BIG SHOT QUITS HOLLYWOOD to HELP KIDS SCAVENGING in Rubbish DUMPS of CAMBODIA
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36 Sunday Mail May 4, 2014 email [email protected] web www.sundaymail.co.uk Sunday Mail May 4, 2014 37 BIG SHOT QUITS HOLLYWOOD TO HELP KIDS SCAVENGING in Rubbish DUMPS OF CAMBODIA PALS Claire with My days are longer, my friends are smaller and by Wets star Tommy Wets pair join Claire the end of the day I smell like roadkill. But my mind is for pizza the action Casting queen Claire clearer and I’m where I’m meant to be Catterson called in a Ten years ago, the former ■ Heather Greenaway worked there. I’d never seen anything like few celebrity favours it – 11 hectares of garbage and flies. when it came to president of 20th Century Fox – Scott Neeson yesterday had it all – a $3.5million house week, Scott – who spent the first five years “It’s like hell. There were 3000 families making her own short of his life living with his mum Betty and living there and hundreds of orphans, and an education. We also offer 10 kilos one of the girls came to me and film. in Beverly Hills, a $1million dad Colin in Edinburgh’s Gracemount – scavenging for things to sell, wrapped in of rice and free healthcare to parents told me she was being raped by First she got her sister’s salary, a Porsche, a 36ft yacht will welcome the 2000th kid into his care rags upon rags to keep the flames at bay. whose kids have good attendance at her uncle and the day before fiancé – Wet Wet Wet singer and A-list film stars on his and is busy putting the finishing touches They had no shoes. Many were child school. It works well – we now have 22 another told me she was being Marti Pellow – to write the speed dial. to a teacher training centre. prostitutes. Some were there because girls who have graduated from university abused by her father. It’s music then fellow Wet But for Scott Neeson, his lavish lifestyle He said: “People often ask if I miss their parents couldn’t afford them or didn’t and have full-time jobs. just dreadful. Tommy Cunningham lost all its appeal in 2003 when he visited anything about the Hollywood days. The want them. I had to do something. “Every evening, I go on walkabouts “Paedophilia is rife in agreed to direct. Cambodia and saw children scavenging answer is, ‘Sure, yes.’ I would rather spend “I went back to LA and started at Sony round the slum villages surrounding Cambodia and I have had to Claire, 33, of Erskine, says like rats on Phnom Penh’s notorious a Sunday afternoon on my boat with good but my heart wasn’t in it. That year, I Steung Meanchey checking in on families ward off various Westerners the idea for the comedy short garbage tip – Steung Meanchey. friends than knee-deep and alone on a travelled to Cambodia for one week I know are in need and rescuing young looking to buy girls from Number Nine came from a A year later, the movie executive quit garbage dump. every month, setting up my charity at children who have been abandoned or impoverished parents.” girlie night out in London his job, sold his house, his car and his boat “I had a Porsche and I flew in private jets the dump. are in desperate need of CCF services. Scott dreams of with her sister, former Miss and moved to Phnom Penh, where he with movie stars. It was great. But the real “I was 45 and was a bit worried I was “We now have four boarding schools, bringing a group of his Scotland Eileen. set up the Cambodian Children’s Fund question isn’t about missing things. That’s having a mid-life crisis so I was trying to three satellite schools and a community kids to dance at the She said: “In the hotel, (CCF) charity. a tangible, almost simple math. It’s like keep my two lives running side by side. centre, plus daycare, nursery and Edinburgh Festival. Eileen was starving. She Scott, 55, who marketed some of the Disneyland. It’s a great experience but it’s “But in 2004, I was at the dump with maternal care programmes, a free He added: “I feel very grabbed the room service biggest movies of all time including not real and I don’t want to live there. three children all under six who were medical clinic and an emergency shelter Scottish and would love to menu and ordered the Braveheart, Titanic, Independence Day “When I’m on my death bed, will that suffering from typhoid and had just days for victims of domestic violence.” bring the children to the festival. biggest cheeseboard you and X-Men, cares for more than 1600 feeling of warmth, that