Oscar-winning Gladiator actor Russell Crowe has a lot to smile about these days, after walking the red carpet with girlfriend Britney Theriot in Rome over the weekend.

He has finished three films in quick succession (with another five in the pipeline), has just been appointed ambassador of Rome, and to top it off was arm in arm with the former actor and real estate agent Ms Theriot for the world premiere of his film Poker Face.

Attending the premiere at Alice nella Città during the 17th Rome Film Festival at Auditorium della Conciliazione on October 16, Crowe and Theriot turned heads as they embraced and smiled for hundreds of fans.

Crowe, 58, and Theriot, 39, “looked at each other lovingly as Crowe wrapped his arm around his girlfriend’s waist”, reported Us Weekly.

Despite a 27-year age difference, the couple have kept their relationship out of the spotlight since hitting it off in November 2020, when the Daily Mail photographed the pair kissing while playing tennis in Sydney.

Crowe was previously married to Australian singer Danielle Spencer from 2003 to 2012, with whom he shares two sons, Charles,18, and Tennyson, 16.

Crowe ‘taking the kids to the old office’ at the Colosseum in July with Theriot, front right. Photo: Getty

Romance away from the spotlight

After finalising his divorce to Spencer in 2018, highlighted by a memorabilia ‘The Art of Divorce’ auction of his body of work, Crowe and Theriot have been snapped by only a handful of dedicated paparazzi wherever they go.

In February, they were seen among the crowd visiting the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a month later boarding a private jet to Crowe’s 400-hectare Hunter Valley farm at Nana Glen.

They’ve since been regularly spotted together on location in Thailand shooting The Greatest Beer Run Ever, have travelled to St Tropez in France and, more recently, in Italy for The Pope’s Exorcist.

Theriot has not publicly shared details of her relationship on social media.

Her Instagram is private and she last updated her Facebook page in August 2021, when she revealed she is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana.

She went to an all-girls private Catholic high school in New Orleans, St Mary’s Dominican High School, and went on to study electrical engineering at Louisiana State University.

According to People, aspiring actor Theriot was 30 when she reportedly met Crowe on the set of the 2013 film Broken City, which also starred Mark Walhberg (Father Stu) and Welsh actor Catherine Zeta-Jones.

In October 2017, Theriot joined Louisiana-based real estate agency Mirambell Realty as an agent, reported People, and by 2019, she was one of the top individual producers. She is still listed on their website.

After meeting Crowe, Theriot now has two new credits on film industry database IMDb.

She is credited with a “special thanks” on his 2020 action thriller Unhinged, and described as an “assistant: Mr Crowe” on The Greatest Beer Run Ever earlier this year.

Crowe’s LA representative has been contacted for comment.

Tweet from @russellcrowe

‘I am always at the service of Rome’

Also close to Crowe’s heart right now is Rome, the location of his 2000 Ridley Scott film Gladiator in which he played Maximus, a general forced into slavery before turning into a gladiator.

Over the past months he’s been filming The Pope’s Exorcist, in which he plays real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a priest who acted as chief exorcist of the Vatican and who performed more than 100,000 exorcisms over his lifetime.

To cap off a busy year, his film Poker Face – made in NSW during COVID-19 lockdowns – premiered at the Eternal City’s film festival over the weekend.

On October 15, Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri acknowledged Crowe’s love of his ancient city, welcoming the actor to City Hall – located on the ancient Capitoline Hill – and stepping out onto a balcony.

Taking to social media, the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ co-owner Crowe quipped about the mayor wearing the colours of his beloved rugby league club (also the colours of the Italian flag).

He was given a plaque and the title of “ambassador of Rome in the world”.

The mayor said the city was giving the plaque “as the symbol of friendship and affection of Rome for Russell Crowe”.

The actor and director, in Italian, said: “I am always at the service of Rome.”