Inside Rita Ora’s budding friendship with Russell Crowe

Not many footy clubs could get Rita Ora to hang out at a photo shoot – but then, most footy clubs don’t have the pull of a Hollywood star.

Not many footy clubs could get Rita Ora to hang out at a photo shoot – but then, most footy clubs don’t have Russell Crowe.

Pop superstar Ora was snapped with Crowe and Rabbitohs stars Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker in Newtown on Wednesday.

South Sydney’s Indigenous players, including Mitchell, Walker, Origin star Dane Gagai and winger Alex Johnston, were on hand for a shot in front of the famed Martin Luther King Jr mural on King Street.

Rita Ora and Latrell Mitchell in Newtown. Picture: Instagram.

Ora, best known for her hits Let You Love Me and Anywhere, later joined Crowe and girlfriend Brittany Theriot for a bike ride.

Souths were recreating a shot from 2007, when then-Rabbitoh David Peachey asked Crowe for a photo of each of the club’s Indigenous players together under the mural and not only did the Academy Award winner agree, he took the original photograph himself.

Even the staunchest Rabbitohs supporter would have been hard pressed to imagine a future where someone like Ora, who boasts no less than 16 million Instagram followers, would be on hand for a recreation.

Picture of Rita Ora in Nova's Red Room.

Russell Crowe enjoying a game of tennis in Paddington. Picture: Tim Pascoe

The 30-year old has spent the past few months living in Sydney filming her stint as a coach on the newest season of The Voice that will premiere on Seven later this year.

Ora and Crowe are understood to have forged a friendship over recent months, spotted together around Sydney on numerous occasions.

It’s not South Sydney’s first brush with fame this season – after their win over Roosters earlier this year Crowe welcomed actors Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and Jeff Goldblum into the club’s dressing sheds.

Pictures from Chris Hemsworth's Instagram of him and Elsa Pataky enjoying the South Sydney Rabbitohs win with Russell Crowe. Source: Instagram

Confidential understands Ora and Crowe became mates after she was invited to attend a barbecue he was hosting, attended by mutual friends from the cast of Thor.

Crowe apparently has a replica of his favourite London pub built in his backyard, where he has hosted a number of Sunday lunches for his celebrity friends.

Ora is close friends with Thompson, as well as Idris Elba, who is in town shooting George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing., which is how she scored an invite.
Elba of course is known for his work in the previous Thor films, where he played Heimdall.