Lohan in talks for role in Travolta's Gotti biopic

[April 13, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A press conference for John Travolta's latest project, "Gotti: Three Generations," had a surprise guest: Lindsay Lohan.

The 24-year-old actress has been rumored to be up for the role of Victoria Gotti, daughter of the infamous "Dapper Don" John Gotti.

Producer Marc Fiore confirmed Tuesday that he's in talks with Lohan, whom he called "a terrific actress," but said nothing had been finalized.

Lohan, who has starred in such films as "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday," sat in the front row at the press conference and posed for photos with the cast and crew but didn't talk to the press. She has been plagued by legal problems in recent years and is now battling a felony grand theft charge in California over a $2,500 necklace.

Travolta, 57, will star as John Gotti, the well-dressed leader of the legendary Gambino crime family, who had a knack for evading convictions on a variety of mob indictments brought against him, earning him the nicknames Dapper Don and Teflon Don. Gotti finally was convicted in 1992 of murder and racketeering and died in prison a decade later.

At the press conference, Travolta, star of movies including "Pulp Fiction" and "Be Cool," talked about connecting to the Gotti role on a deeper level. He said he had talked to one of Gotti's surviving sons, John "Junior" Gotti.

"His father lost a son, and I've lost a son, and we discussed that in depth and how painful that is and how painful that was for his father," Travolta said.

Travolta's 16-year-old seizure-prone son, Jett, died at the family's vacation home in the Bahamas in 2009. John Gotti's 12-year-old son, Frank, was accidently run over by a neighbor and killed in 1980.

"To hear what he went through and what his dad went through and the similarities of pain was healing," Travolta said later in an interview with The Associated Press.

Travolta's 11-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu, is slated to play a young Angel Gotti, John Gotti's daughter, in the movie.

The biopic is set to begin filming in October and is slated for release in late 2012.

[Associated Press; By NICOLE EVATT]

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