HOLLYWOOD

William Forsythe

HOLLYWOOD — Are you ready for a prequel/sequel to “Raging Bull”? Robert DeNiro won an Oscar for playing Jake La Motta in l980; now they’ve cast William Forsythe in the role. Forsythe played Flattop in “Dick Tracy” with Warren Beatty; Sammy “The Bull” Gravano in the HBO telefilm “Gotti”; and John Wayne Gacy in the 2010 film “Dear Mr. Gacy.” The new “Raging Bull” also has Joe Montegna, Paul Sorvino, Penelope Ann Miller (“The Artist”), Ray Wise, Robert Davi and Bruce Davison.

Martin Scorsese, director of the original “Bull,” who isn’t involved in this one, wonders, “At the end of ‘Raging Bull’ (Jake La Motta is) looking in a mirror and he’s at comfort with himself. He’s not fighting; he’s not beating himself up. That’s all. So, I don’t know where they’re going to go. I really don’t know what ‘Raging Bull II’ would be.” They must be planning to show Jake at the end of his life and in the beginning, when he was just a raging calf!
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Real estate values have gone down everywhere, but some properties never lose their value because they were once owned by celebrities! In Palm Springs, the home of the late “Jeopardy”/”Wheel of Fortune” creator Merv Griffin went on sale for $9.5 million. Former first family Gerald and Betty Ford’s house (where I once lunched with the late president) sold for $1.675 million last March. Liberace’s house sold for $1.3 million, Frank Sinatra’s home for $4.2 million, Cary Grant’s home is up for $3 million, and Suzanne Somer’s house is being offered for a whopping $17.5 million.

They all pale by comparison to the L.A. Coldwater Canyon home that “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest just bought from Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi for $37 million. The 12,000 square-foot home was once owned by “Dynasty” star Joan Collins and more recently by “Will & Grace” co-creator Max Mulchnick. Ryan still owns the gated Nichols Canyon estate he bought from Kevin Costner in 2006 for $11.5 million.

Diane Keaton made the move from New York and bought a 7,800 square-foot home in Pacific Palisades for $5.6 million, and Marilyn Monroe’s last home, a small house in Brentwood on Fifth Helena Drive, is for sale for an inflated $3,595,000. Who has that kind of money? Some people might call this real estate, but to me it sounds more like UNREAL estate!

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