"There was a bunch of vodka involved in the transaction," Russell Crowe added as he told Howard Stern about purchasing a dinosaur skull from Leonardo DiCaprio, star of the upcoming film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. During an appearance on Wednesday’s “The Howard Stern Show,” the fifty-five-year-old actor told the story of purchasing the skull about ten years ago, “about 2008 or 2009” as he puts it. This would have been around the time when the two starred in the drama, Body of Lies.
DiCaprio had mentioned wanting to offload the skull at a time when Crowe’s children, his oldest in particular, “were fascinated, and they were into dinosaurs.” Crowe, being the nice dad he is, entered negotiations with DiCaprio, which went well, "He said, ‘Just give me what I paid for it,’ and I think he paid, like, 30 or 35 grand or something.”
Just like that, Crowe went back to his kids and said, "There you go. Here’s one for the playroom.” It may not seem like the best decision, but Crowe cuts himself "a little bit of slack,” because of the alcohol involved. The skull sold for $45,000 at an auction in 2018. You can find a clip from the show on Howard Stern’s YouTube channel below.
