Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe has now admitted that he was the target of a kidnapping plot by al-Qaeda terrorists before the 2001 Oscar ceremonies.

As a result of the threat, FBI agents followed the actor around on the set of two of his subsequent movies and at the Academy Awards ceremonies that year. Crowe was being protected by the FBI while shooting 'Mast and Commander' and 'A Beautiful Mind.'

Apparently, the FBI was told of the alleged plot by a policewoman in Algeria or Libya in a recording. The FBI eventually admitted that they believed the threat was 'overstated.' The plot involved cultural disruption of the United States by 'taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan,' according to Crowe.

The FBI protection made Crowe feel a bit uneasy. 'Suddenly it looks like I think I'm Elvis Presley, because everywhere I go there are all these FBI guys,' he told GQ magazine in an interview. 'I never fully understood what the f**k was going on,' Crowe added.

The incident took place a few months before the September 11 attacks. Ironically, Crowe was not even born in the United States. The actor is a native or New Zealand.