RUSSELL Crowe's regrettable night out at the swanky Knightsbridge restaurant Zuma last week has earned him a rebuke from a fellow Academy Award-winner and world famous knockabout Londoner, Sir Michael Caine.
The 69-year-old veteran of more than 80 movies is also a former part-owner of one-time London celebrity hang-out Langan's Brasserie and, when told of Crowe's behaviour, he invoked comparisons with football louts.

Caine had just arrived in Los Angeles to promote his film The Quiet American, directed by Australian Phil Noyce, when he heard Crowe had been brawling with New Zealand Warriors owner Eric Watson, smashing plates and kissing a girl named Georgie and making her cry foul to the media.

"Oh, has he really?" Caine said a little icily. "I've been in Austin, Texas, and you don't get a lot of news about Russell Crowe down there.

"But in London we are so used to that. It happens every time the Scots come down and play us at football – they tear the place apart.

"We go away for the weekend when all that starts. We go to Scotland."

But it appears Crowe, 38, who has since announced an extended break from acting while he deals with stress and various family matters, still has some friends left back in Hollywood.

Denzel Washington, who pipped Crowe at the post for this year's Best Actor Academy Award, said his rival was "genuinely happy for me" at that result, which shocked many a pundit.

"I must say Russell was very supportive," 47-year-old Washington said. "I've known Russell a long time. He did one of his first films in America Virtuosity (1995) with me and so he was really happy for me."

The Daily Telegraph

Source: Press Release