Are we not entertained? Veteran producer Branko Lustig survived the Holocaust, but he couldn't put up with Russell Crowe, who threatened during a 3 a.m. phone call to "kill you with my bare hands." Lustig promptly (well, maybe not at 3 a.m.) called DreamWorks honcho Steven Spielberg and asked out of the production. The incident, chronicled in Nicole LaPorte's "The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies and a Company Called DreamWorks," apparently was sparked by Crowe's assertions that his assistants weren't being paid a fair wage. The book also reveals Crowe's reluctance to utter "And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next." He complained to director Ridley Scott that the line was overwrought (well, yes; it was "Gladiator"), but was persuaded to give it a try. Afterward, he said, "It was [crap], but I'm the greatest actor in the world. I can make even [crap] sound good." Crowe, on a publicity tour for May 14's "Robin Hood," tweeted that the book is "distances from the truth" and "a waste of paper." We guess even he can't make tweets sound good.

The final reel Part One of "The Hobbit" has officially been pushed back to December 2013. ... Jack Nicholson will star in "Last Vegas," a kind of geriatric "Hangover." ... Clive Owen joins Jason Statham in the trained-assassins thriller "The Killer Elite." ... Jennifer Connelly is in talks to join Winona Ryder and Kevin James in Ron Howard's "Cheaters" as Vince Vaughn's wife. ... Sacha Baron Cohen will earn $20 million from Paramount for his next movie, in which he'll play a goat herder and deposed dictator ($10 million apiece?). ... Bryce Dallas Howard, Emma Stone ("Zombieland") and Viola Davis ("Doubt") are joining the cast of "The Help," based on Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel.

CYNTHIA DICKISON