Actor gets his own back after comedian bought jock strap from Cinderella Man in ‘divorce auction’ and donated it to Alaskan video store

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

No good deed goes unpunished, and John Oliver’s recent attempts to help out struggling video stores have resulted in the comedian having a koala chlamydia treatment ward named after him, thanks to actor Russell Crowe.

Oliver bought a number of items from Russell Crowe’s recent “divorce auction” to help out struggling Alaskan Blockbuster video stores, including paying AU$7,000 for the jockstrap the actor wore in the film Cinderella Man. That item is now on display in the last Blockbuster in Anchorage.

Shortly after the auction Crowe tweeted that he was inspired by Oliver’s gesture, hoping to put the $79,788 in total that Oliver had paid for various items towards “something special” that honoured Oliver’s “genuine love for Australians and Australia”.

Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) I think this is such a wonderful random act of kindness that I am planning now on how to best use the @iamjohnoliver money he spent on groin protectors and such .

Given his often shown genuine love for Australians and Australia , it’s got to be something special . https://t.co/NcziHy5A2H

“As far as I’m aware I’ve never shown genuine love for Australians or Australia,” Oliver joked on Last Week Tonight on Sunday night. “At most I’ve shown morbid curiosity for it, the way a nine-year-old pokes a dead frog with a stick.”

Last week Crowe revealed what he had spent the money on: a ward at Australia Zoo wildlife hospital to treat chlamydia in koalas.

Play Video 0:52 Irwins thank Russell Crowe and John Oliver for koala chlamydia clinic – video

In a video shared by Crowe on Twitter, Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin explain that they’d named the ward The John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward after Crowe had made an “amazing donation” to help the koalas thanks to Oliver’s purchases in the auction.

Chlamydia is a disease that has had a genuine impact on koala populations in Australia, causing blindness and infertility, and affecting the vast majority of koalas in some areas. Oliver, of course, saw the funny side.

“Well played Russell Crowe. Well played indeed. That may honestly be the greatest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Oliver.



“What I’m essentially saying here is we’ve accomplished everything we set out to do on this show. Which means thanks very much everyone, but we are fucking done here. That’s right, let’s shut it down. This show is over.”