At the time, the Hollywood actor had never heard of al-Qaida or its reclusive leader. But Osama bin Laden, it seems, knew all about Russell Crowe. In one of the more unlikely terrorist plots, the Oscar winner has revealed that he was a kidnap target for the network, and that the FBI was so concerned about his safety that it gave him protection for four years. The FBI told him that terrorists had devised a "cultural destabilisation plan" that involved seizing high-profile actors.In an interview in the latest edition of Australian GQ, Crowe admits he was first approached about the plot in the months leading up to the Oscars in 2001. "That was the first conversation in my life that I'd ever heard the phrase al-Qaida. "And it was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers. It was about - and here's another little touch of irony - taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural destabilisation plan." Crowe was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia.