 It was claimed that at the time the real life gangster Jimmy Burke  was so happy to have De Niro, Robert (qv) play him that he phoned  him from prison to give him a few pointers. Author/screenwriter  Pileggi, Nicholas (qv) denies this, saying De Niro and Burke had  never spoken, but admitting that there were men around the set all  the time who had known all of the principal characters very well.