Actor Russell Crowe Friday pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for flinging a phone at a hotel clerk this past summer.

Prosecutors dropped the felony charge filed against Crowe in exchange for the plea and the movie star was sentenced to a conditional discharge and fined $160 for the June 6 attack on Mercer Hotel clerk Nestor Estrada, TV's The Insider reported.

Under the conditional discharge, Crowe must not get arrested for one year.

Crowe admitted he lost his temper when he could not get an outside line to call his wife in Australia and threw the phone, which hit Estrada in the face.

Crowe publicly apologized to Estrada after the incident and told CBS TV host David Letterman it was the most shameful situation I've ever gotten into in my life.