HOLLYWOOD superstar Russell Crowe has been busy getting to know and winning the hearts of the St Helens public in recent weeks.

And one young budding actor got the chance to meet the film star face-to-face.

Josh Hankey, from Newton-le-Willows, won a competition organised by Saints to attend an exclusive premiere of the A-lister’s latest film The Water Diviner.

Josh is currently studying musical theatre at Manchester College and hopes one day to make a career out of performing on the stage.

So it was a dream come true when he got to attend the premiere screening with Crowe, who was in St Helens earlier this year to watch the South Sydney rugby league club he co-owns defeat Saints.

“It was me and my dad who went down on the day,” said Josh, 17.

“I got to talk to him after the premiere. I’ve played rugby at Newton and at Saints so I spoke to him about that!”

And with Josh preparing to reprise one of Russell Crowe’s most famous roles on the stage, he was able to take some valuable advice from the star.

“It’s my ambition to be on the stage and I’m playing Javert in Les Miserables at the Oldham Coliseum in June which is the part he played in the film so he gave me some advice on how to perform the role.”

Josh will appear in the budget youth production of Les Miserables along with his younger brother Jake, who recently earned a part in the National Youth Music Theatre’s production of Sweet Charity.

Meanwhile, Crowe, who delighted fans by posing for pictures and signing autographs during the visit to Langtree park, showed his apparent affection for St Helens once again, by doubling the money raised from a t-shirt auctioned for Comic Relief by Johnny Vegas.

The Thatto Heath comedian sold a specially-made top which made reference to the film star’s recent visit to the town.

The shirt, which Vegas wore on The Graham Norton Show’s Comic Relief edition, quoted the headline ‘The Oscars? Nah, I’d rather be in St Helens’ which featured in the Daily Mirror ahead of Crowe’s visit for the World Club Challenge.

An auction took place on e-Bay attracted a highest bid of £1,650.

Vegas tweeted that Crowe had offered to match the amount taking the total raised to £3,300.

He said: “Folks please give it up for Mr Russell Crowe who's offered to match the £'s paid for our t-shirt raffle taking it to £3,300 for Comic Relief”.