Robert De Niro’s restaurant chain sells endangered tuna
A Michelin-starred restaurant chain part-owned by the actor Robert De Niro is serving endangered bluefin tuna at its London outlets without telling customers, DNA tests have shown.
Undercover investigators targeted the Nobu chain, which has 21 restaurants on four continents and is the haunt of celebrities such as Madonna, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
At three Nobu restaurants in London, investigators from the environmental group Greenpeace ordered tuna dishes described on the menu only by Japanese terms for the cut of the fish they were from.
They asked staff to identify the tuna species used. Samples were later tested to determine the type. Dishes from all three were Atlantic bluefin.
The distinction is important because the Atlantic bluefin and the southern bluefin are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List because of overfishing. Most sushi eaten in Britain is from less endangered species such as yellowfin, but Japanese chefs are known to consider bluefin the most delicious.
Nobu does not specify on its menus which species of tuna it serves. Requests for the information by campaigners have been met for several years with a terse “no comment”.
- from UK
De Niro exits ‘Edge of Darkness’
Robert De Niro has abruptly ankled “Edge of Darkness,” the Martin Campbell-directed drama that Graham King’s GK Films began shooting in Massachusetts on Aug. 18.
De Niro just arrived on the set this week.“Sometimes things don’t work out; it’s called creative differences,” explained a spokesman for the actor.
De Niro had signed to play an operative sent to clean up the evidence in the murder of a young woman. Mel Gibson stars as the victim’s father, a homicide detective for the Boston Police Dept. who uncovers her secret life, a corporate cover-up and government collusion.
- from Variety
De Niro Plans Good Shepherd 2 & 3
From Empire:
Before The Good Shepherd – Robert De Niro’s second movie as a director, starring Matt Damon as a buttoned-up spy in an epic, decades-spanning look at the development of the CIA – opened in 2006, there had been talk that De Niro and the movie’s writer, Eric Roth, had concocted plans for a trilogy.
Then the movie met with a respectful, if muted, critical response and a worldwide gross of (just ) under $100 million, and that seemed to be that.
Yet De Niro picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this weekend, and revealed that he’s still hoping to make another two films following Damon’s anti-Bourne, Edward Wilson.
The second film would follow Wilson and the CIA from 1961 to 1989, while the third movie would bring us up to date.
De Niro, being De Niro, didn’t reveal too much about the movies – what stage they’re at, if Roth is writing them etc. etc. – but he did say that he might take advantage of his European sojourn to do some preliminary investigation. “I had not been planning to do research on that while here, but it is a good idea,” he said.
Robert De Niro weighs in on possible strike
From Variety:
Robert De Niro weighed in Saturday on the debate over a possible strike by actors in Hollywood, coming down firmly against any work stoppage.
The actor, director and producer, whose “What Just Happened,” opened the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Friday and who received a lifetime achievement award, told a packed news conference the next day that now is not the time to take to the barricades over residual payments for DVD and other media exploitation of movies.
“I do not think it is a good time to strike now. The issues could be resolved over the next couple of years (without strike action),” De Niro said.
He contrasted calls by SAG to strike with the deal done by the DGA on the same issues, suggesting that directors had “done their homework” to get a decent deal.
“I do not think the actors have done that,” he said. “I do not know if it is the right time to be doing this at all with the economy the way it is.”
De Niro Spits CAA
In the latest development in an already eventful agency week, Robert De Niro has left Creative Artists Agency. Speculation has the veteran actor moving over to Endeavor. De Niro recent built a high quote in the comedy arena, where his salary approached $18 million for “Meet the Fockers.” De Niro’s move would cap one of the more eventful week in the history of Endeavor, which just hired exiting UTA agents Nick Stevens, Lisa Hallerman and Sharon Sheinwold, a move that so far has brought Ben Stiller into the fold, with other stars like Jack Black looming as possibilities.
Via Variety
De Niro, Barrymore and Beckinsale are ‘Fine’
Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell are set to star in the Kirk Jones-directed “Everybody’s Fine.” Miramax Films acquired worldwide rights on the film that will begin shooting in Connecticut later this month. The remake of the Giuseppe Tornatore film “Stanno tutti bene” was written by Jones. He came aboard when the redo was first set up by Hollywood Gang Prods. and Cecchi Gori USA (Daily Variety, March 16, 2006). De Niro will play a widower who realizes that his deceased wife was his only connection to his children. He decides on a whim to take a road trip to reconnect with each of his grown kids, discovering that their lives are far from perfect.
Via Variety