YOU TALKIN' TO ME? LA Times staff writer Patrick Goldstein on film legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro: "The two icons of '70s New Hollywood, heroes to a generation of young actors and filmmakers, have become parodies of themselves … they're grumpy old men, relegated to raking in loot from cartoonish comedy and generic thrillers."

• Betty White's still got it. Always had it, too. [CityRag]

• Leelee Sobieski collects human hair, which is much creepier than her dead eyes.[DListed]

• Are you so obsessed with famous people and their breasts and asses that you can tell one's bare body apart from another's? If yes, go on vacation. [PS]

• Christie's believes there's a buyer out there willing to pay $3 million for a bunch of pictures of supermodels. The thing is, Christie's is probably right, because very wealthy, horny old men have no idea how to use the Internet. [HT]

• "Jessica Alba Flying In Her Third Trimester." That's bad? We don't know anything about babies. [INO]

• Robert De Niro just dropped out of a movie that would have been his second with co-star 50 Cent. Nice choice, Bobby. [ICYDK]

• Sorry, haters, but hairy legs in the winter are pretty standard. [Yeeeah]

COPYCATS "Four of Hollywood's most influential thesps — George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — are pressuring the Screen Actors Guild to launch its contract talks as soon as possible to avert a strike."

Because they know that Italian-Americans love their mob movies, the Barack Obama campaign asked Deputy Pope Robert De Niro to speak in New Jersey's Meadowlands on behalf of the Presidential hopeful. "Barack Obama doesn't have the experience to run for president of the United States, and I can prove it" De Niro said. "He did not have the foresight to vote for the Iraq War. You know: that's the kind of inexperience I can get used to." At this, the frustrated Garden State audience chanted, "Just say, 'You talkin' to me?'" until the actor left the stage.

• John Mayer swears Jessica Simpson "loves Texas more than you know," which is an important endorsement…more than you know. [Jossip]

• Eddie Murphy already scared away another one. [DListed]

• Probably not pregnant because she's going out for sushi. If pregnant: shame! [INO]

• Tara Reid! Guess what sort of state she's in. [HT]

• Britney Spears is suing a photographer, meaning she still has lawyers working for her. Three years of law school and hundreds of thousands of dollars for that. Good decision, counselor. [ICYDK]

• Gwyneth might be preggeth. [Yeeeah]

• Robert De Niro's hotel will charge you $625 per night, but $500 will get you enough cocaine to make friends with someone from the Village with a foldout couch. Make the right decision. [CityRag]

Last night we went to a kicky party for The Atlantic's 150th birthday! We had a great time, but many of the other attendees hated it. That's probably because we, the guests, were made to partake in free booze and revelry in front of them. Who was "them"? The audience assembled to point, stare and seethe at us; well dressed, imbibing zoo animals were we. We thought it was funny. Others – from both the stage and the house – did not.

Mayor Bloomberg was there and so was Robert De Niro. Moby, who claims to be a fan of The Atlantic since the age of 10, was heard saying his favorite part of the magazine was "the list of numbers they have in the beginning." We think he meant the Harper's Index, which runs in a completely different highbrow publication altogether. Ha! Patti Smith performed later in the evening and she sounded really good.

We enjoyed it, The Atlantic. Now you've only to convince almost everyone else.

Go here to see video.

Francis Ford Coppola, in the new issue of GQ:

"I met both [Al] Pacino and [Robert] De Niro when they were really on the come," Coppola tells GQ's Nate Penn. "They were young and insecure. Now Pacino is very rich, maybe because he never spends any money; he just puts it in his mattress. De Niro was deeply inspired by (Coppola's studio American) Zoetrope and created an empire and is wealthy and powerful.

"I don't know what [either] of them want anymore. I don't know that they want the same things. Pacino always wanted to do theater … (He) will say, 'Oh, I was raised next to a furnace in New York, and I'm never going to go to L.A.,' but they all live off the fat of the land."

This coming from the owner of a vineyard and two Central American resorts, but misery, company, that whole deal.

[Source]

No, really, she a big name-in-lights movie star, in her heart. This just isn't the week for the rest of us to catch up to that vision. Tara Reid suffered another crushing career blow, the likes of which she hasn't felt since they failed to make a Body Shots II, when she learned that the brilliant movie role she landed wasn't exactly opposite Robert De Niro as she previously thought. Rush & Molloy reports:

The star of E!'s failed "Taradise" was "jumping up and down and screaming" Saturday night at the Delano Hotel in Miami when she got a call on her mobile phone that she'd been cast in "Senior Skip Day" and that the "Raging Bull" and "Meet the Fockers" great was to be her co-star.

"It's all she talked about all week," says our spy."

Reid's agent, Rich Hueners, told our Deborah Newman, Tara "was offered that movie, yes. Whether it's opposite Robert De Niro, I can't say."

Stan Rosenfield, De Niro's spokesman, issued a quick denial: "He's not involved. It's not true."

Apparently, Reid's the last one to know.

"I don't think she'd be making that up, because she told so many people out there!" laughed our spy. "Her assistant even made a toast for her at the Blue Door, congratulating her on getting the movie."

Tara, Tara, Tara, sure De Niro hit a low with Meet the Fockers, but Senior Skip Day? She might as well call that one a straight to vid and save the heartache of expecting to see her name above the title on the movie poster.

[Source]