[Actors as rugby players] Brock James and Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky)

The Australian number 10. plays for Clermont – beaten finalists in this year’s French Top 14 competition. Paul Michael Glaser played TV’s David Starsky.
A second connection is that Clermont are sponsored by Renault, who used to make a Grand Torino Routier (below left) and Starsky drove a Ford Grand Torino (below right) with partner Hutch in the TV series.That said, the models by Renault and Ford look nothing like each other.

There are 2 other somewhat distant connection atreams between Brock James and Paul Michael Glaser. They are in the vain of ’6 Degrees of Separation’ but interesting all the same.

Red Connection Stream

Brock James and Taranaki
Before moving to Clermont in France, James played rugby for the Perth-based Western Force. He was forced to head back to Australia to play Super12 rugby after the NZ Rugby Union denied James the opportunity to play for a New Zealand franchise in the (then) Super12 competition.

In 2004, James was playing for Taranaki in the New Zealand’s provincial competition, the NPC. He had a record-breaking season (most points in a game, most conversions in a game, most conversions in a season) that culminated in him being named Taranaki’s player of the year.

Taranaki and Tom Cruise
In 2003, Tom Cruise was also in New Zealand, filming the movie the Last Samurai, which was set in the Uruti Valley in the Taranaki region.


The Last Samurai

Originally uploaded by michaelrudowski

Tom Cruise and Paul Michael Glaser
Tom Cruise was a prominent supporter of the Pediatric Aids Foundation – a charity established by Paul Michael Glaser in 1988 after his daughter tragically died of AIDs after contracting HIV from Glaser’s wife, who herself contracted the disease from a blood transfusion 7 years earlier.

Blue Connection Stream
Paul Michael Glaser and Clint Eastwood
The character of Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson in the 70′s show, Starsky and Hutch was played by David Soul.

David Soul played the character of Officer John Davis in the 1973 ‘Dirty Harry’ movie, Magnum Force (starring Clint Eastwood).

Magnum Force

Originally uploaded by Cedric Dausse

Clint Eastwood and the Wellington Hurricanes
Clint Eastwood directed the movie, The Human Factor, a movie set in South Africa during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

The character of Jonah Lomu is played by Isaac (Zak) Feaunati.

Feaunati came to prominence in the Hurricanes first seasonsof teh new professiona Super12 rugby competition 1996-7.

Wellington Hurricanes and Brock James
After his stellar season with the Taranaki NPC rugby team, Brock James was wanted by the Wellington Hurricanes for the following (2005) Super12 season by coach Colin Cooper.

But Cooper needed the NZRFU’s permission because players not available for the All Blacks required a dispensation. James had played Sevens for Australia and so was ineligible. Unfortunately the dispensation was not granted and so James headed back to Australia where he got his chance with the Western Force under ex-All Black coach, John Mitchell.

The exception precedent had been set when French prop, Christian Califano had played for the Auckland Blues in the 2002 season. Califano’s dispensation was granted because of the drastic shortage of props in the New Zealand game at the time.

Brock James was not seen in the same light.