Former James Bond title credits girl may inherit billions

A former James Bond title credits girl stands to inherit billions of dollars. She told the story of her 007 work and her new fortune to an Australian news channel.

When Kerry Packer died on Boxing Day, he left his mantle of Australia's richest man to son James. But it is still uncertain whether Packer the Younger will choose to divide his new fortune by taking a new bride, Erica Louise Baxter.

Baxter - who previously dated actors Jason Donovan and Russell Crowe - has been Packer's girlfriend since 2002.
She lives at the steel-and-white palace he built for his first bride, Jodhi Meares, on the beachfront at Sydney's Bondi.

As Packer's de facto wife, Baxter, 28, arguably already has a legal right to a portion of the vast $6.9 billion fortune he is expected to inherit.

She is not yet an official part of the family - despite being one of only six people invited to Packer's private funeral last month - but has already dipped a toe in the family business.

In August, Baxter emerged as a top-20 shareholder in the $630million Challenger Infrastructure Fund, a spin-off from the Packer-controlled Challenger Financial Services Group. Her 0.64 per cent stake, when fully paid, will be worth more than $2million.

Even without financial advice from James, who presumably encouraged her to consider an investment in CIF, she has long proven herself a keen business mind.
Baxter established her first company, Erica Promotions, in 1994, when she was just 16. The company is now called Cheetah B, and Baxter's parents - farmers Michael and Sheelah Baxter of Gunnedah in northern New South Wales - are its sole directors. Baxter owns 50 of the 52 shares, with her parents holding one each.

The company owns no property, but Baxter's earning power is considerable. In modelling terms, she has long been known as an "Evangelista" - which means she doesn't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day, to coin a personal philosophy of the supermodel Linda.

Her corporate clients have included the Sydney Turf Club, who paid an estimated $100,000 to have her work as an ambassador for the Golden Slipper.

Baxter, however, has not been modelling lately. For the past few weeks, she has been supporting James as he steps up to the helm of his father's empire.

Before Christmas, she spent several extremely long days in the NSW Supreme Court, sometimes accompanied by James's mother, Ros Packer, while her beau gave evidence at the One.Tel hearing.

Observers commented on Baxter's discretion, poise and expensive apparel (on one memorable day, she wore an $8000 Chloe suit). She never looked bored or exasperated, and declined to speak to the media.

Some suggested these were the perfect qualities for a Packer wife. Indeed, she is in many ways similar to the attractive, polished country girl named Ros Weedon, a doctor's daughter from rural Wagga Wagga in NSW, who married Kerry Packer.

But there is a fun side to Baxter, too. In 1999, she landed a role in the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough as one of the silhouetted nude girls, cavorting during the credits.

Baxter dines out on the story of how she turned up for the audition, not knowing she should have worn a bikini. The casting agent told her to strip, but she was wearing only a G-string and a bra. Like a trouper, she cast off her kit, and began to dance around.

It was embarrassing but, as Baxter - who was then a struggling model - likes to tell people, she just closed her eyes and kept telling herself: "Think of the money, think of the money!"

Baxter has earned her own keep since she was a teenager. She was raised on a small property in Gunnedah before being sent to board, aged 11, at the exclusive Abbotsleigh school for girls in Wahroonga on Sydney's upper north shore.

She was known as "Kermie" because, she says, she had "stick legs and a big mouth and looked like a frog". In a twist, the frog would soon be living the fairytale life.

Baxter was just 15 when a scout from Priscilla's model agency spotted her at North Sydney train station.

Soon after, she dropped out of school to model. Her first job was for Dolly magazine, which, by chance, is published by the Packers' Australian Consolidated Press.

At 17, she met Jason Donovan - then a teen heart-throb, and star of Neighbours - at a Bondi cafe and fell madly in love.

They moved to London, where he became a drug addict. A distressed Baxter quit the relationship soon after Donovan collapsed one day, back in Australia, while buying takeaway pasta in Bondi.

