'Put that in my will': Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan's final wish to return home to Australia revealed as he opens up about family and health at 85
The 85-year-old comedy legend, who now lives in Los Angeles, told Channel Seven's Sally Bowrey that when the time comes, he wants his ashes scattered from Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge a place that holds deep personal meaning, given his early years spent working on it as a rigger.
"I want my ashes scattered off the Harbour Bridge," he told Bowery in an interview, which aired Monday.
"I put that in my will."
While Hogan has travelled between LA and Sydney in recent years, his most recent trip in May sparked concern after he was spotted being wheeled through the airport by Qantas staff.
But true to form, Hogan laughed off the attention with his trademark grin.
"They got me in a wheelchair," he said.
When asked directly about his health, Hogan didn't shy away.
"Well, I have arthritis, and I have a knee, which, much to my embarrassment, I injured skateboarding… I'm an 80-plus skateboarder," he laughed.
Bowrey praised his spirit, saying skateboarding as an octagenarian was no small feat.
"Well, I've been a late starter all my life," Hogan replied.
The Crocodile Dundee star, who penned the now-iconic script in just four weeks, reflected on his unlikely rise from blue-collar worker to global superstar.
"One minute I'm a blue-collar worker on the Harbour Bridge, and next minute I'm meeting the Queen," he recalled.
Born in Parramatta in 1939, Hogan first found fame in a chance appearance on the Nine Network's New Faces program, which led to a television career and a fateful partnership with the late John Cornell, his best mate and co-creator of both The Paul Hogan Show and Crocodile Dundee.
At age 46, with four kids already, Hogan became an international sensation thanks to the 1986 blockbuster, winning a Golden Globe and scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Despite the fame, Hogan says he still finds media attention overwhelming, especially when it comes to his youngest son, Chance, whom he shares with ex-wife and Croc Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski.
"I get a bit annoyed with the press I get off the rags from my 'troubled son' Chance," he said.
"He's pretty clever, because he knows… there's this paparazzi guy who lives down our street, and he plays it up. But he's actually a hero."
Hogan added that Chance is still working hard to build his own career.
The 27-year-old is currently the lead singer of punk band Rowdy P.
"As soon as he does, I'll be back here (in Australia)- unless he comes with me, then I'll be back sooner," Hogan said.
Bowrey said the interview left her touched by Hogan's signature wit and warmth.
"He still has that gorgeous twinkle in his eye," she revealed after the interview on Sydney's 7NEWS.
"He's just the most delightful person to interview and spend time with."
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Top stars to attend high-powered Venice Film Festival
Hollywood stars, Oscar-winning directors, Asian heavyweights and European auteurs will vie for top honours at this year's stellar Venice Film Festival, all looking to make a splash at the start of the awards season. Running from August 27 to September 6, the 82nd edition of the world's oldest film festival will showcase a rich array of movies that spans psychological thrillers, art-house dramas, genre-bending experiments, documentaries, and buzzy studio-backed productions. Among the leading A-listers expected to walk the Venice Lido's red carpet are Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, Cate Blanchett and Amanda Seyfried. A who's-who of global directors will also be premiering their latest pictures at the 11-day event, including US filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and Benny Safdie, alongside top Europeans Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino, and Laszlo Nemes, and Asia's Park Chan-wook and Shu Qi. Netflix, which skipped Venice last year, returns in full force in 2025 with a trio of headline-grabbing titles, including Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein", a new take on the classic horror tale starring Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth. Baumbach's comedy-drama Jay Kelly, starring Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, is also in the main competition and on the Netflix slate, alongside the geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite, with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, and directed by Bigelow, who won an Oscar in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Venice fires the starting gun for the awards season, with films premiering on the Lido in the last four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20, making it the place to be seen for actors, producers and directors alike. 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The Wizard of the Kremlin will be shown in competition. Jude Law plays Putin, with Alicia Vikander and Paul Dano also starring. The story is told from the perspective of a fictional adviser. A film that looks certain to raise emotions is Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, which uses original emergency service recordings to tell the story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza in 2024 after being trapped for hours in a vehicle targeted by Israeli forces. "I think it is one of the films that will make the greatest impression, and hopefully (won't be) controversial," said the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, his voice trembling as he recalled the movie. Hollywood stars, Oscar-winning directors, Asian heavyweights and European auteurs will vie for top honours at this year's stellar Venice Film Festival, all looking to make a splash at the start of the awards season. Running from August 27 to September 6, the 82nd edition of the world's oldest film festival will showcase a rich array of movies that spans psychological thrillers, art-house dramas, genre-bending experiments, documentaries, and buzzy studio-backed productions. Among the leading A-listers expected to walk the Venice Lido's red carpet are Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, Cate Blanchett and Amanda Seyfried. A who's-who of global directors will also be premiering their latest pictures at the 11-day event, including US filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and Benny Safdie, alongside top Europeans Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino, and Laszlo Nemes, and Asia's Park Chan-wook and Shu Qi. Netflix, which skipped Venice last year, returns in full force in 2025 with a trio of headline-grabbing titles, including Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein", a new take on the classic horror tale starring Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth. Baumbach's comedy-drama Jay Kelly, starring Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, is also in the main competition and on the Netflix slate, alongside the geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite, with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, and directed by Bigelow, who won an Oscar in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Venice fires the starting gun for the awards season, with films premiering on the Lido in the last four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20, making it the place to be seen for actors, producers and directors alike. In the past nine editions of the Oscars, the award for Best Actress or Best Actor has gone eight times to the protagonists of films first seen in Venice, including Stone for her role in Poor Things in 2024. Stone returns to Venice this year, teaming up again with Poor Things director Lanthimos in an offbeat satire, Bugonia. The indie icon of US cinema, Jim Jarmusch, will be showing his Father Mother Sister Brother, a three-part tale exploring fractured families with a cast that includes Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver and Tom Waits. European auteurs are well-represented, with Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia, starring Toni Servillo, selected as the festival's opening film, while Hungary's Nemes presents the family drama Orphan and France's Francois Ozon showcases his retelling of Albert Camus' celebrated novel The Stranger. One standout is the new thriller by Olivier Assayas, which centres on the rise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Wizard of the Kremlin will be shown in competition. Jude Law plays Putin, with Alicia Vikander and Paul Dano also starring. The story is told from the perspective of a fictional adviser. A film that looks certain to raise emotions is Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, which uses original emergency service recordings to tell the story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza in 2024 after being trapped for hours in a vehicle targeted by Israeli forces. "I think it is one of the films that will make the greatest impression, and hopefully (won't be) controversial," said the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, his voice trembling as he recalled the movie. Hollywood stars, Oscar-winning directors, Asian heavyweights and European auteurs will vie for top honours at this year's stellar Venice Film Festival, all looking to make a splash at the start of the awards season. Running from August 27 to September 6, the 82nd edition of the world's oldest film festival will showcase a rich array of movies that spans psychological thrillers, art-house dramas, genre-bending experiments, documentaries, and buzzy studio-backed productions. Among the leading A-listers expected to walk the Venice Lido's red carpet are Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, Cate Blanchett and Amanda Seyfried. A who's-who of global directors will also be premiering their latest pictures at the 11-day event, including US filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and Benny Safdie, alongside top Europeans Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino, and Laszlo Nemes, and Asia's Park Chan-wook and Shu Qi. Netflix, which skipped Venice last year, returns in full force in 2025 with a trio of headline-grabbing titles, including Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein", a new take on the classic horror tale starring Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth. Baumbach's comedy-drama Jay Kelly, starring Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, is also in the main competition and on the Netflix slate, alongside the geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite, with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, and directed by Bigelow, who won an Oscar in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Venice fires the starting gun for the awards season, with films premiering on the Lido in the last four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20, making it the place to be seen for actors, producers and directors alike. In the past nine editions of the Oscars, the award for Best Actress or Best Actor has gone eight times to the protagonists of films first seen in Venice, including Stone for her role in Poor Things in 2024. Stone returns to Venice this year, teaming up again with Poor Things director Lanthimos in an offbeat satire, Bugonia. The indie icon of US cinema, Jim Jarmusch, will be showing his Father Mother Sister Brother, a three-part tale exploring fractured families with a cast that includes Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver and Tom Waits. European auteurs are well-represented, with Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia, starring Toni Servillo, selected as the festival's opening film, while Hungary's Nemes presents the family drama Orphan and France's Francois Ozon showcases his retelling of Albert Camus' celebrated novel The Stranger. One standout is the new thriller by Olivier Assayas, which centres on the rise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Wizard of the Kremlin will be shown in competition. Jude Law plays Putin, with Alicia Vikander and Paul Dano also starring. The story is told from the perspective of a fictional adviser. A film that looks certain to raise emotions is Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, which uses original emergency service recordings to tell the story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza in 2024 after being trapped for hours in a vehicle targeted by Israeli forces. "I think it is one of the films that will make the greatest impression, and hopefully (won't be) controversial," said the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, his voice trembling as he recalled the movie. Hollywood stars, Oscar-winning directors, Asian heavyweights and European auteurs will vie for top honours at this year's stellar Venice Film Festival, all looking to make a splash at the start of the awards season. Running from August 27 to September 6, the 82nd edition of the world's oldest film festival will showcase a rich array of movies that spans psychological thrillers, art-house dramas, genre-bending experiments, documentaries, and buzzy studio-backed productions. Among the leading A-listers expected to walk the Venice Lido's red carpet are Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, Cate Blanchett and Amanda Seyfried. A who's-who of global directors will also be premiering their latest pictures at the 11-day event, including US filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and Benny Safdie, alongside top Europeans Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino, and Laszlo Nemes, and Asia's Park Chan-wook and Shu Qi. Netflix, which skipped Venice last year, returns in full force in 2025 with a trio of headline-grabbing titles, including Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein", a new take on the classic horror tale starring Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth. Baumbach's comedy-drama Jay Kelly, starring Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, is also in the main competition and on the Netflix slate, alongside the geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite, with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, and directed by Bigelow, who won an Oscar in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Venice fires the starting gun for the awards season, with films premiering on the Lido in the last four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20, making it the place to be seen for actors, producers and directors alike. In the past nine editions of the Oscars, the award for Best Actress or Best Actor has gone eight times to the protagonists of films first seen in Venice, including Stone for her role in Poor Things in 2024. Stone returns to Venice this year, teaming up again with Poor Things director Lanthimos in an offbeat satire, Bugonia. The indie icon of US cinema, Jim Jarmusch, will be showing his Father Mother Sister Brother, a three-part tale exploring fractured families with a cast that includes Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver and Tom Waits. European auteurs are well-represented, with Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia, starring Toni Servillo, selected as the festival's opening film, while Hungary's Nemes presents the family drama Orphan and France's Francois Ozon showcases his retelling of Albert Camus' celebrated novel The Stranger. One standout is the new thriller by Olivier Assayas, which centres on the rise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Wizard of the Kremlin will be shown in competition. Jude Law plays Putin, with Alicia Vikander and Paul Dano also starring. The story is told from the perspective of a fictional adviser. A film that looks certain to raise emotions is Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, which uses original emergency service recordings to tell the story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza in 2024 after being trapped for hours in a vehicle targeted by Israeli forces. "I think it is one of the films that will make the greatest impression, and hopefully (won't be) controversial," said the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, his voice trembling as he recalled the movie.
