HOLLYWOOD - When Russell Crowe won the best actor award for his role in A Beautiful Mind at the British Academy for Film and Television Arts awards show Sunday, he read a Patrick Kavanagh poem as part of his acceptance speech. But when the event was televised, Crowe's speech did not include the poem.
And Crowe was reportedly very upset.
According to Variety, eyewitness accounts recalled Crowe pushing BAFTA show producer Malcolm Gerrie against a wall at an after-show party at London's Grosvenor House Hotel Sunday night for having editing out the poem.
"Who on Earth had the…audacity to take out the best actor's poem?" Crowe was quoted as yelling at Gerrie. "I'll make sure you never work in Hollywood."
DreamWorks SKG, the studio that produced A Beautiful Mind, has since apologized to Gerrie, Variety reports.
It seems the poem was edited out because the show was running late, and editors had to cut something, somewhere. It came down to either cutting Crowe's poem or Warren Beatty's acceptance speech for his BAFTA fellowship, a decision made by BBC execs and not Gerrie, Variety reports.