Nicole Kidman to receive special honour at New York Film Festival

Karachi: The Oscar-winning Actress, Nicole Kidman is set to be honoured with a gala tribute during the 50th Annual New York Film Festival on October 3rd, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced.

Kidman will be the festival's first honoree at an Alice Tully Hall event that will include an onstage conversation as well as a screening of Lee Daniels' “The Paperboy.”

The film “The Paperboy” has also been scheduled to the festival's slate. It is directed by Lee Daniels and stars Kidman, Zac Efron, John Cusack and Matthew McConaughey.

Program Director Richard Pena, who will also be feted during the 17-day event, says, “Nicole Kidman is one of film's finest contemporary actresses. Since her breakthrough performance in To Die For and her bold and provocative appearances in Lars Von Trier's Dogville, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, as well as her awarding-winning portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, Kidman has insisted on finding roles that are complex, bold and demanding.”

“We are excited to honor her with a tribute at the New York Film Festival,” Pena further added.

Kidman will be honoured with gala tribute on October 3rd, with the Pena event following on October 10th. The festival continues September 28th through October 14th.

Tables Turned on Tom: Katie Holmes Shocks Him Like He Surprised Nicole Kidman

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

For Tom Cruise, the shoe is finally on the other foot.

Cruise's publicist said the actor was "deeply saddened" by Katie Holmes' divorce filing this week, and a source close to the "Rock of Ages" star told ABC News that Holmes' decision came as a "complete surprise."

33 The Magic Number For Cruise?

Curiously all of Cruise's marriages ended when his ex-wives were 33 years old.

The previous times Cruise has gotten divorced, he was in control. He filed for divorce from actress Mimi Rogers in January 1990 after three years of marriage. She seemed to get over it quickly. In October 1990, she told the Associated Press, "As far as I know, we're divorced, but I've been so busy on this new film that I haven't had time to check, so I'm not sure. I bet that sounds pretty silly, huh?"

Later on, she seemed to loathe the fact that she was ever married to the mega movie star.

''[I'm] waiting for the moment when I don't have to talk about that [blankety-blank] name anymore," she told People magazine in 1995.

Cruise filed for divorce from his second wife, Nicole Kidman, in February 2001 after she miscarried their baby (they had previously adopted two children). He dropped the bomb less than two months after they renewed their vows on their 10-year anniversary, Christmas Eve 2000.

Kidman broke down on Oprah Winfrey's talk show in May 2001, calling the situation a "nightmare."

"I think that divorce is hard for anyone. It's a nightmare, it just is, and you can pretend you're fine," she said. "And days you're great [and] days you're not great."

In a written response to a divorce petition filed by Cruise on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, Kidman said she was stunned when he told her that he no longer wanted to be married, and allegedly begged him to stay and seek marriage counseling. He refused and left for good, according to her response.

When asked by Winfrey whether she thought she would always be married, Kidman timidly replied, "Yeah."

"I've had a blessed life," she said. "I've always thought [if] something bad is going to happen, something bad is going to happen. But then something really bad happened. A number of really bad things happened. You go, 'I'm dealing with it. I'm stronger than I thought.'"

Kidman is now happily married to country singer Keith Urban. They have two children together.

Given how adoringly Cruise has spoken about Holmes throughout their relationship -- he told the May issue of Playboy, "I'm just happy, and I have been since the moment I met her" -- he may take a while to get back to his eccentric, couch-jumping self. But the last time this happened, his first ex-wife voiced her confidence in Mr. Mission Impossible's ability to rebound.

"Tom is very strong -- he handles stress," Rogers told People magazine in 2001. "He's human. He has a temper. He blows up sometimes, whatever, but it's not like he can't deal with it."


By SHEILA MARIKAR (@SheilaYM)

You gotta have Faith: Nicole Kidman clutches her baby girl as they celebrate her big sister Sunday Rose's third birthday

Motherhood: Nicole carries baby Faith as they arrive at her parent's house

She may have millions in the bank and be part of the A-list elite, but Nicole Kidman looked like any other ordinary mum as she celebrated her daughter's third birthday.

The Australian actress clutched newborn Faith Margaret as they headed to Nicole's parents' house for Sunday Rose's big day.

Dressed plainly in a grey turtleneck sweater, the Academy Award-winner looked happy and carefree as she ditched her usual red carpet glamour.

