Gold Coast celebrities: Coast’s biggest movie and rock star visits
The Gold Coast has been a hotspot for celebrity visitors for decades, with the rich and famous bring all their glitz and glamour to the Glitter Strip. Here’s what George Clooney and Mick Jagger got up to when they visited.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Gold Coast has been a hotspot for celebrity visitors for decades, with the rich and famous bring all their glitz and glamour to the Glitter Strip.
From movie stars to rock gods, the Coast has proven itself to be a popular spot to make movies or simply relax while on tour.
Here are five of the most notable visits of the past 25 years.
1997 - George Clooney
Today he is best known as one of the sexiest men alive, an Oscar winner and one of the most popular actors of his generation.
But back in 1997 George Clooney was one of the stars of medical drama ER and trying to make the move into films.
He arrived on the Gold Coast in mid-1997 to promote his first blockbuster - the infamous flop Batman and Robin.
Clooney stayed at the Sheraton Mirage where he took time out to play basketball and tennis.
As part of his duties, he attended the premiere of the film at Movie World and opened the Warner Bros shop at Pacific Fair.
2003 - Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones
One of the world’s biggest rock bands arrived on the Gold Coast in early 2003 while on their Forty Licks tour and made themselves at home at Palazzo Versace.
Richards was spotted reading and sunning himself on the balcony before stepping out for an afternoon “booze cruise’’ on the Gold Coast Broadwater with a dozen of the band’s entourage.
Staff from Palazzo Versace stocked a 17m cruiser moored in front of the hotel with cartons of beer, spirits, seafood, sandwiches, ice and Versace cushions and towels.
Wearing his trademark bandana, a shirtless Richards – cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other – openly mingled and joked with his tour colleagues on the decks.
Several hours later, the boat returned and Richards disembarked in a “very chipper mood’’ – as one onlooker put it – happily posing for photographs.
Mick Jagger kept a low profile for much of the day until he slipped out in a black Mercedes limousine for a late lunch at Restaurant B on Main Beach’s trendy Tedder Ave.
Two minders kept a watch over the rock star who had half the restaurant to himself.
Asked what the band’s fans could expect from its Brisbane shows, Jagger later said: “I hope a good show.”
2006: Bono and U2
SPEAKING of iconic rock bands, U2 arrived on the Gold Coast in late 2006 while on their Vertigo tour.
The four Dublin lads shacked up at Palazzo Versace but came out to meet with fans and take pictures.
“This is not like coming here at the end of a really long tour where we feel down,’’ frontman Bono said.
“We’re fresh and ready to play.
“I think we will be in top form. We’re all very excited, and The Edge has been on fire.
“We will give it everything we’ve got and we hope that’s enough.”
He said the band owed it to Australian fans to produce something special after the disappointment of cancelling the Australian leg of the tour earlier that year.
“We wish we hadn’t let them down the last time we were here,’’ said Bono.
“The Edge had nothing left in him (following the illness of his daughter).
“Things could have got really messy for us, the fans could have got very upset or angry, but they didn’t. They were very cool.’’
U2 Visited Sea World, the Q1 observation deck and dined at Oskars at Burleigh.
2014 - Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
THE pro-wrestler and actor was on the Gold Coast in 2014 filming his action movie San Andreas when he decided to go for a workout.
Johnson visited Globe Fym at Ashmore where he met fans and spoke to the Bulletin.
“I’m just here hanging out, having a couple of beers, seeing some friends and shooting San Andreas,” he said at the time.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. It’s a great role and a great project that I’m excited about, and getting back here to Australia is always good.”
The Rock spent 90 minutes working out after the club received a last-minute call to let them know he was on his way.
“It’s a great gym and I knew I could get a great workout and sweat while throwing around some heavy iron,” he said.
2016 - Jean-Claude van Damme.
The famed martial artist and actor was no stranger to the Gold Coast when he flew in four years ago.
In 1994 Van Damme had spent months on the Coast making his infamous Street Fighter adaptation.
But in 2016 he returned on a humanitarian mission – he wanted to open a wildlife refuge.
So he went to meet with Mayor Tom Tate and held a famously bizarre press conference at the Evandale council chambers.
During the interview he declared his interest in:
• Directing movies and having an Australian base to make his films, with Oxenford’s Village Roadshow Studio the top contender.
• Building an endangered animal conservation park similar to NSW’s Western Plains Zoo, with profits from his locally made films.
• Opening a semipermanent martial arts facility at the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct at Evandale, which would function as a type of “living art” teaching competitors and stunt actors.
The movie star praised Cr Tate as being “unusual”
“He’s not really like a mayor,” he said.
“He’s very unusual for a mayor – so relaxed and into sport, science and lots of respect for ecology.
“It is a perfect place and I need his help to find a great locale with a vision for martial arts, which is culture, and hopefully everything will work out because I love Australia – I truly do.
“I am searching for more friends and the Australian people love animals.
“I love the Gold Coast and was here for Street Fighter: The Movie and I don’t know what (Cr Tate) did to the place but he must be a great businessman in a good way.
“The Gold Coast became phenomenal and it is offering more than it did before.”
Originally published as Gold Coast celebrities: Coast’s biggest movie and rock star visits