ROBERT DE NIRO - DE NIRO BIOGRAPHY REVEALS ALL

An explosive new biography has exposed ROBERT DE NIRO's bizarre pursuit of WHITNEY HOUSTON and his father's homosexual affairs with a series of celebrated artistic and literary figures.

Author JOHN BAXTER claims artist ROBERT DE NIRO SR, who died in 1993, was the gay lover of poet ROBERT DUNCAN, playwright TENNESSEE WILLIAMS and painter JACKSON POLLOCK - despite being married to the RAGING BULL star's mother, VIRGINIA ADMIRAL, for several months during WORLD WAR II.

In his book DE NIRO: A BIOGRAPHY, he also reveals De Niro Jr's aggressive pursuit of Whitney Houston when she was a young, rising star. The legendary actor sent Houston flowers and gifts, including a teddy bear wearing diamond earrings, to persuade her to co-star in a remake of the 1955 film LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME.

But according to Baxter, Whitney's parents urged her to snub De Niro's advances in the belief her career would be over before it began if she involved herself with him.

He writes, "Her parents with whom she lived, advised her not to get involved with a man who, besides being white, was almost twice her age. Record executive CLIVE DAVIS echoed this advice. For a young black singer such a relationship would have been suicide."