Russell Crowe News October 2009

Updated Monday, November 23, 2009 8:00 AM

November 23

LA Times - The Envelope: 10 closest Oscar races in the past 20 years - 3) Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” over Ed Harris in “Pollock” for best actor of 2000: After buzz for Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” died down, the contest quickly turned toward Crowe and Harris. Crowe had just lost for “The Insider” and had the advantage of being in a best picture nominee (and eventual winner) – while Harris was a beloved veteran playing a real-life person who suffered endlessly on screen. I eventually settled on Harris, thinking that Hollywood would prefer to see him win – and thought I had nailed it when his co-star Marcia Gay Harden took the supporting actress prize. Sure, I was left eating crow on Oscar night – but I’m certain that Harris lost only by a hair. - Thanks, Allison

November 22

Twitpic: RZA, his brother and Russell in cold Pittsburgh - Thanks, Steph

Make a Smilebox greeting

November 21

NY Times: Here is the link to the triple-related film article - The Last Station - Thanks, Steph

Related: The Wall Street Journal: A Macho Man's Quiet Heroine -- Action-movie director Ridley Scott has an unlikely hand in the look of a series

November 20

Related: The London Evening Standard: A reel life: Jordan Scott - Thanks, Allison

Related: Esquire: Ryan Kavanaugh Uses Math to Make Movies -- "...The only difference between Ryan Kavanaugh's office lobby and your office lobby is that Ron Howard is sitting in his, in hiking boots, declining politely the receptionist's offer of a bottle of Yosemite water. "I'm A-okay," Howard says. He's come here this afternoon looking for more than something to drink."

Related: BSC Review: Thor – Idris Elba (AG) as Heimdall [and, of course, memorably in The Wire] - Thanks, Kris C

[Don't know about this one] - Bingo from Gaming Supermarket: Russell Crowe Admits Bingo Love - Thanks, Kris C

November 19

Variety: Producer Ryan Kavanaugh's top 10 films - Thanks, Allison

Keep your questions coming to Ask Russell. He may not have time now due to a very heavy schedule, but perhaps in a few month's time?

Inside Movies - Moviefone: The 10 Best Sports Movies Based on Real Life - Thanks, Allison

From Rosemonde: Recently a Swiss movies specialist and former director of the Swiss film library has published an encyclopedia :"Antiquity in the movies" (L'Antiquité au cinéma) which so far has been published only in French. Guess who is on the cover of the book!

Box Office Mojo info listed below about ABM is wrong, It went to number one in its second week

Dani's new album cover

Related -- Cinematical: Interview: Carla Gugino -- .....Ridley Scott's American Gangster as Russell Crowe's exasperated ex-wife, and most recently in Zack Snyder's Watchmen as a sexpot superheroine with a pitch-black past.

Related -- Film Forum: An Evening with Christopher Plummer - Thanks, Nora

November 18

From Box Office Mojo, a list of the top grossing movies in the US that were never #1 at the box office. In 6th place: A Beautiful Mind. - Thanks, Amy

New York Magazine: Stranded With Olivia Wilde

Vogue.com: (Ridley related) - Gucci Film Confirmed - Thanks, Kris C

NZ Stuff: Kiwi film-makers urged to aim for best -- Russell Crowe as Aramoana gunman David Gray? It could happen if Kiwi film-makers get bold, Film Commission boss Graeme Mason says. ... - Thanks, Kris C

Article on Dani's new album in the UK - Thanks, Avril

Talented sketch artist Julie has several portraits of our Russell done over the years. Click on her gallery to view them - And another artist has taken her sketches and made cross stitch patterns from them - Pattern Maker in the UK

November 17

Tenderness opens in Spain on November 20 - Thanks Mariola

wsj.com: Olivia Wilde -- You’re also in the process of shooting the film “The Next Three Days” with Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson, and your former “The Black Donnellys” boss Paul Haggis is directing. How’s that been working out? --- They’re shooting in Pittsburgh now and of course I’m shooting “House” in L.A., so I’ve done some scenes and have to go back and shoot more. I just have a small supporting role, and it’s hard to get into without giving away the plot, but I play a woman named Nicole who meets Russell Crowe’s character in a a park. It’s a great group of people. - Thanks, Allison

Thanks to a suggestion from Carmen, a fan from Spain, I have started a new topic in the Yuku Crowe Forum entitled "Ask Russell." You may post questions there you would like to put to him. I will let him know about it, and perhaps he will find time to answer some of the questions through me.

November 16

Variety: Film Related: Oscars hand out Governors Awards -- Honorees Corman, Willis, Bacall attend inaugural event (Ron Howard mentioned)

November 15

Russell is part of the Doonesbury daily dose cartoon today - Thanks, Barbiecat, Pamela

Robin Hood related: Enid: Matthew MacFadyen - “I’m doing a little bit with the Robin Hood film. I’m the Sheriff of Nottingham. It’s a very incidental character. It’s not the Alan Rickman Prince of Thieves. I just get humiliated. He’s a local bureaucratic idiot who’s after taxes. The bigger the movie, the more impersonal it is, the less you know.” - Thanks, Steph

Russell is at the Steelers Game - Thanks, Maria

Russell's narration of Australia Revealed (1997) is available free today at The Sunday Telegraph for Oz fans:

-- and at E Bay au

November 14

SMH: LHG news -- (Scroll) RUSTY OLD NEWS - Burgess must be starting to get tired of answering questions about Crowe. Asked on stage at the Rugby League International Federation awards night this week what he did when Crowe rang to entice him to Souths, the former Bradford player dead-panned: ''I just pressed the green button and said hello.'' - Thanks, Kris C

November 13

The Wall Street Journal: Just Asking.... -- Interview with Ridley Scott [mostly about The Good Wife, one of my favs] - Thanks, barbiecat

From Sec: Here's a tweet from somebody who says they were on set last night: "lindseyhay - Loved being treated like a celeb on set Russell Crowe may be the coolest man I've ever met! Working on set of "The Next Three Days" all night!"

The New York Times Magazine: interesting article on movies by A.O. Scott - Screen Memories -- "...But the tone for mainstream commercial entertainment was set early on, when “Gladiator” won the first Best Picture Oscar of the new decade. And nearly every hero thereafter, from Aragorn and Harry Potter to Spider-Man and even the newly young Mr. Spock and the newly sad James Bond, was caught up in a Manichaean struggle defined by an endless cycle of vendetta and reprisal.

The SMH via the London Telegraph (Scroll): EATING CROWE - It's the book which has the league world talking - and laughing. But not everyone sees the funny side of The Johnny Larkin Diaries. Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe, for one. At the book launch at the Norfolk Hotel in Redfern last night, author and Sun-Herald journalist Adrian Proszenko revealed Crowe had threatened legal action over his depiction in the satirical romp through the 2009 NRL season. Proszenko had sent an unfinished manuscript to the Souths co-owner in the hope he would accept the novel in good humour. Back came a legal letter demanding Crowe's name be withdrawn from the book for fear of holding him up to ridicule and damaging his reputation. Proszenko tried to speak to Crowe, hoping to resolve the situation but was told it wasn't possible for ''legal reasons''. Rather than risk a potentially costly court case, he and publisher Allen & Unwin opted to remove all references to Crowe. ''I was genuinely surprised by his response,'' Proszenko said. - Thanks, Kris C

November 12

Examiner.com (Pittsburgh) - Russell Crowe and the old banjo [Mr Nice Guy!] - Thanks, Steph, Anne S [Link to the Pittsburgh Guitars Store - a neat place]

Scott Related: The LA Times: Ridley Scott is rolling the dice on a 'Monopoly' movie and here's why [UPDATED]

Your Fox Chapel: Crowe's latest film gets Sharpsburg on big screen - [nice story] - Thanks, Cindy

Related - People Mag: Ron Livingston Gets Married (To Rosemary DeWitt - (Cinderella Man) - Thanks, Marilyn

The SMH: Wharf residents join battle over waste fees -- A FIGHT between some of Sydney's wealthiest apartment dwellers and the city council over whom they pay to take away their rubbish has drawn in the owners of the exclusive Finger Wharf apartments at Woolloomooloo, who include the actor Russell Crowe and retired broadcaster John Laws. The Herald revealed last week that residents of one of Sydney's most exclusive apartment blocks, The Tower on Market Street, were locked in a dispute with the City of Sydney over an annual waste levy of $201 per person for a rubbish removal service the council does not carry out. - Thanks, Kris C