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For any Oscar-winning movie star, time is of the essence.

And perhaps Russell Crowe does not place a British film awards ceremony top of his 'to do' list.

But the Gladiator star left his fellow actors' feathers ruffled when he gave them less than 20 minutes of his time, picked up his trophy and left.

His acceptance speech, a bizarre amalgamation of song lyrics and lines of poetry, also left the other winners at the Empire Awards open-mouthed.

While film stars James McAvoy and Viggo Mortensen both mocked the Australian actor during their speeches, host Dara O'Briain used lines from a Spike Milligan poem for a final dig.

'I'd like to say a few words that sum up this event: "On the ning nang nong where the cows go bong",' the Irish comedian laughed.

Crowe, who is renowned for his short fuse, arrived at Sunday night's Empire Awards in London at the last possible moment, just minutes before he was due on stage to collect his Actor Of Our Lifetime award.

O'Briain, 37, who was hosting the event, and presenter Billy Bragg, 51, were forced to delay their speeches, while the audience waited for the actor's limo to pull up

When the Beautiful Mind star finally arrived, he bounded to the podium from stage left and produced a piece of paper covered in notes.

Crowe, 44, then read out his unconventional speech, which included song lyrics by Bragg, John Lennon and the Bee Gees, and poetry by Patrick Kavanagh and Rudyard Kipling.

'I am celebrating my love for you with a pint of beer and a new tattoo,' he said.
'Imagine there's no heaven. I don't know if you're loving somebody.

'To be a poet and not know the trade, to be a lover and repel all women. Twin ironies by which great saints are made, the agonizing pincer jaws of heaven.'

He continued: 'If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue, walk with kings but not lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much.

'Yours is the earth and everything that's in it, and what's more, you'll be a man.

'It's only words and words are all I have to take your breath away.'

The actor added: 'Thank you for this honour and the opportunity to read some poetry at a British awards ceremony. It's one of my favourite things to do. Thank you and goodnight,' before leaving the stage and heading back to his car.

Crowe's strange speech left the audience a little bemused and ceremony organisers less than impressed.

'Everyone thought it was a bit of a cheek,' a source said.

'All the other actors gave up their whole evening, while Russell couldn't even spare 20 minutes.

'The time he did give up was dedicated to this pretentious acceptance speech. He just came across as very rude.'

But Crowe's fellow award winners seized the opportunity to have a laugh at the actor's expense.

'I wasn't sure what to say, but I was inspired by another winner tonight,' McAvoy, 29, while receiving Wanted's best sci-fi movie award.

Reciting his own mix of W.H. Auden and the Bee Gees, he said: 'I think I'll just say "Stop all the clocks… Bulls*** is all I have to take this award away".'

Picking up the Empire Icon award, Lord Of The Rings actor Mortensen, 50, claimed he had been forced to swap award categories with Crowe.

'He was supposed to get the Icon award and I was supposed to get the Actor Of Our Lifetime award, but I traded with him because he couldn't stay, he only came for a second. There's a lot of pressure at the top,' he said.

'But in fairness to all those who were maybe a little disappointed that after regaling us with his unfathomable literary aspirations, that he had to go because he had to go to take his Maltesers and his shampoo down to the Great Ormond Street Hospital already, because he knows a matter of life and death when he sees it.'

Crowe, who admitted assault in 2005 after throwing a telephone at a New York hotel employee, also recited a poem during his 2002 Bafta award acceptance speech.

The actor was said to have rudely confronted Malcolm Gerrie, whose company Initial Productions televised the awards for the BBC, after his quote from Patrick Kavanagh's poem Sanctity was dropped from the broadcast.

Referring to Mr Gerrie afterwards, he said: 'He's not battered, he's not bruised and he's not bloodied. His ears will be ringing though. I have no regrets about what I said to
him.'