Anyways, continuing his personal fitness regimen, Crowe has taken to biking around Sydney, Australia. During one these workouts recently, the trailing paparazzi snapped some photos of the 46-year-old actor taking a break from a ride, smoking a cigarette and quaffing down some tacos and a soft drink. Gossip columnist Annette Sharp of Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph mocked Crowe’s new diet saying that “Smokes and fatty foods the fitness regime for Rusty.” Crowe was apparently offended by the quip and challenged Sharp to keep up with him on one of his rides. From the article,

In a story published Friday, the paper said Crowe’s spokesman called up gossip columnist Annette Sharp the next day and said, “Get on your bike. Russell wants you to go riding with him. Are you ready to die?”

Sharp accepted the challenge and the pair met a dawn for a 12-mile (20-kilometer) ride through the city. Video of the race shows Sharp struggling to keep up while Crowe zooms along unfazed. At one point, Sharp fell off her bike. Still, Crowe gave Sharp some credit, telling her she was a better biker than Australian director Baz Luhrmann. “You’re twice the man Baz is,” he said.

Ok, so Russell Crowe can kick all of our asses. We knew that already. However, smoking and fast food are really counter-productive to anyone attempting to get into shape. Eventually, it will all catch up to him and then any 10-year-old on a Huffy will be able to pass him by. Just wait.

Photo credit: Hollywood Grind

Russell Crowe’s

And speaking of Robin Hood, Gwyneth Paltrow is a board member of the New York-based foundation (co-founded by the late John F. Kennedy Jr.) that raises money from successful New Yorkers and donates it to worthy causes. The 36-year-old actress was guest of honor at a Champions of Hope dinner at the Tribeca Rooftop on Wednesday. The event helped raise money for Children of the City, which helps children and their families achieve success in education, social relationships, home, financial and career.

Actor David Arquette spent 8 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday inside a Plexiglas box atop New York City’s Madison Square Garden marquee to draw awareness about hunger. The 37-year-old is chairman of Feeding America’s Entertainment Council — and is working with Snickers’ “Bar Hunger” initiative to help raise money for the organization. Arquette’s goal is to bring in more than $250,000. [Read more...]

Russell Crowe is joining the fight to help prevent Australian officials from opening up a portion of the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve to a strip mining aluminum company. After the death of Irwin in 2006, politicians donated over 320,000 acres of wilderness to conservationists as a tribute. However, the new Aussie government is now considering issuing a permit to allow mining in the area — something Crowe is rallying support to prevent.

“That site actually operates as a water filter and there are some species of plants and animals that don’t really appear in other places, and the river the water runs into, the Wenlock River, has the largest bio-diversity range of any freshwater river in the country – it has things like saw-toothed sharks and estuarine crocodiles,” Contactmusic quoted Crowe as saying.

He added: “He’s (Irwin) not here to stand up for himself and I just feel, as his friend, that we can’t do that… I made an offer to the environmental minister to have a talk about it but he hasn’t bothered to respond.”

As part of the promotions for his new film State of Play, Crowe has been on late-night TV talking up the fight to save Irwin’s reserve. On The Late Show with David Letterman on April 17, Crowe said, “If any of you were ever touched by Steve’s attitude towards conservation… and making conservation an important subject for us to discuss… go to that website and sign up on that petition because that man deserves to be honored and respected, whether he’s alive or  not. He was a fantastic person.”

Want to help? Check out the official “Save Steve’s Place” petition to sign your name and tell Australian officials that strip mining should not take place in the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve!

During the telethon, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban appeared via satellite to announce their donation of $500,000 to the communities of Victoria. 

“As Australians, I think the biggest thing is that no matter where you are in the world we support each other,” Kidman said on camera. “We’re Aussies, and we support each other and we rally. We would like to donate a half a million dollars on behalf of our family to the families that need it now.”

“For us it’s been gut wrenching as Aussies watching this and in particular to be so far away at the moment,” said Urban. “Our hearts go out tonight to all the families that are dealing with the loss of loved ones and having to rebuild their lives again too, which is really what this whole telethon has been about.”

Other Australian stars like Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe also made generous donations to the telethon that ended up raising over $19 million. 

If you’d like to help out, visit RedCross.org.au and get involved! 

via: looktothestars.org
photo credit: prphotos.com

Locks Of Love is a super great charity that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada who are under age 18 and suffer from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Hair might not seem like that big of a deal, but the teenage years are tough, yo! Sometimes the smallest things can help make a world of difference in a person’s life!

In the past, stars like Ann Curry and Katie Couric have helped spread awareness for the organization by donating their own locks…and you can too! If you’d like to find out how to get involved and help a wonderful organization, visit LocksOfLove.org!

And now The Bacon Brothers will be performing at the Global Green Expo this coming weekend at Liberty State Park in Jersey City. Also on hand will be Jeff Corwin, Deidre Imus, Ted Danson, and Ed Begley Jr. The expo — like many happening this week — will feature the latest “eco-friendly products, programs, services, and information from hundreds of exhibitors and nonprofit organizations.”

But back to Kevin — a big time supporter of environmental initiatives and charity campaigns — his SixDegrees.org foundation has been a great success, raising over $2 million so far. Last year, he also actively participated in the Live Earth concerts and pushed hard for NYC’s High Line initiative.

To find out more about The Bacon Bothers, jump here.