Robert De Niro channeled his inner Vito Corleone to oddly verbally whack a tech mogul at a chic MoMA gala on Wednesday.
The star was presenting an award to Angelina Jolie at the WSJ. Magazine Innovator Awards when he took exception to an earlier acceptance speech.
“We are a long way from San Francisco,” joked tech mogul Stewart Butterfield of hot app Slack, when he scanned the room of “supermodels and movie stars” including Karlie Kloss, Brad Pitt and Jared Leto, who gave him the award. Butterfield joked he was receiving the “nerd award” and pointed at De Niro, mentioning, “I watched ‘Godfather II’ on the plane . . . when you killed Don Fanucci, I liked that.”
De Niro, up next, growled, “Whoever the last speaker was . . . I thought you were a bit condescending to us actors . . . celebrities. I’m gonna go on record with you just to say that. And I don’t give a f - - k who you are.”
It was unclear which of Butterfield’s remarks set off De Niro, who was recently caught in a controversy for telling a reporter, “I’m not doing this, darling,” and storming out of an interview.
In any case, he gave an impassioned speech about Jolie, who graciously said, “I am honored to be among so many artists I truly admire,” and reminded them about charitable endeavors. “As much as we have to celebrate, there is so much for us to do.”
Also at the posh shindig: Danny Boyle, Miuccia Prada, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Zadie Smith, Glenn Lowry, Mark Parker, Victor Cruz, Kristina O’Neill and Anthony Cenname.
