Tag Archives: Stallone

Stallone fined, for importing drugs

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ Actor Sylvester Stallone was formally convicted Monday of importing restricted muscle-building hormones into Australia and ordered to pay the equivalent of C$11,716 in fines and court costs.

New South Wales state deputy chief magistrate Paul Cloran said the "Rocky" and "Rambo" star failed to show he had a valid prescription for dozens of vials of human growth hormone found in his luggage when he arrived in Sydney for a promotional tour in February.

Stallone also failed to declare the male hormone testosterone on a customs entry form, although prosecutors said he had legitimate medical reasons for carrying the drug.

Cloran fined Stallone, who was not present in court and had previously pleaded guilty, a total of $2,696 on both charges and ordered him to pay prosecution costs of $9,020.

Calls to Stallone’s publicist were not immediately returned.

The magistrate said because of the negative publicity surrounding the case, the penalty was enough to send a clear message that such behaviour would not be tolerated.

"I don’t think there is anything further the court could or should do in order to deter Mr. Stallone from committing these offences again," Cloran said.

He said he was satisfied the human growth hormone and testosterone were for Stallone’s personal use and "there is no suggestion that the substances were being used for anything other than cosmetic or therapeutic purposes."

Stallone was charged after a customs search of his luggage at the start of a three-day visit to Sydney in February revealed 48 vials of the human growth hormone drug, Jintropin.

The actor told customs officers he had purchased the drugs at a Los Angeles pharmacy but did not have the prescription with him.

Three days later, Stallone threw four vials of the male hormone testosterone from his Sydney hotel room when customs officials arrived to search it.

Cloran said Jintropin is not legally available for sale in the United States and found Stallone had been "untruthful about the existence of a prescription."

However, citing testimony from Stallone’s Beverly Hills-based doctor, Robert Huizenga, Cloran found Stallone had been using the testosterone legally under medical supervision, although he had failed to declare it to customs officials.

In a letter to the court in which he apologized for a "terrible mistake," Stallone, 60, said he had taken the drugs for years to treat a medical condition he didn’t disclose.

In an interview with customs officials after the growth hormone was discovered in his bags, Stallone said he was carrying such a large amount of the drug because he was about to go on location in Thailand and Myanmar for three months to shoot the latest instalment of the "Rambo" series.

"As you get older, the pituitary gland slows and you feel older, your bones narrow. This stuff gives your body a boost and you feel and look good," court documents quoted him saying.

"Doing ‘Rambo’ is hard work…Where do you think I am going to get this stuff in Burma?"

Human growth hormone is a naturally occuring substance produced by the pituitary gland. It can be replicated synthetically and is often used to build muscle mass.

It is considered a performance-enhancing drug in Australia and cannot be imported without a permit.

The maximum penalty for bringing Jintropin into Australia without a licence is a fine of $100,650 and five years in prison.

But Stallone faced a maximum penalty of $20,000 on each of the two charges and no prison time because the matter was heard in a local, not federal, court.

A senior official with the Australian Customs Service, Robert Janeczko, welcomed the decision.

"I think it’s a good outcome. The two criminal convictions show that whether your name is Smith or Stallone you can’t bring prohibited imports into this country," he said.

Stallone’s lawyers did not comment on the decision.

Stallone detained by customs at Sydney Airport

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ Actor Sylvester Stallone was detained for hours on arrival at Sydney Airport after officials found prohibited imports among the luggage of the Hollywood star and his entourage, media reported Saturday.

Australian Customs Service national investigations manager Richard Janeczko did not say what the items were or whose luggage among Stallone’s party they were found in during a routine screening late Friday.

"As a result of having their luggage x-rayed, a number of prohibited items were seized by customs," Janeczko told Ten Network television news.

"Mr. Stallone was allowed to proceed with his party and our investigations are continuing," he added, without elaborating.

Stallone emerged from the airport hours after his fellow passengers and signed autographs for fans as media took pictures, Ten reported.

Asked if there had been a delay, the TV footage showed him reply, "Yeah."

He continued signing without comment after a journalist asked for an explanation of the delay, the footage showed.

Stallone is in Australia to promote the latest in his series of six boxing movies, "Rocky Balboa."

Stallone, Denzel to film in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Thailand is prepping for a Hollywood influx.

Sylvester Stallone’s "Rambo" will blast out of retirement here early next year, and Denzel Washington will arrive next month to play a drug lord in the upcoming film "American Gangster." Stallone will spend several weeks in Thailand early next year, shooting "Rambo IV: In the Serpent’s Eye" in the country’s lush, mountainous northern provinces, said Wanasiri Morakul, director of the Thailand Film Office.

In the latest sequel, John Rambo is pulled out of retirement in Bangkok to help find missionary aid workers who disappear as they’re delivering supplies to ethnic minorities in neighbouring Myanmar. About 70 to 80 per cent of the movie will be shot in Thailand _ in Bangkok and the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai _ earning Thailand about US$5 million, Wanasiri said.

A committee gave the green light to the Rambo movie after reading the script, but voiced concern that violence in the movie could reflect badly on ethnic minorities on the Thai-Myanmar border.

"Some scenes might be a little bit violent, so we asked them not to make it too violent because if we say that the ethnic minorities are violent, it might be inappropriate," she said. "We did not forbid them _ we just asked them to be careful."

She also wanted the filmmakers to assure villagers and environmentalists that any bombing scenes _ "in that ‘Rambo’ style" _ would not harm the environment. Activists were up in arms over the "The Beach," shot in 2000 and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, complaining a beach in a Thai national park was damaged during the shooting. The filmmakers denied it.

Washington will come to Thailand Nov. 8-13, Wanasiri said, to play Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas in "American Gangster," about drugs smuggled to New York in the 1970s inside the coffins of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War. Only about five per cent of the movie will be shot in Thailand _ in the capital Bangkok and in the mountainous north _ employing about 250 Thais and bringing the country at least $1.6 million, Wanasiri said.

Thailand has touted itself as an ideal film location and had a total of 372 shoots this year for foreign movies, TV series, ads and music videos, worth $37 million. 

Recent blockbusters shot partially in Thailand include "Alexander" and "Star Wars Episode III."