Converting a Date object to a calendar object [duplicate]

So I get a date attribute from an incoming object in the form:

Tue May 24 05:05:16 EDT 2011

I am writing a simple helper method to convert it to a calendar method, I was using the following code:

    public static Calendar DateToCalendar(Date date ) 
{ 
 Calendar cal = null;
 try {   
  DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd");
  date = (Date)formatter.parse(date.toString()); 
  cal=Calendar.getInstance();
  cal.setTime(date);
  }
  catch (ParseException e)
  {
      System.out.println("Exception :"+e);  
  }  
  return cal;
 }

To simulate the incoming object I am just assigning the values within the code currently using:

private Date m_lastActivityDate = new Date();

However this is givin me a null pointer once the method reaches:

date = (Date)formatter.parse(date.toString());