MOB-MOVIE SUIT
The star witness in the failed case against FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio is suing Hollywood studio Morgan Creek Productions, saying it stiffed her out of a $150,000 consultant's gig on a Nicolas Cage project, according to a suit filed yesterday.
The witness, Linda Schiro, claims in court papers she was promised the money to share the story of her years with a longtime boyfriend, feared Mafia killer Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa.
According to the suit, filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles, scriptwriter Nicholas Pileggi -- the scribe behind "Goodfellas" and "Casino" -- personally interviewed Schiro and her daughter, also named Linda, and committed Morgan Creek to hiring them.
Although Pileggi has already completed the story treatment, he wants the Schiros hired to boost its authenticity when the project, set to be directed by Antoine Fuqua, formally gets rolling.
"We were told by Antoine Fuqua and Nick Pileggi that they couldn't make this movie without us," said Schiro's daughter. "We lived it. This story is my mother's whole life. They said they needed to know my father's mannerisms, the way he walked, the way he talked. I feel that Morgan Creek feels they can take information from other sources."
That's not possible, said the Schiros' lawyer, Perry Wander, because his clients had already received verbal promises from Pileggi, Fuqua and producer Irwin Winkler.
"If they're going to go forward with the movie, they're going to have to tie up the loose ends with the rights," said Wander.
Morgan Creek told The Post yesterday it hadn't yet received a copy of the suit.
The movie, tentatively titled "Scarpa," will depict the life and times of one of the New York underworld's most feared killers, a ruthless Colombo soldier who claimed more than 50 murders over his 30-year career.
In 2007, prosecutors in Brooklyn alleged that he had forged a dirty relationship with DeVecchio, one of the FBI's top mob-busters, handing the G-man law-enforcement tips in exchange for information that helped Scarpa rub out mob rivals and squealers.
But the case against DeVecchio collapsed when tapes surfaced of Schiro telling newspaper reporters versions of key events that differed from her trial testimony.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08192009/news/regionalnews/moll__i_want_my_cut_185308.htm
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