Hugh Jackman gets behind Humpty Dumpty children's charity

Not for nothing is Australian actor Hugh Jackman considered one of the nicest and most decent blokes in the entertainment industry.

The Sydney born and bred father of two, who has been married to the equally fabulous Deborra-Lee Furness for the past 14 years, has thrown his weight behind a Sydney children’s charity to celebrate the 10^th annual Balmoral Burn fun run.

In a coup for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation (which puts kids back together again) Jackman has offered the chance for two people to spend a day on the set of his next film, Real Steel, in a bid to raise money at the charity’s upcoming fund-raising event.

Jackman decided to support the  charity’s Balmoral Burn when he discovered that the community fun run – which is the brainchild of Wallaby rugby legend Phil Kearns – was turning 10 years old.

It’s a world-first for the charity and founder and chairman Paul Francis, OAM, couldn’t be happier or more proud. “He’s a bloke from Sydney’s north shore and a father of two beautiful children. What could be a more perfect fit than that? After all, the north shore is where Humpty’s story began, and children are what the charity is all about.”

The Burn has so far raised more than $8 million, which has been spent on buying more than 600 pieces of medical equipment used to save the lives of thousands of sick and injured children across Australia and in East Timor.

Jackman’s once-in-a-lifetime auction package will take two people behind-the-scenes of a Hollywood film and give them the opportunity to hang out on the set and meet the actor who has been voted the “sexiest man alive” by celebrity magazine, People.

Hugh's the sexiest, says People magazine

Having spent time with Jackman on the set of Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australia, I know what fun it will be. Jackman is an absolute champ, a decent bloke with zero airs and graces. What you see is what  you get.

Real Steel is a futuristic action/drama and will be shot in Michigan during the northern hemisphere summer.

Co-starring Lost’s Kevin Durand, it will be produced by Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, and directed by Shawn Levy, who helmed the successful box office the Night At The Museum series, The Pink Panther, Big Fat Liar and Date Night.

The Jackman auction package will be up for auction at the Balmoral Burn Sponsor’s Dinner on Friday 28 May. Bids can be made by phone on the night through prior arrangement with Humpty.

The proceeds of the package will help Humpty buy more medical equipment for children’s hospitals. For more information call +61 2 9439 0511 or go to Humpty’s website.

Aden Young, one of the stars of Bruce Beresford's new epic, Mao's Last Dancer. Picture by Marco del Grande @ The Sydney Morning Herald

The incredibly talented Aden Young, one of this country’s most under-utilised and under-rated actors, was on the red carpet last night at the Australian premiere of Mao’s Last Dancer.

The 37-year-old Canadian-born Sydney transplant has a small but strong role in the Bruce Beresford epic based on the best-selling autobiography of the same name by Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin, who defected to the United States in 1981, and is played by another incredible dancer Chi Cao in the film.

Young was worried that his characterisation of the Texan oil tycoon Dilworth – who helped Cunxin defect – was “too big”.

It’s not. Young recently told me it was the first time he had played a real life character in his two-decade long career that includes 30 films not to mention work behind-the-scenes.

“The great bonus of being involved in something like this is being face to face with Li and meeting him and being able to, I guess, come face to face with somebody of such exquisite talent,” Young told me.

I met Young at the 1991 Toronto Film Festival when he made his feature film debut in another Beresford epic, Black Robe. Back then, Young was touted as “the next big thing” but he determinedly took a low-key route and by-passed Hollywood where he was dubbed “Dr No” because he turned down roles that didn’t appeal to him.

He admitted the decision had taken a financial toll.

But after his partner of seven-year, Loene Carmen, fell pregnant with their son Dutch – who is now almost three years old – he threw himself back into the picture, so to speak.

Mao’s Last Dancer - which I loved  - is the third film in which he has teamed up with Beresford.

“What I like about him [Beresford] is that his irreverence to the craft is married to such a wealth of cinematic language. He knows what he wants and allows you to find it. I am always quite amazed,” Young says of working on the $25 million film with the director. “He [says] essentially ‘what would you do?’ and you might suggest a particular range of objectives and actions and he’ll say, ‘can it fit within this physical structure?’ and away you go.

“There’s not an extraordinary lot of discussion, at least there wasn’t from my point of view. Whereas with other directors you really nut [the role] down to every single word and syllable. What I love about acting is how every single project is completely different. You meet a first time director who is absolutely assured it’s going to work this way, whereas you’ve worked in five different processes where it’s never worked that way and then you’re amazed that it does work that way because he’s coming at it from a different perspective.”

Young is about to embark on another Australian-made film, Beneath Hill 60 and has just finished working with Charlotte Gainsborough in Queensland on a film helmed by Julie Bertucelli (Since Otar Left).

