Rene Russo On Her Latest Leading Man

By Elizabeth Darst

03/14/2002 at 12:00 PM EST

Rene Russo doesn't know why, but she seems to be Hollywood's choice for the babe in the buddy film. Russo, 48, who's been the love interest for action heroes including Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Pierce Brosnan and John Travolta, can add another movie legend to her list: she stars with Robert De Niro in "Showtime," opening this week. In a press conference on Wednesday, reports Reuters, the actress discussed her latest co-stars, among other things. In the new film, Russo plays a heard-hearted producer of a reality cop show who lassoes two policeman to star on the show, one a camera-shy "regular" cop, played by De Niro, and one a camera-hogging braggart played by Eddie Murphy. "I loved the chemistry between De Niro and Murphy. Eddie is alive and so facile and so good at improvising while De Niro is so dry and he can get such looks," she said. "As an actor you realize that what he does is so hard to do." Since she plays the love interest of De Niro, of course the question everyone asks her is how the broodingly handsome star compares to Russo's previous co-stars in the romance department. "That Mel is a pretty good kisser. De Niro doesn't count. We just have a smack at the end." Too bad for Bobby.