"If I tell you I want something, you put it aside for me. Or wake me up. Is there some kind of language barrier here?" the actor reportedly told the flight attendant on a chartered private jet during a publicity tour for his latest film, A Good Year.

According to the New York Daily News, the New Zealand-born actor has a long list of food demands in-flight, including red curry beef, chicken and cashews, white-flesh fish, passionfruit, yoghurt and dandelion tea.

And according to the flight attendant, she was told by someone who has flown with the Oscar-winning actor: "If one item is missing from this, you're going to have a very long and difficult flight."

And so it proved.

When Crowe woke from a sleep and asked for the chicken satay, only to be told his wife, Danielle Spencer, had eaten the lot, he took it out on the attendant who told the News: "I've flown actors, singers, boxers, princes. He treated us like peons."

His lawyer denied the story.