The Australian faces making their mark in the United States
Margot Robbie, Sam and Lara Worthington and Olivia Newton John are part of the “gumnut mafia” club. They’re few of many Aussies making a mark on the US scene. Here’s who they stand alongside.
Entertainment
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On America’s west coast, they’re known as the “gumnut mafia”, a network of famous Australians based in Los Angeles whose numbers include Margot Robbie, Sam and Lara Worthington and Olivia Newton John.
In New York, close friends Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts have property near Rebel Wilson’s “paparazzi proof” Greenwich Village apartment, not far from Mr and Mrs Hugh Jackman’s family home.
More than 60,000 Australians have made their homes in the United States, including some of our most prominent names.
This played out dramatically at last weekend’s Golden Globes, where the bushfire crisis was a recurrent theme from the opening award going to an absent Russell Crowe, who was at his bush home with his family, to the closing moments.
At one point Oscar winner Cate Blanchett said to loud cheers: “There are a lot of Australians in the room tonight. I know we are all very grateful for the call-outs to our fellow compatriots who are suffering under the bushfires, so thank you.”
Blanchett and Crowe are notable Hollywood heavyweights in that they have kept their main bases down under, but many of our most famous Australians have multiple homes in the US.
While Oscar winner Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban’s primary residence is their rural mansion in Nashville, they also have homes in Los Angeles, Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands.
Their Manhattan abode is famous for a car elevator in the building and the pair are a regular presence on the East Coast. New York was also the city where they fell in love, and the pair recently returned for the Broadway premiere of Moulin Rouge.
British born but Australian-raised, Kidman’s close friend Naomi Watts reportedly lives with her family in a downtown neighbourhood, where she has also launched a nature-focused beauty brand with former Australian journalist, Sarah Bryden Brown, in Tribeca.
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness have long raised their family in Manhattan, currently in a palatial West Village apartment.
Jackman is such a fixture in the neighbourhood he’s regularly spotted at a local gym and opened a Tribeca cafe, The Laughing Man, to ensure he could always find a decent cup of coffee in the city.
Supermodel Elle McPherson’s main residence is in Florida but she is also a New York regular whose vitamin supplement business WelleCo has a store in Soho.
Across the East River, actor couple Rose Byrne and husband Bobby Cannavale share a townhouse in Brooklyn with their two young sons.
Former model Kristy Hinze Clark was in New York to celebrate her 40th birthday in October, bringing together prominent Aussies at a series of events at iconic locations including The Polo Bar and Rainbow Room.
Clark and her tech tycoon husband Jim Clark and daughters Dylan and Harper also have homes in California, Florida and Australia.
Over on America’s West Coast, the proximity to home means many high profile Australians base themselves there.
For former Sydneysider Amanda Archer, a celebrity publicist who’s LA business represents prominent clients such as Priscilla Presley, Lindsay Lohan, Tatum O’Neal and Paris and Nicky Hilton, this means there is always someone to catch up with.
Among Archer’s closest friends are Andy Hawkins, the now LA-based former manager of radio shock-jock Kyle Sandilands, who runs a successful music company, and songwriter James Maas, who is married to prominent Hollywood producer Adam Schroeder.
She is also close to Josh Pomeranz, the son of film critic Margaret Pomeranz, whose twins with his film producer wife Philippa Whitfield Pomeranz, were recently cast in sitcom Modern Family.
Archer has also long represented former Home and Away star Tammin Sursok, who has appeared on The Young and The Restless and Pretty Little Liars.
“There’s a bunch of Australians out here in LA and you also find that everybody’s coming through at different times,” she says.
“There is never a time when there’s not an Australian in town because everyone is always coming to LA, probably not as much as New York, because this is a real drop through point.”
Archer says there’s a reason Australians are well-represented in the US entertainment industry.
“Aussies have a good reputation of being down to earth and hard working,” she says.
“As a small nation we are held more accountable for what we say and do which has created a pretty honest culture of people.
“I think all of this combined with some incredible abilities has provided a good pool of talent that the US appreciates.”
And one of our most long term expat West Coast success stories is legendary singer Olivia Newton John, who recently listed her Santa Barbara wine country ranch for sale with a plan to downsize with husband John Easterling.
Los Angeles is also home to a slew of former Aussie soap and drama performers, such as Packed to the Rafters stars Hugh Sheridan, who is building a singing career, and actor couple Daniel MacPherson and wife Zoe Ventoura, when she’s not in Australia filming Home and Away.
Also keeping close to Hollywood with LA bases are actors Rhada Mitchell, Sam Worthington and wife Lara Worthington, as well as Liam Hemsworth, when he’s not visiting brother Chris in Byron Bay.
Perhaps the most prominent Aussie to recently call LA home is Margot Robbie, who explained in a 2018 interview with News Corp Australia how close the gumnut mafia is.
“Primarily everyone who I worked with on Neighbours and is over here now, we’re like a tight-knit group,” Robbie said.
The Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee named her former colleagues Ashleigh Brewer, who had a long running role on Bold and the Beautiful until last year, Sam Clark and Reece Wakefield among her California mates.
“There’s such a kinship with other Aussies, especially when you are living outside of Australia you kind of flock together,” Robbie explained.