Did not or could not?
Russell Crowe is currently promoting his directorial debut The Water Diviner. He’s been extra generous with gossip during this press tour. I’m obsessed with the one about Michael Jackson prank calling him. You heard about this? Michael would just ring up Russell’s hotel room and start asking to speak to Mr Wall. No? How about Mrs Wall? No? Are there any Walls there? No? Well then what’s holding up the roof?
It’s so amazingly f-cking random.
Russell’s in a great mood. This is not the crusty f-ck who beats down hotel staff or gets pissy when there’s too much background noise in his interviews. Russell’s singing about “BIG FAT BALLS” with Jimmy Fallon, imitating Michael Jackson, and sharing stories about Xenu and Tom Cruise…what?
During an interview with PEOPLE Russell revealed that he asked Tom Cruise about Scientology and was interested enough to do some research:
"From a young kid, I was quite interested in religion. When I met Tom Cruise when he was married to Nicole, we were spending a bit of time together so I thought I'd find out a little bit about what he was into.
I found a video in the video store about Scientology and I watched it. It wasn't that informative. But I brought it up with Tom and I thought he was really cool. He didn't try to sell me a pair of shoes. He just said, 'If it's something that interests you, you'll pursue it.' And I think that happens with any kind of religion if you come to it by your own discovery. I never ended up putting my two cents down on anybody's table. I've never graced [Scientology's] doorway."
So the arm’s length approach didn’t work. But, if you recall, at the time, when he was married to Nicole, Tom wasn’t as deep into the Church as he is now. That was the problem. That’s why they set out to take Nicole out of the equation. What’s also interesting to me here is that, if you recall, there were a lot of rumours going around at one point that Nicole and Russell were a thing, had a thing, about the time she and Tom split and right before he and Danielle Spencer got married. God that was some good drama. Russell always says that he’s loved Danielle since 1989. In 2000 however he had that torrid affair with Meg Ryan. They were explosive together. Which is why it could never last. Some time after that, he and Nicole may or may have not have been dealing and then, suddenly, it was absolute, lockdown recommitment to Danielle, until they separated a couple of years ago.
And he’s been rather chatty about that too, candidly telling CBS this week that their marriage was weakened because of his rugby team:
"It's not a bad business decision at all," the Les Misérables actor, 51, said of purchasing the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the interview that aired Sunday. "But it's taken a lot of work, and it's probably cost me a marriage. Making a film is my job. My wife clearly understands what my job is. But to her, I suppose, the football situation was needlessly taking myself away," he said.
What’s the situation now? Again, an honest response.
"Technically we're married. We are separated and discussing what that means.”
He doesn’t sound like he’s completely given up though because he told the Sunday Times that:
"I've loved Danielle Spencer since 1989 – that's never going to change – and that's one of those things where I stare at her and go, 'How did this fail?' I still can't work it out, because my feelings for her have never changed. Once I commit to something, I stick with it, so you never know…"
Well if the Russell who’s asking for reconciliation is the one who shows up in these videos, his chances might improve.
Here’s the link where he talks about Michael Jackson – start at 3:30. And then this:
Attached - Crowe out for a bike ride yesterday in New York City.
