Actor Robert de Niro visited the Presidential Palace yesterday and signed several autographs, while visiting President Leonel Fernandez with whom he spoke about his plans to film the motion picture “The Good Shepherd”, together with actress Angelina Jolie. The President met with de Niro for over one and a half hours. They spoke about the art of cinema. De Niro, who arrived in the DR Wednesday evening, said this was his first visit to the country, but that it would not be the last. Earlier he had remarked that the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo was “fantastic” during a meeting in the Foreign Relations Ministry with Deputy Minister Alejandra Liriano, during which he saw the building which will be one of the locations for “The Good Shepherd”. During his visit to the Presidential Palace, normal work was partly paralyzed as many employees wanted to see, touch, greet or ask him for an autograph. President Fernandez joked: “De Niro and I are going to make a movie, and I will be the supporting actor.” For 30 minutes, de Niro displaced the President as the main figure in the Palace. During his visit to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, de Niro met with sociologist Frank Marino Hernandez, advisor to Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso and deputy minister Alejandra Liriano. He also visited the Colonial Zone where filming of scenes for the movie is due to take place. He will be here until Friday and will return for the October filming of the Good Shepherd. De Niro will play the role of the older Wilson, and Matt Damon will play the role of the younger James Wilson. The DR has become increasingly popular as a film-making destination over the past two years. Films have included Lovewrecked (Randal Kleiser), The Lost City (Andy Garcia), and The Feast of the Goat (Mario Vargas Llosa), among others. Miami Vice is another Universal Studio films slated for filming in the DR this year.