Crowe-Ryan Affair Blamed for Bad Box Office
February 22 -- The director of Proof of Life is blaming the film's so-so box-office showing on the very public romance of its big-name stars, Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan.
Taylor Hackford told reporters at the London premiere of the film on Wednesday that the affair, which is now over, "had an indelible and very destructive effect on the release of the film in the U.S. because the real-life story overpowered the film."
The timing of the Ryan-Crowe affair couldn't have been worse for promotion of the Casablanca-esque drama. The two stars became tabloid fodder after Ryan's husband, Dennis Quaid, filed for divorce, and they refused to do much press for the film's American release last fall.
While filmgoers flocked to see Crowe again and again in the summer hit Gladiator, Proof of Life just didn't hold the same kind of draw.
It's not clear whether Crowe is now playing ball and promoting the movie. According to Reuters, Crowe was also in London for the film's premiere, where he told reporters, "The end of [Ryan's] prior relationship had nothing to do with me." The Associated Press reports that at the news conference, Crowe blamed the film's unspectacular box-office performance on the timing of its American release. Rumor had it that Crowe was unhappy that Proof of Life was released in the same year as the Oscar shoo-in Gladiator.
Crowe and Ryan reportedly ended their romance before the New Year.
The New Zealand-born Oscar nominee is in London for the British Academy Awards; he's nominated as best actor for Gladiator. He told reporters that he is looking forward to Sunday's British Academy of Film and Television Awards, which, unlike in previous years, will take place before the Oscars.
"I'm from the Antipodes … getting a nomination from the British Academy is to me of equal importance as the American Academy," said the sex symbol.
Now that Ryan and Crowe are definitely over, another newly single celeb is tossing his name into the waters. A saucy Jennifer Lopez, out in Hong Kong promoting her new album, J.Lo, refused to discuss ex-boyfriend Sean "Puffy" Combs, according to columnist Jeannette Walls. But when asked whom she would like to work with, Lopez told reporters, "Russell Crowe," then added with a smile, "There's something for you to write about."
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