And just when we were starting to like Russell Crowe, too.

After facing up to his telephone-throwing hotel tantrum like a man, and finally showing some humility for another one of his mindless outbursts, it was starting to look like Russell Crowe was a changed man.

But now he’s been cleared of assault, Russell can start shooting his giant oafish mouth off again. And the first people he decided to lay into? The media, of course. Apparently we all overreacted when he pelted a telephone into a confused hotel worker’s face. Whoops.

Back in June – just after being arrested for assault
for ripping a hotel telephone from a wall, marching downstairs with it,
hurling it hotel worker Nestor Estrada’s face, then throwing a vase and
pulling an odd karate pose – Russell Crowe (DVDs) was more than happy to use
the media for his own gain.

Crowe went on the David Letterman show to do his puppy-eyed best to say sorry for being such an angry boy. He called the telephone incident:

"possibly the most shameful situation I’ve ever gotten myself in my life".

But now that he’s been conditionally discharged
by a New York Judge – thereby avoiding jail and staying able to keep
making movies in America – Russell Crowe can look back on the incident
with fresh eyes. And, oh boy, those eyes are telling him that pretty
much the media’s fault that he even got in this crazy scrape in the first
place. He told reporters in Melbourne about how much the media overreacted:

"I got a $160 court-cost fine for something that would have had more
newsprint about it than some very horrific and specific things that we
should know about in our community."

Well, $160 and the thousands and thousands of dollars
that he allegedly paid Nestor Estrada to stop getting sued, anyway.
But who cares about details when there’s an axe to grind, right
Russell? And anyway, horrific and specific things don’t have the
entertainment value of a barmy actor chucking phones around a hotel.
Even though, according to Crowe, it happens all the time:

"Travelling businessmen get touchy or testy
with hotel staff in every major city all around the world. That doesn’t excuse the fact that I lost my temper… What I did was
stupid. I admitted that straight away."

Read more:

Crowe says too much made of phone incident – MSNBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]