Russell Crowe Scares Audience with Telephone Joke

While hosting the Australian Film Industry Awards on Saturday, Russell Crowe showed he didn't get over the telephone incident he was recently involved in.

The actor reportedly ripped the handset from the socket, stormed downstairs and attacked an employee. It all happened at Mercer hotel, because Mr. Crowe couldn't get in touch with his wife Danielle Spencer.

After he got away with a one-year conditional discharge earlier this month, he is now pretty brave when talking about it.
So he stepped on the Melbourne stage holding an old-fashioned Bakelite telephone and said:
"If there are any problems and you do get up here and go on too long, then 'hello' to my little friend."

But viewers back home were far from impressed, according to a show insider: "He kept dropping four-letter words and bad jokes about throwing telephones. By the end just 15 400 were watching."

Before the awards, Russell had declared the whole incident was blown out of proportion, claiming that angry customers are a common thing in hotels: "Traveling businessmen get touchy or testy with hotel staff in every major city all around the world."