Joe Bruno on the Mob – The Boston Battle For the Bulger Movie

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This is turning out to be a better fight than Ali-Frazier: a fight to see who will produce the better flick about Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, who was arrested early last year after 16 years on the lam.

In one corner you have the not-so-dynamic duo of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who won an Academy Award for their movie “Good Will Hunting,” in what seems like a few generations ago. Both men are from the Boston area, but both were not exactly what you would call “street kids.”

“We’ve heard about Whitey Bulger since we were kids,” Affleck said recently.

No kidding. I’ve heard about Bulger too, for about the last 35 years, but I’m not looking to make a movie about the man.

In the other corner you have Mark Wahlberg, who did some time in the can himself as a youth, but then straightened out his life out, first as a rap star, then as a movie star. Wahlberg, according to reports, knows people similar to the type of people he would have to portray in a Bulger movie.

Wahlberg said about making the Bulger movie, “I can do it better than anybody else.”

There is even a possibility Wahlberg will visit Bulger in prison to get his “blessing.”

I’m going with Wahlberg on this one. Damon and Afleck have become Hollywood pseudo-intelligencia brats. They champion one liberal cause after another, and they have lost whatever “street sense” they may have had, if they ever had any “street sense” to in the first place.

Wahlberg is the real McCoy, a street kid who rose above his petty crime childhood, and made it big on “street sense” and hard work. His obvious acting talents, much greater that Damon and Afleck’s combined, doesn’t hurt him much either.

You can see the article below at:

 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/wood_war_over_whitey_GejLRgCkdaM70yyXR5uvDN

H’wood war over Whitey

By LEONARD GREENE

Last Updated: 7:15 AM, January 16, 2012

Posted: 2:58 AM, January 16, 2012

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As long as Boston’s most notorious gangster remained on the lam, the Hollywood heavyweights who told his story didn’t mind working together.

But now that James “Whitey” Bulger is behind bars, the stars trying to bring his life to the big screen are in a fight as bitter as any mob war.

On one side are Academy Award winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who are already in the process of developing a Bulger movie with Warner Bros.

On the other side is Mark Wahlberg, who said he might visit the subject himself in prison to get his personal blessing.

Both sides are counting on their Boston roots to tell the most authentic tale.

“We’ve heard about Whitey Bulger since we were kids,” Affleck said in a statement.

Wahlberg says he can “do it better than anybody else.”

Bulger was arrested in August after 16 years on the run. He was charged with 19 murders.

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Joe Bruno on the Mob – Mob Rat Lewis Kasman Has No Shame

 

Imagine, a rat, a stool pigeon, one of the lowest forms of life, telling the world that actor John Travolta is not a tough enough guy to play John Gotti Sr. in an upcoming movie. And to make matters worst, Lewis Kasman, who once called himself John Gotti’s “adopted son,” also thinks that actor Ben Foster is not enough of a thug to play John Gotti Jr.

Of course, Kasman has his own angle for saying these things. He’s writing his memoir “The Last Son,” and is creepy enough to time it’s release at the same time Gotti’s Jr. movie “Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father” is scheduled to be released.

First of all, I don’t know what Kasman’s relationship was with Gotti Sr. But I do know after Gotti’s Sr.’s death, Kasman, in order to save his own smelly hide, went over to Team America and began wearing a wire. Kasman is such a lowlife creep, he even wore a wire when he was talking to Gotti Sr.’s wife Victoria, while the lady was going through a severe illness.

It’s hard to imagine anyone sinking any lower than that.

Kasman is right about one thing. John Gotti Sr., no matter what you think of him, was a “man’s man.” When he was finally convicted and sent to prison for life, Gotti Sr. kept his mouth closed. He never deviated one iota from the Mafia’s vow of omerta. Not like Kasman, who became one of most despicable canaries in recent memory.

I can’t conceive of anyone actually buying Kasman’s book and expecting to read the truth. All you need to do is remember is Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s autobiography, which turned out to be a pack of lies too.

But at least Sammy was a made guy at one time: a “man of respect” in Mafia terms. Kasman, from what I hear, was nothing but a go-fer for Gotti Sr., and was never a tough guy, not even for one day in his crummy life.

And by the way, Kasman is “The Last Son” of who? Certainly not of John Gotti Sr, who if he were alive today, would spit right in Kasman’s face, for even hinting there was some connection between the two.

Vote with your feet people, and run away from Kasman’s book. You’re better off throwing your money into the East River.

The article below can be seen at:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gotti_crony_blasts_disco_johnny_SeZpMR4jb7peldMmW1w2TN

Ex-associate rips Travolta, other Gotti movie casting choices

By BRUCE GOLDING

Last Updated: 7:08 AM, September 26, 2011

Posted: 1:53 AM, September 26, 2011
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A once-trusted associate of mob boss John Gotti is giving a thumbs-down to having John Travolta portray the late “Dapper Don” in an upcoming biopic.

Mob rat Lewis Kasman — whom Gotti once considered like an “adopted son” — told The Post that picking the “Pulp Fiction” star probably has the notorious Gambino crime-family godfather spinning in his grave.

“I think if he was asked, he would not be pleased at Travolta playing him,” said Kasman, who entered the witness-protection program after cutting a deal with the feds.

Speaking by phone from his current hiding spot, Kasman said that while Travolta is a “great actor,” the part should have gone to a “tougher guy.”

“For John Gotti Sr., you need a man’s man to play that role,” Kasman said.

“John Gotti Sr. never danced a dance in his life,” he said, taking a jab at the “Saturday Night Fever” hoofer Travolta.

A better choice, he said, would have been “Godfather” veterans Robert De Niro or Al Pacino, who’s set to play a supporting role as Gambino family underboss Aniello “Neil” Dellacroce.

Kasman — whose undercover work for the feds helped him avoid an 11-year prison term — also said that “X-Men” star Ben Foster had been “miscast” as John “Junior” Gotti.

“He’s a thug, so you need someone who’s a thug . . . a guy who grew up in that life,” Kasman said of Junior, offering “The Fighter” star Mark Wahlberg as a better pick for the role.

He plans to time the publication of his memoir, “The Last Son,” to compete with the release of Junior’s movie, “Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father.”

Kasman maintains that the elder Gotti died “hating” Junior.

Kasman, who gave the eulogy at Gotti’s funeral, also said he’ll disclose the murderous mobster’s secret relationships with “the millionaires and billionaires of New York.”

Those movers-and-shakers allegedly include the late hotelier Leona Helmsley, with whom Kasman claims he was carrying on an affair when he arranged Junior’s lavish 1990 wedding at the former Helmsley Palace Hotel.

A publicist for Fiore Films, which is producing Junior’s movie, said, “I think we’ll stick with the decisions made by our Academy Award-winning team of filmmakers, instead of taking casting advice from someone who has never made a movie.”

Gotti’s widow, Victoria — who last week gave her blessing to having Travolta play her late hubby — called Kasman a “rattlesnake personified” and said he “becomes an authority only when he has a diary of lies to sell.”

Travolta was summoned to Victoria’s home in Howard Beach, Queens, on Thursday to get Mamma Gotti’s blessing for the role. He spent more than two hours at the house screening family movies.

The actor — who was still making his bones playing “Sweathog” Vinnie Barbarino on “Welcome Back, Kotter” when John Gotti Sr. was being made as a Gambino family capo in the late ’70s — mimicked the boss of bosses’ sprightly strut as he left the mob matron’s house with Junior.

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