come out in opposition of a SAG strike, asserting during a press conference Saturday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that Hollywood has suffered enough bloodshed this year in the bargaining trenches to implode once more over residuals: More »

Graydon Carter's Delicate Sensibilities Offended

Jodie Foster's Young Lover Into "Explicit Sex Scenes"

Kirk Douglas Laughed Through '88 Minutes,' Defends Al Pacino Anyway

Reminding us of that time a grumpy Sean Connery asked for a commenter invite so he could take issue with our estimation of Harrison Ford, Kirk Douglas took to the LA Times letters section this weekend to protest the paper's recent treatment of "fallen" stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. And as far as we're concerned, his exquisitely articulated and defended point is the last word proving that the stars deserve better: More »

Born-Again Indie DeNiro Headed to Cannes to Sell His Latest

Riding high on the wave that was his self-deprecating, actually funny tribute to Meryl Streep on Monday night, Robert De Niro is reportedly surging into Cannes' closing-night slot next month with his undistributed Hollywood satire What Just Happened? Directed by Barry Levinson, written by Art Linson and starring De Niro as a Linson-esque producer beset with divorce and a nightmarish film project, the movie's buzz fizzled after mixed reviews following its Sundance premiere. So what are the odds it'll seal a deal on the Croisette? More »

Exclusive Video: Comedy Genius Robert De Niro Dazzles Us With Best Performance in Years

If Robert De Niro's appearance at last night's Meryl Streep tribute in New York is any indication, all those haters who ridiculed the actor's agency switch last week might have another thing coming. To wit: De Niro killed. In a cruise-ship comic kind of way, perhaps, and filing through a fistful of index-carded one-liners, but still. This guy may yet pull down $20 million a picture if his timing keeps up, and he wasted no time soliciting his former co-star Streep to join him — if only someone at CAA would return his calls. Zing! Catch our exclusive video and a few more outtakes from De Niro's repertoire after the jump. More »

None-Too-Bitter CAA Rep Has Some Choice Parting Words of Advice For Robert De Niro

Some accounts place Robert De Niro's recent defection from CAA to Endeavor as a move at least a decade in the making. That inevitability didn't lessen the sting for an anonymous CAA operative, however, who chimed at Deadline Hollywood Daily on Thursday with a poetic reality check entitled, "Why Did Bobby Leave Us?" More »

Robert De Niro shuffled through Endeavor's busy revolving door Wednesday in the agency's third high-profile move of the week, marking the end of the Oscar-winner's long tenure at CAA. The addition comes days after Ashton Kutcher fled Endeavor for the confines of CAA, and nearly a week after the seismic defection of comedy power broker Nick Stevens and two partners from UTA. As Variety's Michael Fleming notes, De Niro "hit his payday stride" with his $18 million turn in Meet the Fockers; the move sets him up for continued forays into safe, tightly packaged middlebrow humor franchises that will secure his legacy as a shell of the standard-bearing American legend we grew up with. Bon voyage, Bob. [Variety]

First Pictures Of De Niro's New Hotel

Robert De Niro has finally unveiled his new Tribeca hotel, the Greenwich. Pictures from Vanity Fair. As always, the actor, playing concierge, inhabits the role.

Robert De Niro Reminds Us That Nationalized Health Care Is An Important Issue

Robert De Niro is just like us—he has problems with his health care provider! De Niro won his case against the Fireman's Fund Insurance, which had sued the actor, alleging that he had withheld information about his medical condition. Fireman's Fund had to cover costs when a prostate cancer scare delayed filming for the De Niro vehicle Hide and Seek blah blah blah. But why is Robert De Niro, a very famous actor, having these middle class problems with his regular-people insurance company? There's no national health care. Our veterans are sleeping under bridges and our respected actors are getting turned away by insurance companies! Hillary Clinton has promised universal health care within her first term, but "Hollywood" Robert De Niro has endorsed Obama. Like so many Americans, he doesn't realize that Hillary Clinton should be on the line when terror calls to deny you coverage due to a prior existing medical condition. [Deadline Hollywood]

Clooney, De Niro, Hanks And Streep Tell SAG, Studios It's Time To Start Talking

Yesterday, Variety reported that several Big Name Actors were about to kick off a public campaign to shame convince SAG's leadership and the studios to pick up a phone and arrange the kind of pleasant little rap session with moguls like News Corps' Peter Chernin, Disney's Bob Iger and CBS's Les "Negotiations Are Fun! Let's Do One Every Week at My Place! I'll Even Spring for the Bagels!" Moonves that helped to end the writers strike, hoping that getting a jump on things before their Guild's contract expires at the end of June might help to avoid another one of those mildly inconvenient, 100-day shutdowns of the industry that seem wildly passé at this point. The first of these exhortations are appearing in the trades today, with the initial installment authored by George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, a line-up so laden with Oscar hardware that Hollywood has no choice but to take notice of their plea. More »

Who Else Has Matt Damon Been Fucking?

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Media Bubble: De Niro Will Likely Buy the 'Observer,' and Kurt Andersen Approves

• So it really looks like De Niro and pals will buy the Observer. And Kurt Andersen — like Peter Kaplan — is just thrilled about it. [NYM] More »

Gossip roundup

· Playboy TV is filming bondage aerobics babe Mistress Victoria's "Slavercise!" class at Manitoba's on Avenue B tonight, followed by a performance by the Sex Slaves band. [Page Six] More »

Celebrity flaks"

The press release for the opening of AGO at the Shore Club in Miami, hosted by Robert De Niro, chef Agostino Sciandri, and Ian Schrager hotels, has a short list of "celebrities" scheduled to make an appearance. The list includes Desiree Gruber, the publicist for Ian Schrager. I was under the impression that the only way a flak could get to be a celebrity was by backing over half a dozen people with her SUV at a Hamptons nightclub, but I guess putting your name on your client's "celebrity" list works too. Then again, maybe it's just a coincidence. The PR firm, Harrison & Shriftman, did spell her husband's name wrong. It's actor "Kyle MacLachlan", not "Kyle McLaughlin."