My letter to Tom Cruise asking him to help friend-in-need James Packer
The reclusive billionaire needs the Hollywood superstar to help him get back on his feet after most of his oldest friendships have come to an end, along with his second marriage.
Next month will be the anniversary of James Packer resigning as chairman of his gambling empire Crown Resorts and selling more than $100 million in shares.
Packer has not made a formal public appearance since 2017 when he was required to leave the seclusion of his Argentinian polo compound and meet federal police in Melbourne for an interview about his involvement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though police accepted Packer did not do anything wrong.
Today, I am calling on Packer’s old friend Tom Cruise, to help the reclusive billionaire get back on his feet.
DEAR TOM,
This letter, I expect, will come as something of a surprise.
You may remember me (though probably won’t) from some 20 years ago when you were living in Sydney with your, then, Australian wife Nicole and we were introduced at an Eyes Wide Shut launch party. Did I have a fantastic time that night dancing to Chris Isaak’s live set in a tiny inner-city Sydney bar while you and Nicole hobnobbed nearby.
Or perhaps you recall me from a little later on when I started bombarding the Sydney Scientology HQ with calls in an attempt to confirm you had recruited local media scion James Packer to your organisation? Maybe not …
I am writing to you today to ask for your help on behalf of an old friend of yours.
As you may be aware, Australian billionaire James Packer has fallen upon emotionally tough times of late. He hasn’t lost his fortune, but rather his closest friends, his pride, and, as I understand it, his sense of purpose.
He may say this was because these friends abandoned him. I understand some may have but with good reason after Packer refused their repeated attempts to reach out and reason with him about his glamorous jetsetting lifestyle — and associated demons.
Most of his oldest friendships have come to an end, along with his second marriage, while his relationship with his only sibling is going to require some work to repair.
Today Packer lives abroad and, I am told, continues to struggle — and possibly always will — with mental health issues and the artificial highs that become crutches for masking those feelings of inadequacy.
MORE FROM COLUMNIST ANNETTE SHARP
FRIENDS DOUBT SYDNEY MODEL SUICIDE THEORY
If his counsellors have been successful, he has been sober now for just under 12 months — making me believe it’s a good time for you to make contact.
I have followed the highs and lows of Packer’s life with great interest since meeting him for the first time in the 1990s.
Back then he struck me as privileged, shy and awkward, a man who had too many ill-chosen fawning friends enjoying a free ride on his coat-tails. But he was also terribly sweet and strangely vulnerable.
Remembering that man, I would ask you to consider renewing your friendship with the bruised man you rescued once before, back in 2002, during his first public breakdown.
Please don’t confuse this as an invitation to convert him back to your church — he really doesn’t need to be a Scientology poster boy.
What he needs is a sober friend who isn’t on his payroll to look him in the eye and tell him he still has time to rebuild himself and turn his life around; A self-made friend with nothing to gain from him, no side deals, no mutual business — or pseudo religious — interests, who can look him in the eye and remind him he still has much to accomplish at age 51.
Maybe not in the morally bankrupt casino business, maybe not in Hollywood, but perhaps just by committing himself to never missing another moment of his young children’s lives and funnelling some of that great wealth into noble and charitable deeds.
Despite his fiscal programming, his legacy does not have to be measured by how he grows his father’s wealth.
It might instead be measured by how he spends it — and spending well and on others may be key to his restoration.
Anyway, I’ve taken up enough
of your time.
Absolutely LOVED your last Mission Impossible film,
Sincerely — and thanks for reading,
Annette Sharp
War and price: oil’s impact on your bank balance
An expanding war in the Middle East has already pushed crude oil prices higher, so what does that mean for your hip pocket?
A year since October 7, what has happened to Australia?
As protests around the world mark a year since the October 7 attack on Israel, US correspondent Tom Minear says he does not recognise how Australia has changed since then.