For a guy who hates those bloody tabloid rags, Russell Crowe gives great gossip.

“You know, I worked with Leonardo [DiCaprio] when he was 17,” Crowe recalls. “He was a virgin and he’d talk about that constantly.”

Of course, Leo has made up for lost time – what with his conquests of supermodels Gisele Bundchen and Bar Rafaeli, among others. So Crowe is looking forward to debriefing the lothario on their upcoming “Body of Lies.”

“I’m hoping … he can fill [me] in on what’s happened in between, maybe show some photos,” Crowe laughs in Entertainment Weekly. “I’m sure life’s different now.”

Crowe admits his tongue sometimes gets away from him.

“I said something to Spike [Lee] one night, and he’s never been the same to me since,” he says. “He was trying to get me to play [German boxer] Max Schmeling in the Joe Louis story. If I was in it, he’d get this $100 million financing. But it’s just a secondary role. And I said to him, “I want to be Joe Louis. I want to be Muhammad Ali. If you want to work with me, let me be Joe Louis. … I think he took it the wrong way. … I don’t get any more birthday cards from him.”

Crowe also has turned down a few superhero roles. “What do you get with a superhero role?” asks Crowe. “You get a Spandex costume, and every now and then, a cape.”

The Oscar winner, who talks to EW with Denzel Washington, remembers meeting his “American Gangster” co-star 12 years ago, on the set of “Virtuosity.”

“We had to do a scene where there’s a piece of cyclone wire fencing between us,” says Crowe. “I had to be really rabid and weird, and … a bit of spit comes out of my mouth … and it weaves itself neatly through the fencing and lands right on Denzel’s lip. … And I’m going, Oh man … I’m doing my audition, and I spit on Denzel Washington. I might as well just go home and hang myself right now. … He just kept on doing the scene, and at the end, they said ‘cut,’ and he’s looking at me and the spit’s still sitting there and he goes, ‘I love the taste of warm saliva in the morning.’?”

Um, okay?

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What has this world come to!

Hotel clerks might not like phone-throwing Russell Crowe, but his co-stars on “3:10 to Yuma” say he’s “a sweetheart.” Ben Foster and Dallas Roberts gushed to writer Gregory Speck, “Now we know why his rugby team loves him so much.” Crowe often hosted barbecues for the cast and crew, they said at a screening at the Tribeca Grand. The prima donna on the movie, which co-stars Peter Fonda and Gretchen Mol, was Christian “American Psycho” Bale, who would arrive on the set by helicopter and never speak to his castmates unless the script called for it.

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Russell Crowe will join Leonardo DiCaprio in “Body of Lies,” the William Monahan-scripted adaptation of the David Ignatius novel that Ridley Scott will direct for Warner Bros.

Donald De Line and Scott are producing; pic shoots in the fall.

Crowe will play Ed Hoffman, the manipulative CIA boss who teams with operative Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) to trap a dangerous Al Qaeda leader by planting a false rumor that the bomber is in cahoots with the Americans. Crowe has been working steadily with Scott since “Gladiator,” teaming on “A Good Year,” the recently completed “American Gangster” and the upcoming “Nottingham,” a Universal and Imagine drama that will go into production early next year.

Crowe has been courted to play the CIA boss since DiCaprio signed on in April. He’s awaiting a polish by “American Gangster” scribe Steve Zaillian before formally committing.

Crowe will next be seen starring alongside Christian Bale in the James Mangold-directed “3:10 to Yuma.”

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The director will once again work with Russell Crowe, this time for Universal’s new take on the Robin Hood story. In the film, Crowe stars as a noble Sheriff of Nottingham, stuck working for an evil king and in a love triangle with Robin Hood and Maid Marion. Scott previously directed Crowe in Gladiator, A Good Year, and the upcoming American Gangster.

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Russell Crowe will make his feature directorial debut helming Bra Boys, a drama centered on a real-life counterculture surfer community in Australia. The Universal and Imagine Entertainment movie will be based on the Bra Boys documentary, which focused the three brothers who started the community in a Sydney suburb. Crowe narrated the documentary. It is unknown whether he will appear in the movie.

Russell Crowe is set to play the Sheriff of Nottingham in a new film version of Robin Hood. Universal Pictures have lined up the Gladiator star for their take on the classic tale, which will portray the traditionally evil Sheriff as a good character. The project has been devised by Sleeper Cell creators Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.

Reiff told the Hollywood Reporter website: “Part of the strength of the script was the simple idea of doing ‘Robin Hood’ by making the sheriff the good guy.”

The two scriptwriters were involved in one of the biggest bidding wars of all time as Universal competed with Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema to make the film. Regency Enterprises, DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures were also said to be in the running.

This will be the fourth project involving Crowe, Universal and Imagine Entertainment. Previous movies include A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man – as well as American Gangster, which is due out later this year. Crowe will reportedly earn around $20 million to play the Sheriff.

Russell Crowe and his wife, Danielle Spencer, have welcomed a baby boy, the actor’s rep, Grant Vandenberg, confirms.

Tennyson Spencer Crowe was born at 7:27 a.m. on Friday in Australia at Sydney’s Royal North Shore hospital, and weighed in at 8 lbs.

“Mother, father and baby are doing extremely well,” Vandenberg said.

Crowe, 42, and Spencer, 35, are also parents to son Charles Spencer Crowe, born Dec. 21, 2003, in Sydney, Australia.