Sylvester Stallone

[princess 1,712]

people.comMONDAY, FEB. 14: He's already got Oscar-nominated actor and screenwriter on his resume – and now Sylvester Stallone is adding magazine editor to his list of accomplishments. The magazine, appropriately named Sly, will make its debut with the motto, "Stay in the Game Past 40," a little something the man at the helm knows about. Besides exercise and health features, the publication's debut issue features Sly's interview with porn queen Jenna Jameson on how to become a knockout in the bedroom. Just in time for Valentine's Day.

[princess 1,712]

Do you think he cringes every time Flavor Flav and his ex-wife Brigette get camera time?

[Selice 0]

Stallone's wife life saver(BANG) - Sylvester Stallone has revealed how his life was saved by his ex-wife, Brigitte Nielson.The Hollywood actor has told for the first time how Brigitte rushed him to hospital and kept a bedside vigil for nine days after he was injured filming 'Rocky IV'.He revealed: "I was groggy and every time I opened my eyes I saw nuns around my bed. I thought I was dead"Brigitte saved my life, though I have never said it to anyone."The accident occurred when Stallone was sparring with fellow actor Dolph Lundgren, a former body builder.The 'He-Man star' hit Stallone so hard it caused his heart to swell.He said: "I had been hit so hard the injury was like being in a car collision."In January, Stallone revealed that at the age of 58 he is planning to make a further instalment of 'Rambo', as well as another Rocky movie.He spoke of the new project saying: "We're in the kitchen and we're cooking. I've had meetings about this and it looks good. We'll see what we can come up with."

[BobbyD 2]

(IMDB.COM)Stallone To Make New Rambo Movie Movie hardman Sylvester Stallone is making a fourth Rambo movie, seventeen years after the last film was made. The news comes shortly after Stallone announced plans for a sixth Rocky film in 2006. Rambo IV will see former Vietnam veteran John J. Rambo retired into a quiet life until he gets involved in the case of a missing child. The movie will be shot between Mexico and the United States. Filming is scheduled to start in the spring.

[Cutielb99 0]

From MSNBC's The Scoop:

 

Sylvester Stallone didn’t hedge when AintItCoolNews.com asked him what was the worst film he’d ever made. “The worst film I’ve ever made by far,” the “Rocky” star said, “maybe one of the worst films in the entire solar system, including alien productions we’ve never seen… a flatworm could write a better script than ‘STOP! OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT.’” . . . .

[sanlee 49]

Sylvester Stallone tells "Aint it Cool News" that his plans for “Notorious,” a movie he was developing about the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., has stalled and may never make its planned debut on HBO. “I became involved in the Tupac/Biggie project about 4 years ago," says Stallone of the film, which he intended to direct. “Gathering all the data, these two giant rap stars were murdered in front of numerous witnesses and no arrests have ever been made. This, on the surface, said to me some very important people had to be involved. Police Chiefs?” Stallone continues: “The story was like a modern-day noir written from the point of view of a Detective [Russell] Poole, who basically was railroaded out of the police department because the more he investigated, the dirtier the high rollers in city hall and police commissions and DA offices all appeared to be part of a conspiracy to squash this case.

I don’t think it’ll ever be done because of the amount of lawsuits that would be filed.”

[BobbyD 2]

Gere and the gerbil

 

Did Sylvester Stallone start that bizarre urban myth about Richard Gere and a gerbil?

 

The “Rocky” star says Gere thinks he does. As Stallone tells it, he and Gere had a falling-out on the set of the 1974 flick “The Lords of Flatbush.”

 

According to Stallone, Gere was supposed to have the role played by Perry King, but he and Gere “never hit it off” and Rocky got so mad at Gere that he elbowed him in the head over a greasy chicken.

 

“[Gere] would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table,” Stallone told AintItCoolNews.com.

 

He says that one time during a fight scene things got a little too real, and at another point, things got physical during a lunch when Stallone went into a Toyota to eat lunch.

