LAST Word was lucky enough to watch Russell Crowe go through his paces as he prepares for the role as boxer Jim Braddock in The Cinderella Man. Crowe looks sharp and has shed 25 kilograms through a spartan training regimen which includes a two-hour kayak session followed by long walks, runs or bike rides. Crowe brought out two Canadian boxers to help him learn moves. At the session we attended, Anthony Mundine sparred with the Canadian fighters while Crowe acted as his corner man. Mundine and Crowe have formed a solid friendship in recent weeks and Mundine is hoping Crowe will be able to attend his world title fight against Puerto Rican Manny Siaca on May 5 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

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Carroll's calling

WHILE on Russell Crowe, we can tell you that Mark "Spud" Carroll has quit his role on the coaching staff at Manly to head to Canada with Crowe as he prepares to film The Cinderella Man. Carroll will be motivating the boxers in the movie and working with them on their fitness while keeping an eye on Crowe.

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Thanks to an Oz fan --- March 21, 2004

Crowe bound for Canada - The Sun-Herald, by Christine Sams

Russell Crowe will leave Sydney for Toronto within the next fortnight to begin filming his role as American boxer Jim Braddock

Crowe has fully recovered from a shoulder injury that stalled filming by about a month, and looks set to arrive on The Cinderella Man set early next month.

The 39-year-old star (who turns 40 on April 7) is expected to travel to Canada with his wife, Danielle Spencer, and baby son, Charles, who has been kept firmly away from the media spotlight since his birth in late December. Crowe's publicist, Wendy Day, confirmed it was likely Spencer and Charles would also spend an extended period of time in Canada, but they might not stay there for the entire film shoot.

"I think they will be [there], but I'm not sure if they're going for the whole time. They will probably be there for a good part of it," said Day.

Day confirmed Crowe would be heading to Canada in "the next couple of weeks".

It will be the first time the Oscar-winning star has left Australia for an extended period of time since marrying Spencer and becoming a father.

After an intense period of film work, which culminated in Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World in Mexico in late 2002, Crowe has spent one of his longest non-working periods in Australia.

Apart from his national tour with 30 Odd Foot of Grunts - and a couple of music gigs in Canada and the US - Crowe has spent much of the past 12 months strengthening his personal relationships.

It is nearly a year since he married Spencer at his Nana Glen farm, and, of course, the couple have since celebrated the birth of Charles in Sydney.

The Cinderella Man also stars Renee Zellweger and is expected to be released in 2005.

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The doctor in Crowe's nest
The Sunday Telegraph
Gossip - Ros Reines
Page 134
21st March 2004

Russell Crowe's new cleanskin approach to life can be attributed to more than the birth of his son, Charles Spencer Crowe, and his gruelling training for the boxing movie Cinderella Man.

Crowe's personal physician, Jennifer Hunter, has also reportedly played a significant role.

Hunter, who apparently has a select list of rich and famous patients, actually pays a visit to each of their homes and goes through their fridges, pantries and medicine chests, discarding any foods, vitamins or medicines that have no place in a health regimen.

Friends say the change in Crowe has been remarkable - especially since he has abandoned his old drinking habits.

When the Oscar-winning actor heads overseas to shoot scenes for Cinderella Man, Hunter is expected to go with him in order to monitor his health on the set.

Picture By-line: Fighting fit: Crowe leaves a training session at a Surry Hills gym.

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Life on the edge with Renee
The Sunday Herald
S12 & S13
21st March 2004

The corn-fed kid's an Oscar winner now, thanks to versatility and a whole lot of pluck, Ivor Davies writes.

What a difference a year makes. Flash back to last year and Renee Zellweger, the big screen's Bridget Jones, left the glittering Oscar show in tears. It had been a rough night. She had seen her Chicago co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones run off with a best supporting actress Oscar, and in the best actress sweepstakes she was left out in the cold again when Nicole Kidman beat her for the golden statuette with her nose-bending role in The Hours.

But no humiliation lasts forever, and this year's Oscars were a different story. Zellweger came in from the cold, picking up the best supporting actress statuette for her eye-catching Cold Mountain role as the feisty, down-home country girl Ruby Thewes, who teaches the sheltered southern belle (played by Nicole Kidman) how to survive during the American Civil War.

Like a little girl who has won the school prize, Zellweger later gushed: "It was a totally overwhelming night. I am floating on such an emotional high. Even now when I think back it seems like a dream."

The tearful star, in the longest speech of the night, said joyfully: "Thank you all for dreaming so much bigger than I would ever dare to dream. And for making me believe."

This year she was the belle of the ball, an absolute knockout in her eye-popping, white silk Carolina Herrera gown with its huge bow-tied back and elegant long train. It was the kind of dress only a genuine glamour queen could get away with. And get away with it Zellweger splendidly did. Manolo Blahniks and a diamond necklace completed the dazzling look.

As she partied until the wee hours of the morning, Zellweger harked back to her Oscar experience of the year before. It wasn't sour grapes that had caused her to miss the after Oscar party celebrations, she insisted, but simply a string of bad luck. First, as the disappointed Zellweger walked out of the Kodak Theatre, a man who had opened the door for her accidentally stood on her ball gown, ripping it badly.

Then the distraught actress headed home for what turned out to be a not very warm homecoming. She arrived to find that her beloved elderly Labrador, Dylan, had been sick all over the lounge room. So the lady who earns more than $13.5 million a movie took off her torn dress and got down on her hands and knees to clean up - and by that time she was in no party mood, she said.

This year there was nothing to rain on her Hollywood parade. Celebrating with other winners such as Charlize Theron and Tim Robbins, Zellweger was simply bubbling, tucking a white rose from her boyfriend, White Stripes rocker Jack White, into her ample cleavage.

Blonde hair swept back and with bare shoulders, she brandished the Oscar in one hand and a celebratory glass of champagne in the other as she waxed enthusiastic about the big inspirations behind her success, "my immigrant mom and dad".

" My dad [Emil] and my mom [Kjellfrid] were my inspiration. My mom came from Norway and my dad was Swiss, although he spent his formative years in Australia," she said later. "They emigrated to America in the '60s [to the tiny Texas town of Katy], where I was raised. They brought me up in a small community but always showed me the window to the world.

" My folks worked so hard," she said, "and they taught my brother and I diligence and right from wrong. They showed me how to maintain dignity despite drawbacks."

Since then, the once sweet, corn-fed kid from the rural Texas backwater has turned herself into one of the most versatile and sought-after A-list actresses in Hollywood.

Zellweger first caught the acting bug as an English major at the University of Texas. After doing fast-food TV commercials in her native state, she landed parts in local movies and went on to unimpressive roles in Dazed And Confused (without uttering a line), Love And A.45 and The Return Of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Notice was finally taken when she beat out Winona Ryder, Bridget Fonda and Mira Sorvino for the role of the sweet, loving, single mother in Jerry Maguire opposite Tom Cruise. That pairing led to roles that eventually put her in the same league as Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock.

Then, unexpectedly, she picked up $13.5 million to sing and dance superbly as the sexy wannabe song and dance queen Roxie Hart in the box office hit Chicago.

From that she switched to playing Doris Day to Ewan McGregor's Rock Hudson in last year's Down With Love, a pastiche of the old '60s-style frothy romantic comedies with a bit of 21st century attitude.

With a British accent to die for and showing tremendous guts to even tackle the role, she was the very funny, weight-battling Bridget Jones, desperately seeking love in Bridget Jones's Diary. (It earned her her first best actress nomination.)

Recently she wound up the Bridget sequel Bridget Jones: The-Edge Of Reason (to be released on December 26), teaming up again with Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, both once again battling for her hand. Looking glamorous and every inch the international movie star, Zellweger admits that she's still trying to lose the extra kilograms she had to put on to do Bridget Jones sequel.

" I had to gobble up all sorts of things to get that weight on again," she said. "You name it: ice-cream, doughnuts, pizza and pasta - I ate the lot."

But the second time around was a much sweeter experience than when she first tackled Bridget.

" This time I was so much more confident," she said. "Last time when I went to England they were out there with the knives because they were outraged that an American actress was playing this British icon. I could see the wanted a hometown girl in the part, because Bridget is the quintessential young, modern English working woman."

But when the film came out everyone agreed that Zellweger proved she had the guts, the talent and the perfect accent to pull it off. And early word is that she's done it again in the sequel.

" It was like old home week," she said of her return. "And this time they welcomed me with open arms."

From Jones to Joplin

Renee Zellweger is one of Hollywood's least vain movie stars. And she's gutsy to boot.

She has revisited the pudgy Bridget Jones, and her Cold Mountain portrayal proved that she's not afraid to dump the glamour image when the role calls for it.

Next she's off to Canada to spar with Russell Crowe in The Cinderella Man. Crowe plays Jim Braddock, the former American heavyweight champion of the world, circa 1935, in a movie that reunites him with his A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard. Zellweger plays Braddock's wife, Mae. She said she would have jumped at anything in the movie for the chance to work with Crowe.

" What an actor he is," she enthused. "He's so true to what he does. Such a versatile guy, and adorable, and he always takes a role to another level."

After that she's taking another gigantic gamble. She'll play the late rock star Janis Joplin, the notorious, overweight and drink-and-drug-soaked music legend who died in 1970 as a result of her excesses.

As she did in Chicago, she'll sing again - only this time, she said with a smile: "I have to learn to contort my tonsils and sing with Janis's trademark rasp."