Six degrees

Russell Crowe's Robin Hood took the lead at the worldwide box office in its first weekend of release, earning US$111.1 million. Asked by a BBC DJ about his curious Irish lilt in the film, the Australian actor replied, 'You've got dead ears, mate - seriously dead ears if you think there's an Irish accent,' before adding, 'Bollocks' and, presumably in lieu of a telephone to throw, storming out of the interview. In 2001, the FBI warned Crowe (above) of a plot to have him kidnapped by al-Qaeda ...

The Islamic group was founded in the late 1980s and operates as a loose network comprising a multinational, stateless arm and a fundamentalist Sunni movement calling for global jihad, or holy war. The group's September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States triggered the disastrous war on terror, which provided the unlikely inspiration for a new satirical film, Four Lions, by Chris Morris ...

Known for his intelligent yet highly controversial brand of comedy, Morris tends to stay out of the public eye and has become one of the more enigmatic British celebrities. In 2001, a reprise of spoof current-affairs television programme Brass Eye, about the moral panic that surrounds paedophilia, led to a record-breaking number of viewer complaints. The show remains the third-most-complained-about on British television, after Celebrity Big Brother 2007 and an opera about chat-show host Jerry Springer ...

Springer became a household name in the US with a lowbrow chat show involving violent confrontations between guests who were typically working class and minimally educated. Springer was sued when a woman was murdered by her ex-husband after the pair had appeared on the show. The British-born son of Jewish parents emigrated to America with his family at the age of five aboard the Queen Mary ...

RMS Queen Mary sailed the North Atlantic from 1936 to 1967 and is now permanently berthed in Long Beach, California. In 1942, the Queen Mary carried 16,082 American troops from New York to Britain - a record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel. In 1952, the guest list created much excitement among the crew - on it was newly minted Oscar winner Marlon Brando ...

Brando, allegedly grandfather of rocker-actress Courtney Love, had a huge impact on the film world. Despite Frank Sinatra dubbing him 'Mr Mumbles', director Martin Scorsese lauded him, saying, 'He is the marker. There's 'before Brando' and 'after Brando'.' The ultimate rebel, Brando has been the subject of numerous homages, including the 1980 recording I Want to be Like Marlon Brando by wannabe rocker Rus le Roq, otherwise known as Russell Crowe.