 

“I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper," said Stallone. “I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay.”

 

Gere’s spokesman wasn’t available for comment, but according to Stallone: “Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me. He even thinks I’m the individual responsible for the gerbil rumor. Not true, but that’s the rumor.”

[annabeast 24]

My first inclination for a post was ... "and we have a thread on him because???"

 

Then I saw this

The magazine, appropriately named Sly, will make its debut with the motto, "Stay in the Game Past 40,"

40???? Try 60.

[Cutielb99 0]

"I am a has-been. I mean, there's no question. You're never what you were, you're only hot once. Everyone, the first few years of bein' hot, is kind of on their way to being a has-been. It's just that 'has-been' has a terrible connotation. Has-been is a good thing. You have been something."

– Sylvester Stallone, reflecting on his career highs and lows upon releasing Rocky Balboa, the sixth installment of his movie series, to Entertainment Weekly

[Cutielb99 0]

From PopWatch Blog:

 

Not sure what's scarier about this pic, taken Tuesday night at the Rocky Balboa premiere afterparty in Vegas: is it Carrot Top's seemingly steroidal muscle development (who knew punching collect calling codes on payphone buttons was such good exercise?), or is it the notion that he, Sylvester Stallone, and Tom Jones might be hatching some megalomaniacal plot for world domination involving inflatable props and swingin' Welsh R&B riffs?

 

[BobbyD 2]

UPDATE: 'Rocky' Opens With Knock-Out; Tracking Giant 'Museum', Great 'D-Girls'

 

UPDATE WED PM: I'm told MGM's Rocky Balboa started fast with a $6 million mid-week opening Wednesday from 2,752 theaters. Early word had been that the matinees were "looking good" since the movie is better than anyone ever expected. (Although I wish Sly had kept his mouth shut since he made a fool of himself every time he's been interviewed in recent weeks...) Stallone knocked out the competition, so Sony's The Pursuit of Happyness was #2, Paramount's Charlotte's Web #3 and Fox's Eragon #4. But, my box office gurus tell me that, by this weekend, Rocky may only be #3 behind the expected #1 -- Fox's Night At The Museum, which will be the giant Christmas movie this year -- and #2, Sony's The Pursuit of Happyness. Those pics will be ahead of Universal's The Good Shepherd, Disney's We Are Marshall and the holdover from Fox, Eragon. Dreamworks / Paramount's Dreamgirls is looking great, I'm told, definitely Top 3 during Xmas week even with only 800 theaters. So, by December 26th, it should be #1 Museum, #2 Pursuit, #3 Dreamgirls, #4 Rocky, and, believe it or not, #5 Sony's holdover The Holiday.

[purplehaze 0]

I've always liked Stallone. Hope his new movie is a success.

[sanlee 49]

23 December 2006

THE REAL ROCKY

 

 

The underdog who knocked Ali to the canvas and became the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's blockbuster movies

 

Exclusive by Ryan Parry In Bayonne, New Jersey

 

 

BLOOD and sweat pouring from his brow, Chuck Wepner launches a thunderous hook to the body and sends Muhammad Ali flying.

 

The boxing world champ stumbles back into the ropes and down on to the canvas. It's the first and only time Ali will be knocked down while holding the heavyweight title.

 

The culprit is a 30-1 underdog - nicknamed the "Bayonne Bleeder" - who whips the Cleveland crowd into a frenzy. Watching that night of March 24, 1975, is a young actor named Sylvester Stallone.

 

Inspired by what he witnessed, Stallone started writing. Three days later, he finished the first draft of Rocky, the movie script that spawned one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood history.

 

In the years since - and through four sequels - Stallone never denied that Rocky Balboa was based on the real-life Chuck Wepner.

 

"What I saw that night was extraordinary," Stallone recalled in a 2001 interview that became part of a Rocky anniversary DVD. "I saw a man they called the Bayonne Bleeder, who didn't have a chance against supposedly the greatest fighting machine that ever lived."

