Russell Crowe Challenges Columnist to Bike Deathmatch

There was a time, as fans will surely remember, when one could hardly say something upsetting to or about Russell Crowe without being prepared to stand his wrath and whatever his highly flammable temper might have urged him to do at the moment. Now, the Australian, Oscar-winning actor is more in control and comparatively cooler, as he chooses to have his “opponents” out for bike deathmatches, as E! Online can confirm.

It all started with a story on the Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Confidential, in which columnist Annette Sharp criticized Crowe for his habit of marking his daily bike run with cigarette and taco breaks. The article in question was scathing, there’s no doubt about it, but, strangely enough, this time, Crowe decided to be all diplomatic about it. He had his publicist call Sharp and invite her to a race, to see who was the fittest of the two. Clearly, that turned out to be Crowe.

“So what did he do? He didn’t throw a phone, write a poem or start a Twitter war (ahem). He simply challenged Judgy McColumnist to accompany him, video camera in tow, on one of his rides. ‘Get on your bike,’ his spokesman told her. ‘Russell wants you to go riding with him. Are you ready to die?’ The answer, apparently, was yes.” E! Online writes of the story that made headlines all over the world.

Sharp was offered sports gear and a bike to at least attempt to keep up with the actor, who continues to be on a grueling fitness regime, having already lost 32 kg so far for his part as Robin Hood. She found it very hard to stay even remotely close to Crowe, which showed her that, if she lived by the sword, she might also find her end from it, as she put it in the follow-up article. When it became clear that the woman was no match for him, though, Crowe showed his true gentleman colors and took her on a sort of impromptu tour instead of continuing the race.

He even paid her a compliment or two at the end of the bike run, E! says. “Baz holds the record for being the worst cycling tourist we’ve ever taken for a ride. You are twice the man [director] Baz Luhrmann is… on a bicycle. I don’t know how you’d be on a film set.” Russell Crowe told the (now humbled) entertainment columnist.