Crowe blames press for his ‘paparazzi-hater’ image

Academy Award winner Russell Crowe has blasted the media for portraying him as a violent man.

Though he admits that he has made many mistakes in the past, he insists that he is not as regularly involved in fights as the media depicts him to be.

Crowe, who was arrested last year for assaulting a hotel employee with a telephone in New York, expressed frustration over reports on his fights with paparazzi.

"There is a lot of just intentional misinformation, as well. I''ve never had a fight with a photographer, for example, but you can find hundreds of articles on the net which will list me fighting with paparazzi, something I do apparently on a regular basis,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

"But that''s just not true. I just don''t bother letting it bug me anymore, and because it doesn''t bug me, in this odd way, it happens less," he said.

Meanwhile, according to reports, Crowe has revealed that he was shocked while shooting for ‘American Gangster’ in New York, as the film’s police supervisor was the same one who had taken his mug shots after his arrest in the telephone assault case.

Crowe was arrested and charged with second-degree assault in connection with an incident at the Mercer Hotel where he threw a telephone at a clerk, who refused to help him phone his wife in Australia.