Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have returned from a whirlwind promotion tour of their "Righteous Kill" film, a jaunt producer Lati Grobman recalls as "basically insane!"

She relates, "At the beginning I mentioned to Pacino that the tour would be fun, and he responded that it wouldn't be fun, it would be hard work. And it was — brutally hard work. The distribution companies did everything for us except for wiping our a——-s. But we had to cover Rome, Madrid, London and Paris in four days, without having time to stay overnight in some cases. We'd be rushed into the most beautiful suite in the most beautiful hotel, and then be on our way a couple of hours later to try and keep up with our stars' schedules. De Niro had to be back in the States, we were told."

Grobman, who migrated to the United States from Israel in 1993, has only superlatives to say about Pacino, whom she reports is "the nicest person in the world, warm and sweet to everyone — the fans, the crew, everyone."

She's restrained when it comes to talking about De Niro, noting, "He socializes less than Pacino, is less buddy buddy with the crew and the producers. But, let's face it, it's worth not having De Niro as my buddy if that's the price to pay for our having our names together on a film. The guy's OK, basically. I won't complain that he wasn't nice. I'll leave that to the bigger guys."

Grobman, who is finishing up post-production on Lindsay Lohan's "Labor Pains," is refreshingly candid. She makes the point that she has little patience with stars who complain about publicity, and Grobman happens to feel that "gossip is great."

"These stars," she says, who complain about exposure in magazines and papers and TV shows "are full of ——, because, when their movies come out, it's going to be their publicists who are there pushing their clients' names with the media."

As far as Lati is concerned, those celebrities who can't stand the heat "should become insurance agents."

LEAN TO THE LEFT, LEAN TO THE RIGHT: Paris Hilton isn't billed in David Zucker's "American Carol" conservative-tilting comedy that opens Friday (10/3) — but the heiress is in the flick that's already gained controversy, and a swell of talk radio chatter, for its skewering of the left in general and Michael Moore in particular. Whether she's glad to be in it might be another story.

Turkish star Serdar Kalsin, who plays terrorist Ahmed in the flick, shot a scene with Hilton — who made her own political feelings known in a Barack Obama commercial. "Early on in the movie, she gives an award to Michael Malone (the Moore-like character played by Kevin P. Farley), and we celebrate being happy for him," says Kalsin, who's all over the flick that includes Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Trace Adkins, James Woods, Dennis Hopper, Robert Davi and Leslie Nielsen in its cast.

Kalsin admits he had misgivings about "American Carol" when he read the script, "for a film to favor one side so much over the other. I had to think how it could affect my career." However, he says, "The movie, the way it was shot, was much less radical than the first script I read. It was much more goofy."

He also admits he was predisposed to take the role. "I'm from Istanbul, Turkey, and when I was growing up, we had a Betamax video player. We rented tapes, but we only owned three — two Turkish comedies and a pirated copy of David Zucker's 'Top Secret,' in English with no subtitles. I watched it over and over again … David Zucker was the reason I became an actor."

BINGO: Richard Karn, who has come on board to host the second season of GSN's "Bingo America," premiering Oct. 6, tells us many of the contestants are still giving him kudos for playing the lovable Al Borland on "Home Improvement." "Oh, yeah, especially because it started rerunning on Nick at Nite, there are a lot of people watching it again. The contestants will say, 'I grew up watching you.' And I'm like, 'God, am I that old?'"

For now, the former "Family Feud" host is focusing his attention on "Bingo America," which he tells us will look very different from the first season. "We've changed a little bit of the ending where they can now advance and make more money," he tells us. "The stakes are $100,000, so it's not like it's going to a million dollars, but it's still money that can change people's lives." The show has certainly proven to be a big hit with viewers, who can go to GSN.com and download free bingo cards to play along at home. "Last year they shut down their server when everybody tried to get bingo cards. It was so popular that they had to expand their server capacity."

STORY WORTH TELLING: Casting is underway on producer Rick McCallum's "Red Tails," based on the true story of World War II's famous Tuskegee Airmen, the all-African-American unit of flyers who had to cope with racism at home and Nazis in the air. Shooting is planned for Prague and Italy in March.

With reports by Emily Feimster.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.