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
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro it's Scorsese's triumph." Sharon Stone received an Oscar nomination for her role but neither De Niro nor Scorsese were nominated. Scorsese and De Niro collaborated for the first time in two decades for "The Audition", a 2015 short film that served as a promotional piece for casinos Studio City in Macau, China and City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines. The short united Scorsese's two muses, De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time on film under his direction. Scorsese is attached to direct "The Irishman", which will star De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. Martin Scorsese and Robert