[Chefelf]

Crowe Banned From Watching Birth Too Closely By Wife

Movie hunk Russell Crowe will attend the birth of his first child in January - but his wife has banned him from watching too closely. The Gladiator star's wife Danielle Spencer is happy to have her husband with her when she gives birth - but only as long as he concentrates on comforting her, rather than watching the baby coming out. He says, "Yeah, I'm going to be there, absolutely. But I'm only allowed to look in certain areas. She wants me to focus on her and that's fine and dandy. I love smelling babies." Crowe, 39, has also been canvassing advice in the build up to the big day - and has been concentrating on his pals' positive stories. He explains, "Some people have got advice, some people have got horror stories. I like the people that just look you in the eye with that kind of glow and say, 'It's all gonna be cool.'"

http://imdb.com/Peop...3/20031113.html

Thanks to Jen for this one!

Extra special thanks to Russell Crowe and his wife for being a pair of weirdos!

[Jen]

The nonsequitor about smelling babies is truly creepy!

[Ninja Duck]

Isn't it illegal, or at least really unwise, to tell the media about these things?

[Bananer]

This is one of those topics about celebrities that should not be shared with the world.

And ya, that smelling babies comment, i found disturbing. Has he smelled lots of babies in his life?

[sinister grinner]

look at it this way. i was told that during birth theres lots of total strangers watching you and your area. so why would it matter if the father of the baby saw it. it's obvious that he's seen it before.

and yeah, some thing just shouldn't be told to the general public.

[Supes]

Agreed! There are some things that we don't need to know. Now that we do, however, it's open season on discussion. I'd have to say there is a pretty straight forward reason for Danielle to make this stipulation. Simply put, there have been quite a few instances of men being put off their partners sexually after witnessing the actual birth.

Don't know if any of you have seen those sex education films where they kindly show an actual birth, but it can be a devastating thing to watch. Without going into specific detail, there can be a reasonable amount of damage done and witnessing this can turn what was considered to be a "sexual" organ into a bit of a horror for men witnessing this happening to their partners.

I'd say Danielle is aware of this and is just making sure that she keeps her man - baby sniffer that he is :-)

[sinister grinner]

yes. i have never seen or witnessed a birth and DON'T INTEND TO.

[Heccubus]

*snnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiffffffffffffffffff* Mmmm...babies!

[Chefelf]

I have never attended a birth but I know people that have and the word on the street is that babies don't smell that fantastic. Usually things that have been living in close quarters for nine months don't generally smell of roses.

[Reader]

I can't look at Russell Crowe without thinking of that utterly brilliant South Park episode (that's right people, i STILL like South Park). I just can't.

On the topic of birth and babies... uhh... sure, i'd watch. No problem.

[sinister grinner]

i smelled a baby once. it smelled faintly of vomit.

[looktothesky]

I don't know how he could smell the baby. Wouldn't he smell the large gaping hole the baby is coming out of? Or the blood from that placenta or whatever? It's things like these that make me not want to watch those "Baby Story" shows. :yuck:

[sinister grinner]

placenta is nasty. by the way the peach cobbler in our school cafeteria faintly resembles afterbirth.( well someone told me it was, but for a moment i kinda started to believe him.). i should start a topic on that. look what you did.

[civilian_number_two]

Hey,

While I agree with everyone that Crowe's remarks, out of context and in the news, sound downright stupid, I'm pretty sure he meant he liked to smell infants, not newborns, all covered in blood and afterbirth. So give him some credit there. I also agree with everyone that this story was not news.

In placenta news, I have a friend whose ex-wife was into midwifery. While she was taking her class, her sister had a baby. Well, my friend's then-wife wanted to show the placenta to the people in her class. See, she was studying that pseudo-pagan, earth-goddessy kind of midwifery that worships the life essence of motherhood, where they try to bury the placenta under a sapling or, worse, feed it to the new mother in an effort to restore her lost energy. So, like, not the midwifery that just doesn't like the clinical and dehumanizing process of the hospital, but the whole quasi-religious kit and kaboodle.

So, the wife asked her sister for the placenta, and the sister, naturally having no need for it, consented. So there it went on a show and tell to the midwifery class, and people oohed and ahhed and said "blessed be." Afterwards, she brought the thing home (in a freezer bag) and not wanting to throw it away, she stored it in the freezer! With the food!

What with one thing and another, that marriage didn't work out, and she moved away and then he needed a place to stay that was less expensive than where they'd been living. I said he could stay with me, which is when I learned that the placenta was still in the freezer. Well, no way was that rotting casket of biological waste coming to my house (all detractors note, it had been taken to class and carted about before being frozen, so probably they'd frozen it rotting). So there we were, in the middle of a move, with a landlord breathing down our necks about my friend's short notice and the threat of withheld damage deposit, and we don't know how to appropriately dispose of this mess.

So my friend threw it in the alley behind the house, along with some other things he decided he didn't need. It was like a modern art installment piece: "ruins of a broken marriage, with placenta." Damn. It sounds awful now, but for months I couldn't think about that placenta display without cracking up.

Thought I'd share.

Mike.

[sinister grinner]

that was a..............compelling story. thanks for sharing.