Russell Crowe - Actor Arrested for Assault in New York
June 6, 2005
Russell Crowe, one of Hollywood's highest paid actors, has spent a day in a New York jail cell, a courthouse and in the eye of a media storm.
Keeping alive his bad boy image, Crowe has been charged with second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
The weapon was a telephone he is accused of throwing at an employee of New York's trendy Mercer Hotel.
New York police allege the phone struck 28-year-old Nestor Estrada in the face.
New York Police Department detective Kevin Czartoryski said the hotel clerk made a formal complaint to officers after dialing emergency number 911 at 4.22am directly after the alleged assault.
"He said the telephone struck him on his cheek ... which caused a laceration.''
Estrada's face was cut and he was taken to hospital for treatment, but later released.
Crowe's Los Angeles-based publicist said he lost his temper when a receptionist gave him "attitude" after the actor asked repeatedly for a faulty phone in his room to be replaced so he could call his family in Australia.
Crowe faces up to eight years in jail if found guilty of both charges, said a Manhattan District Attorney's Office spokeswoman.
Police were called to the hotel, where Crowe has been living the past week while promoting his new boxing film, Cinderella Man, at about 4.20am today (1820 AEST), according to police.
Crowe appeared briefly in Manhattan's Criminal Courthouse and was released on his own recognisance. He was ordered to return to court on September 14.
Earlier, Crowe was led in handcuffs to a police vehicle for the ride to court.
The actor, wearing dark shades, a blue bomber-style jacket and jeans, declined to comment.
Views on the incident, predictably, differ between the police and Crowe's camp.
"We have a strong case," Assistant District Attorney Chad Sjoquist said.
"This defendant is charged with hitting an employee of a hotel in the face with a telephone. Defendant admitted throwing the phone."
Crowe's publicist Beverly Hills publicist Robin Baum denied her star client had assaulted the employee.
"After asking the front desk several times to replace a faulty phone in his room - and getting only attitude from the clerk on duty - Crowe brought the phone down to the front desk in an effort to address the situation in person," Baum said in a statement.
"Words were exchanged and Crowe wound up throwing the phone against the wall. He regrets that he lost his temper, but at no time did he assault anyone or touch any hotel employee."
The incident occurred after Crowe tried to ring his wife Danielle Spencer, at home in Sydney with their 17-month-old son, Charles Spencer Crowe.
"He was in his room. He couldn't get a line and there was a disagreement," said his lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt.
Australia's consul-general in New York was attempting to contact Crowe to offer assistance.
Crowe, who won an Oscar in 2001 for his role in Gladiator and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 for A Beautiful Mind, is known for his temper in Hollywood film circles.
In August last year, he became embroiled in a fight with his bodyguard and close friend Mark "Spud" Carroll on the Toronto set of Cinderella Man, in which Crowe plays depression-era world heavyweight boxing champion James Braddock.
Early in 2002, Crowe verbally abused British TV executive Malcolm Gerrie and allegedly got him up against a wall after part of the actor's Bafta-winning speech was cut out for television.
Later in 2002, Crowe was spoken to by police after an alleged brawl in a London restaurant.
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Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe - Actor plans to be baptized
11/5/07
NEW YORK - Russell Crowe, who is 43, says he's planning to be baptized.
"I'd like to do it this year," the Oscar-winning actor tells Men's Journal. "My mom and dad decided to let my brother and me make our own decisions about God when we got to the right age. I started thinking recently, `If I believe it is important to baptize my kids, why not me?'"
Crowe says the baptism will take place in the Byzantine chapel he built at his country ranch in Australia for his wedding to Danielle Spencer in 2003. The couple have two sons, 3-year-old Charlie and 1-year-old Tennyson.
"It is consecrated and everything," Crowe says in the magazine's December issue, now on newsstands. "Charlie was baptized there. And when Tennyson gets baptized there, I will, too."
Crowe — a reformed Aussie bad boy with a reputation for throwing temper tantrums — is more spiritual than people may think.
"I do believe there are more important things than what is in the mind of a man," he says. "There is something much bigger that drives us all. I'm willing to take that leap of faith."
Crowe, who won an Academy Award in 2001 for "Gladiator," co-stars with Denzel Washington in "American Gangster," a Universal Pictures release, which is now in theaters. His screen credits also include "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Insider."
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