Enjoying her first trip to Australia after her split from Hugh Jackman, Deborra-lee Furness was beaming as she walked the red carpet at the Sydney premiere of her new movie Force Of Nature: The Dry 2 alongside her co-stars, including leading man Eric Bana.
“Deb looks like someone with a new lease on life!” commented one fan online.
Deb’s making her grand return to acting… and the dating scene?
(Credit: Getty)And what about a new love?
Filmgoers couldn’t help but notice a buzz on the red carpet between Deb, 68, and her longtime friend, TV presenter Richard Wilkins.
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While they’re both industry professionals, one friend of Dickie’s who was at the event said the chemistry between the pair was obvious.
“It suddenly clicked that they’d make the perfect couple,” says the source.
“I think Richard and [Deb] would be a good match,” agreed a fan online.
“She’s a badass,” Deb (with co-star Eric Bana) says of her character Jill.
(Credit: Getty)Dickie, 69, split from his girlfriend of four years Nicola Dale shortly after the Melbourne Cup last year.
But friends are insisting things were headed south long before, with the Nine veteran cooling the jets on the relationship months earlier when the media began to speculate on a possible marriage in March.
With Dickie already thrice-divorced, insiders say he was apprehensive about marrying again.
“Marriage… it’s not my specialty,” the father-of-five once joked.
But swearing off getting hitched doesn’t mean he’s given up dating!
“He won’t be single long,” suggested one fan following his break-up news.
“Dickie literally has his pick of the litter. Women love him! He has one of the best jobs in TV, has huge celebrity friends, and is a great father. It’s tick, tick, tick!” agrees a source of the star.
And after socialising in the same showbiz circles for years, no one knows better than Deb what a catch Richard is!
The film is the sequel to the 2020 Aussie hit The Dry.
(Credit: Getty)With speculation brewing the Correlli actress is planning to move back to Oz (see above) from New York, where she’s been based with Hugh for decades, she’ll certainly need all the friends she can get to help her settle back in.
And who better than Dickie – who regularly throws infamous A-list parties at his luxury home on Sydney’s prestigious Lower North Shore – to ease Deb back into the city’s social scene?
Deb told reporters it’s “lovely” to be back in Sydney as she promoted her new movie – her first in almost a decade.
The Aussie actress, who stars as Jill Bailey in the film adaptation of Jane Harper’s bestselling thriller, says “it felt like school camp” making the film.
“The film is Force Of Nature. It was the nature of the environment, which was quite intense. This was not a studio, people. It was the real deal – we were climbing mountains… This was the hardest shoot I’ve ever been on, let’s just call it what it is. It was a very challenging environment. I still have nightmares about the portaloos…We should have got danger money,” she joked.
But when breaking her silence on her split from Hugh in November, Deb declared she was up for a challenge.
“My soul is constantly evolving, I’m very busy. Which is what you want to be. The alternative is no good, is it?” said Deb.
“We’ve got to keep growing. You know what? It’s like life throws you lemons, you make some lemonade, I’ve got many challenges.”
And it seems she’s ready to squeeze every moment out of her new life – with or without Dickie on her arm!
