Hollywood actor Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar in 2001 for
Gladiator, has reached an agreement with Manhattan hotel concierge Nestor Estrada, who he allegedly threw a phone at, a statement released by the actor’s manager said.
The terms of the settlement, however, have not been disclosed. Sources have pegged the amount at about US$1.3 million, much less than the US$ 11 million that media reports had said Crowe is paying as settlement. “Russell Crowe and Nestor Estrada announce that they have reached a settlement of Estrada`s claims stemming from an incident in June at the Mercer Hotel where Estrada was employed. Both sides expressed satisfaction at the resolution,” the statement by Crowe said.
The incident occurred at the Mercer Hotel on June 6, when Crowe, who was angry at a faulty phone, threw it at 28-year-old Estrada, hurting him in the face. The actor was on a promotion tour for his film
Cinderella Man.
The criminal charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, in this case the telephone, still stand. If convicted, Crowe, an Australian, faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a bar from entering the United States. He is bargaining for a misdemeanour charge, under which his entry into the Hollywood country would not be hampered.
But it’s far from over for Crowe as district attorney Robert Morgenthau has said the actor would still be tried in court for the criminal charges. “A security camera captured what appears to be a felony assault on tape on June 6. Whatever financial arrangement Mr Crowe comes to, if there's evidence of a crime we are likely to proceed,” media reports have quoted him as saying.
Earlier, defending his action the actor had said, “I made a speech about being a long way from home, I've got a wife and a little baby who will be sitting down for dinner right now, and how he should be really helping me out, and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever’, and hung up on me. So then I call him back and ask him his name and said, ‘I'm coming down to talk to you’. So I went down there to talk to him man to man.” The 41-year-old actor was trying to call his family in Sydney.
He, however, made a public apology for his action on the
Late Show With David Letterman.
“This is possibly the most shameful situation I've ever got myself into in my life, and I've done some pretty dumb things in my life,” he told Letterman, as the host of the celebrity show comically hid his telephone when Crowe entered the sets. “I'm trying to fill my basic obligations to my wife (Danielle) who needs to know that I'm at home, I'm in bed, I haven't had too much to drink and that, primarily important, I'm alone. These are questions that every wife has the right to have answered every night, and that's my duty,” he added.
Crowe is scheduled to appear in court on September 14 to face the charges.
