A group of friends from North Belfast bumped into the Gladiator while enjoying a pint on a trip to Rome.
The friends were enjoying a drink at an Irish bar, Trinity College Pub, while taking a break from sightseeing when they heard the "iconic voice" of actor Russell Crowe at a nearby table.
He was enjoying dinner with family and friends, with the Belfast women spotting him and later approaching him. Kim Jackson went up to Crowe to ask for a photo, and was shocked by how nice he was.
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She told Belfast Live : "We were at Trevi Fountain on a walk and thought we'd call into the pub for a pint. We were walking past him, and could see a crowd of people at his table.
"But we didn't recognise him - we heard his voice, it's so iconic. We walked right past and sat at the next table, and it was the person next to us who pointed him out, and said 'that's Russell Crowe.'
"He was having dinner, we were having beers. It turns out the people with him were his friends and family. At the end of it, I went up and asked if he would mind us getting a picture with him, and he goes 'no, no bring the girls down.'
"He brought us down and got us all around him, then he asked for my phone and took the selfie. He was really lovely.
"He told us to enjoy our trip and kept saying it was no problem after we got the photo. We gave him space and privacy while he was having dinner with his family, but when it came to getting a photo at the end he was grand."
The friends are visiting Rome to see Paolo Nutini in concert near the Colosseum later on Wednesday night, and said running into Russell Crowe was the icing on the cake.
The Gladiator star is currently filming in the city, and yesterday tweeted a photo of himself with his family at the Colosseum, joking he was taking them "to see my old office."
The 58-year-old won an Oscar for his role as Roman general-turned-gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 film.
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