If y'all missed this, I'm sure it will repeat. From Murph's: http://www.murphsplace.com/crowe/news.html

ALERT! -- CMT.com: "Hollywood Sings Country" is a one-hour special premiering tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CMT. The show shines a spotlight on A-list celebs like Russell Crowe, Robert Duvall, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon who acquitted themselves admirably behind the mic and some B-listers like Steven Seagal, Maureen McCormick and Jerry Springer whose efforts are a little more questionable. - Thanks, Allison

OK, that was a pretty good segment on the CMT show. They reached back aways, they played a good portion of the Sail Those Same Oceans video, and they called the band name T O F O G...I guess that way they didn't have to bring up the name change, lol. Anyway, Russell got some very nice praise from the commenters, better than some of the others they'd talked about previously.

They had a couple of snippets from an older interview of Russell talking about his music, they played STSO, flashed a cover of Other Ways of Speaking, and said all his work seems to have paid off:

David Wild - contributing Editor, Rolling Stone - I think he's got a great voice.

Peter Tilden - writer, producer. I think he was amazing. I thought his pitch is perfect. I thought the song selection was ideal.

Dayna Devon-Extra - He does show a sensitive side of himself and I like that. I do think there is a sensitive side to him.

David Wild - Gladiator would have been so much lighter and nicer with a few country tunes.

Voiceover - Whether he's singing country, rock or pop, Russell Crowe has only one goal in mind.

Russell: It's about entertaining people, it's a really simple thing. I'm not trying to be cool or break any new musical ground. Any place where you go and play and people know your songs, and like what you do, that's the reason you do it. (Mmmm, I think you can count many of us in that group, eh? )

Lance Smith - CMT Top20 Countdown - That guy doesn't care, he's going to go out and do it the way he wants to do it.

Morning ladies. Murph has a very nice article from OK, thanks to TSN. If the first picture doesn't wakey wakey you, I don't know what will. Yum, have always loved the pics from that photo shoot.

http://www.murphsplace.com/crowe/ok09.html

Also, maria found an interesting read this morning at Cinematical. We may not agree with Mr. Anderson's assessment of Gladiator and ABM but he's at least a rational, thoughtful writer and one who can also perhaps somewhat see the error of his ways. Seriously, he is still wrong about those movies but he appears to be able to rethink his attitude and even alter it. We'll never quite 'get' the folks who think Maximus was only glowering and Nash was only a bundle of tics but each to his own, I reckon. Perhaps now that he has this burgeoning appreciation of Russell's talents Mr. Anderson should revisit both those movies and see if his feelings are the same. I also think he should see Cinderella Man, if he hasn't already.



http://www.cinematical.com/2009/06/07/400-screens-400-blows-as-the-crowe-flies/

400 Screens, 400 Blows - As the Crowe Flies

by Jeffrey M. Anderson Jun 7th 2009 // 9:02AM

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

State of Play (240 screens) continues playing this week, and despite its lukewarm performance and reviews, something about it makes me happy. In mid-2003, I got myself into hot water with a Russell Crowe fan club. I reviewed a very minor film called The Hard Word, starring Guy Pearce, who of course had been Crowe's co-star in L.A. Confidential (1997). I took the opportunity to compare the two actors, praising Pearce for his work in interesting films like Ravenous and Memento, and questioning the much more fashionable Crowe. I did this mainly because I was irritated at the enduring popularity of two terrible films, the sludgy, brooding mess Gladiator (2000) and the manipulative Oscar bait A Beautiful Mind (2001).

I felt that Crowe went through the former film with one single expression, a glower, and through the latter with an unchanging collection of tics and actor's tricks; neither one was a particularly interesting or deep performance. Both performances received Oscar nominations, and Crowe won for Gladiator. I was also irritated that the immeasurably superior Memento, and Pearce, didn't get the same attention. In any case the Crowe fan club grabbed my review, posted it on one of their forums and went to town. I started getting all kinds of angry, nasty e-mails. The fact that I presented one, small opinion contrary to their perfect, orderly world absolutely infuriated them.

One of the best things about the movies is how things can change and grow, or rise and fall. I'm not sure if any of those mean people are still fan club members or not, but in the years since that incident my admiration for Crowe has steadily grown, and I don't mind saying I was wrong. It first happened in Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). What looked like another turgid, self-important epic turned out to be a really fun, breezy, old-fashioned adventure film of the Hawks-Walsh school, filled with exciting action and male bonding. Best of all, I saw something I had never seen before: I saw Crowe smile. As Captain Jack Aubrey, he began using his charm to win over his crew and inspire their trust, and he did the same to me. I wasn't alone in my love for that movie, but it certainly didn't catch on quite the way the previous films had. (The film received a batch of Oscar nominations, but not one for Crowe.)

From then on, Crowe was equally commanding, in 3:10 to Yuma (2007), American Gangster (2007) and State of Play. In the latter two, and also last year's Body of Lies, he began to adopt a ragged, scruffy look. He seemed to have packed on a little weight, but he moved comfortably in his own skin. Like Captain Aubrey, he still had the powerful physical presence to keep others in check. His delivery no longer had the calculated, one-note quality of his Oscar-friendly films, but now seemed to come from some private place where things were secretly amusing -- and we were now in on the joke. He had put something of himself into his work, rather than putting up a wall. Yet he keeps something commanding and mysterious, just out of reach, just to keep us interested and make us want to keep searching.

Crowe doesn't pack in audiences like he did at the beginning of the decade, and since his performances have grown less showy, he is no longer considered for Oscars every year. I can't help wondering if my former detractors still appreciate him, or if their perfect, orderly, easy-to-read world has now been shattered by Crowe's more complex and subtle new style. Would they mind saying they were wrong? Either way, I look forward to Crowe's next one (Ridley Scott's Robin Hood), even if I'm alone in the theater.