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Concierge to Sue Russell Crowe
The New York hotel employee who was on the receiving end of a telephone toss by Russell Crowe – who later apologized for his misdeed on the Late Show with David Letterman – reportedly is prepared to slap the star with a lawsuit this week.
The suit, to be filed by Mercer Hotel concierge Nestor "Josh" Estrada, will claim that after Crowe threw the phone and gashed Estrada's face in the early morning hours of June 6, the star also hurled a ceramic bowl at Estrada, as reputedly captured on a hotel security videotape and observed by two eyewitnesses, New York's Daily News reports.
The paper also says that witnesses claim Crowe took a bow and assumed a karate stance after the bowl shattered.
Settlement talks between Estrada and Crowe's side apparently went nowhere, the paper reports. The suit is likely to seek punitive and compensatory damages.
Immediately after the incident, Crowe, 41, was arraigned on charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. (The maximum punishment, if convicted, is seven years in prison.) The police report said he threw a phone at the concierge at downtown Manhattan's Mercer Hotel, "hitting him in the face and causing a laceration and substantial pain."
Crowe's lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, declined comment on a suit that has yet to be filed. But he did say in a statement: "Russell Crowe went on three national television programs apologizing for the incident and making amends and he is trying to put it behind him."
Estrada's attorney, Eric Franz, tells the News, "I'll do my talking through the legal process."
Two days after the incident, Crowe owned up to the attack and told Letterman (who greeted the Cinderella Man star by hiding the phone on his hosting desk): "This is possibly the most shameful situation I've ever gotten myself in in my life, and I've done some pretty dumb things in my life. So to actually make a new No. 1 is spectacularly stupid."
In an attempt to explain the incident, a spokesman for Crowe said that a hotel employee was not helpful and had displayed "attitude" as Crowe had sought help in placing a call to Australia to speak with his wife, Danielle Spencer, and their 17-month-old son, Charlie.
Source: AP
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