Impending Dad Crowe Is Grounded For The Oscars

RUSSELL Crowe is to miss next year's Oscars so he can stay at home with wife Danielle Spencer and their baby. The Gladiator star is favourite for the best actor category for his portrayal of Captain Jack Aubrey in the swashbuckling adventure Master And Commander.

High-seas Epic With Crowe's Feat A Winner

The five years since The Truman Show have not dulled Australian director Peter Weir's masterful film-making skills. Yesterday's first preview of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World revealed it to be a rip-roaring seafaring epic with soul. Not only is it bound to be a highlight of the holiday film season, but it's likely to figure in the next Oscar calculations. The star of Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind brings a fiery intelligence to Captain Jack Aubrey, whose friendship with gentle doctor S