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Kidman stays calm as Oscar fever sweeps Australia
2003-03-22
CANBERRA, Australia - As Oscar fever grips Australia, Nicole Kidman is refusing to be swept away by expectation that she will be the first Australian to win the coveted Academy Award for best female actress.The flame-haired actress is seen as the favorite to win the top female award Sunday for playing troubled writer Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" after already winning Britain's BAFTA best actress gong and a Golden Globe. Australians, full of praise for their leading lady, have gone into Kidman-overdrive, with the actress splashed across the front page of almost all women's and celebrity magazines on newsstands and tabloid newspapers tagging her every move. A betting agency has handled a flurry of gamblers expecting Kidman to be first past the post and online auction site eBay has reported a rush of Kidman items available as demand rises with more than 900 items now listed. But Kidman, who just missed out on a Oscar last year for the musical "Moulin Rouge," is not confident she will be taking the golden statuette home, saying she takes nothing for granted. "I would never gamble on myself so I don't know, I really don't know," Kidman told reporters recently when asked how she rated her chances. "There's a strong category of women this year nominated and it is just lovely to be nominated." Although 35-year-old Kidman is staying calm about the awards, her fellow countrymen are revelling in her Tinseltown fame because few Australians ever reach Hollywood's dizzy A-list. BETTING RACE The false nose she donned to become Virginia Woolf has, for once, stolen the headlines from Australia's other top celebrity asset -- Pop Princess Kylie Minogue's much-lauded bottom. A float in Sydney's colorful Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade last month even dedicated a whole float to "Nic's honker," with about 15 drag queens in Woolf dresses with cardboard noses. The Alice Springs-based Centrebet agency said Kidman was easy favorite for the Oscars with Australian and overseas gamblers so far putting A$300,000 ($180,000) on the awards. "Kidman is a very popular girl right now, in this country and with punters overseas," Centrebet's Gerard Daffy told Reuters. John Clark, director at Australia's prestigious drama school, the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), said a win for Kidman would be deserved and a national victory. "It would inspire everyone to greater confidence in our own skills and own ability as we're a country that has for many years endured a cultural cringe," Clark told Reuters. PERSONAL STRUGGLES Born in Honolulu where her father, a biochemist, was studying for a time, Kidman was raised in Sydney. She began acting as a teen-ager, landing roles in several Australian films, but it was a 1986 television miniseries, "Vietnam," that made her a star at home and she hit international attention in the 1989 thriller "Dead Calm" with Billy Zane. But she ascended to Hollywood royalty in 1990 when she married megastar Tom Cruise, with the glamorous pair becoming one of Hollywood's most visible couples, adopting two children, Isabella and Connor, along the way. However their 11-year marriage ended bitterly two years ago when Cruise dumped Kidman for his "Vanilla Sky" co-star Penelope Cruz, with the break-up and Kidman's subsequent miscarriage played and replayed in excruciating detail in the gossip pages. This has made Kidman wary about people prying into her private life. Dodging questions about her love life, Kidman said her mother Janelle and father Anthony would be her dates on Oscar night when she'll wear a dress designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. But despite the personal rollercoaster, Kidman's Hollywood career has flourished over the past few years on the back of a string of hits, with the actress praised for her roles in Moulin Rouge (2001), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Batman Forever (1995). This year she became only the fourth Australian to be honored with a star on the Hollywood's prestigious Walk of Fame and is now one of Hollywood's highest-paid women. She is reportedly receiving US$25 million for a new spy drama with Brad Pitt, "Mr and Mrs Smith," in which they play a married couple who are assassins hired to kill each other. Kidman's new movie, "The Human Stain," with Anthony Hopkins, will be released soon. She has also made "Dogville" by director Lars von Trier and "Cold Mountain" with British actor Jude Law. Reuters
Director Crowe looks at success, failure in new film (2005-10-13)Cruise loses PR wars as Pitt stays on message (2005-06-12)Kidman stays calm as Oscar fever sweeps Australia (2003-03-22)9 (10048)
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