Travels with Grumpus

From Grumpus:

I’ve always liked watching Russell Crowe on screen. I was probably one of the few people on the planet who thought he should’ve won the Oscar for Best Actor for “The Insider” over Kevin Spacey. (As an aside, I’m also probably one of the few people who thought “American Beauty” was an over-rated piece of crap. I still do.) I also thought he made a perfect Jack Aubrey in “Master and Commander”. It just makes his being, well, an ass that much harder to take. I mean, the guy threw a phone at someone because he (i.e., Mr. Crowe) was too stupid to figure out how to make a long-distance call. How lame is that? And now he’s claiming that it’s the US legal system that screwed him over? That is, he got into trouble for throwing the phone at the other guy’s head not because he threw the phone (which could’ve hurt the other guy) but because the US legal system wouldn’t let him settle the issue with “a handshake and an apology”? Two words, Russell: Not cool.

Which brings me to this: How many people in Australia throw phones at each other? Is it a common enough occurrence that a hearty handshake and “Sorry, Mate” can resolve any ill-feeling that may come from being hit on the head with a phone?

Crowe Blasts US Legal System

Hollywood hardman Russell Crowe has blasted the US legal system for making a big deal of his phone assault in a New York City hotel last year. The Gladiator star managed to escape serious criminal charges with a conditional discharge in a Manhattan court last November after pleading guilty to the third-degree assault of Mercer Hotel employee Nestor Estrada with a telephone handset. Speaking on TV show 60 Minutes, the actor said the incident wouldn’t have been treating so seriously in his native Australia. He says, “Where I come from, a confrontation like that, as basic and simple as that, would have been satisfied with a handshake and an apology… Your (US) legal system is very open to be misused.”

news article from IMDB