SYDNEY - As sure as night follows day and this is the 23rd anniversary of the underarm incident, the Australians are at it again.
It's in black and white bold print: Kiwi star Keisha is an Aussie.
In the finest traditions of Phar Lap, Split Enz, Jane Campion, Russell Crowe, even Belgium's "Aussie" Kim Clijsters ... the Australians are now claiming that best actress Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes is a dinkum Aussie.
It had to happen, particularly after Auckland-born Crowe and Nicole Kidman (born in Hawaii) missed out when the Academy Awards were announced last week.
It is conveniently overlooked that best actress nominee Naomi Watts was born and spent her first 14 years in England.
The Age newspaper in Melbourne yesterday proudly proclaimed the Auckland teenager as Australian, citing the facts that her father, Tim Castle, is an Australian sheet-metal worker and that the Whale Rider star was born in the West Australian town of Donnybrook and lived there until she was 4.
"She was a little Aussie," said Castle, 34. "Not many people know about the Australian link ... I don't know how much she remembers of Australia, but I can remember those days like they were yesterday. She had a happy childhood over there."
Castle, a former Australian Rules football player, was born in Fremantle.
He met Keisha's mother, Desrae Hughes, in Western Australia. Keisha, their first child, was born on March 24, 1990, in Donnybrook, 210km south of Perth.
"We Aussies love to claim any Kiwis that do well ... but they don't have to claim Keisha, because she is already one of us," said Castle, who now lives in New Plymouth.
Castle and Hughes, who have since separated, also have two sons, Rhys, 11, and Liam, 7.
- NZPA
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