Actor Russell Crowe delivers a speech during a memorial service for Australia's richest man, billionaire Kerry Packer in the Sydney Opera House in this February 17, 2006 file photo. (Will Burgess/Reuters)

WELLINGTON - Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe has got some people fuming in his hometown in New Zealand after smoking during performances of his rock band "The Ordinary Fear of God."

New Zealand's public health officials are investigating whether Crowe breached smoke-free laws covering concert venues, The New Zealand Herald said on Monday.

Wellington-born Crowe, who now lives in Australia, puffed away at cigarettes and drank from what appeared to be a bottle of port during a performance on Saturday, local media said.

"I saw him smoking, but he was doing it very discreetly," Crowe's promoter Brent Eccles told the Herald.

The venue can be fined up to NZ$4,000 ($2,465) if authorities conclude that smoke-free laws were breached.

Crowe's performance was a hit with the audience, which didn't seem to worry about his smoking, said The Dominion Post newspaper. But its music critic slammed Crowe's performance as "stunningly average" and said his songs were "close to embarrassing."

Crowe, the star of such movies as "A Beautiful Mind" and "Gladiator," pleaded guilty last November to reduced misdemeanor charges for hitting a hotel clerk with a telephone and was fined $160 and told to stay out of trouble.