I saw the rumor on the Internet yesterday afternoon that Russell Crowe had died and then the immediate announcement that Russell Crowe is alive and well, and is the latest target of an Internet celebrity death hoax. My first thought was good, great. Russell Crowe is well.

Russell Crowe is one of the best actors in the movies today. I must confess to a second thought that I had, when I heard of the hoax. It concerned his last movie. Yes, Russell Crowe is alive, it is his last movie, "Robin Hood," that is dead.

That movie didn't die yesterday, it was dead on arrival at movie theaters last month. I like Mr. Crowe as an actor, and I like the story of Robin Hood, which is a very basic action / adventure tale. When I first learned that director Ridley Scott was making his version of the tale and had casted Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett in the leading roles, I thought that Russell Crowe is too old to play Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett is more than a few strolls in the garden past maidenhood to play Maid Marion, and from there the story would falter, because, though Robin Hood is a boy's adventure story, the lads in the forest, living the life of the outlaw,  there is a bit of romance too, with young Robin's courtship of the young Maid Marion.

The movie came out and Cate Blanchett is playing a widow, who is married to the deceased Sir Robert Loxley, the man, Russell Crowe as Robin Longstride ( Robin Hood) is pretending to be. Ridley Scott had changed the story. A different or original story is not a bad things as long as the characters remain loyal to the original author's or authors's creation. Well, I thought the movie is too much invented story, not enough Robin Hood.