Sly's kids delighted Dad, 57, is in cool film

PETER HOWELL
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Sylvester Stallone may be best known as Rocky and Rambo, but did you know that he once earned a mere $200 in 1970 to star as a sex-crazed gigolo in the movie The Party At Kitty And Studs?

Since then the native New Yorker born Michael Sylvester Enzio Stallone (on the same day as President George W. Bush) has returned to the screen more than 50 times and recently begun oil painting in his spare time.

Stallone's other passion is his five children: Sage, 27, and Seargeoh, 24, with second wife Sasha Czack and Sophia, 6, Sistine, 5, and Scarlet, 1, with current wife Jennifer Flavin.

They couldn't have been happier to hear that Dad, now 57, was cast in the new family adventure movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, opening Friday. He plays the Toymaker, an evil villain looking to trap unsuspecting kids inside the world's most complex online video game.

Need to know more about the self-proclaimed Italian Stallion? Here's a quick guide to everything Sly.

He loves kids: "It's great to eat peanuts off their heads," jokes Stallone, who developed a special appreciation for his Spy Kids co-stars Daryl Sabara, 11, and Alexa Vega, 14. "It is great to be taking photos with them. My status goes up when I take my kids to grade school and I am now the Toymaker. In other words, my image has been upgraded by hanging out with (Spy Kids characters) Juni and Carmen."

He's not as good at video games: "I have never made it past Level 1 in my own Rocky game," he admits. "I have been knocked out by Spiderico 35 times! I can't get past Level 1. I said, `This is kind of like true life...' But I watch my daughters play. My voyage into video games is pretty superficial. I get stuck on Hello, Kitty."

He's a good sport: Especially when other stars mimic his famous line "Yo, Adrian."("Robin Williams does it really well," he says.) In Spy Kids 3-D,George Clooney does his best impersonation. "I had to figure out how to get back at George," Stallone says. "What can I do to mock him? Should I just ... be handsome?"

He plans to direct: Stallone is currently on pre-production of Rampart Scandal, a drama exploring the recently uncovered corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department. "It's a sensitive area, a real tinder box," he says. "So often stories like this get told 25 years down the line ... and it's like, as great as J.F.K. was, a lot of the facts had to be director-interpreted. Did it happen? Did it not happen? And there were lawsuits about that. This, everything in the script is real and it's extraordinary."

He's already working on Rocky VI: "I've done the script. It's called Puncher's Chance. Now it's just a matter of MGM, and if they want to go through with it," he says. "Rocky movies, when they do work, are really not about boxing. They are about the story itself and how can you apply it to your everyday life. The last thing you ever lose in your life, if you're an athlete, is your punch. That's the way I try to live my life."

He plans to open a casino: Stallone is a major investor in The Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino, due to open in Las Vegas by the end of next year, promising the resort will bring a touch of Hollywood to Sin City. "[We're planning] movie premieres, charity events, tournaments ... it is not just family-oriented."

He's got game: "I recently got into a competition with [tennis ace] Pete Sampras to see who could throw a 16-pound medicine ball farther," Stallone explains. "He said he could beat me any time on the tennis court in anything, so I brought a medicine ball instead of a tennis racquet. I said, `Let's see how far you can throw this ball across the net.'

"You stand at one line and you try to throw it backward over your head and over the net. And I won. I got it about 6 feet past the net and he got it about 4 feet. Considering I am the world's worst athlete and he is the best, I took that as being a great thing. I could be his father. It's equivalent to me being beaten by an 85-year-old guy."

And he's an avid golfer: With a seven handicap, who enjoys playing 18 holes at L.A.'s Riviera Country Club in his down time. There's just one problem — the California sun. "Night golf to me would be paradise," Stallone says. "That's when I'll know I've gone to heaven: night golf. Eat dinner and play golf. How great would that be?"

- Craig Zablo