De Niro Steps out – a Man About Town

Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are everywhere.  Since it’s basically, or seemingly, a wide open race this has put the campaigns into hard core overdrive. Robert De Niro got his footprints in cement at the Mann’s Chinese theater in Hollywood. They’re having a De Niro tribute at the Aero theater in Santa Monica, a hotbed of Academy activity. They’ll be showing Taxi Driver and Mean Streets.   And the actor also broke down in tears in a moving interview.

For his part, Bradley Cooper too has been everywhere, too.  The idea here is that Silver Linings Playbook is not a romantic comedy but a film about mental illness, about finding a silver lining.  That is up to the audience to decide but a guy I know who works at a hospital told me that the film reminded him of many people he sees coming in and suffering from bi-polarity.  Nonetheless, it’s Oscar season and there are awards to be won. I expect to see much more of this over the coming weeks as Oscar ballots are sent out on February 8th.  The pressure, the pressure!