Weinstein "disappointed" with De Niro leak

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has claimed that a leaked voice recording of him criticising Robert De Niro was "taken out of context".

Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company, is heard discussing De Niro's role in Jackie Brown with director Quentin Tarantino in a tape obtained by the New York Post.

"He thinks he's going to... make John Travolta look like that was an amateur night in Dixie," said Weinstein, referring to Travolta's Pulp Fiction comeback.

He continued: "[De Niro] is a great actor and actually a great guy, who's going through a difficult time... I think he's really having like a scratching-his-head session, you know, with his own life and his own career.

"I think he knows he can play a certain kind of role from now for the next 20 years. But I think he wants to change the course of his career."

Weinstein's lawyer David Boies slammed the media for releasing the audio, saying: "We are disappointed that any member of the press is trafficking in illegal tape recordings and compounding the damage by taking them out of context."