DiCaprio Settles Lawsuit over B-ball Court

Leonardo DiCaprio has finally settled a lawsuit filed by his neighbours who claimed the actor destabilized their own prize piece of real estate, reports E! News.

Although specifics of the settlement were not released, the resolution was conditional on amicable “specified terms.”

According to the lawsuit, the couple filed a $250,000 complaint against DiCaprio and his cousin Robert Hrtica, the trustee of the estate, claiming trespass, nuisance and negligence.

DiCaprio and his cousin decided to build a basketball court on their property back in 2004, however, construction undermined a slope that was adjacent to the neighbours’ property and weakened the foundation of their swimming pool. The couple also claimed that DiCaprio and his cousin removed several of their plants without permission and ignored their request to stop building.


Clooney, DiCaprio Team Up For Political Thriller

Two of Hollywood’s leading men are collaborating on a political thriller loosely based on Howard Dean’s failed 2004 U.S. presidential election campaign.

George Clooney is in negotiations to direct and appear in ‘Farragut North,’ in which Leonardo DiCaprio would play an idealistic communications director working for an unorthodox presidential candidate.

The two actors, known for their political activism, would also produce the Warner Bros. film.

The film will be adapted from an upcoming Broadway play written by Beau Willimon, a former Dean staffer. The play is named for the Washington Metro station located near many lobbyists’ offices, and follows a presidential hopeful’s candidacy as its promising beginnings are ultimately undone by more experienced politicos, who engage in dirty political tricks and backstabbing.

The play, to be directed by Mike Nichols, is scheduled to open in fall 2008, just before the presidential election.

No start date has been set for the film version.


DiCaprio Guards Face Assault Charges

Two bodyguards minding LEONARDO DiCAPRIO are facing assault charges after being arrested following a fight with photographers in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli police have confirmed.

The scuffle with paparazzi occurred while the DEPARTED actor and his model girlfriend BAR RAFAELI took a private tour of the tunnels next to the Western Wall.

Israeli authorities are considering whether to bring charges against the two minders for the “unnecessary” assault.

Police spokesman MICKY ROSENFELD says, “We understand it was the photographers who were attacked. The photographers didn’t attack the security guards. It’s very clear it was an unnecessary incident.”

Both minders were released without charge, but on Wednesday local officials issued a restraining order against several of the paparazzi involved, according to DiCaprio’s spokesman.

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DiCaprio and Scorsese are ready for Teddy

After playing eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese’s last film The Aviator, Leonardo DiCaprio will team with the director again for another biopic – this time playing Teddy Roosevelt.

Reuters reports that the film would be based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the 26th U.S. president, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. The book, written by Edmund Morris, focuses on Roosevelt’s youth and his stint as commander of the Rough Riders cavalry, which prepared him for his presidency.

Scorsese will direct the Paramount Pictures project, and screenwriter Nicholas Meyer (The Human Stain) will adapt Morris’ book for the big screen.

“His life reads like a movie that requires a big bag of popcorn,” Meyer told Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety. “We start at 25, as he begins to transform himself through sheer force of will from this asthmatic, near-sighted 125-pounder to this Sherman tank of a man so tough that he once got shot on the way to make a speech and completed his talk, bleeding with a bullet in his chest.”

This would be the fourth collaboration between DiCaprio and Scorsese, who made Gangs of New York and The Aviator together. The two are currently filming The Departed, a remake of the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs.


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