New York Post, Tuesday, August 13, 2019nypost.com17Lewd,
crude
& lousy
A
FTER watching a copy of “Don’s Plum”
shared with The Post, I can’t blame
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire
for wanting to bury it in the backyard.
The black-and-white, cigarette-smoke-
filled, largely improvised indie is as pre-
tentious as it is disgusting. It’s 82 minutes
of hotshot jerks degrading everyone in
sight while rambling on about masturba-
tion, bisexuality and their lack of acting
careers.
DiCaprio, Maguire, Kevin Connolly and
Scott Bloom play young LA actors who
regularly meet at the titular diner, acting
rowdy and toting
along new girls,
whom they treat
like dogs.
After Brad
(Bloom) brings a
hitchhiking woman to the gang’s regular
table at the diner, DiCaprio screams, “Stop
looking at me like that! I’ll f--king throw a
bottle at your face, you goddamn whore!”
And then, as she gets up to leave: “Get out
of here, you slut-bitch!” Naturally, the
group doesn’t get kicked out of the restau-
rant for this violent, sexist outburst. Write
what you know, I guess.
Some other choice lines from Leo’s char-
acter, Derek: “I got my girlfriend off on a
zucchini” and, “Have you guys ever had
sex with a hooker?”
Because of the lack of color and the
diner setting, you can’t help but wonder if
this bunch of bros — best known for ca-
rousing — believed themselves to be mini
Lanford Wilsons or li’l Woody Allens, all
destined for genius status. “Don’s Plum” is
remarkably self-important for a film that
boasts the line, “Is it true the male G-spot
is in your butt?” Its director, R.D. Robb,
never helmed another film. He went on to
act on television, and is an executive pro-
ducer of the streaming fantasy series “Si-
ren.” Phew.
Despite the idiocy and immaturity of the
whole thing, you get fascinating glimpses
of nascent star power. Maguire, who
sounds like he just inhaled a tank of he-
lium, was already a master of the puppy-
dog geekiness that made him a perfect Pe-
ter Parker; Connolly was living and breath-
ing “Entourage” almost a decade before
he’d hop in the car with Adrian Grenier.
And DiCaprio was mere months away
from making “Titanic,” one of the biggest
films of all time and the one that would ce-
ment him as a Hollywood superstar.
Does that mean that “Don’s Plum”
should be preserved by the National Film
Registry? No.
Do they do burnings?JOHNNY
OLEKSINSKIhe was “immediately apprehensive,”
Wheatley said.
“Leo was like, ‘Guys, I don’t want this
to be a feature film. I can’t afford a bad
feature film to go out right now. That’s
just not going to work for my career,’ ”
Wheatley recalled.
According to Wheatley, DiCaprio was
convinced the film would be a flop but
still agreed to let his pals cut it into
shape to see how it would turn out.
Wheatley and others involved be-
lieved the movie they cut was a work of
art — on par with 1994’s “Clerks” or Har-
mony Korine’s 1995 cult classic, “Kids.”
And they said DiCaprio’s reaction to a
screening of the film in late June 1996 at
LA’s MGM Plaza was extremely encour-
aging.
“Suddenly, he was jumping out of his
chair,” Wheatley said. “He’s high-fiving
all of our friends.”
Beckman added: “Leo was literally
rolling on the floor laughing.”
Next, Wheatley said, he arranged a
screening at CAA, DiCaprio’s agency, at
the actor’s behest. The agency loved the
film so much, they signed Robb “on the
spot,” Wheatley said.
Offers began pouring in, including
from now-disgraced producer Harvey
Weinstein’s Miramax, Wheatley said.
But Maguire and his agent were less
pleased when they saw the feature, ac-
cording to some of those involved.
The flick was too edgy for Maguire’s
image, and “he thought it would ruin his
career,” Lowe said.
“I could definitely see Maguire, as I
knew him, feeling that Leo had out-
shined him, and that possibly being part
of the motivating factor for wanting to
kill this film,” too, Beckman said.
In a rage, Maguire yelled, “I want
‘Don’s Plum’ to burn!” Wheatley claimed.
Maguire told DiCaprio that the others
had tried to pit the press against him in
order to push through the feature film
they wanted, Wheatley and others said.
In a 1996 interview for the now-defunct
Detour magazine, DiCaprio said, “I had a
friend who I did a short film with re-
cently who slandered me... I was trying
to do a favor for him. His name is R.D.
Robb. It’s scandalous. It was originally a
short film, and then he tried to make it
into a feature. I worked one night on it...
And I heard all this stuff about how he
was going to pit the press against me if I
didn’t go along with him and do the fea-
ture. I just did it as a favor, you know?”
Wheatley said he told Maguire, “You
are my friend. We love you guys, we
made this movie together.”
“But he was there to destroy the
movie.”S
OON after, potential deals from
production companies to option the
movie fell apart.
At that point, “All of my relationships
are completely gone, I’ve got a dead
film, I can’t get anywhere... I am black-
listed,” Wheatley said.
The other creators, including Stutman,
Robb, Wheatley and Jerry Meadors,
fought back, filing a $10 million lawsuit
in LA Superior Court against DiCaprio
and Maguire, accusing them of building
a campaign to tank the movie by making
“potential buyers, distributors and oth-
ers afraid to offend DiCaprio.”
DiCaprio and Maguire responded by
countersuing, Schindler said.
After a lengthy back-and-forth, the
parties eventually settled.
As part of the settlement agreement, a
copy of which was obtained by The Post,the plaintiffs had to agree to scrap some
lines from the movie, including one in
which DiCaprio says, “Gay guys f--k like
rabbits” and one in which Maguire says,
“You know what, I beat off, and I stick
my pinkie up... not in, my ass” — before
admitting he actually does the latter.
Although the parties agreed not to re-
lease the movie in the US and Canada,
Danish director Lars von Trier showed it
at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival.
“Don’s Plum” was eventually released
in multiple European countries and in
Japan, although the majority of the prof-
its went to legal fees.
Wheatley says he made just $180 from
the movie — and gave up his dreams of
making it big in Hollywood. He’s now a
freelance video editor.
But he never forgot “Don’s Plum,”
which he said helped lead to his divorce
and thoughts of suicide.
Wheatley finally decided in 2014 to
upload the movie to a Web site called
freedonsplum.com. The movie stayed up
on the site for 16 months, until about a
month before DiCaprio would win his
Oscar for “The Revenant” in 2016.
But Wheatley’s plans to get his mag-
num opus out there were finally foiled
again. The Web page now reads, “We
have removed your video titled ‘Don’s
Plum,’ previously available at Vimeo, in
a response to a takedown notice submit-
ted by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey
Maguire pursuant to the Digital Millen-
nium Copyright Act (DMCA.)”
A rep for DiCaprio said, “The events
and comments described in this story
are decades-old lies fabricated by Dale
Wheatley in an effort to gain publicity
and unlawful financial gain.”
Representatives for Maguire didn’t
comment.REEL DRAMA:REEL DRAMA:REEL DRAMA:REEL DRAMA: Meadow Meadow Meadow
Sisto, a pre-“Spider-Sisto, a pre-“Spider-Sisto, a pre-“Spider-Sisto, a pre-“Spider-Sisto, a pre-“Spider-
Man” Tobey Maguire and Man” Tobey Maguire and Man” Tobey Maguire and
pre-“Entourage” Kevin pre-“Entourage” Kevin
Connolly also star in Connolly also star in
“Don’s Plum.” One pro-“Don’s Plum.” One pro-
ducer says a young Ma-ducer says a young Ma-
guire feared the film guire feared the film
would “ruin his career.”