It’s a Halloween staple in homes across the world each October, but it turns out Hocus Pocus could have been a very different film

By now everyone knows the tale of Max Dennison, the virgin that lit the black flame candle on All Hallows Eve and resurrected the Sanderson sisters.

Or if you don’t, you should, so go stream Hocus Pocus on Netflix right now.

The Disney film is a must-watch at Halloween, with witches on broomsticks, talking cats, zombies and wicked spells all playing a major part in the plot.

But while the film has a stellar cast – featuring the likes of Bette Midler , Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker – it turns out another huge Hollywood name almost starred in the movie.
For years after the film’s release, it was rumoured that Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio once auditioned for the role of Max.

And in case you didn’t already know, that rumour is 100 percent true.

Hocus Pocus director Kenny Ortega previously told Entertainment Weekly all about it in an interview and admitted that the Titanic star was the original inspiration for the character.

He said: “The [casting] ladies called me up and they said, ‘We’re sending you an actor today but he’s not available but you’re going to fall in love with him but you can’t have him.’ I’m like, ‘Why are you teasing me?’ They were like, ‘You need to see this guy because he’ll inspire you and if nothing else, he’ll help you find the right guy to play Max.’

“And they send me in a young Leonardo DiCaprio, who I completely and absolutely fall in love with. He’s just the most sincere and most centered and a wild child at the same time.”

But young Leo was feeling rather awkward about his audition – for a very good reason.

The actor knew he wouldn’t be able to commit to the project, because he was waiting to hear back for two other roles and wouldn’t have time to juggle a third.

Ortega explained: “He was like, ‘I just feel really bad being here because I’m up for two other movies and I really want them both and I don’t want to lead you on.’ I was like, ‘That’s okay, I was already warned. What are the movies?’ One of them was This Boy’s Life and the other one was What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
“Obviously, he left and incredible things happened for that young man, but meeting him awakened me to the kind of spirit and fun and sincerity that I was looking for in an actor and when Omri Katz came around, I fell in love again and he was our Max.”

Leonardo was just 18-years-old when he auditioned for a part in Hocus Pocus and in 2014 he told Variety he was offered “more money than [he] ever dreamed of” to play Max Dennison.

Looking back on it he revealed that he couldn’t believe he was brazen enough to turn it down at that age – for a part he hadn’t even gotten yet.

He reminisces: “I don’t know where the hell I got the nerve. You live in an environment where you’re influenced by people telling you to make a lot of money and strike while the iron’s hot. But if there’s one thing I’m very proud of, it’s being a young man who was sticking to my guns.”

TreePeople honored DiCaprio, mother of actor Leonardo DiCaprio, with the Evergreen Award for her work bettering the environment. The organization’s founder, Andy Lipkis, expressed his disappointment at the Senate decision as well, while presenting DiCaprio with her award.

“It’s hard right now,” Lipkis said. “We had a chance to save people, and we didn’t.”

While accepting the honor, DiCaprio detailed the origins of her family’s passion for the environment and the beginnings of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which she and her son established in 1998.

“I moved to Los Angeles and made it a point to live right at the edge of Griffith Park because the image of the forest in Germany was always in me,” DiCaprio said.

“This is where Leonardo was born — right there, within walking distance of the greatest city park in the world, and luckily, a short distance to the Hollywood movie studios. Even as a young child, Leonardo was always fascinated with nature and animals.”

Ronan Keating has opened up about the awkward moment Leonardo DiCaprio told him he couldn’t act. The Boyzone singer revealed he was flown to New York to audition for Moulin Rouge, for Baz Luhrmann himself, alongside Leo and Ewan McGregor. But fans will know Ewan manged to win the role, starring opposite Nicole Kidman in the 2001 musical. And, speaking about the audition, the dad-of-four explained: ‘Baz Luhrmann brought me to New York and I read for Moulin Rouge.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/01/leonardo-dicaprio-told-ronan-keating-he-couldnt-act-after-boyzone-star-missed-out-on-moulin-rouge-role-7995019/?ito=cbshare

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The party is officially over for one Thai bay made famous by the 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio flick “The Beach,” as the beach has been closed indefinitely due to environmental concerns over extreme tourism.

Thai officials announced Monday that Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh island in the Andaman Sea will remain shuttered to visitors following a four-month temporary closure that began June 1, in an attempt to save the local coral reefs, Reuters reported.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio took to social media this week to praise vegan brand Beyond Meat, in which the actor was an early investor. “Proud to be an investor in the #futureofprotein,” DiCaprio posted to Twitter and Instagram, where collectively the actor has 45 million followers. DiCaprio—an avid environmentalist—shared new sustainability statistics compiled by the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Resources that compared Beyond Meat’s plant-based Beyond Burger to its beef counterpart to reveal that producing the vegan patty uses 99 percent less water, 93 percent less land and 46 percent less energy, and emits 90 percent fewer greenhouse gases. Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown (along with Impossible Foods CEO Patrick O. Brown) was recently honored by the United Nations with a “Champion of the Earth” award for innovating a product that has the potential to displace animal agriculture—an environmentally damaging industry that the UN said “has brought us to the verge of catastrophe.”

