When Russell Crowe gained accolades and Oscar nominations for his role as maths genius John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, most were surprised at his acting ability when not typecast as a beefy thug. Further proof that Russell is no maths genius, and was truly acting, was this interview with Jay Leno. He suggested the solution to America’s economic woes is to give each citizen $1million.
“I have been intently watching the political process,” Crowe told Leno. “Um, so, here’s the thing: They’re looking for $700 billion, right? Which is a good chunk of change, but have you noticed whenever you go to a bank, or whenever you talk to a government department about what you need, they’ll never actually give you all of what you need? So, I don’t think we should do that for a start.
“But I was thinking if they wanna stimulate the economy, get people spending, let people look after their … mortgage.
“I think you take the first 300 million Americans, if that’s the population at this point in time, give everyone a million bucks.”
Crowe’s idea to make every American a millionaire drew excited applause from the audience and agreement from Leno.
“Oh yeah, that’ll work,” Leno said. “What are the taxes on that? But OK, that would work, yeah.”
However, the New Zealand-born actor failed to do the maths, severely underestimating the cost of his bailout plan.
The actual expense would be $300 trillion – a figure greater than the US’s entire annual gross domestic product.
In a policy proposal not likely to provoke the interest of White House hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain, the $US300 million ‘Crowe Plan’ would provide Americans with a paltry $1 each.
Russel also recently announced his toddler’s engagement to Nicole Kidman’s baby Sunday Rose.
“Did you know Sunday Rose was born on the same day as my son Tennyson — the 7th of July?” Crowe said. “Nicole and Keith brought Sunday around on a Sunday when she was a month old.
“Nicole had one look at my young son Tennyson and said, ‘Russell, I’m a great believer in arranged marriages. Can we just make the connection now?’ So I’d like to just tell you that Tennison is engaged,” he joked.
He adds that baby Kidman-Urban is a beauty just like her mama.
“Sunday is a beautiful child with beautiful delicate features. It’s so nice that she came around,” he says.
Russell is currently prancing around the US with shoulder length hair as a result of his dual roles as the sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood, promoting his new film Body of Lies.
Note by Celebitchy: Russell Crowe also recently revealed that he’d gained 63 pounds to play a CIA agent in Body of Lies, which is due out October 10 and also stars Leonardo DiCaprio. Maybe they told him to gain 20 pounds and he figured 63 was pretty close.
Russell Crowe is shown out in Sydney on 6/20/08. Credit: ICON/Fame Pictures
Hes still a hot piece 🙁
I like his plan…bring it on Russell! 🙂
LOL. I’m no math genius either. I had to think about that for a minute.
I saw the trailer for Body of Lies and he’s almost indistinguishable with all that weight. But at least it’s not another pretty man vs pretty man movie… how can both the good guy and the bad guy always end up being hot? I’ve seen bad guys in my neighbourhood – they’re never hot.
I’m terrible at math. And I’ll always love Russell.
Sounds like my kind of accounting, lol. I love watching this man in movies. He can be wicked sexy and he’s an excellent actor.
The We Deserve It Dividend:
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.
I say we give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
I can think of many ways to spend $297,500.00!
85,000,000,000
/
200,000,000
=
425
I wish bad guys were never hot, Roma, then I wouldn’t have taken that $350 check this last fireworks season from that HOT, HOT guy… the check bounced and I found him on the state sex offender website. *shudder*
I love Russell Crowe, too, I don’t know exactly WHY, there’s just something about him.
Okay his maths sucks but at least he’s trying to look out for the public, or as they are known in the US as “the American People”. Looks like it was lucky for him his Body of Lies weight gain didn’t need to be removed for the new movie.
Actually, the English usually mean a “billion” to mean a million million, or what Americans would call a “trillion.”
So maybe he’s not a math idiot!
I don’t care that he’s not a math genius, he can be one hot fantasy in my bedroom when I need him.
He does have ‘something’ about him.
He’s not skilled at math, but he is skilled at eating. Sad that the hotness has disappeared.
i was told there would be no math on this site.
Russell, don’t fight the hotness. Bring back that Gladiator look will you?
Maybe he’s not an accounting genius – but he’s also not English 😉 – I’ve no idea what the Aussies call a million million though 😳
The “looking out for the general public” idea is lovely at face value – but the bulk of the crisis was through unsafe lending to people who couldn’t pay their debts – i.e. those who are proven not to be able to manage their finances (I’m not being critical, I’m feckin’ awful with money as well). And part of the reason that was allowed to happen was that money was cheap through extraordinarily low interest rates.
So, you throw any figure between $425 dollars to $1million, how can the government be assured that those who can’t manage their money well will pay off all debts and not go through it like water? With the banks the bail-out would presumably have some very stringent conditions.
What effect would it have on inflation – it would go through the roof I would guess.
And how exactly would it benefit capitalism in the long-run. Sure it;ll help irresponsible consumerism in the short term, but if the banks fail there will be no access to capital to start and expand businesses? Existing businesses maintain an overdraft?
So nevermind the sums – the man and many others are certainly no economists 😆
I’d still go there……he’s a sexy beast…who can forget Gladiator…
Luckily I am Australian and I own a dictionary. Here is what the Australian Oxford English Dictionary (1988) has to say about the word ‘billion’…
Billion. (in UK and Australia) a million millions; (in US and France) a thousand millions, a milliard.
Mind you it’s an old edition. In recent years the government and the press have been gradually switching to the US definition. I’ll have to check at uni next week to see what the newer dictionaries say.
Since Russell would have been educated in the 70s and 80s in Australia it makes sense that he would define a billion as a million millions. I know I did until this hit the news! 😆
Guy can’t be too dumb at math if he’s on the most overpaid actor’s list…people are kinda merciless with Russ, but look what he’s done. A lot of fine movies, he’s actually still married, cut on the drinking for his kids’ sake. Hmm what’s the American track record compared to that??? Yeah, I hope he loses the weight too but it’s just another thing that makes him human.
Hopeless fan.
Re:
SeVen:
October 1st, 2008 at 11:37 am Hes still a hot piece
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Yeah, a hot piece of lard. I’m not into fat, greasy hogs….yuck!
I’d still hit all day, every which way and twice on Sunday.
My admiration to him as an actor arises.