MSNBC reports that film star Russell Crowe is furious about the new play entitled Killing Russell Crowe:
In Killing Russell Crowe -- which premiered last week at the Lonny Chapman Repertory Theatre in Burbank, California -- a dispirited greeting --card writer asks a bartender if he could kill anyone, who would it be. Russell Crowe, replies the bartender, who goes on to say that when Crowe comes into his bar, he doesn't pay for his drinks and as a tip he leaves an unsigned headshot of himself.
The real life Crowe is not amused. He has blasted the "imputation I do not pay my way" and has labeled the playwright a "desperate [vile expletive]."
"The reckless accusation that I do not tip drain[s] the last drops of credibility from this desperate plea for attention," Crowe fumed to Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph. "It is with generosity I offer the author this tip: 'Take yourself outside and give yourself two uppercuts. Greeting cards could be your calling.'"
Playwright Jeremy Kehoe says that Crowe had misinterpreted his intentions. "It's not about Crowe the individual, but the system that Crowe represents," Kehoe tells The Scoop, adding "I'd love to have Russell Crowe come to see the play. If he's savvy, he'd see that it's not an attack on him personally, but on the two-tier system in which there is a set of rules for people of power and privilege and for everyone else."
At the end of the play, Crowe beats the two characters up. But Crowe didn't seem to have a problem with that portrayal -- only with the implication that he didn't tip well. If Mr. Kehoe ever does meet Russell Crowe in person, we hope he's been working out.
