TEMPER TANTRUM

Russell Crowe's pre-Oscar PR blitz hit a snag over the weekend. Shortly after Sunday's British Academy Film Awards, where the Beautiful Mind thesp won best actor, Crowe allegedly shoved and cursed a TV exec after his acceptance speech was edited out of the tape-delayed BBC broadcast. (Left on the cutting-room floor was Crowe's recital of a poem by Patrick Kavanagh.) "Who on Earth had the... audacity to take out the best actor's poem?" Crowe allegedly yelled to award show producer Malcolm Gerrie. "I'll make sure you never work in Hollywood." DreamWorks — the studio behind Mind — reportedly apologized to Gerrie.

TV GuideNews Feb. 27, 2002 at 12:00 a.m. PT