“You don’t make up for your sins in the church. You do it in the streets; you do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.” It is not for us to quibble with the opening lines of Mean Streets. And yet, is it possible that you must also atone for your sins by taking massive appearance fees to fly to Macau and promote a new casino complex?

Behold, this week’s launch of Aussie mogul James Packer’s $4.5bn Studio City gambling facility, which was fronted by Packer and his business partner Lawrence Ho, along with actors Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and directors Martin Scorsese and, er, Brett Ratner. Each is reported to have taken a $17m appearance fee – and do just study their happy little faces (above).

Never mind Ratner – his motto is “lucky to be here”, as anyone who has seen his movies can attest. But God, De Niro! He looks like he’s watching the live abortion of his Taxi Driver performance. Is it possible for an act of shilling undertaken in 21st-century Macau to be so hilariously embarrassing that it can – in a very real sense – travel back in time and destroy something that happened in 1970s New York? It’s a concept I’d certainly like to see a four-hour Christopher Nolan movie about.

As for Packer himself, he is formally congratulated for making the difficult transition from billionaire mogul into adorably trashy celebrity. God knows all too few have pulled off the jump – Rupert Murdoch was the last one to manage it when his wife started leaving teenage wank fantasies about Tony Blair around the house for the servants to find. Packer, meanwhile, alerted the world to his potential last year when he had a street brawl with a barefoot and tracksuited senior Australian TV executive outside his luxury Bondi Beach property. It was all possibly something to do with Miranda Kerr, though closer students of Australian high society may correct me on that. But with his current romancing of the batshit and brilliant ubercelebrity Mariah Carey, James has formally announced himself as a person of interest. This powerfully intriguing new power couple will be a key piece in the LiS resort collection this year.