Hoffman, De Niro turn heads even in worldly, jaded Venice

Only major star power can set the heads of Venice, Italy's jaded concierges and door bouncers swiveling, and with the Lido landing this week of Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro at the Venice Film Festival, rubberneckers had their biggest field day in years.

The occasion was a press junket here for producer-director Barry Levinson's crime drama "Sleepers," which had its world premiere Wednesday night. The Italian media's embrace of "Bobbee!" and "Dusteen!" is so complete that well over 200 of its regulars spilled onto the Lido docks to greet the pair and fellow "Sleepers" stars Jason Patric, Vittorio Gassman, Levinson and producer Steve Grodin when they arrived.

So what did these movie's "monsters" think of working together, asked one reporter? "I'll never work with Bobby again, I find him very difficult!" quipped Hoffman, looking tanned but a bit bleary-eyed from the trip over.

De Niro parried: "I told Dustin to just make sure you know your lines."

Pub Date: 8/30/96