The King of Comedy (film) character fails to differentiate between his fantasies and reality in much the same way. Scorsese sought to achieve the same with the film so that, in his words, the "fantasy is more real than reality". Rupert Pupkin has been compared to Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver": both characters have serious issues with reality testing, that is drawing the line between outer objective and inner subjective reality. In her review, entertainment columnist Marilyn Beck approved Johnny Carson's refusal to participate in "The King of Comedy", supposedly because he feared the film could inspire psychopaths like John Hinckley. Beck considered "The King
Robert De Niro the restaurants Nobu and Tribeca Grill (which he co-owns with Broadway producer Stewart F. Lane), The Greenwich Hotel (located in Tribeca), and the restaurant inside the hotel, Locanda Verde (run by executive chef and co-owner Andrew Carmellini). According to the July 2010 issue of "Gourmet" magazine, De Niro and internationally renowned chef, Natalia Jibladze began plans to open a restaurant in Manhattan under his Tribeca trademark but the project was not completed. De Niro studied with Stella Adler, from whom he learned about the techniques of the Stanislavski system. The technique encouraged him to explore both internal and external aspects