Rebel Wilson’s recent legal win against Bauer Media has given celebrities a new way to put tabloids in their place.
So, after a recent issue of Woman’s Day reported that Russell Crowe was dating an actress 30 years his junior, the actor took to Twitter to set the record straight.
“Can you not stuff your s**t filled pages with deliberate lies about relationships I’ve never been in? Thanks in advance,” read one tweet from Crowe.
He followed it up five minutes later with another post: “Don’t make me go all Rebel Wilson on your ass.”
After winning her defamation suit earlier this month, Wilson sought $7 million in damages from Bauer Media over stories run about her in Woman’s Day. This may be the first time the Wilson card has been played, but it won’t be the last.
The actress Crowe is supposedly dating is 22-year-old Sophia Forrest, who is a regular on the fourth season of Aussie TV show Love Child.
The two looked cosy at the Australian premiere of Crowe’s latest movie, The Mummy, but an acquaintance would not be a surprise; the blonde actress appeared in The Water Diviner – a 2014 film Crowe starred in and directed.
Sophia is the daughter of Andrew Forrest, a Western Australian billionaire and one of the country’s richest men.
While Sophia has posted on Instagram since Crowe’s tweets, she hasn’t addressed the matter, preferring to focus on the mental health issues her character faced in the most recent episode of Love Child.
Crowe is regularly active on Twitter, and this isn’t the first time he’s used the social media platform – and his 2.65 million followers – to pull a tabloid into line.
Last year, rumours were circulating about a relationship and impending nuptials for Crowe and Terri Irwin.
When New Idea and Woman’s Day published conflicting reports about the state of the nuptials (which Crowe denied entirely), he took to Twitter, calling the publications “BS”.
Crowe put the rumours to rest once and for all during an interview last month with KIIS FM radio show.
“[The relationship is] an example about magazines just creating their own industry out of their own imagination,” he said.