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 rumoured to be up for the role of Victoria Gotti, daughter of the infamous “Dapper Don” John Gotti.
Producer Marc Fiore confirmed that he was in talks with Ms Lohan, whom he called “a terrific actress”, but said nothing had been finalised.
Ms Lohan, who has starred in films including Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, sat in the front row at the New York press conference and posed for photos with the cast and crew but did not talk to the press.
The troubled actress has been plagued by legal problems in recent years and is now battling a felony grand theft charge in California over a £1,500 necklace.
Mr 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 was finally convicted in 1992 of murder and racketeering and died in prison a decade later.
At the press conference, Mr 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,” Mr Travolta said.
Mr Travolta’s 16-year-old seizure-prone son Jett died at the family’s holiday home in the Bahamas in 2009. John Gotti’s 12-year-old son, Frank, was accidentally run over by a neighbour and killed in 1980.
“To hear what he went through and what his dad went through and the similarities of pain was healing,” Mr Travolta said later.
Mr Travolta’s 11-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu, is slated to play a young Angel Gotti, John Gotti’s daughter, in the movie.
Filming for the biopic is due to begin in October and is scheduled for release in late 2012.