SHERMAN OAKS : De Niro Told to Pay Child Support

Actor Robert De Niro has been ordered to pay school tuition and $2,500 a month in child support to a Sherman Oaks singer who says De Niro fathered her 10-year-old daughter, an attorney said Wednesday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner James Endman ordered De Niro on Tuesday to pay support and the child’s tuition of nearly $1,000 monthly at the Lycee Francais school in Los Angeles, said Marvin Mitchelson, attorney for the girl’s mother, Helena Lisandrello, 31, a nightclub singer.

Lisandrello filed a paternity suit against De Niro on Aug. 6. A Superior Court clerk declined to confirm the attorney’s account of the commissioner’s action, saying papers in the case are sealed.

Endman also ordered De Niro to come to Long Beach on Oct. 4 to take a blood test, Mitchelson said. Lisandrello and her daughter will also take tests at that time.

De Niro was ordered to make the payments while awaiting a hearing Nov. 23, when results from the blood tests will be released and a request can be submitted to the court for more child support, Mitchelson said. The attorney said that if he is able to prove paternity, he will seek about $8,000 a month in support.

Mitchelson said Lisandrello met the Academy Award-winning actor at a party in March, 1979, and that the two began an intimate relationship that lasted three years. The child was born July 1, 1982, Mitchelson said.