NEW YORK – Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe lost his way kayaking in the waters off New York’s Long Island and was picked up by a Coast Guard boat and ferried to a harbor, officials said Sunday.
The 48-year-old actor was kayaking with a friend and launched from Cold Spring Harbor on the Long Island Sound Saturday afternoon, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Swieciki.
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As it became dark, the two got lost and eventually headed for shore, beaching their kayaks in Huntington Bay, nearly 10 miles east from where they had set out.
The Coast Guard was patrolling the area, and heard Crowe call out to them from the shore around 10 p.m., Swieciki said.
The “Gladiator” actor and his friend, who Swieciki didn’t recognize, paddled over to the boat.
The Coast Guard officers pulled them up and, along with their kayaks, gave them a ride to Huntington Harbor.
“He just needed a little bit of help, he just got a little lost,” Swieciki said. “It wasn’t really a rescue, really, more of just giving someone a lift.”
Swieicki said no one was injured, and the two men were wearing life vests. He said the actor, who was grateful and friendly, seemed like he was a fairly experienced kayaker.
Crowe sent a Twitter message about 1:30 a.m. Sunday thanking the officers, and saying he was out on the water four and a half hours.
“Thanks to Seth and the boys from the US Coast Guard for guiding the way…4 hrs 30 mins, 7m(11.2km),” he wrote.
Crowe is on Long Island filming a new movie called “Noah” in Oyster Bay. The biblical epic is directed by Darren Aronofsky and scheduled for release in 2014.
Crowe won an Academy Award for best actor for his role as a Roman soldier called Maximus in “Gladiator.”
Warwick: Hal David lives on in songs
LOS ANGELES – Dionne Warwick is comparing the death of lyricist Hal David to the loss of a relative. The pop diva issued a statement Sunday after David died Saturday in Los Angeles at age 91.
Warwick says she feels “as if I have lost another family member, but knowing I will always have him with me each time I sing the lyrics … will continue to bring me a sense of him being with me always.”
David partnered with composer Burt Bacharach on dozens of timeless hits sung by Warwick, including “What the World Needs Now is Love” and “I Say a Little Prayer.”
Bacharach said in a statement that David’s lyrics of “A House Is Not a Home” or “Alfie” are “as good as you can get.”
‘Possession’ debuts at No.1 for weekend
A late-summer horror tale took possession of the weekend box office.
“The Possession” — starring Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as parents of a girl possessed by a demon — debuted as the No. 1 movie with $21.3 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, according to studio estimates.
Opening in second place with $13 million was the bootlegging drama “Lawless,” with Shia LaBeouf and Guy Pearce.
Revenue fell 3 percent this summer compared to summer 2011, while attendance was at its lowest in at least 20 years, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
There were some smaller surprise successes, including the anti-Barack Obama documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” which expanded into broader nationwide release and came in at No. 8 with $7.1 million.
That raised its total to $20.3 million since the documentary opened in a handful of theaters in mid-July.
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