 

Nor was there any question that Stallone made hundreds of millions of dollars from Rocky. But Wepner never saw a penny.

 

In August this year, Wepner, 67, won a large undisclosed settlement in a lawsuit against Stallone, who he accused of using his name to promote the Rocky films.

 

The result proved once and for all that Wepner was at the heart of the Rocky legend.

 

Now, 30 years after the Ali fight, the sixth Rocky film is about to hit cinema screens, with critics already saying the movie is almost as good as the 1976 original.

 

So the Mirror tracked down the real Rocky to discover what kind of man could inspire such a major event in popular culture.

 

We find the "Bayonne Bleeder" still in Bayonne, New Jersey - and the hulking 6ft 5in, 250lb bruiser is as imposing today as he was three decades ago.

 

THE ex-Marine is famed for not having been knocked out in 51 fights but he certainly took some punishment along the way. A gruesome 127 stitches, 11 broken noses and a broken cheekbone tell their own story.

 

And the similarities he has with Rocky are astonishing. Both were club fighters - human punching bags hoping to land the one-in-a-million blow that could bring them fame.

 

Both were white fighters given their dream match against flashy black heavyweight champs.

 

Both lost - Balboa in a close, brutal fight with Apollo Creed, Wepner by TKO in the final round against Ali.

 

"The biggest similarity is that I was the big underdog going the distance with a great champ - I was the guy that nobody gave a chance and he shows the world," says Wepner.

 

"Stallone saw the fight and said the crowd was chanting 'Ali, Ali', and after I knocked him down they were singing 'Chuck, Chuck'.

 

They started backing the underdog - and that's when he got the inspiration."

 

Wepner says that after Stallone saw him that night he researched his life and wrote the Rocky script.

 

"There was a lot of interviews and articles about me before the Ali fight and he used a lot of that stuff.

 

"He used his own heritage in Philadelphia but the rest was me.

 

Running up the steps, that was me. I used to jog up the steps in County Park, in Jersey - they filmed that for TV. I'd run up and throw punches, just like Rocky.

 

"Even the trainer was the same as mine - the bad eye and rough voice. He used so much of my life but why not? It's great stuff!"

 

Wepner also says Stallone called him after writing the script. "He said I inspired him and I was invited to the premiere."

 

In Rocky II, Stallone even offered Wepner an audition for a part that was later cut. And when Stallone filmed Copland in 1997 near Wepner's home, the ex-boxer visited the set. "He called Robert De Niro and said, 'Do you know who this is?'" Wepner recalls. "He's patting me on the back, hugging me, kissing me."

 

There weren't many accolades for Wepner in the ring - before or after Ali. "I never told anybody I was a great fighter," he says, "but I gave 100 per cent."

 

It was after his career had ended in 1978 and Rocky II was released in 1979 that he noticed Stallone was using his name to promote the films more and more.

 

And after 30 years of slaps on the back and broken promises, Wepner had finally had enough.

 

"My wife Linda pushed me to do it and when we spoke to the lawyers they found that Stallone had not only used my name, he'd used my pictures, interviews and everything.

 

"The case went to court and it was a no-brainer - we won easily."

 

In court, Wepner remembers that the judge wasn't exactly taken with Stallone's cavalier approach.

 

"Stallone is like 'You know Rocky is a busy man', Rocky this, Rocky that. He goes back and forth from being Stallone and Rocky..." The original film earned three Academy Awards, including best picture. Its four sequels have grossed more than £500million.

 

Wepner settled the £8million suit for an undisclosed figure but the humble fighter says neither party harbours any hard feelings.

 

"I love Sly. He came up at the end of the case, we shook hands and he said: 'Chuck, I know it's just business. No hard feelings.'"

 

WEPNER is still full of praise for the star. "He is brilliant. He created the Rocky legend. OK, I inspired the movie but Stallone made it work."

 

Approaching 70, Wepner is still superfit. He has been married to his third wife, Linda, for 12 years, runs a successful liquor sales business and has three grown-up kids.

