The Scotsman - FBI shielded me from al-Qaeda kidnap plot, says Crowe

This was before 9-11, mind you.

The reporter is Craig Howie.

IT COULD have been the plot for his next movie - a terrorist mastermind plans to kidnap screen star Russell Crowe at a glittering Hollywood awards ceremony to break the dominance of western culture.

But far from being the imaginings of a Los Angeles script writer, FBI agents were convinced that the threat to the Oscar winner was real and drafted in a troop of bodyguards to protect him.

The actor has revealed he was approached by the FBI in 2001 and warned that he was the target of a bizarre al-Qaeda plot to kidnap him at that year’s Golden Globe awards, under terrorist leader Osama bin Laden’s alleged plans for "cultural destabilisation"...

There's more, including a short list of past kidnappings (not by al-Qaeda) of actors or one of their relatives. Remember Frank Sinatra, Jr., in 1963, for instance? File this under 'what did we know and when did we know it?'.