Diners at the two locations — both just outside of Los Angeles — will have a choice between the vegetarian “Beyond Taco,” which is layered with 100 percent plant-based Beyond Meat, cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, and your choice of tortilla, and the vegan “Beyond Avocado Taco” made with Beyond Meat, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and your choice of tortilla. Even more excitingly, customers can also swap any meat for Beyond Meat in all Del Taco menu items including burritos, fries, nachos, and more.

Del Taco’s chief marketing officer, Barry Westrum, said that the Beyond Meat menu items have no scheduled end date as of now, as they “want to gauge acceptance prior to making further decisions on product availability.”

Customers can head to 2425 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica or 3705 Robertson Blvd. in Culver City to try the new menu items for themselves. Beyond Meat is just one of the many vegan alternatives so good, we don’t miss meat or dairy.

In 2009, the world’s biggest movie star developed an unlikely friendship with some obscenely wealthy Hollywood wannabes, whose millions in gifts to the Oscar winner became a focus of the largest corruption case in U.S. history.
On the morning of July 20, 2016, just as Leonardo DiCaprio was preparing to welcome the usual assortment of models and multimillionaires to his annual champagne-soaked charity gala in Saint-Tropez, the U.S. Department of Justice was unveiling to the public the results of its investigation into one of the biggest corruption scandals ever, an embezzlement scheme estimated to have reached a staggering? $4.5 billion.

The forfeiture complaint, filed in Los Angeles, listed more than $1 billion of U.S. assets — including Hollywood mansions, New York apartments, private jets, artwork and, most notably, the 2014 blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street, which garnered five Oscar noms and grossed almost $400? million globally — that it said had been bought with money illicitly obtained via myriad financial structures from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB. Among those cited in the DOJ’s filings were Riza Aziz, the stepson of then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and the producer who set up Red Granite Pictures alongside Joey McFarland with the help of $64 ?million tapped from 1MDB. Then there was Jho Low, the flamboyant financier and big spender who had successfully leveraged his close ties with Razak to use 1MDB to his ?advantage.

DiCaprio’s connection to the 1MDB scandal can be traced back to October 2009 and his relationship with Low. Still in his late 20s yet newly flush with what the government claims was $700?million in allegedly siphoned 1MDB funds, the baby-faced Malaysian had embarked on a wild U.S. shopping spree — regularly dropping millions of dollars in A-list nightclubs as he attempted to lure celebrities into his paid-for orbit. Paris Hilton and Jamie Foxx were among those drawn in by his seemingly bottomless pockets, and he reportedly dated Miranda Kerr. But DiCaprio was the prized ?asset.

Alongside the gifts that he would shower on his new friend DiCaprio — including a lavish trip to South Africa to watch the 2010 World Cup, a Basquiat painting and even Marlon Brando’s Oscar for 1954’s On the Waterfront — Low would become a neighbor, spending $39 ?million (traceable back to 1MDB) on a vast Hollywood Hills mansion just a few doors down from the star.

Four years later, the scene is markedly different. Ex-PM Razak is facing trial in Kuala Lumpur (and potentially the rest of his life in prison), while Aziz spent four straight days being grilled by Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission in early July. Low, meanwhile, is on the run, believed to be hiding in China. Some reports suggest he may even have undergone plastic surgery to evade capture. Last year, Kerr, now married to Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, handed over more than $8?million in jewelry he had given her.

Billion Dollar Whale, from Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, tells the complex story of Low and the international players who had a role in the 1MDB scandal. This excerpt describes how they managed to suck in Hollywood’s biggest star and throw one of the most spectacular parties in the history of Cannes. And how it all came crashing down. —? Alex Ritman

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Continue reading How to Buy Your Way Into Leonardo DiCaprio’s Inner Circle (Exclusive Book Excerpt)

Now that’s one headline we never thought we would write: Coldplay, Leonardo DiCaprio, cargo shorts and Santa Rosa all in one. But stranger things have happened when celebrities descend on an otherwise (pretty) ordinary town.

On Saturday, September 15, Leonardo DiCaprio’s foundation hosted a benefit art auction at Santa Rosa’s Jackson Park Ranch. Coldplay singer Chris Martin performed at the event, which benefited environmental causes. But before the band came on stage, Martin took the opportunity to perform a solo number he had written for the occasion. It was an ode to something slightly odd: not the preservation of the environment or endangered species, but to Leo DiCaprio’s love of cargo shorts.

“I studied him very closely,” Martin sang, accompanied by his guitar, “Personally, and on the Daily Mail website … for about five or six years. What became clear to me was his unbelievable service, his commitment to the business of cargo shorts. This is a guy who said ‘I’m going to save these shorts from extinction, they should’ve gone out about 25 years ago.’”

The moment was captured on video by an audience member, and has now gone viral. View videos here.