 

At his modest apartment are an array of belts, trophies and photos from his years as a pro boxer. But, like most fighters who got the chance, nothing will ever compare to the night he fought Ali. "You're fighting not only for the heavyweight championship of the world but you're fighting Ali - in front of 150 million people.

 

"I knew I wasn't the greatest fighter but I was a tough guy. I was in the best shape of my life and figured I had a shot."

 

In the ninth round, he unleashed it and the champ was knocked to the canvas. "It wasn't a great punch but Ali almost went out of the ring!"

 

In the 15th and last round, an exhausted Ali sent an equally spent Wepner to one knee and referee Tony Perez stopped the fight a mere 19 seconds from the final bell.

 

Wepner admits his talent was never ducking punches. "Luckily, I could take a punch - I was never really hurt in all my fights.

 

"Thirty years later, I'm running a business, doing motivational speaking, giving out interviews and I tell ya, I'm faring a lot better than most of my fellow fighters.

 

"I'm very lucky. I have my health and, though I was never a champ, I'm treated like one."

 

 

Rocky Balboa hits UK cinemas from January 19.

 

 

r.parry@mirror.co.uk

[sanlee 49]

janet charlton

 

ROCKY: WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS MAKEUP ARTIST

 

It's not likely that Rocky Balboa will win an Oscar (although it's doing well at the boxoffice) but we think the makeup artist should be up for an award.

 

Not only did she make up Stallone's face, but she had to AIRBRUSH on his six - pack ABS every day that he went shirtless in the ring scenes! It's amazing, but those stomach muscles are FAKE! A little shading goes a long way.

The simulated abs look surprisingly real and we predict a lot of guys in Hollywood will be wanting this done.

[Cutielb99 0]

ROCKY TELLS OF EVANS SPAT

Page Six

 

December 27, 2006 -- "ROCKY Balboa" star Sylvester Stallone answered a few fan questions on AintItCool.com. But he also cleared up the tiff between him and Robert Evans, which caused him to withdraw from the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola movie "Cotton Club." According to Sly, one afternoon Evans "dumped a duffel bag full of X-rated Polaroids" in front of him, and in that pile was "a very X-rated Polaroid" of the girl he was dating. "I thought blood was going to come out my eyes," wrote Stallone, saying the incident "was beyond anything so perverse." He also admitted that, at the time of that incident, his "marriage was in shambles" and his new girlfriend was "a struggling actress hoping to amount to something." Richard Gere ended up with the role in the doomed movie.

[Cutielb99 0]

A LOT OF ROUNDS TO GET 'ROCKY' MADE

By Cindy Adams

 

December 27, 2006 -- SO last week I'm on this yacht, mind ing my business, grousing about "One more Sylvester Stallone- 'Rocky Balboa' story, and I'll jump overboard" when fellow passenger Toni Howard says, "Because of me, this latest 'Rocky' movie finally got made."

 

Toni Howard, ICM executive v.p. who handles folk like Samuel Jackson and Laura Linney, had given a 2004/2005 New Year's Eve party. Guests included her then-client Stallone and Revolution Studios chief Joe Roth. Also Irwin Winkler, who, with his partner Bob Chartoff, had co-produced all the "Rockys." For a load of reasons, nobody wanted to make this film. Sly had done everything possible, but, since the last one of the series had gone down for the count, MGM and Winkler and Chartoff felt they'd pass on another.

 

Forget Santa's elves, it's Hollywood agents who never sleep. A nudge from Toni, a clink of glasses and a handshake from Joe, who said he would read the script.

 

New Year's Eve is also Toni's birthday. She was feeling lucky. She got Joe Roth the script. He loved it, and the rest is what's filling movie theaters.

 

So much for a little holiday/vacation/New Year's Eve party Hollywood-style.

