Fans of "Wag the Dog" star Robert De Niro were worried when an EMS crew hustled up to the actor's Tribeca penthouse Wednesday night.

Did De Niro hurt himself? It's a mystery. A friend of the actor confirmed the EMS crew visited De Niro's loft, but vouched that the person in need "wasn't Bob," adding only that the incident "was a big nothing."

Police and the EMS weren't saying either.

"We got a call about an injury at a top-floor location there," police spokesman John Giammarino told us. An EMS spokesman said: "A person with an injury was treated and released on the scene. They refused medical aid."

A spokesman for De Niro was unavailable for comment.

Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy

De Niro's mother, Virginia Admiral, went around over a year ago asking neighbors whether they'd mind if her son built an extension. According to De Niro's architect, Frank Hollenbeck, they all said, "Fine."

But now that they've gotten a gander at De Niro's proposal to tack on more than 4,000 square feet — including a deck with hot tub — the neighbors are bridling. They say the construction would endanger the bluff that rises above the property.

So far, the East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals has agreed — voting on June 9 to deny De Niro's request for variances.

Twelve years ago, local officials shot down De Niro's bid to build a studio where his father, the late artist Robert De Niro, could paint in peace. Small wonder the actor has been spending more time at a new house in Ulster County.

His architect tells us the star hopes to return to Montauk "when he has a really nice house. Now, it's just an empty disaster."

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The actor and his wife are said to have come close to splitting in the last few months. It "looked imminent for awhile there," says one source close to the "Raging Bull" star. Says another pal: "They had a beef and made up. But who knows how it will end?"

Word is that Hightower wishes De Niro would spend more time with her and their son, Elliot, who was born in March.

De Niro is known to be an attentive dad, but he's also a workaholic whose films take him all around the world.

One friend of Hightower observes: "She knew his behavior patterns before she got married to him." Still, one source believes the actor has been "trying to make himself scarce. It's like he and Grace lead separate lives."

Hightower is said to have discussed the couple's pre-nuptial pact with friends who have legal and financial expertise.

De Niro, meanwhile, has made plans to rent two apartments in a luxury building near the couple's Tribeca loft. Ostensibly, the new digs are temporary lodging while their current place undergoes renovation. But some suspect De Niro also wants the extra space as a buffer zone or an escape hatch.

Right now, a truce seems to be in effect while De Niro stays in New York shooting "Analyze This." Even so, the strong-willed Hightower is said to remain at odds with some of her husband's inner circle of friends and assistants.

Hightower also apparently doesn't approve of the nannies who take care of the twin boys De Niro fathered with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith.

"She doesn't want those nannies taking care of Elliot," says a friend. "It's perfectly natural from a mother's point of view. But not from De Niro's."

De Niro's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, declined comment. Hightower couldn't be reached.

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The actor could be dragged into another sex inquiry. Just as the "Wag the Dog" star is starting to simmer down after being grilled by French authorities probing a prostitution ring, his name has popped up in a Pennsylvania pedophilia case.

De Niro has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Rather, he has been asked to be an alibi witness for Bruce Wishnefsky, who has been charged with 133 counts of sexual assault against two underage girls in Carbon County, Pa.

Wishnefsky's lawyer, Robert Kurtz, is contending the girls could not have been raped by his client in Pennsylvania because they were on the set of De Niro's 1992 film "A Bronx Tale."

The girls had accompanied "Tale" crew member Brian J. O'Neill to the set. Last June, O'Neill was convicted of more than 230 counts of molesting the two girls and five other children.

De Niro's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said the actor had not been called to testify and doubted a judge would would uphold such a subpoena.

"This story has nothing to do with Robert De Niro," Rosenfield told us. "He doesn't know the girls involved."

Meanwhile, De Niro was happy to sit for another type of questioning on Monday in New York.

For three years, James Lipton, dean of the Actors Studio, has been trying to get him to submit to an interview for broadcast on Bravo.

Hollywood's most button-lipped star agreed and chatted for almost two hours. Some of the better bites:

• On Robin Williams breaking De Niro's nose while shooting "Awakenings": "My nose was [already] broken in this direction. He knocked it back . . . so, actually, he corrected it."
• De Niro's favorite word: "Refinement."
• His least favorite word: "Boorish."
• His favorite curse word: begins with an F.
• What would he say when he arrives at the pearly gates: "If heaven exists, I would say to God, 'You've got a lot of explaining to do.' "

The audience of acting students adored the Oscar-winner, who's due to start filming here next week on "Analyze This." (He plays a mob boss who hires a shrink, played by Billy Crystal, to cure his nervous breakdown.)

The New York shoot should give him time to bond with his and wife Grace Hightower's newborn son, whose name, we have just learned, is Elliot.

Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy

Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy

De Niro was slated to record a CD of Pope John Paul's poems. But now that French authorities have grilled him in connection with a call-girl ring, the invitation has been rescinded.

"These are poems written by the Pope, after all, and it appears that the image we had of De Niro when we made the proposal is far from the truth," says the Rev. Giuseppe Moscati, who is coordinating the project. De Niro was questioned but never charged in the matter.

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Judge Frederique N'Guyen, the court magistrate in Paris who pulled in the screen star for nine hours of questioning Monday about a notorious prostitution ring, angrily defended the move, saying he had good reason for it.

"No matter how violent and defamatory the attacks on me are, it will all come out at the trial that I acted properly," he told us yesterday in a call from Paris. "I have 20 years of experience. I am doing everything according to the law. I know what I am doing."

But De Niro spokesman Stan Rosenfield counters, "He's starting again with innuendo. . . . This is a story not driven by any fact."

De Niro was released and not charged following the questioning.

Meanwhile, De Niro went back to work in Paris, where he is filming "Ronin," a spy thriller directed by John Frankenheimer.

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According to Reuters, De Niro was questioned for more than nine hours but was released without being charged. His lawyer, former French Justice Minister Georges Kiejman, told reporters that the actor was asked about his relationship with a prostitute connected to the ring. Kiejman, apparently unhappy with De Niro's treatment, said that he planned to sue N'Guyen for violating secrecy during an investigation and for unlawfully restraining De Niro's movements. He claims that the magistrate ignited a "media circus" by sending policemen to De Niro's hotel, when the actor had already said he would appear if summoned.

French celebrities have also been questioned about the call-girl ring, which was allegedly run by a former Swedish model, Annika Brumark, and a soft-porn photographer, Jean-Pierre Boureois. Both have been locked up since January on procurement charges. The two are accused of arranging for about forty women to go on very expensive "dates" with well-to-do businessmen from all over the world. For the record, prostitution is legal in France, but pimping is not.

De Niro's wife, Grace Hightower, whom he married last June, is pregnant and plans to have the child in Paris.

Source: Mr. Showbiz

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Besides, points out Rosenfield, Fox execs were a bit preoccupied with another of their movies. "Something about a boat?" Rosenfield jests.

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De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower, are expecting a spring arrival. The actor is already besotted with the twin boys that he fathered with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith. De Niro and Smith are said to have an arrangement by which they swap the twins, Aaron and Julian, every four days. So, lately, the boys have been spending a lot of time in France, where De Niro has been shooting John Frankenheimer's thriller "Ronin." But no sooner do the boys taste their first foie gras than it's back to New York or to Miami - for what Smith calls "beach reality." It all sounds a little unreal for your average 2-year-old. But the lads must be racking up some enviable frequent-flier miles.

Source: Daily Dish - Rush & Molloy