Stars of Mao's Last Dancer Chi Cao and Amanda Schull at Australian premiere in Sydney. Picture by Gay Gerard/Getty Images AsiaPac

Also at the premiere were fellow actors Jack Thompson (who also has a small role as a judge in the film), Michael Caton (The Castle), and a chorus line of ballet stars including the debonair artistic director of the Australian Ballet David McAllister and Graham Murphy. Sarah Murdoch was a towering presence, The Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic worked the mezzanine with aplomb, Ros Packer was spied chatting to friends, and John and Caroline Laws held court. Other guests included magazine maven and Australian Women’s Weekly heavyweight Deborah Thomas and her husband, Vitek, former sports reporter Mary-Anne Dibbs (who now looks after media and communications for the luxury resort Pinctada at Cable Beach in Western Australia), Sydney businesswoman Glenn-Marie Frost, and Jane Fraser, one of the smartest columnists at The Australian.

Joe Hockey and Paralympian Kelly Cartwright (L) in the 2009 Balmoral Burn - preparing for the Ultimate Burn up Mt Kilimanjaro (picture Michael Amendolia)

IF anyone was wondering why the Federal Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey was not at the Tony Abbott conservative-studded book launch in Sydney yesterday, it’s because he was in Johannesburg, South Africa, preparing for his next summit - Mt Kilimanjaro.

Hockey exited Australia on Monday and come Friday, he’ll be leading 21 trekkers up the 5895mt peak in Africa in a bid to raise money for a children’s charity which buys vital medical equipment for kids’ hospitals around Australia and in East Timor.

The Liberal Party pollie admits he came up with the idea after one glass of wine too many  at the 2008 annual Balmoral Burn sponsors dinner on Balmoral Beach for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation.

A long-time champion of the charity, Hockey decided that the annual fun run up the steep Awaba Street in Balmoral was not a big enough challenge, so he came up with the idea of the Ultimate Burn - Mt Kilimanjaro.

(Wallaby great Phil Kearns came up with the Balmoral Burn idea to raise a few quid for Humpty, and last year it generated a record $2.2 million.)

At 10 am today, the rest of the trekkers including Humpty founder and chairman Paul Francis flew to Jo’burg. Tomorrow they arrive in Tanzania, and on Friday they get to Mt Kilimanjaro- to begin a seven-hour climb to reach Machame Camp at 3000m above sea level for their first night on the triple volcano.

Among the climbers are Paralympian Kelly Cartwright (who lost a leg to cancer), paediatrician Jonny Taitz, Channel Seven’s Sunrise co-host, David Koch, and a strong cast of great men and women from various professions all of whom have shelled out $50,000 for the privilege of getting involved in a good cause.

Paralympian Kelly Cartwright from Geelong is part of the Kili Club

Hockey, who will only miss one day of Parliament, and his Kili Club will summit the mountain with a full moon over their heads on August 5 after a six to nine hour climb.

“It ends up being just one day from Parliament but I think all in Parliament will accept it is for a great cause,” he told me recently. “When I told [Opposition leader] Malcolm [Turnbull] he wanted to come.”

To follow the trek and donate, go here

.

Ruth Madoff reckons she’s embarrassed, ashamed, confused, and betrayed by her husband’s fraud. But is she sorry?

Not if you read between the lines of her public statement in the aftermath of the (excessive?) 150-year sentence handed to her disgraced Ponzi fraudster Bernard Madoff  in a New York court on Monday.

Of the convicted crook with whom she shared a bed for 50 years she says, “the man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man I’ve known all these years”.

Hello? Who was he then? Wasn’t she paying attention the past few years? How could you miss the elephant in the corner – i.e. the piles of money?

The thing that strikes me about Mrs Madoff statement – which comes after she has been roundly criticised for saying nothing and therefore appearing indifferent and unsympathetic to her husband’s victims – is that it hits all the right emotional buttons yet still seems hollow, somehow. Almost as if there is an emotional disconnect. Like she knows she has to say she’s shocked, and it’s a terrible nightmare and enormous fraud and her financier husband has caused wrenching pain and she’s a victim and she, too, can’t believe he did it. No, Really!

But I’m thinking Mrs M sounds most shocked for herself because “my life with the man I have known for over 50 years is over.” The ritz. The glamour. The privilege. Well almost over.

Let’s not forget that Mrs Madoff has been afforded the court-ordered privilege on retaining US$2.5 million of the family’s $171 billion fortune – $80 million of which she laid claim to – while hundreds of victims of her crooked husband have been entirely wiped out. It must be hard to survive on such a paltry amount.

Me? I’m not buying Mrs Madoff’s spin.

Two words: crocodile tears.

For the entire statement, go here: