According to cast member Richard E. Grant, Danny took advantage of improvisation by attempting to give Hollywood icon Sophia Loren a mouth to mouth resuscitation.
- February 6, 2023
AceShowbiz - The set of Robert Altman's 1994 movie "Pret-a-Porter" turned into chaos after the cast became embroiled in an epic fight. Richard E. Grant - who portrayed fashion designed Cort Romney - has opened up the actors had a massive falling out while they were filming the fashion satire in Paris, France which kicked off when actor Danny Aiello attempted to lock lips with screen legend Sophia Loren during a fainting scene.
" 'Pret A Porter' … We were all in Paris … the problem with it was there was no script … we had to then improvise so some people took advantage of that," Richard explained on Chris Evans' "How to Wow" podcast.
"And there was an amazing day when Sophia Loren has to faint when she sees Marcello Mastroianni [his character] for the first time because they had been - in the story - lovers some 30 years before… And it was in the middle of a fashion show that I was the designer of using Vivienne Westwood's clothing."
Richard went on to explain "The Godfather Part II" star Danny then tried to insert himself into the scene with Sophia and it caused an ugly scene. He said, "Danny Aiello, who I'd worked with on 'Hudson hawk', his character didn't really have any reason to jump in on this scene but when Sophia Loren fainted, he then came in and said, 'Eh stand apart we are going to have mouth to mouth resuscitation.' "
"So then the other actors said 'Get out of the way, get out of the way.' He then had an amazing argument saying, 'Lauren Bacall you left wing commie' … it was way more dramatic than anything that happened [in the film]."
After the showdown, Danny was then ostracized by the rest of the cast because he'd been so mean to Lauren Bacall and fellow actor Rupert Everett during the argument. He went on, "So Danny basically got sent to Coventry [shunned] by the rest of the cast because he was very rude to Rupert Everett about his sexuality and very rude to Lauren Bacall about her left wing politics."
The film came out in 1994 and was deemed a flop after being savaged by critics despite boasting such a stellar ensemble cast which also included Kim Basinger, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, and Forest Whitaker.
