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Russell Crowe sneaks in one last cigarette before going for his morning bike ride. Russell will be playing the famous Robin Hood in Ridley Scott’s upcoming film adaptation.

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Elizabeth Banks is known for quirky, funny roles in movies like Zach and Miri Make a Porno, but for her next movie, she’ll be teaming up with cinematic heavyweight Russell Crowe and all his Oscar gravitas for drama The Next Three Days.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film is based on Pour Elle, a French thriller, about a man who tries to save his wife after she’s arrested and convicted for a murder she says she didn’t commit.

Russell and Elizabeth will star as husband and wife in the movie, which will be directed, written and produced by Paul Haggis, the Oscar winner behind 2004’s Crash.

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Russell Crowe shocked staff at a U.K. charity shop recently – after he walked in and made a $1,500 donation.

The Gladiator star is currently in Britain filming his new Robin Hood movie but took a break from his busy schedule to visit the Cancer Research store in Sunningdale, Berkshire – which is close to the film set.

And the star made a very generous contribution to the cancer charity.

A volunteer at the shop tells British newspaper the Daily Star, “We couldn’t believe it, Russell Crowe came in and gave us the money. We had been hoping to catch a glimpse of him. We were all a bit star-struck, but it was lovely to meet him and he stopped and had a bit of a chat with us.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Now I can’t wait to see this movie! Cate makes any movie great!

Cate Blanchett is looking for a few good Merry Men.

Per Variety, the Oscar winner has signed on to play Maid Marian in the tentatively titled Nottingham, director Ridley Scott’s big-screen reimagining of the Robin Hood story opposite Russell Crowe.

Blanchett will replace Sienna Miller, who dropped out due to “creative differences.”

Crowe will play the lead, which, depending on how the script turns out, could either be Robin Hood or a reinvented Sheriff of Nottingham.

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The $130 million romantic adventure starts production in April in London for a 2010 release.

Kate looks amazing!!

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To play a manipulative CIA boss in Body of Lies (out Oct. 10), Russell Crowe had to pack on 63 lbs.

“‘I’ll have the cheeseburger for breakfast, thank you,’” he recalls thinking, according to a new Extra interview. (He adds that he also had his share of Sprinkles cupcakes.)

The spy thriller marks the first time Crowe has worked with Leonardo DiCaprio since 1995′s The Quick and the Dead.

“[It's] pretty much exactly the same… except [DiCaprio] can drink legally now and he’s no longer a virgin,” Crowe jokes of their reunion.

Crowe says he couldn’t stop pranking his co-star in between takes.

“I’d wait until he was sitting in the makeup chair, and I’d walk past him and go, ‘A-choo!’ and I’d squirt the atomizer so just little bits of fine mist would form on his face and he’d obviously assume it was mucus.”

DiCaprio laughed it off.

“I’m really happy. It’s been bothering me for days,” he says sarcastically.

Crowe also opens up about being dad to sons, Charlie, 4, and Tennyson 2.

He says boozing has taken a backseat since having kids.

“The drinking thing has sort of taken a different place in my life since I had kids,” he tells Extra. “There’s a whole lot of things I don’t do anymore because it affects my level of patience.”

He adds, “I don’t want to be in that place where I’m exasperated with these beautiful children.”

Of fatherhood, he says, “It’s the most fantastic thing I’ve ever experienced. And um, it continues to get more fun and complex with every day.”

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