New book calls Russell Crowe a ‘puffy pain’

[HMG] – Bad press would be no new experience for Russell Crowe, but a new book on the behind-the-scenes dealings at DreamWorks threatens to add further damage to his dented career.

Clearly timed to cash in on the vast press attention for Russell’s big-screen appearance as Britain’s Robin Hood, the new book ‘The Men Who Would Be King’ by Nicole LaPorte will be released on May 4, and it paints the 46-year old New Zealander as less than a saint.

In one claim, LaPorte says that while  shooting his 2000 Oscar-winning hit, “Gladiator’ Russell threatened to kill one of the producers, Branko Lustig, with his bare hands because Russell suspected his assistants were not being properly paid.

Other unproven claims include stories that during his time on the set, Russell behaved like “a puffy pain” and that after challenging some of the crew to a foot race – and losing – he spent days blaming his footwear, saying;

“I would have won, but I can’t run on the sand in sandals.’”

But the juiciest story regards the movie’s finale — La Porte says Russell hated every line of the scene;

“Overwrought puffery that no man would ever be caught dead saying,” he is quoted as stating. “Least of all a brawny, sword-carrying killer standing under the unrelenting African sun.”

[The movie was set around Rome, but was shot in Morocco, North Africa.]

The director, Ridley Scott tried the scene a few different ways and loved the results, but his star was not happy:

“‘Russell, what’s the problem?’ Scott asked the actor. “It worked.’”

“‘It was s**t,” Crowe growled back. “But I’m the greatest actor in the world and I can make even s**t sound good.’

And with that earthy appraisal he just marched off the set.

If true, this would not be the first time Russell’s emotions got overheated. The Telegraph says his speech at the 2002 BAFTA awards in London was cut for bad language, for which Russell had a very tense argument with a BBC suit. Later that year he was ejected from a Japanese restaurant — also in London – for being involved in a fight.

And in June of 2005 he was charged with second-degree assault in New York, after throwing a phone at desk clerk at the Mercer Hotel. But that case was settled once the desk clerk got paid.

The book comes out on May 4. The movie debuts nine days later. So which one do you want to see?…