Celebrating: Nicole's parents throw a party for three-year-old Sunday Rose

While she had taken the time to apply some make-up, Nicole's hair looked a little scruffy as if she had just swept it back in a ponytail after waking up.

Her six-month-old daughter was armed with a pink bow and bib to match, baring her name on it too.

Little Faith was born last December through a surrogate mother, with Nicole and husband Keith Urban, 43, the biological parents.

The Moulin Rouge! beauty arrived in Oz on Tuesday for a week of celebrations.

While she turned 44 last Monday, it is also her fifth wedding anniversary tomorrow and Sunday's special milestone too.

 

Despite early festivities yesterday, in which a big birthday banner was hung, Sunday doesn't actually turn three until July 7.

Nicole also has two adopted children, Isabella, 18, and Connor, 16, with ex Tom Cruise.

Caught out: Nicole appears to be snacking on some birthday treats

Movie Review of Rabbit Hole

Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Screenwriter: David Lindsay-Abaire
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Sandra Oh, Jon Tenney, Dianne Wiest
Running time: 92 mins
Certificate: 12A

Nicole Kidman falls into a downward spiral in Rabbit Hole, though in career terms, it's anything but. She may already have proven her ability to do abject misery in The Hours (thank you, Oscar), The Human Stain, Birth, Fur and Margot At The Wedding, but in this adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, she secures her right to that thorny crown (and possibly another Oscar) as a mother grieving the loss of her child. Add to that a crumbling marriage and broken family ties and life can't get much darker. Mercifully, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Everything appears to be in order at the start as Becca (Kidman) and husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart) go about their daily routine in sunny suburbia. But there is an undercurrent of tension. Becca has a touch of the Stepford Wife about her, tied in apron strings, appearing to do her duty and yet barely responsive to Howie's touch. The elephant in the room is not addressed, even at the point when they resolve to attend a support group for grieving parents. Kidman also dares to be controversial, challenging one mother who uses religion to make sense of her loss.

Meanwhile, Becca's carefree sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard) is afraid to mention she's pregnant leaving mother Nat (Dianne Wiest) to negotiate the peace. Wiest is brilliant in this role, breaking the tension for us while ramping it up for Becca - plastering on a smile and making preconceived chitchat, hoping that her daughter will share her feelings. Of course, it has the opposite effect. You can sense Kidman building a head of steam. She nearly blows a gasket when Howie turns down the lights and turns up an Al Green CD. It's so discomforting to watch Becca squirming at the thought of intimacy that you may just miss the comedy of the moment.

There's more nauseating humour, most memorably when Howie shows his dead son's bedroom to prospective house buyers while his realtor cringes behind him. Eckhart is on top form, clinging to dignity by the barest thread. Such moments are sharply observed by director John Cameron Mitchell (who favours edgy comedy in films like Hedwig And The Angry Inch), but the uncertainty over whether to laugh or cry is also a weakness at times. He keeps us removed at the start, waiting for us to fill in the blanks and drawing us in that way. But after the truth is revealed, it's as if we're pulled away again, invited to look at this picture from a different angle.

The script also intellectualises the quest for meaning, which can be distracting. Becca states her position on God emphatically, more than once. Meanwhile, she is meeting in secret with the teenager who accidentally ran down her son (a startlingly mature performance from Miles Teller) in hope of finding some answers. He offers her the 'Rabbit Hole' theory, the notion of infinite worlds where her son might still be living and he illustrates this in a comic book. He makes it a gift, but the idea and the gesture feels calculated. What's more important is that a collision course is set, forcing the characters to tell their own truths. The actors don't flinch from the task and there is hope at the end, though it may feel like small reward after so much digging.

Kidman emotionally damaged after split from Cruise

London, Feb 3 – Actress Nicole Kidman, who has two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise, says her split from him in 2001 had left her emotionally damaged.

Kidman separated from the Hollywood star after 10 years of marriage.

‘We were very, very tight and that’s why we lasted 10 years which is a good amount of time, particularly when you get married at 23. That was a great relationship. I think it ran its course,’ contactmusic.com quoted her as saying.

She now lives away from the spotlight in Nashville with husband Keith Urban and their two daughters. But the actress claims she often felt forced into being a celebrity during her marriage to Cruise.

‘You don’t think of yourself like that. I knew he was a really big star, but after a while, to get to a real place in a relationship, that has to wear off.’

‘As a couple we were very private. I was never seeking to be a celebrity, but I was prepared to do that for love.’ 

IANS