Russell Crowe has been cleared over an alleged altercation with Azealia Banks at a hotel party.
Banks reportedly filed a battery report against the actor after accusing him of assaulting her and uttering racial slurs.
Banks went to the police after Crowe refused to apologise for what had allegedly happened, and has since said that she considers the 52-year-old to be a “a racist, misogynist pig” after the incident.
Crowe’s representatives denied any wrongdoing on the actor’s part since the incident came to light.
Officials at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office investigated the incident, but they have now dropped the case, explaining Crowe’s actions to physically remove Banks from his hotel room were “justified to prevent the imminent violence threatened by Banks,” reports TMZ.
Witnesses contended that Banks was verbally hostile at the party and repeatedly dropped a racial slur, according to the DA’s Office.
The DA also reportedly said that the same witnesses claimed the rapper threatened to use a glass to slit the throat of a fellow partygoer.
Banks previously said: “Russell and I get next to each other. He’s talking to me, I’m talking to him, and we start flirting. We’re having a really good time. He’s got his knee on my knee, he’s touching my leg, I’m playing him my music, he tweets my song ‘The Big Big Beat’. He’s like, ‘I love this, you’re beautiful, this is great.’”
Banks claims that Crowe had been drinking “moonshine, whisky [and] vodka” and was also smoking cannabis. She alleges that he “just kind of switched”, uttering racial slurs before choking her and spitting on her while throwing her out of the party.
But comedian Jim Jefferies, who claims to have been at the party, described Banks as a “liar” and “out of control”, adding that Crowe “did absolutely nothing wrong”. Azealia has not spoken out since the charges were dropped. Can we just focus on getting the focus back to her music now? You know, what we actually loved her for?
