Crowe blast for LA play

Russell Crowe has ridiculed a new American play that fantasises about his murder as a "plea for attention'' from "a desperate twat''.

Killing Russell Crowe premiered last week in Los Angeles, taking aim at the actor as a "symbol of a system that rewards wealth over worth''.

"Crowe can dictate what films get made because he's rich and famous,'' playwright Jeremy Kehoe claims.

"While he's talented, he's now become more than an actor, his skills secondary to his character.''

Tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Crowe told Out There "it is endemic to American culture to use icons outside their own system ... to fiddle with notions of power and imbalance that exist within their system''.

Staged at the Lonny Chapman Repertory Theatre in Burbank, the play tells the story of "a broken-down greeting card writer who dreams of social revolution''.

"The main character poses the question: `If you could get away with killing one person, who would it be?''' Kehoe said.

"His friend, a bartender, chooses Russell Crowe, because Crowe comes into his bar but doesn't pay for drinks and leaves an unsigned headshot as a tip.''

Not surprisingly, Crowe was outraged by Kehoe's poor research and the "imputation I do not pay my way''.

"The reckless accusation that I do not tip drain(s) the last drops of credibility from this desperate plea for attention,'' Crowe said.

Tellingly, Kehoe, who wrote the play in February, said he had never heard of the film Eucalyptus, which was shut down the very same month after an alleged clash of personalities between Crowe and director Jocelyn Moorhouse.

So does big bad Rusty get his comeuppance in the play, or does he walk into the sunset, like he did on Eucalyptus' abandoned Bellingen set?

"Russell Crowe eventually comes back into the bar and they chase after him, but Crowe beats them up,'' Kehoe said.
He said the moral of the story was "two people can't effect change. Crowe represents reality, he says 'I'm Russell Crowe, now go back to your punch card lives'.''

RUSSELL Crowe appears to be apologising to his wife Danielle Spencer for being too "hard to handle" and for coming home with "black eyes" in a musical tribute on his new album.

On Weight of a Man, the opening track on his debut solo album My Hand, My Heart, , Crowe calls himself "a burden", thanks Spencer for her "strong heart" and seemingly apologises for his "black eyes and stitches".

"They come with me/it's part of the show," Crowe sings, also crooning "oh how you love me/God only knows."

While Spencer's name is not mentioned, Crowe wrote the lyrics with the help of Canadian songwriter Alan Doyle and the introspective song appears to refer to Spencer as his guiding light.

"You make me lighter/you're my salvation," the song's lyrics continue.

The album will be available for Australian fans to download from the Sanity music website on May 10 and its future looks promising in light of the recent success of its first single Raewyn, which was released on April 19.

The track is sitting at the top of Sanity's download chart ahead of hits including Ciara's 1, 2 Step

In a reverse of Crowe's musical fortunes, Raewyn has apparently also proved popular in Europe and the US.

The Spaniards apparently don't mind Rusty's voice – the song has scored a No. 1 spot on download charts there – and in Canada it has come in at No. 4 and sits at a not-too-shabby No. 31 in the US.

Track of tears

"I'm so hard to handle,
my life's a suitcase that's never been closed.
Don't know how you stand me,
oh how you love me,
god only knows.

There's ghosts and there's witches,
there's black eyes and stitches.
They come with me,
it's part of the show."

Chorus

"This could be heavy,
not as easy,as it seems.
Quite tough to carry,
a lot more inside,that no-one has seen.

But you lying there,
you're not one bit scared,
to shoulder,
a burden like me."

“Out of Oscar, I get fun like Totò” - by Giovanna Grassi

Giamatti, starring of “Sideways”: "I don’t betray my Neapolitan origins, life is lightness"

He’s the only one who accepted with irony the elimination from the 5 best actors nomination, as starring of this year cult movie Sideways. All his co-stars have been nominated, director A. Payne, even the movie and the co-playwright. Paul Giamatti (2 degrees at Yale’s, Literature and Fine Arts) smiles while the most important American critics yell “outrage” and hundreds fans write to newspapers: “Academy members show they are always inebriated and this time they drank a bad wine”

Q: You were supposed to be a possible winner, you were on Newsweek’s and Time’s covers…

R: Yet I’ve got a wrong face for covers and nobody ever offered me a romantic role, even that of a loser.

Before Sideways, despite American Splendor’s and other of my movies' successes, they dint put my face on back covers either. I’ve always walked on side roads, like our ensemble movie’s title recalls.

Q: Now lots of people love you, cinema lovers, directors like Spielberg and Ron Howard...

R: I’ve just finished Cinderella Man with Ron, as Crowe’s co-star. A rearguard role, like in Saving Private Ryan: I’m the backbone of Hollywood’s character actors.

Q: Did you really face with lightness your elimination from stars’ night?

R: I’ve got Italian ancestors (from Naples) for both my parents. My father (who was Yale’s President till his death) taught me to appreciate prince Totò and comedy. The Neapolitan smiles even despite the worst side of life: so I cannot help but think this way.

Q: Your Father was also a very loved commissioner of baseball's National League.

R: And I’ve learnt from him that a game's score can change till the end and that victory and defeat walk arm in arm. I’m happy for our winning Actors Union’s prize as the best ensemble of protagonists and I’ll support my director and my drinking buddies on night of the 27th. My regrets are others. My mother, a great teacher, died from cancer before watching this movie. We all gave a lot to this movie: our personality, our life choices and our values.

Q: The director said that you filmed it for yourselves, with your pleasure of wandering in California vineyards, in great writers’ California...

R: That’s absolutely true! We would find ourselves in West with the adventure of escape and our consciousness rising of dreams and failures. That’s the way good movies are made, nowadays like in the past.

Q: Do you feel rewarded from the anger of cinema critics and audience, ready to protest?

R: I'm thankful for the unsolicited solidarity and I say again the main value which made me pick up this movie. During the shooting I looked for hints of Henry Miller, Kipling, Stevenson, Kerouac, Steinbeck on Pacific coast, Sideways tells of men, women, loneliness, sex. If solidarity means fraternity with my Miles – left by his wife, intellectual against today’s vulgarity, alien to his college mate’s adventures with every woman he meets, on the road with him – well, if so, I accept it with pleasure

Q: What’s in short Sideways’ message?

R: As many support this movie I think they realized you have to walk off the beaten track, it means the ups and downs as the measure of life

The fate of the Australian film Eucalyptus will now be decided in a Hollywood boardroom.

The vaunted collaboration between Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman fell apart on Friday, postponed indefinitely due to script problems.

But a joint statement by Crowe, Kidman, writer/director Moorhouse and producer Uberto Pasolini couldn't cover weeks of rising tensions and creative differences.

Eucalyptus's future is now in the hands of Fox Searchlight's President Peter Rice, who left Sydney last week after more than month in Australia.

His absence from the recent Sundance Film Festival, where his studio would normally be a major participant, only emphasised the size of Eucalyptus's importance and problems.

Details have emerged of a film blighted by a rushed script rewrite, inexperienced producers, a headstrong star and an "indecisive'' director.

Insiders suspected as soon as Nicole Kidman was announced as Crowe's co-star in October that three months would not be long enough to revise her character from a 19-year-old to a 30-something.

Those fears were confirmed in recent weeks as Crowe realised the script was still some way off being completed.

Yesterday, a Fox Searchlight spokesperson admitted that "in order for Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman to be a part of this low-budget Australian production there was a small window within which both were available. Pre-production elements were accelerated to try to meet this opening, but unfortunately the time was not sufficient.''

Previously, Crowe told The Daily Telegraph: "We envision this movie as a line in the sand, a statement of power through ensemble.''

Now his movie was dying for the same reason many Australian films fail: inadequate script development.

Crowe, as executive producer, began to suggest changes.
And this is where the troubles began.

"It's easy to paint him as the bully boy,'' said one insider. "To that extent it's unfair.''

Producers Lynda House and Uberto Pasolini were caught in the crossfire, their experience hitherto untested by two Hollywood A-list stars.

Matters weren't helped by House's business partner, director Jocelyn Moorhouse, hesitating.

''I don't think she really got the message on how powerful Russell was when he was suggesting script changes,'' one crew member said.

"People looked to her to be a leader and she lacked some of those qualities. On a smaller project she would have been alright.''

An impasse was reached more than a week ago, with heavy rains on the Bellingen set only covering for a one week postponement.

Last week's talks sought to control the damage as much as salvage the project. The crew knew trouble was afoot.

"We'd been in limbo for months but it was clear it was now something more than the weather,'' said a Bellingen crew member.

The cast, including Samuel Johnson, Roy Billing, Jack Thompson, Alyssa Sutherland and Hugo Weaving, and crew have little to look forward to. The three major films near production, Superman, Ghost Rider and Candy, have employed key camera and sound crew.

Meanwhile, Fox Searchlight will retain its two assets, the story and Russell Crowe.

Despite now basking in hindsight, author Murray Bail has had little to do with the project for more than a year.

Many suspect Crowe will take the helm, although The Daily Telegraph believes his desire to direct is pointed in other directions.

One Hollywood source suggested with Kidman's participation in serious doubt, this Eucalyptus is all but felled.

The best prospect is its return as a Christmas present for Bellingen.

*****************************************************

The Daily Telegraph - MON 14 FEB 2005

Mum, bub and a silent part - By CHARLES MIRANDA

FOR Russell Crowe, a walk in the Domain yesterday is about as close as he will be coming to Eucalyptus. For the time being anyway.

Crowe, his wife Danielle and son Charles strode through the trees of the Harbourside park soaking up the Sunday sunshine.

The trio looked relaxed as they played with gurgling bub, taking his first few stumbling steps on the grass.

Crowe said he was "disappointed'' by the tough decision to cancel his $20 million movie Eucalyptus. But then, it's either a sweaty film set in a back lot of Bellingen in northern NSW or a day out with the family on the Harbour.

"Ahh, mate, that's not really relevant today, we're just out for a walk,'' the smiling star said yesterday, when asked where he would rather be.

"I released a statement on Saturday and I reckon that said it all.'' His statement, released through his publicist over the weekend, confirmed Crowe was still committed to the film as was Fox Searchlight, which was to fund the project at a later date.

"I understand the disappointment everybody is feeling,'' he said. "I have made a commitment .. and that commitment remains.''