Russell Crowe’s glory is just a memory!

Gladiator star Russell Crowe once reigned over Hollywood as its most popular leading man.

But as he stepped out in his hometown of Sydney yesterday, it was astonishingly clear his heartthrob status is now just a distant memory.

The Oscar-winning actor was almost unrecognisable as he took a walk near his seaside home, his scruffy appearance, hefty paunch and ghastly tracksuit a world away from his turn as Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 hit.

His grooming regime and once vigorous exercise programme has clearly taken a slide in recent times, and his regard for fashion has apparently dipped to an all-time low.

But while his transformation may have meant some Hollywood offers have dried up, he still has a string of projects in the pipeline.

This year he stepped into the lead role of State Of Play, based on the BBC mini series by the same name, after Brad Pitt pulled out the film.

He is also rumoured to be attached to a new biopic of late comedy legend Bill Hicks, who fell victim to cancer at the age of 32 after years of battling with drink and drugs.

Hicks shot to fame in the 80s and early 90s for his acerbic wit and is considered a highly influential figure.

Writer Mark Staufer has already written a treatment for a possible film, and is now turning that into a draft script, reports Empire.

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Bill Maher’s Religulous Screening in a suburb near you

The forthcoming Bill Maher/Larry Charles satirical doc Religulous has been on Lionsgate’s release calendar for what seems like forever; we remember seeing teaser posters for it at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it was recently announced as a world premiere this year. Confusing! But not as confusing as the revelation that you and yours can see the film this week in one of those increasingly en vogue “Oscar dump runs” in LA and New York. The tactic mirrors that of HBO, which last spring sneaked Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired into two theaters to qualify for Oscar consideration — except that Religulous actually has an Oct. 3 release date in the States. So what gives, and where can you see it? Find out after the jump.

Academy rules dictate that documentaries must screen for at least one week in Los Angeles County and Manhattan before the qualifying deadline of August 31. Thus, if you’re up for a schlep out to the Laemmle Claremont 5 or, in NYC, the Coliseum Quad in Washington Heights, you can be the among the first to see Maher and Charles torment the Christian Right and other supposed fanatics. The early run is especially unusual in the context of Toronto, where the “premiere” classification is generally sacrosanct for distributed films of this size and budget. But hey — it is just Claremont, and most observers seem to agree that major papers won’t run reviews the way they did for Polanski, potentially undercutting the unveiling up North.

(Text by Defamer)

That said, we’re happy to air your opinions below if you’ve got the much shorter journey in you in the days ahead. We think we can wait for October.

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