Happy Birthday Hugh

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that being a full time writer can be very very hard work. You need to spend long hours at the desk creating tall, dark, charismatic, devastatingly handsome men. It’s tough.

And research – well, that can be even tougher. A novelist who is serious about her craft, who wants to portray tall ,dark, charismatic, devastatingly handsome men with any degree of accuracy, has to do her research thoroughly. She has to observe them, study them, - closely, She needs to know what they look like smiling, frowning, laughing – in a tux, in jeans – in – ahem - in a towel.






I am serious about my craft – deeply serious about my craft. I do my research thoroughly and carefully. I work hard at it. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it. We authors need inspiration.

And Inspiration was born on October 12th . October 12th 1968 to be precise. Today is Hugh Jackman’s birthday. And as the Pink Heart Society proved when they had their Hugh Jackman day last month - Hugh is Inspiration to romantic novelists the world over. Inspiration with a capital I.

Not only are those words tall, dark, charismatic, devastatingly handsome apply perfectly – you have to add in charm, a killer smile, the fact that he appears to be refreshingly non-egotistical, a devoted husband, father – and, damn it there’s such talent too. Acting, singing, dancing. . .


It was the singing that made me discover him first. I’ll admit it was actually because of Michael Ball. I love Michael Ball’s voice – I love the way he sings- so a video called Mr Producer, with Michael Ball singing on it, was a natural gift for me from my son one Christmas. But also on that video, appearing just once, singing Oh What A Beautiful Mornin’ from Oklahoma was one Hugh Jackman. Appearing just once – but the impact was instant. – Who is that? It was the start of an addiction.

I was lucky enough to have The Offspring working in Blockbuster videos in university vacations. He brought home a copy of Paperback Hero. The perfect film for a romantic novelist doing research. A film about a romantic novelist – starring Hugh Jackman. My sister living in Tasmania was roped in to help. Australians have great taste – they discovered Hugh J before we did.

So it was sort of coals to Newcastle when I went to talk to the Romance Writers of Australia and RW New Zealand that my major visual aid was a transparency of Hugh J - several transparencies. Well, they asked me to talk about heroes – and I needed something to illustrate what I was talking about.


Alpha heroes – HJ as Wolverine (okay – silly hair and he needed a good manicure, but watch the screen test where Hugh, in jeans and a sweatshirt, no makeup, sideburns, no claws, hangs around until the director says ‘Action’ and then becomes Wolverine without any trappings then you’ll see what I mean. That screen test is on the XMen DVD and if you ever get a chance to watch it – do so. I have – several dozen times. All in the interests of research of course)

Beta Hero – HJ as Leopold in Kate and Leopold.


Gamma hero – guess who (Guess Hugh?) HJ in Someone Like You aka Animal Attraction.

But it was only Hugh-in-A-Towel that Anne McAllister stole from me and used I her talks as well. Our talks were always wonderfully, gratifyingly full. But I’m forced to wonder if anyone actually remembers a word of what we said – they were either waiting for the picture of Hugh to be displayed or looking at the pic of Hugh or sighing as, reluctantly the pic of Hugh had to be put away.


But it was only Hugh-in-A-Towel that Anne McAllister stole from me and used in her talks as well. Our talks were always wonderfully, gratifyingly full. But I’m forced to wonder if anyone actually remembers a word of what we said – they were either waiting for the picture of Hugh to be displayed or looking at the pic of Hugh or sighing as, reluctantly the pic of Hugh had to be put away.

Talk to anyone who was there and the Kate Walker/Anne McAllister/Hugh Jackman combination is one of their major memories of the conferences. The one that everyone talks about now. And in my heart of hearts I really don’t believe it was because my talks – or Anne’s - were so brilliantly inspiring that no one can forget them.

No, it was the Hugh effect. Or, more particularly the Hugh-in-a-towel effect.

Like I said, Inspiration with a capital I.

So Happy Birthday Hugh Jackman. There are many many novelists out there who have cause to celebrate today. Let’s be honest - Many many women, full stop.

And if there’s one thing that’s better than that pic of Hugh-in-a-towel – it’s a different version of Hugh in-a-Towel – so working on the premise that a picture is worth 1000 words – here’s another thousand for you.