Forbes – Slumped in white oversize chairs in an enormous suite at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, Australian casino billionaire James Packer and Hollywood movie director Brett Ratner are exhausted. They look like two hungover frat boys after a hard night—but these guys haven’t been partying. They’re jet-lagged after visiting Russell Crowe’s film set in South Australia, watching Chinese tennis star Li Na win the women’s Australian Open in Melbourne and toe-touching in the Philippines to open Asia’s first Nobu restaurant at a new casino resort in Manila.
It sounds like a pleasure cruise from Packer’s earlier life as the polo-playing, jet-setting “Jamie”, son of the late media mogul Kerry Packer. In fact, it’s all business. Li Na is an “ambassador” for Packer’s flagship Crown Casino, which spreads across two city blocks on the banks of Melbourne’s Yarra River. The Manila resort is Packer’s first major casino foray outside of Australia and Macau. And Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner, is financed by Packer and Ratner’s new Los Angeles-based film company, RatPac Entertainment, a Sinatra-inflected portmanteau of the two men’s surnames.
At 46, Packer is finally emerging from his father’s long shadow to come into his own as Australia’s second-richest person, with an estimated fortune of $6.5 billion. Sure, there are remnants of the flashy playboy lifestyle, including supermodel girlfriend Miranda Kerr, whose three-year marriage to English actor Orlando Bloom ended in October. (Packer split from his second wife, pop singer and model Erica Packer, née Baxter, in September, just weeks after the family moved into their Sydney mansion following a reported $35 million renovation.) By and large, however, Packer is increasingly regarded as a serious and successful businessman in his own right. He also has three children, aged 18 months to 5 years, who now live with Erica in Los Angeles, so he’s spending plenty of time on America’s West Coast.
“I had a marriage breakdown last year,” he says, after giving daughter Indigo, 5, a big snuggle before she trots of with her nanny to bed. “The last thing I think I am is perfect. I’m just trying to do the best job I can. I’m trying to be the best father I can to my kids. I’m trying to do the best job I can running my business.”
