AUSTRALIA : Actor Russel Crowe, hosting an awards ceremony in Australia, laughs off phone scandal.

Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe has joked at throwing a telephone at a New York hotel concierge. Crowe, who was the host of the Australian Film Industry Awards in Melbourne walked on stage carrying an old-fashioned, Bakelite telephone. He recently pleaded guilty to hitting a hotel clerk with a telephone in June and was fined $160 on reduced misdemeanour charges and told to stay out of trouble. The New Zealand native admitted to using a phone to assault a hotel employee but said nothing else. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Crow gave Crowe a conditional discharge and told he must avoid arrest for a year. "If there are any problems and you do get up here and go on too long, then 'hello' to my little friend," Crowe warned nominees in the audience. A New York court sentenced the actor to a conditional discharge, which means he must not get arrested for one year. Crowe laughed along with Australian comedians who berated him for the incident. "Well for starters, we would like to thank Russell, without whom we would have had nothing to talk about this year," comedian Will Anderson said. "Yeah I know, but he was just going on and on. No mate, I'm not doing that because last time I got into a shit-load of trouble. Righto, no I get it, under the hairline they can't see the cut. Sweet," Crowe joked, talking into the telephone. Crowe won the Academy Award for best actor in 2001 for "Gladiator" and has also starred in such films as "A Beautiful Mind" and "Cinderella Man."

ITN Source | December 1, 2005

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