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The Night John Belushi Died (De Niro and drugs)
Hollywood Reporter ^ | April 25, 2019 | Shawn Levy

Posted on 04/25/2019 9:49:36 AM PDT by yesthatjallen

SNIP

At Chateau Marmont, Belushi was occasionally seen in the company of Robert De Niro, who had come to Los Angeles to look into some new film projects. The pair knew each other from lower Manhattan. De Niro had been a guest at Belushi's home, where a basement rec room was the scene of some wild late-night parties (at one, De Niro cut his hand so deeply that he had to go to the hospital for stitches). Since he had last visited the hotel to make the aborted Bogart Slept Here, De Niro had acquired the habit of keeping more or less on retainer an upper-floor penthouse at the Chateau, preferring to stay in the hotel after having some bad experiences with rental houses during recent trips to Hollywood. His laundry was done by the hotel staff, his car was kept under a dustcover in the hotel garage, and he came and went unnoticed: a New York apartment dweller utterly at home in a place that felt like a Manhattan high-rise.

On this visit, De Niro had been joined for a time by his young son and adolescent daughter. One afternoon, he took them to a party where they encountered Belushi snorting such quantities of cocaine and heroin that he had to excuse himself to go find a place to vomit. That sordid spectacle didn't stop De Niro, who was using cocaine himself in those days, from seeking Belushi's company regularly after the kids went back east. De Niro would occasionally come down from his suite to Belushi's bungalow to hang around, laugh and party, or the two would bump into each other in the VIP rooms of various Sunset Strip restaurants and nightclubs and set off together on some sort of spree.

On Thursday night, March 4, De Niro was bopping around town with actor Harry Dean Stanton, and the two kept phoning Belushi to get him to come out and join them, first at Dan Tana's, an Italian restaurant favored by movie people, and then at On the Rox, the exclusive nightclub on the Sunset Strip where famous folks could get up to just about anything. Failing to raise him, they drove over to the Chateau to see if they could coax him into a bit of play. Instead, they found him — and his bungalow — in an awful state. The living room was a shambles — not sloppy, but actually trashed, as if in a rage. And worse, a flinty, hard-eyed woman named Cathy was lounging amid the discarded pizza boxes and wine bottles and dirty laundry as if she had some claim to the place and to Belushi himself. De Niro didn't like the look of her at all — he called her "trashy" later — and he was happy to leave when Belushi suggested that he and Stanton go back to On the Rox and return to the bungalow after the club closed.

De Niro left, and when he returned to the Chateau a few hours later, it was to his own suite in the company of Stanton and a pair of women they'd met. There, he got a phone call from Robin Williams. The comedian had run into De Niro and Stanton at On the Rox, and they all agreed to meet up at Belushi's after Williams performed an unscheduled set at The Comedy Store, also on the Sunset Strip. On the phone, De Niro told Williams that he was busy and that he should stop by Belushi's on his own. Williams did and, like De Niro, was creeped out by the scene, leaving after a few words and a little coke. After he left, De Niro, too, stopped in at the bungalow, entering through the sliding glass patio door. He had a few words and a few lines and then took some of the cocaine that was piled on the living room table and went back to his suite. It was some time past 3 a.m.

At 8 a.m., a room service waiter delivered wheat toast, jam and a pot of coffee to Belushi's bungalow; Cathy Smith, the woman whom De Niro had shied away from, signed for the order, had her breakfast, cleaned up the room, especially the drug paraphernalia, checked in on Belushi, who was snoring loudly in bed, and left.

SNIP


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: cocaine; deniro; drugs; sex; wod
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To: yesthatjallen

So De Niro just slinked away from the scene and the situation scot free? Wow


21 posted on 04/25/2019 10:49:59 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: yesthatjallen
De Niro liked to party.

He also liked (and still likes) underage girls.

22 posted on 04/25/2019 10:56:54 AM PDT by SkyPilot (("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6))
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To: wardaddy; morphing libertarian
I actually met Keith Richards back in the 80s. He was a very gracious and nice.

Yes, he has had his substance abuse issues, but today he only drinks beer, and that in moderation.

Watch this interview with Keith on Jimmy Fallon.

