Scorsese Makes An Offer The Mpaa Can’t Refuse

Quentin Tarantino has a thing for violence, but the New York Observer says the same of Martin Scorsese. The director of “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “GoodFellas” has a new film, “Casino,” which makes those studies in bloodletting look like “Mary Poppins.”

In the opening scene, Oscar winner Joe Pesci, “in a role that makes his character in ‘GoodFellas’ look like Albert Schweitzer, stabs a man to death with a ball point pen.”

Add that to the smashing of hands, squeezing a skull in a vise, slipping a plastic bag over a man’s head and slitting his throat, plus swinging an ax “to make Raskolnikov look like a wuss.”

After watching an uncut three-hour screening of the movie, an audience member wondered aloud what adjective would best describe the movie. Another viewer answered, “Heartwarming.”

Loose talk

Demi Moore, offering a reason for why it was OK for producers to change the ending of her film version of “The Scarlet Letter”: “Not many people have read the book.”

He’s lim-pin’ in the rain, just lim-pin’ in the rain

Gene Kelly turns 83 today.

He kept screamin’ ‘Who’s da boss? Who’s da boss?’

Angry at two men who videotaped him on the beach with his children, TV star Tony Danza has been accused of chasing the men, forcing their car to the curb, smashing the car’s window and stealing the videocam. Danza wasn’t arrested, but the case was being reviewed on Monday by the Malibu, Calif., prosecutor’s office.

Let them all write books, the way Newt did

The movie “Dangerous Minds” was inspired by a special San Jose highschool program that offers a combination of academics and job training to special students. Now comes word that the program may lose its funding. This comes as no surprise to LouAnne Johnson, the author whose memoir was the basis for the movie. “They start chipping away at it until it’s gone,” Johnson told the San Jose Mercury News.

Suspense is a key trait to this Donner party

Director Richard Donner says you can expect something new from the next Sylvester Stallone movie, “Assassins.” “He only kills one person in the entire picture,” Donner says. “It’s a psychological thriller.”

He’s just doing his bit for international relations

For a guy still grieving the breakup of his three-year marriage to Cindy Crawford, Richard Gere is handling matters pretty well. Gere, 45, was photographed romping nude recently in the surf with 25-year-old Swede Stina Norbye. The photos ran Sunday in Britain’s News of the World.

Imagine, indeed, and take the rest of the day to do so

So why are Hugh Hefner, wife Kimberly Conrad Hefner and their two sons, ages 3 and 5, moving out of the Los Angeles Playboy mansion? “There is always something going on, like a photo shoot, at the mansion,” an unidentified Playboy representative told Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. “Imagine coming down the stairs to that every day.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photo

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster