OK, now I don't blame Russell Crowe for the phone-throwing

According to "The New Yorker", Crowe had called down to the front desk to complain that his calls to Australia weren't going through.

According to both Crowe and the clerk he threw the phone at, the clerk's response to Crowe's complaint was:

"Whatever"

and if I were trying to call home and a clerk said "whatever" I'd be pretty pissed myself.

But, I wasn't there, so I don't know. :toast:

There is NO REASON for someone to throw a phone in someones face. Period.

:)

is NEVER the answer, I don't care how rude the dude was.

Writing a letter, complaining to management is an intirely different situation.

Throwing a phone in someones face? NO. NEVER.

And Crowe never touched the little peckerwood.
Duckie

A clerk shouldn't say that to ANY customer with a complaint.

He is known as a rude hot head.
Employees should NOT have to put with
rude asshole behavior. Never. Ever.

maybe they'd start doing their job and wouldn't NEED to be assaulted.

Testify!

yes.

need to be assaulted.

:rofl:

'Cuz a physical assault makes one so personable.

:eyes:

and second, have you watched The Thing yet?

and yes, just watched The Thing last week! Always fun to watch that one. Such an amazing movie.

I think the origin of "shitless" comes from being so frightened as to involuntarily defecate, I think this was an American WWII usage and is most widely known as being "scared shitless."

"Shiftless" I'm not so sure about--if you're there, you've got a shift. You might not do much on it (like me, today) but you do have a shift!

And in closing WIlford Brimley as an Alien monster, surprisingly believeable!

promise. I promise! I'm much better now! I'll be good!! I'm all better!! Don't leave me here!!

:rofl:

on edit: you've gotta take The Thing seriously!

One of my favorites!!

n/t

for that one to apply.

which I find unspeakable, as opposed to the concept of "shiftless" service workers.

I'm not pro-violence or pro-phone-throwing in any case, but at least in this case, to quote Chris Rock, "I understand".

The best thing to do in that situation is to tell that clerk to get the General Manager immediately and repeat what he/she said.The clerk will more than likely get chewed out in front of the person complaining or fired.

what was this thinking? he is infamous for fighting and being a all round general ass.

"fighting 'round the world"

...thrown at his head.

Pulling attitude with Russell Crowe is probably quite profitable.

Crowe deserves to pay it. If he weren't a celebrity, I doubt anyone would be excusing his behavior.

I don't care what the clerk said to Crowe, Crowe threatened him and then followed up on that threat. It's all on video and he deserves whatever penalty he ends up having to pay.

I'm a service industry professional who's been assaulted a couple of times on the job. It's not a laughing matter and it's nothing to wish on service employees just so that they'll do a better job. Not when I know service employees who've been stalked and attacked by their customers.

BTW, a more detailed account can be found here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/323156p-276233c.html

Pretty good piece on why "whatever" is a loaded word. And when you consider this was at the hip, pretentious W hotel, you can imagine the tone of "whatever."

I don't condone what Crowe did, but it's easy to see how he got set off.

'Cause I guess I just don't. Maybe I don't get that upset by a little under the breath snarkiness from a clerk, seeing as I take far more abuse from my customers on a daily basis than a muttered "whatever".

~snip~
The word that set Crowe off was "whatever," which Estrada muttered after the frustrated Crowe had called repeatedly to berate him because he couldn't get an international long-distance line.

According to the source, "Crowe says, 'What's your name?' He says, 'Josh.' Crowe says, 'Well, Josh, I'm coming down right now to kick your ass.' When he got to the lobby, he said, 'Are you Josh?' He wanted to make sure he was assaulting the right person. Then he threw the phone."

http://entertainment.myway.com/celebgossip/pgsix/id/06_28_2005_1.html

understanding and accepting.

Understanding is a sign of empathy and compassion; even when one utterly disagree with someone, one should strive for understanding.

I can *understand* Crow's anger. Hell, I can even *understand* racism and sexism. I can *understand* why Germany so readily stood behind Hitler.

Doesn't mean I think any of those things are good or acceptable (all joking aside from what I said before about assualting workers so they work better, which was said purely in visceral jest).

;-)

Seriously though, I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't understand his intensely violent reaction. Maybe I'm a freak, but I have never flown into such a violent rage (or any kind of rage for that matter) over a snarky comment that I felt the need to run down flights of stairs and assault them with a telephone and then follow that with a ceramic bowl.

I know what the word "understand" means and truly meant it when I said that I did not. I've never understood people who's first response to conflict is to lash out and hurt others, it completely confounds me.

On a lighter and more practical note, I also couldn't understand having as much weath as Crowe does and not thinking to own a damn cell phone.

on Russell Crowe's part. He has a very volitile temper and has displayed this kind of behavior before.

:hi:

:hi:

I said I heard, I didn't say I thought this.
Duckie

...still don't deserve physical assault.

Demotion or serious reprimand, yes. Even job loss, if the situation is part of a pattern.

But if Crowe couldn't come up with a better way to resolve a bad service problem, then he deserves massive scorn for his uncreative, ill-tempered, and disproportionately abusive reaction.