Thanks mate!

As we all know, Rome is famous for many things. One of them is the Coliseum. A few years ago, thanks to film director Ridley Scott, Rome and its “Flavian Amphitheatre” (the Coliseum’s real name) became even more famous around the world thanks to “Gladiator” with Russell Crowe, who, if I’m not mistaken, won the Oscar as best actor for that film. Awhile ago, former U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler decided to have a private film showing at his residence (the residence, Villa Taverna, has a swimming pool, tennis courts, catacombs and even an 80-seat movie theatre) of “A Beautiful Mind” with Crowe. At the same time theatres in Rome were going to show the film in Italian and Crowe, the main star of that film, was going to show up for the Italian premier. I had a hunch that perhaps he’d show up at the residence, so I brought my camera along. The Ambassador welcomed us and said: “After the showing there may be a chance that Russell Crowe will come to Villa Taverna”! Sure enough, around 5:30 pm Crowe showed up with his bodyguards on a large scooter wearing sweat pants and sneakers. We were inside the residence and as he came in the door, I looked at him, shook his hand and said, “You’re still THE best gladiator of them all”! He looked at me with a smile and said with his Australian accent, “Thanks mate”! That’s me, the tall one with the glasses standing to the left of Crowe in the picture (the women naturally all kissed him!).