Red Granite Pictures, the production company behind Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-nominated The Wolf of Wall Street, is in some potential, to use a legal term, brouhaha. As we reported last week, there are “accusations that their financing is actually money that was diverted from a fund meant to stimulate the Malaysian economy,” which “could mean that the large majority of the money used to make [Wall Street] is tainted.” Jordan Belfort, be proud.
Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t “directly implicated” in any wrongdoing Red Granite might have done, as “any money that was diverted was done so prior to [his] involvement.” But he still unintentionally (and hilariously) capitalized.
A [Hollywood Reporter] source claims a ton of dough also was spent at a birthday party to impress the Wolf star.
“It was pure debauchery,” says the source. “The Red Granite guys were having a competition on who could spend the most money on champagne service. They spent over a million dollars buying bottles that were brought out by scantily clad women, with sparklers on each magnum that were $25,000 each.” A representative for Red Granite “absolutely” denies that “this event ever happened.”
Red Granite also reportedly spent $600,000 on Marlon Brando’s 1955 best actor Oscar for On the Waterfront as a “gift for DiCaprio’s 38th birthday.” Leo’s 41 years old now, so this was a few years ago. Now, all he gets for his birthday is Victoria’s Secret models and Gentle Ben DVDs.
(via the Hollywood Reporter)
