A-list Confidential: Ron Howard completes hotel quarantine in Queensland
While some stars organise private quarantine, director Ron Howard slipped into Australia and completed official hotel quarantine ahead of filming in Queensland.
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Hollywood filmmaker Ron Howard has quietly arrived in Queensland to begin work on big-budget movie Thirteen Lives on the Gold Coast.
A Screen Queensland spokeswoman confirmed to Confidential that the Academy Award-winning director and his wife, Cheryl Howard, completed 14 days isolation in official government hotel quarantine, which ended last week.
It comes as Hollywood star Matt Damon announced during the week that he would be footing the bill for a private quarantine at a NSW home, believed to be in Byron Bay, ahead of Thor: Love and Thunder filming.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced in late November that Howard would film Thirteen Lives, based on the 2018 Thai cave rescue, on the Gold Coast, tipped to take over from Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie at Village Roadshow Studios.
“I am thrilled to bring this film to Queensland and to work with many talented and skilled Australian artists over the coming months,” Howard said at the time.
Thirteen Lives, written by William Nicholson of Gladiator fame, will depict the 2018 Tham Laung cave rescue of a boys’ soccer team, trapped in a cave by heavy rain and flooding.
Young Rock films at Brisbane’s heritage Queensland Art Gallery
The Federal Government splashed $13 million to lure the Imagine Entertainment and MGM project to Queensland while the Palaszczuk Government sweetened the deal with support from its production attraction program, as well as offering locations that could double for the Thai cave system.
It’s expected to employ 275 Queensland cast and crew and pump $45 million into the local economy.
It follows a string of big studio productions lured to the Sunshine State since the global pandemic shut down production in the US, including Young Rock, Joe Exotic and Escape From Spiderhead.
PAY IT FORWARD
After gaining new global audiences through an unusual lockdown activity, Brisbane comedian Christian Hull decided to put his new-found fame to good use.
Late last year Hull began sharing videos of himself watching paint colours get mixed and guessing the final colour.
The strangely entertaining videos were jumped on by the US audience looking for a distraction from the presidential race, were recirculated by actor Elizabeth Banks and the New York Times and earned Hull a call from The Ellen Show as well as hoards of new followers.
“My screen time for Tiktok is 15 hours a week, which is disgusting,” Hull said. “I came across some girls guessing paint colours and I thought that looked fun. It blew up and it’s gone insane.”
So in January Hull linked with Australian organisation Share The Dignity, which raises awareness of period poverty in Australia and provides period products for those in need.
Hull swapped birthday gifts for donations as part of the #ItsMyBloodyBirthday campaign and raised $20,000 within the month, which will stock one of the organisation’s dignity vending machines for a year.
“That was the first time I’d heard there are women who go without, and 90 per cent of my audience are women,” Hull said. “Everyone’s been hit hard because of COVID so … donations were a lot lower.”
“I don’t need s---. I’ve got so much s--- at home. I thought it was a great idea.”
“I’m pretty overwhelmed with how generous people have been.”
Hull next plans to release a book with stories from his childhood in March.
LITTLE PRINCESS
Mitch Lewis is set to add a daughter to his clan of boys.
The Nova presenter and son of Wally “The King” Lewis surprised the breakfast show presenters during the week by announcing his wife Sarah was pregnant with their fourth child.
The couple have three sons and were in tears when their doctor called to say they were having a baby girl.
“We are at a drive thru. I’m in the middle of ordering,” Lewis said.
“I put the phone on speaker on top of the car. We are standing there in wet towels in a Taco Bell car park.”
“Sarah just jumped into my arms, I think we both had a tear.”
“For whatever reason four was a number in our heads. We both love kids.”
Their daughter is due in June.
GREEN LIGHT
Gold Coast actor Lilly Van der Meer is finally able to chase her dreams in Hollywood.
The 21-year-old former Neighbours star left the Channel 10 soapie to pursue a career in the US in early 2019 but had yet to receive a green card.
“After four and a half years and my entire life savings, my green card just arrived. I can move to America for 10 years,” the actor shared to social media this week with tears in her eyes.
I don’t know what to do with myself right now. This is so exciting. My entire life is in this little yellow package. But it came, it finally happened. I’m moving to America.”
Having grown up on the Gold Coast, Van der Meer moved to Melbourne after auditioning for Neighbours when she was just 15.
A SMALL STEP
A group of influential women are coming together to host a fundraiser for the family violence charity set up in Hannah Clarke’s honour.
It was announced during the week that the International Women’s Day Luncheon will be held at Events on Oxlade at New Farm on March 4 with all proceeds going to the Small Steps 4 Hannah charity.
On February 19 it will be one year since Clarke’s estranged husband murdered her and her three children at Camp Hill.
Her parents Lloyd and Sue Clarke, who set up the charity in the wake of the tragedy to help put a stop to domestic and family violence in Australia, will attend the event, which will be hosted by Triple M’s Margaux Parker.
Family violence survivors Rachael Moore and Jeni Haynes are guest speakers and Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll will also attend.
Tickets are available for $105 at bit.ly/35zp6ye
10 QUESTIONS WITH … Marcia Hines
1. Who was your teen idol/ crush?
Honestly, too many to mention. The main two would have been Peter O’Toole and Jimi Hendrix.
2. Who are your three ideal dinner guests?
Nelson Mandela, Mozart and Todd McKenney. Don’t ask.
3. What’s your worst date experience?
Not really a dater back in the day.
4. What’s the movie that made you cry?
Yentl, by Barbra Streisand. Great story and some of the songs I added to my live shows back in the day.
5. Which song do you sing in the car?
I’m every woman, by Chaka Khan.
6. What’s your favourite movie or TV series you never admit to loving?
I’m not really a TV serious person, although after much encouragement from a friend over the years, I did binge watch Schitt’s Creek. And it was well worth the wait.
7. What’s the most sentimental thing you own?
I still own (my daughter) Deni’s first baby blanket and one of her knitted baby boots. Lord only knows where the other one got to.
8. What was the last thing you Googled?
Shopping online for clothes and shoes, of course!
9. What’s your most embarrassing moment?
I was dancing in one of my concerts and I fell mid-song, so of course I got up and fell again to make it look like it was all on purpose!
10. What’s on your bucket list?
I’m not really into the bucket list thing, although I would like to get a nice comfortable Winnebago and travel around New Zealand and the USA, once things calm down. Here’s to that happening in the not-too-distant future!
Marcia is currently making a special guest appearance as The Dragon in Shrek The Musical at QPAC until 7 February 2021. Tickets qpac.com.au or phone 136-246.
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