TERRI & RUSSELL KEEP THEIR DISTANCE

CRIKEY, YOU COULD CUT THEIR TENSION WITH A KNIFE!

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Heads were turning on the red carpet last week as Terri Irwin sidestepped her longtime friend Russell Crowe - despite being a guest at his movie premiere!

Terri arrived to watch Russell in Nuremberg on the arm of her in-demand son, Robert. Leaving her khakis at home, the 61-year-old zoo tycoon wowed in a plaid power suit.

Russell too was dressed to the nines. The Oscar-winning actor arrived with his fiancée, Britney Theriot, 33. But while he greeted Robert with a hearty hug and peck on the check, there was no such interaction between him and Terri.

"It was the strangest thing I've ever seen," a source exclusively tells New Idea. "Terri and Russell barely nodded at each other. There was no warm embrace, no banter ... if anything, it was incredibly awkward."