Russell Crowe Trolled John Oliver By Naming A Koala Chlamydia Ward In His Honour
Well played, Russell.
I wish all celebrity “feuds” played out this way.
You may remember a couple of weeks ago we reported on Russell Crowe’s divorce auction, in which the Gladiator star sold off a bunch of old movie props and various other nonsensical crap. The event got a bunch of publicity, and even caught the attention of Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, who ended up buying a number of items, including the leather jock-strap from Cinderella Man, and shipping them off to the last remaining Blockbuster Video in Anchorage, Alaska. It was weird.
In any case, it turns out Rusty got word of Oliver’s little stunt, with the actor tweeting that he would have to do something “special” with the money he got from the sale.
Well, now we know what that special something was.
Late last week, Crowe tweeted a video produced by the team at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, featuring the Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin. The trio explained that Australia’s koala population is currently being ravaged by chlamydia.
“It can cause blindness, infertility, and even cost a koala its life,” said Terri. “But now we’re trialling a new vaccine, and there is hope for the future.”
“Absolutely,” agreed Bindi. “So thank you so much to Russell Crowe for your amazing donation to help these koalas.”
“And a big thank you to John Oliver, for buying some of Russell’s incredible things in his auction,” added Robert. “You are helping the fight [against] chlamydia.”
And that’s when they unveiled… this:
Reacting to the video during the most recent episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver declared that it “may honestly be the greatest thing I have ever seen”. He then revealed that it had always been his dream to have a koala chlamydia ward named after him, and that, having achieved that dream, he would be giving up the show, effective immediately.
“Let’s shut it down, this show is over,” he announced, while packing his possessions into a cardboard box. “Don’t think of this as a sad occasion, because I leave you in total triumph.”
“Goodbye forever, I regret nothing.”