LITTLE ROCK — Leonardo DiCaprio, the Oscarnominated U.S. actor, will assume the title role in a remake in Australia of The Great Gatsby after Sydney beat New York to produce the movie. Baz Luhrmann will direct the Warner Bros.-backed film, based on the 1920s novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the production will inject more than $120 million into the state’s economy, the New South Wales government said in a statement.DiCaprio, who worked with Luhrmann 15 years ago in Romeo + Juliet, reprises a role made famous in 1974 by Robert Redford. Luhrmann was born in New South Wales and directed fellow Australian Nicole Kidman in the 2008 movie Australia and 2001’s Moulin Rouge!, according to the Internet Movie Database.
An Austrian news agency is quoting a quirky construction mogul as saying he won’t be taking actress Bo Derek to Vienna’s famous Opera Ball and that her replacement may be the teenager at the center of an investigation into Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Richard Lugner, a 78-year-old who loves the limelight, books a different celebrity for the fancy affair every year. Recent dates have included Paris Hilton and Dita Von Teese.Lugner announced last week that Derek, who is famous for roles in Tarzan the Ape Man and 10, would be next. The Austria Press Agency on Sunday quoted Lugner as saying he would cancel his contract with the 54-year-old because she wanted $25,000 more than originally agreed to. He added that he had 20 other candidates to choose from but wouldn’t divulge more until March 1, two days before the bash. But he later told the press agency that his team has almost completed negotiations with Karima el-Mahroug, an 18-year-old nicknamed Ruby, who is at the center of an underage-prostitution investigation that has sent Berlusconi to trial.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/21/2011