Russell Crowe in a scene from the film 'Gladiator.' Crowe said in an interview that he was surprised when he was told before the 2001 Oscars (news - web sites) where he picked up the best actor award for his role in the film, that he was targeted by al-Qaeda terrorists hoping to kidnap and hurt American film icons(AFP/DreamworksSKG/Universal/File)
FBI shielded me from al-Qaeda kidnap plot, says Crowe
CRAIG HOWIE IN HOLLYWOOD
IT COULD have been the plot for his next movie - a terrorist mastermind plans to kidnap screen star Russell Crowe at a glittering Hollywood awards ceremony to break the dominance of western culture.
But far from being the imaginings of a Los Angeles script writer, FBI agents were convinced that the threat to the Oscar winner was real and drafted in a troop of bodyguards to protect him.
The actor has revealed he was approached by the FBI in 2001 and warned that he was the target of a bizarre al-Qaeda plot to kidnap him at that year’s Golden Globe awards, under terrorist leader Osama bin Laden’s alleged plans for "cultural destabilisation".
Crowe, who was nominated for the best actor award for his performance in Gladiator, was flanked by tuxedo-wearing undercover agents on the red carpet that night in Los Angeles, as well as a bevy of his own security guards, after the FBI first received a warning of the al-Qaeda kidnap plot in January of that year.
Of the award ceremony, Crowe said in an interview: "Suddenly, it looks like I think I’m Elvis Presley, because everywhere I go there are all these FBI guys around."
Revealing that it was the first he had heard of al-Qaeda - the World Trade Centre attacks had yet to happen - Crowe said: "You get this late-night call from the FBI when you arrive in Los Angeles, and they’re, like, absolutely full-on. ‘We’ve got to talk to you now before you do anything. We have to have a discussion with you, Mr Crowe.’
"It was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers. And it was a destabilisation plan.
"I don’t think that I was the only person. But it was about - and here’s another little touch of irony - it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural destabilisation plan."
Crowe, who was born in New Zealand and has lived in Australia for over 20 years, is one of Hollywood’s leading actors after a string of box-office smashes, which include A Beautiful Mind, The Insider and LA Confidential.
Although he missed out on a Golden Globe for his Gladiator performance - Tom Hanks pipped him with Castaway - Crowe later received the best-actor Oscar for his role.
The FBI has confirmed that an investigation was held into the kidnap threats, and that Crowe was given extra protection on the red carpet.
Scotland Yard was also reported to have had surveillance measures in place when Crowe attended the premiere of Proof of Life in London later that year. Crowe played a hostage negotiator in that film.
Phillips O’Brien, the director of the Scottish Centre for War Studies at Glasgow University, said:
"This could be an example of [terrorists] trying to make a spectacular impact to show how serious they are, but they have a lot of these plots. They do seriously discuss these things, but whether they take it any further is under question."
The kidnap of actors or members of their families is not without precedent. Frank Sinatra’s son, Frank jnr, was held hostage in 1963 and released unharmed after a ransom was paid.
Puru Rajkumar, a leading Bollywood actor who has produced 200 films, was held for three months by Veerappan, a bandit thought responsible for the killing of more than 130 policemen in southern India.
The son of Mexican actress Beatriz Adriana was kidnapped and murdered in Tijuana in 2001 as part of an alleged attempt to "kill, kidnap, mutilate or bribe an FBI-protected witness".
Security at last month’s Oscars ceremony was very tight, with people being searched and forced to walk through metal detectors before lining Hollywood Boulevard to watch the stars on the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre.
Members of the public are also subject to security checks and searches before entering film studios.
Crowe revealed that FBI agents were present during the filming of A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander.