De Niro's 'Fan' Research
Hollywood -- June 26, 1996 -- In the upcoming Robert De
Niro/Wesley Snipes/Ellen Barkin "The Fan," De Niro plays an
obsessive baseball fan who's out to exact revenge from Snipes,
the player whose slump is causing Bobby's favorite team to lose.
Interestingly, "Fan" writer Phoef Sutton says that all of the
stars -- celebrities who themselves are vulnerable to obsessed
fans -- expressed sympathy for De Niro's character. Says Phoef,
"We're talking about human beings here. These are not people who
walk into a room and you say, Uh-oh. There's trouble.' If you
met [a fanatical fan] you'd probably see him as kind of a misfit,
but not that bad. They're misguided people who've missed some
connection somewhere." De Niro's research into fanatical fans
included watching videotape interviews with such real-life
examples as Mark David Chapman (John Lennon's killer) and Robert
John Bardo (who shot actress Rebecca Schaeffer). "It was a
pretty intensive couple of weeks," he says. He also says, "some
stars say they do a lot of research, but they really don't. De
Niro really does do as much as everybody says he does." The
writer says "The Fan" was written before De Niro came aboard.
"You always talk about which actors you think are going to do
which parts, and it's a fool's game because it never turns out to
be who you think it's going to be," he says. "I was working on
another movie, and one day the studio called and said, What would
you think of Wesley Snipes for the part?' And the very next day,
they called and said, Well, what would you think of James Garner
for the part?' Same part." What a role that must have been.
Belushi's Santa Takes Pains
Hollywood -- June 27, 1996 -- Jim Belushi, who plays a Santa who
tries to make extra money with black market toys in Arnold
Schwarzenegger's currently-shooting "Jingle all the Way," is
limping around at the moment. He explains, "We were shooting
this scene yesterday that had my character starting a fight with
Arnold. He didn't want to fight with Santa, but finally got so
frustrated he pulled at my beard. He snapped it back and I
ended up doing a back flip and hitting a pole." He also ended up
with a twisted ankle. Belushi's had a lot of experience playing
Santa. He reveals that during his college years he built up a
nice business renting himself out as Santa on Christmas Eve.
"There were about 20 families I'd go to each Christmas Eve.
They'd each pay me $15 -- remember this was the mid-70s' -- and
I'd make some nice money to buy Christmas gifts and such." What
wasn't so nice was the year he was driving in a Santa outfit, was
pulled over by police and arrested for operating an automobile
without a valid driver's license. Bah, humbug!
Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.