Rhys Meyers takes charity lead role

HOLLYWOOD heart-throb Jonathan Rhys Meyers took on a new role yesterday — as ambassador for the Hope Foundation.

The Tudors star, who picked up an Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) on Sunday for his role in the bodice-ripping period drama, said he will use his celebrity to raise the profile of the Irish charity, which works with the street children of Kolkata in India.

Fresh from the post-IFTA’s bash, he told star-struck students in Dublin that he plans to visit Kolkata later in the year to witness first-hand the foundation’s work and the appalling conditions in which the city’s estimated 200,000 street children live.