IAN CLARKE She's a young model turned actress with a role in one of the big summer Hollywood blockbusters and prospects of a glittering showbiz career. But there's really no place like home for Kerri Parker.

IAN CLARKE

By IAN CLARKE

She's a young model turned actress with a role in one of the big summer Hollywood blockbusters and prospects of a glittering showbiz career.

But far from yearning to live among the bright lights of London or New York and staying in plush hotels, there's really no place like home for Kerri Parker.

And a cuddle with her beloved pug puppy Arnie in her Norwich home is the perfect end to a hectic day on the film set for the rising starlet.

“I really love Norwich. I have travelled all over the UK but I love this place and the people and there is nowhere else I'd rather live. I can't get enough work her and need to go to London but I will always come back,” Kerri told the EDP as she spoke of the amazing rise and rise of her fledgling acting career.

The 23-year-old casually talks about bumping into Hollywood star Matt Damon during filming for the newly- released The Bourne Ultimatum and goes on to reveal parts she has in new movies featuring celebrities such as Kirsten Dunst and Andie MacDowell as well as being in discussions to be in a soap opera starring Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon.

Kerri - who was born in Norwich and returned to the city after a spell living in Mattishall, near Dereham - is becoming instantly recognised as she goes out and about in the city, and can have up to 100 people pointing her out.

However, she quickly stresses: “I do not think I'm a celebrity and I don't think I'm anything special” and turns the attention to talking about Arnie's first birthday, which was yesterday.

“I love him to bits and he is my baby. It is so nice when I come in from a day's filming and he is wagging his tail and wants a cuddle! I am trying to get him into films and he does lots of tricks!”

“Even if the companies offer me a hotel room and I would not get back until 4am, I will come back to Norfolk.”

Kerri's success in acting is despite her self-confessed hatred of drama when she was at school and the path she is now on has been built on four years in glamour modelling.

She first made a name for herself through the High Street Honeys competition in lads' mag FHM and followed it up by winning the Max Power Babe of The Year.

Kerri has now had enough of the “page three” type work and has set her sights on work on the small screen and big screen - alongside doing a degree in criminal psychology.

“I might like to do criminal profiling,” said Kerri, who is undertaking distance learning through the University of East London.

While that may be a longer term career, she is making the most of her current acting opportunities and filmgoers watching the Bourne Ultimatum will get a few seconds' glimpse of her as she plays a CIA surveillance officer.

Kerri's role as a medic in Norwich TA presented that opening as producers were looking for people with military experience and it was getting lost on the film set at Pinewood Studios which brought her face to face with Damon.

“I was not filming on his set but I got lost and wandered on to his. He said 'hi honey you look lost!'

Kerri added: “He was shorter than I thought, but really fit! He was lovely.”

She also had “a good gossip” with Damon's co-star, Julia Stiles.

“You get treated so well by the film companies and the big name actors and actresses. Most of them are so down to earth and they say you are one of them.”

The blonde actress is currently single and admits “she has not got time” for a relationship. She said most men she sees when she is out are “too shy” to chat her up.

Kerri got a first glimpse of herself in the Bourne Ultimatum while she was out at the cinema with a friend and naturally both were excited to see the clip - even though another member of the audience was somewhat impatient with them.

“My friend said 'There you are!' when she saw me in the film and a bloke near us told us to shut up'!”

Kerri added: “It is amazing at the moment. I am totally going away from the page three image and trying to do serious acting.”

On Saturday she started filming in London for Art In Las Vegas, which stars Four Weddings and A Funeral actress MacDowell and is set to be a big hit next year.

“Fingers crossed I will get a trip to Las Vegas!” she joked.

Kerri also has a walk-on part in How To Lose Friends and Alienate People - which features Dunst and Gillian Anderson - as well as in various TV commercials.