May 15, 2023
Social Media Poll Wonders, Who Is Hotter – Young Al Pacino or Young Robert De Niro?
READ TIME: 14 MIN.
Writer Ashley Reese was at a wedding on Saturday when she went viral for trying to reportedly settle a debate about "who was more attractive as a young man: Pacino, now 83, or De Niro, now 79," reports People Magazine.
"At a wedding and having a big debate rn. Please vote," Reese wrote in her post. "Who was hotter?"
The actors did appear together in "The Godfather, Part 2," but were never together in the same scene given that the character narratives were from two different periods. De Niro won his first Oscar (Best Supporting Actor) for the film. They were in the same frame in "Heat," Michael Mann's 1995 crime thriller. And once more for director Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" in 2019.
Reese's post quickly went viral and officially closed on Sunday night with more than 277,000 votes.
"Just like those at the wedding, it seemed like social media users were also deadlocked, leaving the final vote split down the middle," writes the New York Post.
The question, posed by Reese to her 60,500 followers, came after De Niro, 79, welcomed his seventh child on Tuesday. Eighty-three-year-old Pacino, meanwhile, has been fresh on fans' minds following his retrospective interview with the 92nd Street Y in New York City, adds the New York Post.
"This 50/50 tie is incredible," Reese later commented in response to the ongoing poll, "You're really a young Pacino or a young De Niro."
"Reese's wedding-inspired poll caught the attention of media outlets like TMZ and Vanity Fair, which shared a screenshot of her Twitter post on Instagram and brought Mindy Kaling into the fold within its comments sections," writes People.
"Oh damn," Kaling wrote, though it was unclear whether she was offering support to Pacino, De Niro, or simply expressing surprise at the poll's close race.
Who do you think is hotter? Check out these pics from each actor's films from the period:
