Crowe's Feat

Cinderella Man may be based on the true saga of Depression-era boxer James J. Braddock, but the fairy-tale-perfect scene in which Braddock (Russell Crowe) gives back the government relief money he's received must have sprung from some screenwriter's imagination, right? Not so, says Crowe. In fact, the famously detail- obsessed actor managed to track down the actual receipt from the welfare-office transaction, for sale on a boxing-fan website. ''I bought it, and I rang [director] Ron [Howard] up and said, 'You've got the number wrong by about $50. You'll have to change it in CGI,' which he thought was really amusing and typical of me. He said, 'You know what, Russell? I'm going to leave that one in. That's my one concession to the fact that it's just a movie.'''