January 8

Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts has their American premiere at The Viper Room in Hollywood, California ~ 1999

Linda Park, who booked the talent at The Viper Room at the time, recalls that "Catherine Zeta Jones and some housewives from Virginia converged to swoon over Russell Crowe's 30 Odd Foot of Grunts."

Her memories of the club are at this blog.


Lisa Johnson, a fan who attended the show, says that she saw Danny Devito, Salma Hayek and Kim Bassinger also in attendance.

Her full report is here.

"As he sang, you could see his azure eyes reflecting all that was behind them. Raw emotion at it's best. He melted the room with everything from a love song straight from the heart to a righteously badass rap. These songs were not just pablum made up by some smart Hollywood shaman. No, these songs, unlike Coca-Cola, were the real thing. He was the real thing. You could feel his soul leaping out and dancing around the room. Frankly, you could almost see his soul through his eyes - the soul of a true musician who dared to show us who he was."




Source: MTV News | Kurt Loder's best and worst of 2005

January 8, 2006

Excerpt ~ ... And Russell Crowe gave one of his warmest and most subtle performances in the under-appreciated "Cinderella Man" (too bad about the dorky title), playing a simple man, but not playing him simple-minded.




Source:Aint It Cool News

January 8, 2007

Excerpt ~ ... Quint interviews Temeraire author Naomi Novik about Peter Jackson, dream casting and Book 4

QUINT: Just speaking as a fan, when I was reading the books I couldn't avoid the image of Crowe as Laurence. I guess it was really the only point of comparison I had for the kind of Napoleonic ship captain. But I know that wouldn't work in the films because I really wasn't seeing Russell Crowe as Laurence in my head, but Jack Aubrey playing Will Laurence.

NAOMI NOVIK: Yeah! It's interesting for me because I love the Patrick O'Brian books and Russell Crowe in the movie was not how I saw Jack myself, mentally. He made the role his own. I think he's one of the greatest actors working and I adore that movie, so I would sort of say specifically that Russell Crowe's performance, rather than Jack Aubrey, was sort of the seed of Laurence in my head. He then became a lot more sort of duty-bound and a little more rigid as a character. He became his own person in my head as I sort of settled into him. That was certainly the visual inspiration. I don't know if he'd want to do it again. He's done the Napoleonic era, so I don't know if adding a dragon would be enough to make it new for him. (laughs)"