Brad's got 'roid rage'

Brad Pitt, who plays Achilles in Troy, a Hollywood blockbuster about the Trojan Wars, has been behaving like a real heel, according to crew working on the new movie.

Usually one of the most affable of actors, Pitt has displayed several 'flashes of temper' while on location in Malta.

Pitt looks incredibly fit at the moment, with a startlingly well-developed torso and rippling biceps, and some people on set suspect that the drugs that gave him his new physique are also responsible for his black moods.

Some are even referring to his mood swings as 'roid rage.

Nonetheless, filming has continued and Pitt's fellow actors Eric Bana, who plays onscreen rival Hector, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, Saffron Burrows, Julie Christie and Peter O'Toole have just been getting on with their work.

It may be that Pitt, at 39, shouldn't be taking steroids and putting in such punishing hours.

Later in the year, or early in 2004, he'll join Nicole Kidman on spy caper Mr And Mrs Smith, and I'm sure things will go back to being very, very calm.