Sunday, October 29, 2006 - In the “El Mitote” column.

The sightings begin. Bad-boy actor Russell Crowe, in town to remake a Glenn Ford Western, is out and about in New Mexico’s capital city.

The first sighting came at a Saturday night dinner at the Cowgirl BBQ & Western Grill, where the actor, born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, are with friends in the bar. Word leaked out that he was there, and the pool hall emptied. Even jaded Santa Fesinos wanted a peek at Crowe.

Crowe has the plum role of outlaw Ben Wade in the film 3:10 to Yuma, which also stars Christian Bale, Peter Fonda and Gretchen Mol. The remake of the 1957 Western deals with a down-on-his-luck rancher’s attempt to bring in a desperado. Crowe’s Wade is described by the Little Round-Headed Boy blog as a “wily, cold-blooded stagecoach robber and murderer, with a charming smile and a sociopath’s heart, who makes his brutal mark ‘quietly’ through slowly escalated shades of psychological menace.”

While not paparazzi fodder in the same way Jessica Simpson was (she filmed in Santa Fe last February amid a flock of photographers after the money shot), Crowe is nonetheless true A-list Holly-wood—a star – on top of being a great actor. His doings in Santa Fe could put us back in the national celebrity news.

Crowe’s previous Western turn was in Sharon Stone’s The Quick and the Dead, which filmed on location next door in Arizona. Crowe’s co-star in that 1995 film was none other than Santa Fe’s own Gene Hackman, who, like Crowe, is an Oscar winner.

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Christian Bale , hopefully, has settled in his Santa Fe abode. He had been looking tenaciously with the help of local realtors to find just the right place. The Batman star has the pleasure of starting his new film with Crowe in the same week that his latest movie, The Prestige, opened at No. 1 in the country. Bale stars opposite another Aussie, Hugh Jackman, in the magician movie. Bale is best known for his turn as the Dark Knight in Batman Begins in 2005. His cerebral crime fighter put the punch back into what had been a dying movie franchise. He’ll make a sequel in 2008 titled The Dark Knight.

In 3:10 to Yuma, Bale will star as Dan Evans, a man on the verge of losing everything – his wife, son and land. He takes on the job of corralling Crowe’s character and faces danger at ever step.