Special / Boy bullied over his name Corona, Tom Hanks sends Corona brand typewriter to him

Canberra: Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an Australian boy who wrote to him about being bullied about his name, Corona.

Corona De Vries, an eight-year-old from the Gold Coast in Queensland, wrote to the Hollywood star after the actor and his wife, Rita Wilson, spent more than two weeks in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.

The boy wrote to Hanks saying: “I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus,” Channel Seven reported. “Are you OK?”

He said he loved his name but people at school called him the coronavirus, which made him “sad and angry”.

“Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful!” Hanks replied in a letter typed on a Corona typewriter which he had taken to the Gold Coast.

“You know, you are the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona – like the ring around the sun, a crown,” the double Oscar winner wrote to the boy.

“I thought this typewriter would suit you,” an image of the letter showed. “Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back.”

Hanks hand wrote at the end: “P.S. You got a friend in ME!”