Keisha and the cheetah
The Dominion Post
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Teenage actress Keisha Castle-Hughes went from riding whales to petting cheetahs.
The 18-year-old movie star and her partner Bradley Hull, 21, took their 14-month-old daughter, Felicity-Amore Hull, to meet cheetahs Delta and Charlie at Wellington Zoo on Saturday.
"Basically the cheetahs sit on a log and visitors pat them and pick up their tails if they want," a zoo spokeswoman said. "It's a really good way to get up close to an endangered animal."
Though Castle-Hughes declined to comment on the visit, zoo staff said she and her family enjoyed it.
Castle-Hughes was just 13 when she was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her role in the 2003 film Whale Rider, making her the youngest nominee.
Since then, the rising star of the silver screen has courted controversy, becoming pregnant at 16 - at the same time as she was named to play the Virgin Mary in The Nativity Story.
She was most recently in the public eye when she went partying at Auckland's Pony Club on June 15, the night the English rugby team were there after their first-test defeat to the All Blacks.
Castle-Hughes' latest movie, an adaptation of the Elizabeth Knox novel The Vintner's Luck, is in post production and due out next year.
Set in 19th century France, it revolves around a peasant winemaker searching for the perfect vintage.
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Though this experience (patting the cheetah's at Wellington Zoo) is one of the most exciting things I have done myself, I was a little amazed that Keisha's 14 month old child was photographed patting Charlie also. What is the Wellington Zoo doing, why did they drop their rules and regulations regarding the age limit of people able to partake in this wonderful experience.
Or having started in a few movies you are entitled to endanger your child's life - or the life of the cheetah - because if the cheetah had got spooked by the child and lashed out - then he would probably not be around any more to please the public.