By Michael McKenna
10mar03

FIRST Tom Cruise lured James Packer toward Scientology and now may have recruited him into acting.

According to Hollywood insiders, the heir to Australia’s biggest fortune is about to make his on-screen debut in Cruise’s latest film The Last Samurai now being shot in New Zealand. Mr Packer, 35, executive chairman of PBL, is said to have been cast as an extra to play one of a small army of Samurai in the film who become casualties of Japan’s modernisation of its fighting force in the late 1800s.

Cruise, who is a producer on the $150 million movie, last week told crew members his “close friend” Mr Packer would be playing one of the ancient warriors.

A New Zealand source said there was a “collective gasp” over Mr Packer’s inclusion in the movie, with the costume department now having to make new Samurai clothes for the towering media chief.

In January, Mr Packer visited the set in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island after arriving in his Falcon 200 executive jet and later staying with Cruise at his rented house.

Mr Packer became friends with Cruise during the actor’s marriage to Nicole Kidman.

In recent months, Mr Packer has been spotted attending seminars at the Church of Scientology in Sydney although it is understood he has since cooled on the church’s teachings.

Source: Daily Telegraph
Thanks Chantal