The man accused of selling heroin to Philip Seymour Hoffman often got high with late New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a report claims.
Basquiat, who died in 1988 of a heroin overdose, and the suspected drug dealer, jazz musician Robert Vineberg, “used A LOT of heroin during the ’80s” in Vineberg’s Manhattan apartment, the gossip Web site TMZ.com said.
Following the 1987 death of friend Andy Warhol, Basquiat
isolated himself and became increasingly dependent on heroin.
He was found dead at age 27 in his Great Jones Street art studio in August 1988.
Hoffman visited Vineberg’s Mott Street apartment and did drugs there, the dealer told The Post.
According to Vineberg, Hoffman injected heroin, while the musician preferred to snort it.
Vinberg also was friendly with Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011 of acute alcohol poisoning after years of drug abuse. Reps for the British singer previously told The Post that Winehouse did not do drugs in the United States.
Vineberg, one of four people arrested in Hoffman’s Feb. 2 death, denies that he sold the actor the heroin that killed him and has said he had no contact with Hoffman since November.
The Basquiat allegations come after Hoffmann was honored indirectly at the British Academy Film and Television Awards on Sunday.
The movie Best Actress prize went to Cate Blanchett for her turn as a socialite on the slide in “Blue Jasmine.” She dedicated the award to Hoffman, her friend, calling him “a continual profound touchstone.”
Hoffman was “a monumental presence who is now sadly an absence,” Blanchett said. “Phil, buddy, this is for you, you bastard. I hope you’re proud.”
Hoffman had battled drug addiction as a young actor, but remained sober after entering rehab at age 22.
He reputedly stayed clean and sober for 23 years — while his acting career took off and he appeared in more than 50 movies, won three Tony Awards on Broadway and earned a Best Actor Oscar for his title role in the 2005 film “Capote.”
But Hoffman relapsed in 2012, when he returned to heroin and prescription drugs. In January at the Sundance Film Festival, he identified himself by saying, “I’m a heroin addict.”
He was found dead, at age 46, in his Village apartment two weeks later, on Feb. 2, with a hypodermic needle in his arm.