[kappy22 1]

From PopWatch Blog:

 

Not sure what's scarier about this pic, taken Tuesday night at the Rocky Balboa premiere afterparty in Vegas: is it Carrot Top's seemingly steroidal muscle development (who knew punching collect calling codes on payphone buttons was such good exercise?), or is it the notion that he, Sylvester Stallone, and Tom Jones might be hatching some megalomaniacal plot for world domination involving inflatable props and swingin' Welsh R&B riffs?

 

I don't get Carrot Top. He has eye make-up on like a transvestite but then has those grotesque muscles. I just don't get it.

 

I also don't understand why Stallone is looking so bad. Two years ago on The Contender, he looked great. Now his face looks puffy like someone who's had medical problems. Like Purplehaze, I like Stallone and wish him well. I'm just hoping he simply stopped exercising and started eating big time and doesn't have something more serious going on.

[Cutielb99 0]

Sly Stallone: 'Every Day Was an Advil Day' Doing Rocky

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 27, 2006 05:00 PM EST

By Oliver Jones

 

Against all odds, Sylvester Stallone is back in the ring at age 60 – and, perhaps even more astounding, Rocky Balboa, the sixth installment in his Rocky series, has gotten warm reviews.

 

But much has changed for both Stallone and his alter ego in the 30 years since the original Rocky earned a Best Picture Oscar. Here, the writer, director and reluctant action hero talks to PEOPLE about his aching bones, keeping up with Arnold and why getting older hurts in more ways than one.

 

Was it hard getting in shape for this one? Were those bones creaking a little?

Without a doubt. This one was injury-prone. The joints wear down and you get inflammations of things that you didn't even know existed. It became about living with conditions because nothing was going away. Every day was an Advil day. In all five Rocky (movies) put together I didn't have this many injuries.

 

So show us your scars, Balboa. What did you hurt?

I broke my foot. I had a bulging disk in my neck. I shredded a calf muscle. It was so bad it had to be put in a cast. There (was) a lot of contact because I wanted it to be very realistic. We didn't choreograph (the fight scene), so we ended up having the ragged edges, those awkward moments that make it real. In the other Rocky (movies) it was all kaboom-kapow-kaboom.

 

Did you have any idea when you became an actor that you would be training like an Olympic athlete at a time when most people would be thinking about retiring?

No. In the original Rocky, I didn't have that spectacular a body. I was just this average-looking guy. But it was the beginning of the action era, and slowly but surely it developed. Then Arnold (Schwarzenegger) came along and really set the bar and I suddenly had to keep up with this guy.

 

Do you enjoy working out or is it hell for you?

I like it now, because it's become a hobby as opposed to a chore. I feel bad when I don't do it. I get these pangs of guilt. I've been doing it for 45 years, really.

 

Forty-five years working out and you wrote a Best Picture Oscar winner. You're hardly a typical meathead.

I work on that too. I spend a couple of hours every morning doing head exercises – reading, getting on the computer. I have this thing I do called brain games. I try to remember numbers backwards, that sort of thing. I'm not too good at it, but I try.

 

But aren't you the same guy who famously wrote the first Rocky in three days?

Three and a half – but I keep reminding people that it was not a shooting script. Only about 10 percent of it was salvageable. But I am a rewriter. I enjoy the process of writing. I can never understand those people who spend two years trying to get the perfect script one time out. That's not writing, that's waiting.

 

How long did this one take to write?

This one was complicated. It wasn't working for the first four or five drafts that I had. Adrian was still alive and it was about saving the gym so children could work out there. It was more plot-oriented and didn't deal with emotional turmoil the way the first Rocky did. So I thought I would plunge Rocky to his lower depths, and that's how I devised the death of Adrian. That was the breakthrough that made the movie happen. I mean, a guy like Rocky would be at wit's end if she died. She was everything to him. They had spent 30 years at each other's side. It was the basic idea that life wasn't supposed to be so hard. You make a lot of money, you get to the top and you say "Why aren't I any happier then I was when I was broke?"

 

This sounds like your story, not just Rocky's.

I think so. The character, though I try to distance myself from him at times, has become very autobiographical. But his way is a lot more street poetry then mine is.

