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
Drena De Niro Batson of The Black Nexxus Acting Studio. With the turn of the millennium, De Niro set her sights on writing and directing her first film, "Girls and Dolls". This documentary examined a young stylist's obsession with her dolls, and won De Niro the Best Directorial Debut Award at the New York Independent Film/Video Festival in 2001. More recently De Niro's endeavors have led her back to Italy, where she worked on her latest film. Since 2006, she has been the spokesperson for the Kageno Orphan Sponsorship Program, which helps provide care for orphaned children in Kageno villages. De Niro currently