Oscar winner Crowe 'to wed'

Oscar-winning Gladiator star Russell Crowe is to marry his long-term girlfriend, a news report said today.

Crowe’s Australian publicist Wendy Day said that the 38-year-old actor will marry Danielle Spencer. No date was announced.

The announcement follows tabloid reports that Crowe, who formerly dated Hollywood actress Meg Ryan, recently bought Spencer a 100,000 US dollar diamond ring and asked her to marry him.

Crowe, 38, met Spencer, an accomplished musician, after his first attempt to break into the music industry in New Zealand during the late 1980s.

While filming Australian director Peter Weir’s film Master and Commander in Mexico over the past several months, Crowe has publicly complained of the time he and Spencer have spent apart.