Crowe in snit about cut poem

Olympian news services

Originally published Wednesday, March 6, 2002

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

LONDON -- What does a star have to do to get a poem on the air?

Actor Russell Crowe -- who was reportedly enraged and then apologetic after a poem was cut from the British broadcast of his acceptance speech at the British Academy Film Awards -- was annoyed all over again when the verse was cut from the broadcast in his native Australia, news reports said Tuesday.

Crowe, who won the best actor award for his role as a schizophrenic math genius in "A Beautiful Mind," threw a party for friends at his farm near the Australian town of Coffs Harbour Monday to watch the broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corp. television, the British tabloid The Sun reported.

The four-line poem, "Sanctity," by the late Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh, was deleted despite assurances from TV executives that it would be included, The Sun said.

An unidentified friend was quoted as saying Crowe was surprised to see the poem was removed and got angry.

There was no immediate comment from Crowe's publicist in Los Angeles, Robin Baum.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The lead singer of the metal band Slipknot says he expects to be accepted when he moves into his new home in a neighborhood full of doctors, lawyers and bankers.

"I just hope once they get to know me, they'll understand that -- besides the blood worship on Thursdays -- I'm an average guy," Corey Taylor said, laughing.

The tattooed 28-year-old said Monday he expects to turn the $350,000 home into "one of the raddest pads on the planet." Taylor expects to close Friday on the purchase of the five-bedroom brick Colonial.

Slipknot is composed of nine Des Moines-area natives known for grotesque masks and extreme metal music. The band they started in an Urbandale basement in the mid-1990s has captured two Grammy nominations and sold millions of compact discs around the world.

The news of Taylor's home purchase came as a surprise to some members of the Linden Heights Neighborhood Association, who learned about it at a business meeting Sunday.

When it was announced that the future homeowner was a musician, one woman said she was "hoping it would be a clarinetist."

Steve Davis, a banker who lives down the street, said he thinks neighbors will adapt.

"We have great diversity in the neighborhood," Davis said. "He will be a great addition."

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Famed cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich received Azerbaijan's highest honor, the Order of Independence, from Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliev.

The medal was a gift to Rostropovich for his 75th birthday from the land of his birth, Aliev said.

"I think we've given a good start to your 75th," Aliev told Rostropovich during the award ceremony Monday in the capital Baku.

The musician, now based in Paris, was born in Baku when Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, and spent the first five years of his life there. Over the weekend, Rostropovich presented Azerbaijan's Republican Maternity Center with a check for $1.1 million from The Vaccine Fund for use in a program for vaccinations against hepatitis B.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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