Sky News AU
10 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Bella Kidman Cruise returns to social media with cryptic post weeks after Nicole's low-key visit to London
Bella Kidman Cruise has shared a rare social media update just weeks after her world-famous mother Nicole Kidman made a quick trip to London. UK-based Bella works as a visual artist in the English capital but is understood to be somewhat estranged from her adopted mother Nicole and father Tom Cruise. Meanwhile, Nicole regularly shares family snaps with Bella's half-sisters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, from the Oscar winner's second marriage to Keith Urban. In recent months, Bella was noticeably absent from both a mother's day tribute by Nicole and a group photo of all the Kidman family women taken at the movie star's Nashville mansion. Bella also shares another half-sister, Suri Cruise, from Tom's third marriage to actress Katie Holmes. On Wednesday, Cruise posted a cryptic Instagram story showing images of two women's faces spliced together without a caption, marking her first social media update in months. In 2015, UK-based Bella married British I.T. consultant Max Parker but neither of her famous parents attended the nuptials. Nevertheless, Cruise reportedly helped pay for the event, while a Kidman source told People that Nicole was "very happy for Bella." Nicole was recently in London to appear at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and attended the men's singles final with newly retired Vogue editor Anna Wintour. It is understood Bella, 32, lives in the English capital with her husband but it is unclear if she saw her movie star mother or country star stepfather during the brief visit. Meanwhile, Nicole's only son Connor, 30, lives in Clearwater, Florida, a small city closely associated with the Scientology community. The Aussie movie star has not been photographed with her two elder children in more than 15 years and typically declines to discuss them in interviews out of respect of their religious beliefs. Tom and Nicole married in a private Christmas Eve ceremony in 1990, less than a year after he finalised his divorce from actress Mimi Rogers. The pair were married for 11 years and adopted Bella in 1992 and Connor in 1995 before separating in 2001. Kidman, 58, and Cruise, 63, were reportedly given joint custody of Bella and her younger brother Connor in the divorce. However, the adopted children, who are devout Scientologists like Cruise, opted to live with their father.
Sky News AU
10 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Unemployed': Nicole Kidman's nepo niece Lucia Hawley reveals she's struggling to find work after leaving Australia for the UK
Nicole Kidman's niece has revealed she is struggling to find work months after she left her plum role with the Seven Network. Lucia Hawley, who previously did hosting duties for digital channel 7Bravo, quit the network last year amid social media accusations that she was a nepo baby. In her Substack, Hawley detailed how she was getting on with her new life in the UK. 'On June 18, I officially made the move to London. On paper, this is a totally stupid decision, and honestly, frightens me (someone hire me pls),' the TV star wrote. 'I am risk-averse, which means my body quite literally rejects the idea of both moving overseas and being unemployed.' As to why she leftAustralia in the first place, Hawley admitted: "The first six months of the year were difficult for me career-wise. I lacked direction and faced numerous rejections in the pursuit of something better. This period was pretty taxing on my confidence, and I eventually began to feel like there was just simply not much left for me in Sydney (at least for now)." Speaking about her current employment prospects, she wrote, "I have moved to a new country and am staring down the barrel of what could be another very gruelling job hunt—ultimately, facing even more uncertainty than I was before." Hawley also admitted she struggled to part ways with her siblings and her boyfriend Henry, who are still in Australia. 'Saying goodbye to Henry was incredibly difficult (I am traumatized by airport goodbyes). Even harder were the goodbyes to my family — I kissed my little brothers through floods of tears,' she wrote. Ms Hawley served as social media host for Free to Air TV network 7Bravo, a joint operation between the Seven Network and Bravo TV in the United States. Following her departure, the show announced in December that former Bachelor star Bella Varelis would take over the reins. Hawley is the daughter of Nicole Kidman's sister Antonia, 54. The TV host boasts a close friendship with the Oscar winner, as she recently returned from a lavish vacation in Croatia with her mother and the Babygirl star.
