Russell Crowe denies Fairfax Media reports of Woolloomooloo Wharf apartment sale

Fairfax Media property columnists have amended articles that reported the Academy award-winning actor Russell Crowe had sold two of his four apartments in Woolloomooloo Wharf last Saturday.

The Australian Financial Review's Su-Lin Tan had the Sunday "exclusive" which was followed up Monday by Lucy Macken at Domain, Channel 7 and The West Australian.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph checked the initial report and did not publish on receiving a denial.

Macken's Monday afternoon rewrite wrote "in a bizarre twist, Russell Crowe’s media agent Grant Vandenberg denied any sale had occurred."

“It hasn’t sold and it wasn’t for sale,” Vandenberg told Domain which then duly noted as a footer that it had amended its initial $13 million sale report.

Their URL however remained: "Russell Crowe sells half home on Sydney's finger wharf."

Last month a prestige Bellevue Hill article was also amended subsequent to publication.

The AFR kept its headline and URL, and without any acknowledgement, amended its article to instead suggest Crowe "is in discussions to sell two of his Finger Wharf apartments in Woolloomooloo to new Sydney entrant Sam Barnett, former Western Australia premier Colin Barnett's youngest son, for just under $13 million."

The article confusingly further advised "an offer and acceptance for the sale of the two smaller Finger Wharf properties of about 900 square metres had occurred, but settlement of the property has not." 

The original article was gushingly retweeted by fewer AFR colleagues than normal practice.

The near 1000-square-metre amalgamation of four lots was bought by Crowe in 2003 for a then-apartment record of $14.35 million. It was listed in 2016 with $30 million hopes, but pulled from the market last year despite offer around $25 million given Crowe's other property listings yielded high prices.