Goff/INFphoto.comUpdate: The British tabloid which first printed the story of Russell Crowe's pub ban formally issuing an apology after being informed such a prohibition never occurred.
"We have been informed that Mr. Crowe has never been to the Brickmakers pub and therefore the incident never took place," read a statement from the UK's Sunday Express.
"We also acknowledge that Mr. Crowe has not been banned, ejected or asked to leave any pub in Windlesham, Surrey or anywhere else in the UK during the shooting of Robin Hood. We apologize to Mr. Crowe for the embarrassment and stress caused directly by our error."
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Consider yourselves warned, British pub patrons. Russell Crowe might be getting his drink on in your favorite watering hole after all.
A rep for the erstwhile Gladiator is smacking down a report that Crowe has been banned from a U.K. bar after allegedly unleashing hell after a day of work on his latest flick, Robin Hood.
According to the Sunday Express, the Oscar winner was far from a merry man when the Brickmakers pub in Windlesham, Surrey, sounded last call. Crowe reportedly asked if he could pay to keep drinking after hours and was denied by the barkeep, purportedly prompting the 45-year-old actor to smash a plate and earn the ban.
The newspaper also quotes a Brickmakers manager saying Crowe had been banned from a total of three area boozing establishments for his supposedly outrageous behavior.
Bollocks, says Crowe's camp, which labeled the story a body of lies.
"The only truth to the whole thing is he has been to the hotel [where the pub is located]," manager Grant Vandenberg told Australia's Nine Network News. "He has been there four or five times with his kids. There is a playground in the back."
Crowe's spokesman also denied the New Zealand-born actor even had a beer.
The State of Play star is known for his hair-trigger temper, ranging from a brouhaha with a BAFTA producer to a battle with a New Zealand businessman at a posh London restaurant to a phone-throwing incident at a New York hotel.
Meanwhile, there's trouble on the set of Crowe's flick. On Friday, five hooded men apparently snuck onto the lot at Pinewood Studios—where Ridley Scott is shooting Robin Hood—and in a life-copying-art moment made off with thousands of dollars of high-end equipment, including cameras and lenses.
Where's the Sheriff of Nottingham when you need him?
(Originally published August 3, 8:15 a.m. PT)
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