By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
Monday, March 13, 2000

Last month, rumours abounded that Russell Crowe and Jodie Foster were dating.

It turns out Foster was not bluffing when she said they were discussing a film project and that Crowe offered to accompany her while she went shopping for clothes for her son.

Crowe, who has been nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Insider, has agreed to play a circus freak in the Claire Danes drama Flora Plum, which Foster will be directing. This is the project that removed Foster from Hannibal, the sequel to Silence of the Lambs.

She is being replaced by Julianne Moore, who had to drop out of M. Night Shymalan's new Bruce Willis thriller Unbreakable for her dinner date with Hannibal Lecter.