The Australian and New Zealand press are all over a report from GQ that actor Russell Crowe was targeted by al Qaeda. Weird. And scary. Scary weird:

Russell Crowe Protected By FBI
FBI: Russell Crowe a target for al-Qaida

RUGGED Australian Oscar winner Russell Crowe has revealed he was the target of a kidnap plot by al-Qaida terrorists.

The plot was part of a “cultural destabilisation plan” by the terror network, the actor said.

Crowe explained that he was approached by the FBI in the months leading up to his Academy Award win for Gladiator in 2001 and warned of the threat. “That was the first conversation in my life that I’d ever heard the phrase al-Qaida,” he said.

“But it was about – and here’s another little touch of irony – it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural destabilisation plan.”

…Scotland Yard detectives were on guard when the actor attended the London premiere of Proof Of Life and FBI agents shadowed him at the Golden Globe awards ceremony. The FBI continued the protection through filming of A Beautiful Mind and to a lesser extent, Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World, made in 2002.

He said in an interview for the March edition of GQ magazine that the plot was possibly uncovered in a recording picked up in either Libya or Algiers.

Update: On a lighter note, Ace of Spades has advice for al Qaeda…

If they really want to shake American civilation to its very foundations, they ought to go after someone really important to us, like, oh, just throwing out names here, Keanu Reeves, Ethan Hawke, Steven Dorff, and/or Willie Aames.

I’m in the Grant Goodeve camp myself.