One of the stars of Amazon Studios' Lord of the Rings got the VIP treatment from toy billionaire Nick Mowbray.
Ismael Cruz Cordova shot to stardom in The Undoing alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. The 33-year-old Puerto Rican-born US actor also starred alongside Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots and is in New Zealand for several months filming the LOTR series.
He is one of a cast of overseas stars who will spend Christmas in New Zealand as they work on what is tipped to be one of the most expensive television series ever made.
Mowbray choppered Cordova to Waiheke for lunch at Tantalus Estate last Sunday. In the group of six were Mowbray's partner Jaimee Lupton, media couple Anna and Jay Reeve and makeup artist to the stars Michael Ashton. Anna Reeve and Ashton won "best dressed" at the annual Mowbray costume party this year with amazing outfits for the theme Out of this World, and Spy understands the lunch was part of the prize.
![Michael Ashton, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Jay Reeve and Nick Mowbray lunching on Waiheke.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/CJI6DY74OH6UJOG3HN5PZWLHBM.jpg?auth=bbd666511ece50209d9b4b1a8055cbbf9d90c916d3f3d52201b9508cea9bfb5b&width=16&height=7&quality=70&smart=true)