Dario Cantatore/Getty ImagesJust because as a Kiwi Russell Crowe hails from the same part of the world as Rupert Murdoch, it doesn't mean he's playing the scandalized Aussie mogul in a feature film.
So sayeth the erstwhile Gladiator himself, smacking down reports to the contrary.
"I haven't been approached by anyone to play Rupert Murdoch. That's just a beat up," the 48-year-old actor tweeted yesterday.
The rumor first surfaced in British tabloids that claimed the Oscar winner was attached to Good Times, Bad Times, a biopic about the 81-year-old News Corp. honcho—whose publishing companies are being probed for illegally hacking the phones of celebrities, government officials and various citizens—supposedly based on a memoir by former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans.
But Crowe noted he has bigger fish to fry, such as getting ready to take on the iconic role of Noah in a new big-screen tale of the ark-building biblical hero being directed by Darren Aronofsky.
"I am off to build a boat. Will be gone for quite some time," the thesp added.
The flick, which reunites him with his A Beautiful Mind costar Jennifer Connelly, is expected to flood theaters in March 2014. He also just wrapped filming on the feature adaptation of Broadway's Les Misérables, in which he plays Inspector Javert to Hugh Jackman's Jean Valjean.