 

As a rich guy living in Beverly Hills, what do you know about the poetry of the streets anymore?

There is no question that the rarified air can get to you. You get this strange entitlement, you lose touch. But things really started to slow down for me about 10 years ago and now I have a lot of time for introspection. If I had been cranking out films, very successful ones, I wouldn't have done this. But I thought, this really translates to a very common dilemma for anyone who reaches the age of, say, 55. You reach that crossroads and society basically has deemed you passé. You've had your chance; now they expect you to just move aside for the next generation.

 

Which begs the question: Can you swear on a stack of Bibles that this really is the end for Rocky Balboa?

Sure. I couldn't top this. I would have to wait another 10 years to build up a head of steam, and by that point, come on.

[Freckles 79]

the Italian Stallion is surprisingly articulate.

[purplehaze 0]

He's in amazing shape for a 60 year old.

[stilllovewestley 0]

Stallone attacks Mexican border fence By ISTRA PACHECO, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jan 5, 9:45 AM ET

 

MEXICO CITY - Sylvester Stallone defended boxing, praised the hard work of Mexicans and dished out some jabs against U.S. plans to build a wall on its southern border, as the 60-year-old actor visited Mexico City to promote his sixth "Rocky" film.

 

Stallone said Thursday that "Rocky Balboa," the latest installment in the underdog saga of the Italian Stallion, shows an ordinary man fighting back against life's difficulties represented by his stronger ring opponents.

 

"It's like bullfighting or certain sports where you understand the brutality," he told reporters. "The thing is you have two men who are prepared; two men who have trained for this and know exactly what they're doing. It's not like two strong men attacking strangers."

 

In "Rocky Balboa," an MGM Pictures release, the aging scrapper is running a restaurant when a computer-simulated bout inspires him to put the gloves back on. In one scene, his character defends his restaurant's immigrant cooks and waiters against slanderous comments.

 

"I support Mexicans who work in my country," he said, adding that the United States depends on the hard work of Latinos to keep running.

 

In comments to Mexican media later, Stallone criticized plans to build 700 miles of fence along the border as an immigration-control measure.

 

Such a fence was "crazy" and "ridiculous," he said, arguing that nations should be able to interact without being divided by walls.

 

The Mexican government has railed against the fence with former President Vicente Fox comparing it to the Berlin Wall.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I love his comments about supporting Mexicans who work in his country. This from the man who was rumoured to leave turds in hotel showers so housekeeping would have to clean it up? Yeah - that's one man who respects his fellow humans. What's the matter? Mad that Rocky Balboa was beat by a kiddie flick at the box office and needing some attention?

Edited January 5, 2007 by stilllovewestley

[taco 0]

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaa, perhaps Sly has had just a tad to much tweaking.

 

From The Manolo,

Separated at Birth: The Palooka and the Princess

 

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/2655/puffyslyor5.jpg

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4007/masakouc1.jpg

[nsmallaz 0]

He looks bad. He NEEDS a face lift or a face bag. Or a mask. He needs to choose.

Edited January 9, 2007 by nsmallaz

[sanlee 49]

panachereport.com

 

Sylvester Stallone declined a request by Mike Tyson to star as his opponent in the latest “Rocky,” sequel. Stallone didn’t fancy getting into the ring with the former heavyweight-boxing champion. He says, “Mike wanted to fight me in the film but I thought it was a bad idea. I know I’m not young but I’m still too young to die. “I said, ‘Thanks, but I don’t think that would be a good idea. Thank you very much.’ “But he kept calling the office saying he wanted to be in the film fighting me. Eventually, I relented and said he could be in the audience. Then I never heard from him. Suddenly, when I turn up in the ring he’s there at the side. “I turned around and said to the crew, ‘Can you make sure you keep that son of a bitch out of the ring. If he gets in he’ll kill me.’ The man’s a killer.”

[crystalb 0]

id do him... hes 40 years my senior but damn! he has a nice body