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Why De Niro’s Diva Act Was Completely Out of Line

Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer forgets purpose behind awards season

Robert De Niro blasted President Donald Trump in a speech earlier this week.

Don’t stop the presses.

The Oscar-winning actor can’t stop talking about Trump. He does it on public stages, during talk show interviews and via award galas.

Trump, Trump Trump.

Robert De Niro delivers anti-Trump tirade at Tony Awards

He’s hardly alone in Hollywood, but at this point we all know precisely how he feels about the nation’s 45th president.

It’s the ultimate “dog bites man” story at the end of 2023.

The co-star of “Killers of the Flower Moon” still tried to bring up Trump during an awards season gala tied to his latest Martin Scorsese project. The legendary director’s “Moon” is in serious contention for major awards, including a possible Best Picture Oscar.

De Niro snagged a speaking gig at Monday’s Gotham Awards, one of the first major events of the annual Oscar season. The gala ostensibly honors independent films, but this year the gala removed the $35 million budgetary cap allowing mainstream fair like “Moon,” “Barbie” and “Air” to compete for top honors.

The big story, though, belonged to De Niro.

Actor Robert De Niro slams Gotham Awards during fiery live speech | Sunrise

The actor prepared a speech including several digs at you-know-who, but the company behind “Moon” edited the barbs out.

That’s Apple, by the way. The mega company forked over $200 million to produce the film and it hoped De Niro would keep the focus on “Moon,” not the actor’s grievances.

No such luck. And no one bothered to tell the “Goodfellas” icon about the switch. 

De Niro, noticing the anti-Trump comments got edited out of the teleprompter, clumsily inserted them back in. He had a copy of the original speech on his phone, so he whipped it out and read it from there.

“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal … the former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. And he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But with all his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows disrespect, for example, by using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur.”

The latter is a reference to Sen. Elizabeth Warren lying about her alleged Native American heritage for decades. Trump dubbed her “Pocahontas” to mock her serial lies, although most conservatives prefer the “Fauxcahontas” insult.

Trump has said many cruel things in his political career, but that particular swipe is richly deserved.

De Niro ended the speech like a petulant child.

“I don’t feel like thanking [Apple or Gotham] at all for what they did,” he said. “How dare they do that, actually.”

Awards season is meant to honor the artists behind some of the year’s best films. It’s a tribute to storytelling and the motion picture arts.

De Niro wanted his podium time to attack a politician. Team Apple, according to Variety, hoped he would do the right thing and keep the focus on what could be one of Scorsese’s last directorial efforts.

Instead, the actor made the moment about himself. It’s the kind of egomaniacal stunt a certain ex-president might admire.

It’s also worth noting that De Niro, like virtually the entire Hollywood industry, has been whisper-silent on the rise of censorship across western culture.

Suddenly, when the actor’s words undergo a nip and tuck, he’s mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it anymore.

12 Comments

  1. Pretty much a one note actor for a majority of his films and felt he was overrated long before he went unhinged. A lot of people simply avoid anything he’s in nowadays because of his behavior.

  2. It’s obvious those head punches he took in “Raging Bull” were real and had a profound effect on his cognitive ability to reason.

  3. He’s bad for the industry and the industry hires him anyway. It’s like they don’t want me or any Trump voter to watch their movies. Or to ever consider coming back. I dumped Springsteen 20 years ago and I only hear him these days in department stores at Christmas time. Why are entertainers telling ‘normals’ how to vote anyway? Do you think we’re too stupid to make our own judgments? You think your life circumstances give you a special insight on who might be best for America? It would be really funny if the industry wasn’t on a financial precipice with tens of thousands of support personnel needing the work.

    And I award negative points to Apple and the award organizer for pulling the language from the teleprompter and being too cowardly to tell the big baby what they did. You’re afraid of that old booze hound? Give me a break.

  4. He reminds me of my senile father who can’t stop b*tching about how much of a liar Biden is. It’s not that he’s wrong, but I can’t help but wish he would just forget it for a while and be HAPPY in his later years. Stop focusing on politicians who, guess what, lie. Stop obsessing over things you cannot control, you know?

    I get the exact same vibe from DeNiro. Just my $0.02.

  5. RD’s a POS. Needs to go away. Always threatening Trump with physical violence, like he’s going to kick Trump’s ass or something. Hey Bob, you’re 5′-4″! Trump is 6′-4″! You’re not really a gangster! You’re an actor. A fake! Shut your mouth. Nobody wants to hear your dumb opinions. I’ll never pay directly for any of his movies again. Go away!!!

  6. What a whiny crybaby loser. Why does Hollywood continue to tolerate this nutjob? He is Box Office Poison. Killers of the Flower Moon was doomed the minute he was cast. Adding insult to injury is casting the other leftwing nut job Di Caprio in the movie. He has tainted his entire body of work. I can no longer watch any film he has appeared in. Him and Rob Reiner must speak frequently as they both have the same TDS.

  7. Is it that crazy to denounce a US Presidential Election loser who lies about the result and disrupts the peaceful transfer of power? Look to the facts which have been tested in court over 60 times and has not born a different result. Look to the 787.5 million that Fox news has paid out for spreading said lies that comport with Trumps narrative. Look to all those in his circle that are flipping on him now and admitting under oath that they too knew they were spreading baseless claims in an effort to overturn the election. Do you even care to know the truth or have you all given up on that in bad faith?

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