knowledge that to live. My phone went and it was a well- Scott, whose charity rely on fundraising, I used to get back a lot but haven’t could imagine. Cambodian youngsters, providing them I truly lived, come from having owned known actor refusing to get on a private child sponsorship and the support of his managed in the last 10 years. “She was getting more and STAR pals Scott and actress Heather jet because he didn’t like the thread-count Hollywood contacts including Heather “I work seven days a week Graham at CCF fundraiser and, below, with an education, healthcare and a a Porsche? Having flown first-class? more excited as she heard the future. Having marketed great movies? in the upholstery on the seats. Graham, Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan, doing everything from waiter walking along the with Mel Gibson on set of Braveheart As the big-hearted Scot prepares to “Or will I treasure the difference CCF “That was the final straw. It became added: “In the beginning, the kids used admin to helping out in hotel corridor, and we started celebrate his charity’s 10th birthday, he have made to the lives of thousands of clear how vacuous and superficial life in to follow me around pleading with me to the schools and health giggling about how people reveals he has no regrets about leaving children? My greatest triumph is seeing Hollywood was. I went back to the States, let them study. Now the parents do it. clinic. would think she was waiting Tinseltown. the metamorphosis of destitute and sold up and moved to Cambodia.” “Over the last 10 years, they have learned “A good night for for a secret lover instead of Scott, who used to spend his weekends neglected children into wonderfully Scott, who started out caring for 87 kids to trust me. They know I am not in it for me now is a wee cheese and biscuits.” partying with Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford caring, and cared-for, kids. It’s an endless in 2004, has become a trusted member of the money and I’m not a paedophile. dram of Johnnie In Number Nine – in which and Tom Cruise, said: “It’s been 10 years source of surprise that they can adjust the community in Phnom Penh. “I now have 2000 kids who call me Papa Walker Black she co-stars with Wee Man since I sold up and left Hollywood. so quickly.” The philanthropist, who moved to Scott or dad. They look to me to keep them Label after a actor Paul Donnelly – Claire “It’s not quite the same as the old days. Scott, who admits his 10-year adventure Australia with his family when he was safe. Sometimes I can’t sleep at night long day.” tweaked the tale to have a My days are longer, my friends smaller, has been one of blood, sweat and tears, five, said: “The children are sent to worrying about the responsibility I have woman waiting for a pizza. my mind clearer, my clothes without recalls the moment he decided to give it scavenge in the dumps or are sold to them. They are incredible.” Making her own film was designers and I smell like roadkill by the all up for the kids. into prostitution by parents who get Scott, who has caught several deadly completely new ground for end of the day. He said: “I was due to move over from themselves into serious debt. infections including pneumonia and casting supremo Claire. “But if I had to do it all over again, I 20th Century Fox to Sony in 2003. I took “The charity often pay off debts or dengue fever, has to deal with She said: “I’ve known all the wouldn’t change a thing. I’m in the place a five-week break and I travelled to Phnom provide a house in return for reassurance heartbreaking cases Wets since I was eight years I was meant to be, at the time I was meant Penh, where I saw the municipal rubbish the kids will be allowed to attend school, daily. He said: old and knew Tommy took a to be, doing what I was meant to do.” Next dump and met the kids who lived and where they get a daily meal, healthcare “Yesterday, big role in their music videos. He loved my idea.” They hope to enter the film in festivals and Claire says it would also make an ideal ad for a takeaway firm. Isle starts bikini fines British tourists in Majorca face a hefty fine if they wander away from the beach SMILES BETTER in swimwear. Scott with one of New regulations the children his – brought in under charity take care Palma Council’s Good of at the Steung Citizen Plan – also outlaw cycling on Meanchey dump pavements and taking in Phnom Penh glass bottles on to the LIFELINE Scott’s beach.