Russell Crowe Publicly Denies Hitting Soho Hotel Clerk With His Phone

Russell Crowe is speaking out about an incident that happened back in 2005 that had him taken away in handcuffs and charged with assault.

The incident occurred at the Mercer Hotel in Soho. A hotel clerk accused Crowe of throwing his phone at him and hitting him in the face.

“I was trying to get a line out to Australia. The only thing that was stopping me was this bloke who refused to make it easy. His response was ‘whatever’ and he hung up on me. So I went downstairs and had a word with him,” the New York Daily Mail reports Crowe saying.

“I never touched him… he hurt himself running away from me. He slipped and hit his head,” Crowe added.

The cops were called. The police at the time said that it was Crowe’s airborne phone that cut the clerks eye, which led to charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Crowe pled guilty to a misdemeanor and avoided any prison time.

It’s been nine years since the incident, but in a recent interview with Australia’s Channel 7, Crowe denied hitting the clerk. Crowe stuck to his story that the clerk fell running away, but gave no explanation as to why the clerk would run away or what he hit his head on that caused his injuries, reports AOL.com.

Crowe’s publicist released a statement saying that Crowe had not meant to hit the clerk, and that when he threw the phone, he hit the wall not the clerk’s face.

Crowe pleaded guilty to assault to ensure he served no prison time.

The incident received a lot of media attention, much of it suggesting the incident was an example of Crowe’s notorious temper issues.

Crowe has made no secret that he is no fan of the news media.

“Most of the people that work in your job are a pack of bloody idiots,” Crowe once said to a BBC News journalist.

To the critics of his infamous hot temper, Crowe says that he is simply “sensitive.”

Crowe used the interview with the Australian TV station to promote his new movie The Water Divine. The movie is about the World War I Battle of Gallipoli. Crowe said that he sees the battle as an invasion of a sovereign nation.

The 50-year-old Crowe appeared casual and relaxed, as he showed up in a black Adidas tracksuit, while he was interviewed by Mike Willesee.