Russell Crowe Stressed Out

It's rough being Russell Crowe. Just ask him.

Saying he's "under a massive level of stress," the Oscar-winning actor has scuttled U.S. tour plans for his band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, and announced he has headed home to Australia to spend time with his ailing father and girlfriend.

"Though I love all aspects of my work, and it has certainly benefited my family in myriad ways, the success of the last three or four years has also brought with it an undeniably massive level of stress, not only to me but to my immediate and extended family and to my friends and friendships," Crowe says in an announcement posted on the Grunts' Website, gruntland.com.

He explains that he wants to be with his dad when he recovers from a series of surgeries on his wrists for carpal tunnel syndrome (the operations are slated for December).

And in a rather sensitive moment for the oft-surly star, Mr. Beautiful Mind goes public with his love for current squeeze, singer Danielle Spencer, saying he wants to race home to be with her.

"I am in love with Danielle Spencer, but I don't get to spend nearly enough time with her," says Crowe. "Dani has been very patient with all of the speculations of the past year or so, which I thank her for. I feel a great need to wake up with her as many days of my life as I can."

After performing in Sydney on Monday night, Spencer reportedly told the Australian media that she's ready to reciprocate her beau's overtures.

"Yes, of course I still love him. I will be spending time with him over summer," she told the Australian Associated Press. (For the geographically challenged, summer Down Under coincides with winter in North America.)

Maybe the R&R will help Crowe in the self-control department.

Ever since his Academy Award-winning stint in Gladiator, Crowe, 38, has led a life the tabloids dream about.

From a kidnapping plot against him to his affair with a married Meg Ryan to his skirmish at the British Academy Awards (which some say cost him a second Oscar) to his frequent barroom brawls (most recently last week in London), Crowe has gotten nearly as much ink for his acting as for his extracurricular activities.

No word on whether the latest restaurant row had anything to do with Crowe's massive stress.

In a separate statement posted on the Grunt's site, group's members and management say they scrapped their trek so they and their crew can spend "the Australian summer with their family and loved ones."

Crowe and company requested their fans not bother to speculate on the reasons, chalking it up to "family health situations."

"To the fans of TOFOG all I can do is apologize," Crowe says. "The band and the crew were looking forward to being on the road across America and seeing your smiling, crazed faces again. It is my hope that the quality of the new album will be some compensation."

Crowe's fans are not the only ones hoping for payback.

In semi-related Crowe happenings, three men accused and then cleared of trying to extort money from the actor over his involvement in another bar battle Down Under, have filed a lawsuit against police and prosecutors in the case for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution.

The plaintiffs--Philip Cropper and Malcolm Mercer, both 38, and Mark Potts, 45--were charged with attempting to blackmail Crowe with a security-camera footage they obtained allegedly capturing Crowe in a melee outside a nightclub in 1999. If Crowe didn't pay up, authorities claimed the men were going to release the tape to the tabloids.

In their suit, the men claimed they were falsely imprisoned for a week and denied a chance to post bail. All three say "their lives have been ruined by the incident and the subsequent media attention their case has since received." They also said they had been harmed financially as a result of having to defend themselves from the allegation.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Potts, and the other two men were tried and acquitted by a jury.

The men's lawyer says Crowe would likely be called as a hostile witness in the case, which is expected to go to trial next year.