In one of her first interviews after that event, she said there were "a lot of drugs around" in London, but she was upset that people thought she was "some sort of drug-addict junkie who can't get out of bed".

Soon afterwards, Baxter met Russell Crowe in the first-class cabin of a flight from Los Angeles to London.

"We were both Aussies, so we were in the same Customs queue," she said.

Baxter had a copy of Robert Hughes's The Fatal Shore under her arm, and Crowe asked how she was enjoying it.

They dated for six months. Pictures of them canoodling appeared in US magazine Globe.

Baxter was Crowe's guest when Gladiator opened in Rome.

Crowe left Baxter for Meg Ryan but Baxter, who friends describe as the "eternal optimist", wasn't too heartbroken. "It was fun while it lasted," she shrugs.

In 2001, Baxter was photographed while bathing topless off the Thai island of Phuket with royal playboy Prince Andrew. The pictures were splashed across the English tabloids, but Baxter denied a fling.

A male model, who was on the books with her at Priscilla's at the time, said: "She's the nicest, sweetest, kindest person you will ever meet.

"Sunbaking topless? Big deal. She's got nothing to hide. She's never done anything that'll come back to haunt her."

Baxter followed other model girlfriends of Packer: Australians Kate Fischer and Meares and American Jennifer Flavin - now wife of Sylvester Stallone.

Baxter has long harboured musical ambitions. In 2001, she released a dance track called Dreams. She was proud of the fact she wrote the lyrics, which reveal her playful side. They include the lines: "I believe you're all I wanted,
You're all I need,
Come on baby, make love to me,
I will make your dreams reality,
I will fulfil your every fantasy, oh, oh, yeah."

The track reached No2. on the dance charts in Bulgaria.

One reviewer said Baxter "almost single-handedly destroys this otherwise massive trance tune".

But, on Sanity.com, where the record is still for sale for $7, another reviewer says the song "soars with the beautiful female vocals of Aussie supermodel Erica Baxter".

Like James, Baxter has dabbled in Scientology, and occasionally visits the sect's headquarters in Glebe in Sydney's inner west.

Baxter made her first public appearance as James's girlfriend, at a fundraising event in November 2002, just a year after his marriage to Meares ended.

When Kerry was dying, Baxter was on a yacht with James, near the Maldives, returning home with him for the intimate funeral.

Despite the mixed reviews for her first musical outing, Baxter continues to pursue a career in the industry.

Before Kerry's death, Baxter had spent three months putting "finishing touches" on her debut solo album. She is working with a 27-year-old producer and songwriter named Audius, who comes from Zimbabwe.

The dreadlocked Audius - who co-wrote the bestselling Born to Try with Delta Goodrem - said Baxter was very talented, and beautiful.

"That goes without saying," he said. "And she didn't want to leave the studio. I'd have to say, 'OK, we're done', but she was dedicated."

Audius said Baxter had "no delusions of grandeur".

"A lot of people go into music thinking, 'I want to be famous, or I want to be rich'. She wasn't like that. She didn't try to do things she wasn't capable of. She was into the music."

In another curious twist, if Packer does marry Baxter, it won't be the first time she has been to his wedding.

In 1999, Baxter was a guest at Packer's wedding to Meares.

She accompanied one of his groomsmen, 42-year-old father of two Damian Aspinall, the son of the late John Aspinall, who owned private zoos in London.

Aspinall and Packer are business partners in the London-based gambling company, Aspers, which is planning to spend $1.2 billion on 16 casinos across Britain.

At the time of the wedding, Baxter and Meares were close friends. They modelled at Priscilla's, and Baxter has worn Tigerlily brand bikinis for Meares, who owns the range.

The friendship cooled when Baxter moved into the home that Packer and Meares shared, when they were husband and wife. Last year, there were reports that Meares refused to attend a Myer fashion show after hearing that Baxter was in the audience.

It is well known that Meares refuses to discuss her marriage to Packer, even with friends. Less well known is that she won't talk about Baxter, either.

"You just don't go there," said a modelling friend.

"It's bitter, bitter, bitter."

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