Keith Richards late night

23 posted on 04/25/2019 11:02:37 AM PDT by SkyPilot (("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6))
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To: a fool in paradise

They were doing “speedballs” — coke and heroin mixed and cooked in a spoon, and injected into a vein with a hypodermic. Deadly stuff. Cathy Smith turned him on to it, and was doing the administering.


24 posted on 04/25/2019 11:08:17 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: V_TWIN

River Phoenix
Prince
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Whitney Houston
Amy Whinehouse
Heath Ledger
Kurt Cobain
Jim Morrison
Michael Jackson


25 posted on 04/25/2019 11:08:45 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: carriage_hill

Reading this entire story it was very sad, he had spiraled comp,Evelyn out of control, filthy surroundings, not bathing or shaving, food containers everywhere, cocaine piled up on table people just coming by and grabbing some WHAT A WASTE, SNL during that time was so funny the cast was just hilarious compared to today being absolute GARBAGE not funny AT ALL!!! Most of them died SO YOUNG!!!!


26 posted on 04/25/2019 11:15:27 AM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: Trump Girl Kit Cat

compEvelyn= completely WTH spellcheck


27 posted on 04/25/2019 11:17:02 AM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: woodbutcher1963
Just goes to show (me at least) fame and fortune do not necessarily equate to happiness and are things of this world and not what life is truly about. Just my 2cent.
28 posted on 04/25/2019 11:25:43 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: V_TWIN

Sam Kinison died in a head on collision near Needles, California (4/10/92) caused by a drunken 17 year old who crossed the center line with his pickup truck and hit Sam’s Firebird.


29 posted on 04/25/2019 11:37:16 AM PDT by dainbramaged (If you want a friend, rescue a pit bull.)
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To: yesthatjallen

This is life for these creeps: flying around the country “looking into projects,” sliming through bars and nightclubs hustling women (or men), sleazing back to their palatial digs at all hours to get even drunker and more wasted ...

A tableau of complete, non-stop debauchery.

And we’re supposed to listen to the scumbuckets advising us on MORAL matters???? Why not just get the advice direct from Satan and cut out the middleman?


30 posted on 04/25/2019 11:38:30 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: woodbutcher1963

Keith Moon
Tommy Bolin


31 posted on 04/25/2019 11:41:01 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: dainbramaged

Yes I am aware of that. However, since as I understand it Kinison led a life not unlike Belushi’s, I suspect the accident just happened to transpire prior to what would have eventually happened to him anyway. Just my opinion.


32 posted on 04/25/2019 11:47:13 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: yesthatjallen

The average poor person would be dead in a year if you handed them a million dollars.


33 posted on 04/25/2019 11:49:02 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (Prov 24: Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not associate with those given to change.)
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To: woodbutcher1963

Actually Keith Richards has a rather healthy lifestyle these days. From what I hear, he’s living mostly clean and sober. Which likely explains why he is still alive. Ditto with Willie Nelson. Those two love the notoriety so they don’t make any efforts to play that reputation down.


34 posted on 04/25/2019 11:54:40 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: IronJack

Wow, Tommy Bolin.

We wore that album out(Private Eyes), we played it so much.


35 posted on 04/25/2019 11:56:57 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: morphing libertarian
Richards will live to a hundred or more.

At least he's self aware. I watched an interview of him where he was talking about Brian Jones' downard spiral of out of control substance abuse and then he paused and chuckled. With a smile he said "As if I'm one to talk! But I'm still here at least!"

36 posted on 04/25/2019 11:59:13 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: V_TWIN

Although Sam Kinison did use drugs, he died shortly after being injured in a car accident unrelated to drugs.


37 posted on 04/25/2019 12:09:30 PM PDT by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man.)
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To: V_TWIN
Commercial Photography
38 posted on 04/25/2019 12:29:02 PM PDT by CaliforniaCraftBeer
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To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

Known heavy cokeheads.


39 posted on 04/25/2019 12:33:01 PM PDT by jetson
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To: Trump Girl Kit Cat
SNL during that time was so funny the cast was just hilarious compared to today being absolute GARBAGE not funny AT ALL!!! Most of them died SO YOUNG!!!!

Of the original cast, only two are dead, Belushi and Radner.

40 posted on 04/25/2019 12:41:01 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("The rat always knows when he's in with weasels."--Tom Waits)
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