Russell Crowe ruffled some feathers when he took to Twitter yesterday to denounce the centuries-old tradition of circumcision. Says E! Online:

It looks like Russell Crowe is now eating crow after ranting on Twitter about his views on a certain kind of snipping.

“Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin?” wrote the Oscar winner on Thursday after a fan asked if he should have his son’s removed. “Babies are perfect.”

The actor then proceeded to urge those of the Jewish faith to ease up on all those ceremonial circumcisions.

“I love my Jewish friends, I love the apples and the honey and the funny little hats but stop cutting yr babies @eliroth,” Crowe wrote to the director of his upcoming movie The Man With the Iron Fist.

“I will always stand for the perfection of babies, i will always believe in God, not man’s interpretation of what God requires,” insisted Crowe, adding: “last of it, if u feel it is yr right 2 cut things off yr babies please unfollow and f**k off, I’ll take attentive parenting over barbarism.”

After all that, though, Crowe soon realized that he may have offended a few folks, so he opted to remove all his remarks from his page and serve up an apology.

“I have a deep and abiding love for all people of all nationalities, I’m very sorry that I have said things on here that have caused distress,” he typed today. “My personal beliefs aside I realize that some will interpret this debate as me mocking the rituals and traditions of others. I am very sorry.”

I’m sorry, but “correcting nature” sometimes is a very good thing. I’ve naturally got a unibrow and a mustache, and you’d thank me very kindly for plucking and waxing if I let nature take its course and I gave the bearded lady a run for her money. So if I don’t like the peen shrouded like some mystery meat, that’s my preference, thankyouverymuch.

Rebecca Romijn in Vegas Magazine, because a hot Russell Crowe is something you only see in Gladiator nowadays: