March 2

2001 ~ Russell rode his Harley on a cross state tour heading toward New York. He stopped in Nashville and saw that an old friend, Jamie O'Neal, country singer, was playing at a radio broadcasters convention. She invited him to stay and perform with her.
He played Folsom Prison Blues. One photo source says that they dated in the late 80s and another says she was a school mate and that they were in a play together. After leaving Nashville he made it to NY for rehearsals for A Beautiful Mind, wearing his leathers and long hair, and tried to reassure Ron Howard that he was indeed ready to shoot. ~ Tamara



     


Source: Dallas Morning News Today

March 2, 2001

Oscar Watch: Best Actor

In the lead: The dashing Mr. Crowe
By Jane Sumner
Staff Critic

When Waco-native Steve Martin comes to the mike on March 25, a Spaniard, two Americans and a couple of blokes from Down Under will be waiting to see who gets this year's big paperweight. All give head-turning performances, but the money right now is on Russell Crowe. His authoritative turn as a Roman general forced to defend himself in the arena helped make Gladiator a summer smash.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that DreamWorks Pictures' classic throwback opened to $35 million. Or that it ultimately racked up more than $186 million domestically, making it 37th in all-time U.S. grosses.

Or that his best actor nom comes in the wake of a supporting one for playing gutsy whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, who tried to keep Brown & Williamson from making more nicotine addicts, in The Insider. For that middle-aged role, the husky actor stacked on 38 pounds and went one-on-one with another Mr. Intensity: Al Pacino.

Warned not to hire the unknown Crowe as gunfighter turned preacher Cort for The Quick and the Dead, co-producer-star Sharon Stone insisted upon the man she calls "the sexiest guy working in movies today."

In his second U.S. film Virtuosity, he was vicious Sid 6.7, a dapper computer-programmed killer pursued by ex-cop/current convict Denzel Washington.

Mr. Crowe next sparked L.A. Confidential as the raging, brutal but still tender cop, who falls for Veronica Lake-like Kim Basinger.

Besides obsessive discipline and talent, it's that alluring mix of rowdiness and cheek with depth and caring that endears the rocker-actor to both sexes.

It's no secret that the son of former location caterers is a scrapper, a manic 24-hour guy, who got noticed playing a scary neo-Nazi skinhead in the Aussie Romper Stomper. Typically the next time up he opted to play a gay character.

It was no surprise when he took off with his mates on a 4,000-mile Harley-Davidson ride across his adopted homeland.

But neither was it a shock to learn that he won't slaughter his bovine "friends" on the 560-acre cattle farm he owns seven hours north of Sydney.

Russell Crowe isn't easy, but those who've worked with him say he's also funny, generous, sweet and fully involved. Win or lose, he can write his own ticket.

The nominees
Russell Crowe
Gladiator
Born: Wellington, New Zealand, April 7, 1964
Nominated: Spanish general, taken into slavery and trained for the gladiator games, squares off with the nasty Roman emperor who ordered his family slain.
Career highlights: After his break-out in Aussie film Romper Stomper, Sharon Stone nabbed him for The Quick and the Dead. Brutal-kind cop role in L.A. Confidential opened door to Oscar-nominated turn in The Insider.
What Oscar would mean: Fifty million women can't be wrong.



Source: The Columbian

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Opinion: Even basic provisions are gifts
by Elizabeth Hovde

If you haven't seen it, rent "Cinderella Man," the story of real-life boxer James Braddock. Then grab a box of Kleenex a full box. And prepare to be grateful for every can of food in your cupboard, every day of health your child has ever had and every hour of work you've had the privilege of working.

It isn't up for best picture Sunday at the Academy Awards, but it gets my vote. (I must confess I have not seen the movies that are up for best picture I have a 10-month-old.)

I think I am a grateful person, and yet it took a movie that highlights the Depression for me to realize how shallow my gratitude is. So Hollywood, keep movies like this coming. People like me need to feel for even a few short hours what it must have been like back then to be poor in America.

"Cinderella Man," which has been nominated in three other Oscar categories (film editing, supporting actor and makeup), isn't about boxing. It is about living hand-to-mouth in a freezing cold apartment and watching your children starve.

It is about scrambling for any work a person can find to make an inadequate wage and still rejoicing in the labor. It is about the humility in asking for help from acquaintances and a resistance to relying on government aid. Braddock is not only hesitant to take government aid, he returns the money he borrows from the welfare office after he starts making an income. That's quite a contrast from the way welfare is treated today.

Director Ron Howard doesn't sugarcoat the poverty or sadness of this era. As a result, you are left sober and slightly sickened by the entitlement attitude that permeates our culture.

The week I rented "Cinderella Man," for example, I had been busy looking at the higher incomes of some friends and family members and trying to brainstorm ways to make more money. Why make more? So we could have more, of course, and so life would be "easier." I was daydreaming about a life without school or house debt; a life filled with newer cars, yearly vacations, early retirement, more skiing, a college fund for my 10-month-old son. Then I rented "Cinderella Man" and was given the gift of sight. I saw how much I have; how much I get to do.

Braddock's life story reminds that every basic provision heat, water, food, work is an absolute gift. I am ashamed I needed the reminder.



Source: The Courier-Mail (Australia)

March 02, 2007

Blood brothers of the beach
By Greg Stolz

Excerpted ~
OF THE many tattoos adorning international big-wave surfer Koby Abberton's muscular body, none speaks louder than the three inked words he wears around his breast like an oversized necklace.

"My Brothers Keeper", it reads, half-affirmation, half-threat, no apostrophe considered necessary.

Abberton is speaking during interviews to promote Bra Boys, a documentary on the controversial surf gang, which premieres in Sydney and Gold Coast cinemas next week before being released nationally.

The film, made by gang members and narrated by Russell Crowe, gives a raw insight into the often tumultuous lives of the Bra Boys, their powerful connection to the ocean and their struggle with a relentless tide of violence.

Maroubra, Crowe tells the audience, is Aboriginal for "a place of thunder" - an apt name for a suburb in which white settlers would experience much conflict.

A housing commission enclave, the biggest sewage plant in the southern hemisphere, Long Bay Jail and a rifle range set up Maroubra to fail its children, Crowe suggests in his narrative. "Maroubra, with its challenges, saw many of the younger members of the community born into an environment rife with domestic conflict, parental neglect and drugs," he says. "(The Abbertons) along with their childhood friends, were raised by the beach tribe at Maroubra. For years authorities have battled to disperse the beach tribes. But as the centuries passed, and the tribe names changed, their culture has survived."