Although he’s an icon, he’s an “idiot” with money — that’s one the takeaways from Al Pacino‘s new memoir, Sonny Boy.
According to excerpts from the New York Post, Pacino found himself in a shortfall, partially from his own lavish spending and partially because his accountant was involved in — and later jailed for — a Ponzi scheme.
Although The Godfather was a huge hit, Pacino only got $35,000 for playing Michael Corleone, and after paying his agents and the like, he was “broke.”
He explained it was his Godfather co-star, then-girlfriend Diane Keaton, who marched the actor before his attorney in the mid-’80s to try to beat some financial sense into him. “You’re going to tell me, ‘Oh, he’s an artist.’ No. He. Is. An idiot,” she reportedly said.
Calling his spending even into the 2010s “a crazy montage of loss,” he said at one point he had 16 cars, 23 cellphones and paid a landscaper $400,000 a year for “a house I didn’t even live in.”
And then there was the shady accountant.
Pacino said, “I had fifty million dollars, and then I had nothing.”
He was also supporting his three children at the time — and added a fourth in 2023.
Pacino said his now “dear friend” Adam Sandler threw him a lifeline — and a big check — for 2011’s Jack and Jill.
“Jack and Jill was the first movie I made after I lost my money. To be honest, I did it because I didn’t have anything else. Adam Sandler wanted me, and they paid me a lot for it.”
At 84, the actor says he “has to think very seriously about my estate now … I have to get advice from people who are way smarter than me.”
Etienne Laurent/POOL via AFP via Getty Images, FILE
A New York grand jury indicted disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein on Thursday, prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in court.
Weinstein — who is recuperating after emergency heart surgery — was not present, and prosecutors asked the judge to set a date for his arraignment.
Judge Curtis Farber ordered the city corrections department to house Weinstein in the Bellevue Hospital prison ward, if medically necessary.
“Inattention at Rikers carries very real risks. He could find himself again in crisis,” Farber said.
The new indictment remains sealed until arraignment, so the charges are not yet known. As ABC News previously reported, prosecutors presented evidence of three alleged sex assaults from varying time periods that were not part of his previous case.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office previously presented evidence to the grand jury over an alleged sexual assault that occurred sometime in a four-month time period between late 2005 and mid-2006 in a lower Manhattan residential building, according to a transcript of a court hearing.
Prosecutors also indicated they were aware of two other potential offenses: a sexual assault in May 2016 in a hotel in Tribeca and a potential sexual assault that occurred at the Tribeca Grand hotel.
Thursday’s hearing was held days after Weinstein was rushed from Rikers Island, where he is being held, to Bellevue Hospital for emergency heart surgery after experiencing chest pains, his representatives told ABC News.
William Shatner, the man who is synonymous with Star Trek, appears in a new video from Julien’s Auctions to promote its forthcoming “Bid Long and Prosper” event.
The spot has Shatner reunited with the very Trek communicator he held as Capt. James T. Kirk on the show 60 years ago. The prop — which, the spot specifies, does not produce its iconic “chirp” as heard in the promo — will be one of more than 200 items from the groundbreaking sci-fi franchise in the auction on Nov. 9.
The piece is expected to fetch between $100,000 and $200,000 — but as in nearly every case, screen-used props often sell for much more than the estimates.
Also up for grabs is Kirk’s screen-used phaser prop, expected to sell in that same price range.
Other items that were close to Shatner, literally, include the Starfleet uniform he wore, with an estimated price of $65,000 to $85,000.
The actor, author and real-life space traveler says, “When I did my three-year stint on Star Trek, each year we were in jeopardy of not being renewed.” The fact that the show ignited a “phenomenon,” Shatner says, “Nobody could have anticipated that.”
The navigation console from the Enterprise is also hitting the block, and you can be sure it will go for more than the $50,000 to $70,000 estimation.
Shatner also reminisced about his real-life trip off-planet in 2022, aboard a Blue Origins rocket, and spoke of the “passion” Star Trek stoked in people to pursue careers in aeronautics and engineering. Shatner enthused, “My gosh! That’s incredible!”
