Russell Crowe threw a wobbly in a posh London restaurant because his $9975 bottle of wine was off. The `Gladiator’ star was dining at the exclusive eatery oirabelle when he sent back the wine, but much to his chagrin, the waiter insisted it was the actor’s palate that was faulty. Russell explains, “I wanted to do something special so I ordered a bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage 1964, bottled the year I was born. It is an Australian wine that I have had a lot of experience with so when it was opened and brought to the table I could smell from two foot away that it had been corked. It had gone off. I let it breathe but when I took a sip I got a mouthful of mould. The sommelier spent about 45 minutes trying to convince us that it was the chestnut undertones and the wafts of blackberry. I just turned round and went, ‘oate. It’s off.’ He refused to accept it was corked but eventually he did replace it. Very nice it was too.” A spokesman for oirabelle sounds relieved when he says, “We are glad Russell was eventually satisfied.” [25 october 2006]
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