Russell Crowe bites off
more than he can chew

Looks like Russell Crowe is back to his wild ways.

The surly actor got into another barroom brawl, and bit his bodyguard’s ear while sharing post-production drinks on the set of “The Cinderella Man” in Toronto, according to various reports. Crowe allegedly erupted into his chomping, Mike Tyson-like fit when Mark “Spud” Carroll  — a former Australian Test rugby player who is a longtime friend of Crowe and now works as his bodyguard — suggested it was time for the actor to go home to his wife Danielle Spencer and baby son.

“Russell’s a great guy but he didn’t take too kindly to being told it was time to go home. He flipped,” a source told the London Mirror. “There was a bit of a scuffle then Russell bit Spud. It was incredible.”

Crowe’s temper has made headlines before. He once head-butted his brother after he had stepped in to break up a fight between Crowe and a student. And in 2002, Crowe  pinned a producer of an awards show up against a wall after the man cut a poem Crowe read out of the telecast.

Crowe’s rep didn’t return calls for comment.

And now the news

Gary Hershorn / Reuters file

Not everyone at "Good Morning, America" appreciates Chris Cuomo’s sense of humor.

The political-scion-turned-reporter was reading the news on the ABC morning show with Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts on Friday, when he delivered a story about Senator Ted Kennedy’s name turning up on the homeland security no-fly list.

“The Senator says it took him weeks to get his name off the list and homeland security director Tom Ridge later apologized,” Cuomo reported. And then he deadpanned: “However, it must be noted, Diane and Robin, that then Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge was seen laughing into his hand and high-fiving several of his colleagues. That is untrue, but that’s the news at 8.”

“And just so you know, this will never be seen on the West Coast, what you just saw,” Roberts then told viewers. Sawyer also made a reference to “our renegade newscaster.”

“Beforehand, [Cuomo] was told that when he reads the news, he should toss it back to the others in a light-hearted way, maybe with a little joke,” says our insider. “But they didn’t mean that kind of joke. Some of us thought it was pretty funny, but others didn’t. He really got chewed out for it pretty bad.”

A spokeswoman for the show, however, denies that Cuomo was scolded for the joke. “Chris has a great sense of humor,” says the spokeswoman. “We love having him on ‘GMA,’ and he was just having a little fun.”

Notes from all over

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images file

Sharon Stone has some choice words — or rather, gestures — for those who say she’s had plastic surgery. “I have never had a facelift,” the star told a crowd at a Los Angeles AIDS charity, according to ContactMusic.com, “so this is for all those who said I have.” And then she raised the middle finger on both hands.  . . . While vacationing in Brazil, Leonardo DiCaprio and Gisele went fishing. “He caught a fish,” says our source, “but she was a disaster. Her pole even broke.”  . . .  Some may find it ironic that Tom Cruise is accusing psychiatry of being a cult. The star is a member of Scientology, which opposes psychiatry, and which some critics have called a cult. “It’s someone’s opinion that says you have a chemical imbalance,” Cruise told The Scotsman. “These people have set themselves up as authorities, and, basically, it is just an esoteric cult, and it’s disgusting.”

Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com

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