Hollywood hunk Hugh Jackman takes Aussie love story global

t was meant to be a romantic video message just for his wife, but cancer-stricken Kristian Anderson�s four-minute tribute, starring Hollywood heart-throb Hugh Jackman, has become a global phenomenon.

Anderson, who was last year diagnosed with bowel and liver cancer, contacted the �Wolverine� star via an Australian radio host and within three days had an email from the actor�s assistant containing a video clip, he said.

Jackman appears in the video to tell Anderson's wife of seven years: �He loves you Rachel, he loves you�.

�Hugh Jackman certainly gave the clip some Hollywood glamour,� Anderson, 35, told Australian magazine Woman�s Day published today.

�It�s certainly taken its popularity to a whole new level.�

Jackman�s unlikely co-star in the touching video, which has been viewed some 295,000 times on the Vimeo website is New Zealand Prime Minister John Key who introduces the video with a birthday message to Rachel.

�I wanted someone from New Zealand, where Rachel was born, to be in the video and I thought �Who better than the guy who runs the place?�� Anderson explained to the magazine.

Rachel said she did a �double take� on seeing Jackman addressing her onscreen, but it was seeing her two sons Cody, three, and Jakob, two, with their father in the video which made her cry.

�I was blown away,� she told the magazine.

�I was gobsmacked when John Key and Hugh Jackman appeared. It�s a good thing I was sitting down, I was like, �Oh my goodness that�s Hugh Jackman�.�

Anderson, who in the video holds handwritten cards in which he thanks his wife for her support as he undergoes chemotherapy, said he decided on the format because he didn�t think he could do justice to his feelings in words.

He said he was inspired by one of the couple�s favourite films �Love Actually� in which a heartsick character tells a woman he loves her via placards.

In Anderson�s video, one of these cards reads: �Without you... Life just doesn�t work. I need you like I need a cure for cancer.�

Anderson�s blog has been inundated with messages of support from around the world since the mini movie was posted.

�I only ever put Rachel�s video on the web in order to share it with our friends and family,� he wrote.

�They live so far away and I wanted them to be able to share in Rachel�s birthday in some small way. But then it got a little crazy and, well, here we are. I have no words to thank you for your support. I�m really at a loss.