Crowe Downplays Al Qaeda Threat
In this month's issue of GQ magazine, Aussie actor Russell Crowe says he was under FBI protection in March 2001, because al Qaeda was threatening to kidnap him.
Jann Carl of "Entertainment Tonight" reports that, in his notoriously contrarian fashion, Crowe ducked questions about the magazine interview at a press conference this week, and encouraged reporters to ask instead about his rugby team and upcoming film.
"I didn't make the decision to go public with that," Crowe said. "I had a conversation with someone and they used that, out of 550 things to talk about, you want to talk about that."
Carl broke the news of the threat on "ET" four years ago, and when she spoke to the Oscar winner about it, September 11 was still six months off, and al Qaeda hadn't become a household name.
He acted nonchalant, but to the undercover G-men trailing him during the 2001 awards season, it was no laughing matter.
Still, Crowe downplayed the threat at the time, saying, "It's not that big a deal, mate, it really isn't."
He even made light of it: "Quite frankly, the people involved obviously don't know me very well, because the last thing you'd want to do is have me in a room with nobody to talk to. I mean, they'll be on the phone going, 'Please, somebody, we'll give you money, take him away!' "
Crowe told GQ he was a target in a "cultural destabilization" campaign by al Qaeda -- which may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.
"We know that, even prior to 9-11, that Hollywood was a major target of the Islamist extremists, and we found that in communications that were picked up by the intelligence community, by informants, and so on," says private security expert Neil Livingstone, CEO of GlobalOptions, Inc.
He warns that, despite the lack of recent terrorist activity in this country, Hollywood should keep its guard up: "They're in the outrage business, so the more icons – the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or Russell Crowe, for that matter -- they believe it's furthering their war against this alien culture."
After watching out for Crowe for a few months during filming of both of "A Beautiful Mind" and "Master and Commander," the feds eventually told Crowe the threat might have been overstated, but he was never told whether the matter was resolved, Carl says.
She notes that, "Terrorism aside, stars have to deal with other threats on a regular basis from stalkers. So I don't imagine this will inspire people in Hollywood to hire more security, but it may have them looking over their shoulder a little more often."
Why Crowe? Carl points out that, "Though it does sort of sound like it's coming out of left field, we're talking about early 2001, when he was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for 'Gladiator,' a major, big-budget studio movie. He was also coming off a lot of accolades and attention for 'The Insider' in 1999 and, ironically, had just finished 'Proof of Life,' a film in which he played a hostage negotiator."