Crowe: Bad times

New York, June 6 (Reuters): Actor Russell Crowe was arrested today charged with second-degree assault after throwing a telephone at a hotel employee and hitting him in the face, police said.

The 41-year-old Oscar-winning star got into an argument at the Mercer Street Hotel in the Soho district of New York City shortly after 4 am and threw the phone at the worker, police said.

The employee, who has not been identified, suffered minor lacerations and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, they said.

Second-degree assault is a misdemeanor. The New Zealand-born Crowe, who won an Oscar for best actor in 2001 for his role in Gladiator, faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

Crowe is in New York promoting his latest film, Cinderella Man, about the life of heavyweight champ James J. Braddock.

He will be arraigned later today in Manhattan Criminal Court.