Nicole Kidman said 'Catherine Olim was a loyal Publicist and like a big sister to her.'

Nicole Kidman and Catherine Olim have had a positive long standing respectful business relationship that has also included sincere mutual affection for each other as working mothers and friends.

When I read that there was a possible parting of the business relationship between Nicole Kidman and her long time US Publicist, Catherine Olim, I instantly thought, oh know poor Catherine and Nicole.


Yes, it happened without fail the nasty negative comments began to flow forward.

Why would any Celebrity Publicist not want to eventually spend less time at work and not more quality time with their husband, family, friends, relatives and possibly even cut down their own personal work load and make life less stressful.

It is important to remember that there is a serious financial crisis hitting the USA and the Entertainment Movie making industry has been directly affected by this worldwide.

Nicole Kidman splits from longtime agent

Kidman has dropped Catherine Olim of the influential PMK/HBH agency, her high-profile publicist of 15 years.

The upheaval has prompted an avalanche of speculation about the move.

The sudden split between the two has already set tongues wagging in the US - with reports that Olim has been a key factor in Kidman's success during recent years.

Gallery: Nicole Kidman

"For years Catherine gave her all to this woman, including orchestrating Kidman's victorious Oscar campaign during her heyday and was slavishly devoted to her," an insider told US film world website Nikki Kinke's Deadline Hollywood Daily.

"Now that the bloom is off Kidman's career, Olim got thrown to the ground," the insider said.

While Kidman collected one Oscar for Best Actress for her role as novelist Virginia Woolf in The Hours in 2002, and although prolific in the years since, her career has failed to achieve the equivalent critical acclaim.

Olim, who also has Hollywood heavyweights such as Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland on her books, has managed Kidman's public profile since she arrived in the US and started making a name for herself as an actress who at the time just happened to be Tom Cruise's wife.

With 28 films to her name, Kidman became a major player in Hollywood - her profile rising to even greater heights in the early part of this decade after her divorce from Cruise in 2000.

Yet in recent years Kidman, who remains a great earner, has struggled to maintain her high profile in the competitive US movie scene and has now moved on to another high-profile player in agent Leslee Dart at 42West.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman Celebrate Sunday's First Year

Keith Urban recently appeared in a new video, but you won't see it here on The Boot, GAC or CMT any time soon. The singer says his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, put together a special home video to celebrate a year in the life of the couple's daughter Sunday Rose, who turned one on July 7.

New Zealand website Stuff reports that the couple celebrated the milestone with a "little cake" at their home in Nashville last week. With their families covering two continents, the couple sent them all a personalized video to mark the occasion.

Keith also reports that Sunday has begun to strongly resemble her mom.

"She has got all Nic's good features," he says. "The eyes are probably like mine but she has got Nic's skin and hair, and long legs."

Keith is continuing his 70-date concert trek across the US, Canada and Australia. Once the tour wraps in Australia on December 19, Keith, Nicole and Sunday plan to celebrate Christmas there with their families.

Oh, and there's no word on whether that video includes footage of Keith dressed as 'Sunshine Bear.'

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's baby turns one

THEY may be multimillionaire entertainers but Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have celebrated daughter Sunday Rose's first birthday in low-key fashion.

The Australian couple marked the milestone with a "little cake" at the family home in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday. With their families spread between Sydney and Caboolture in Queensland, the couple sent them a video to celebrate Sunday Rose's birthday.

"My wife made a beautiful video that covered her first year and we gave that to all the family," Urban said.

Country music star Urban said Sunday Rose was looking increasingly like her mother. "She has got all Nic's good features. The eyes are probably like mine but she has got Nic's skin and hair, and long legs."

Urban is in the middle of a 70-date tour across the US, Canada and Australia. After the tour wraps up in Brisbane on December 19, the couple will return to their rural spread at Sutton Forest in the NSW Southern Highlands to celebrate Christmas with Sunday Rose and their families.

Is Catherine Olim still Nicole Kidman's Publicist?

The senior publicist at PMK/HBH was let go by the actress after 15 years.
That's right, 15 years!
"For years Catherine gave her all including orchestrating Kidman's victorious Oscar campaign during her heydey and was devoted to her,".
A PR source emailed Nikki Finke at http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/pmks-catherine-olim-loses-nicole-kidman/
Hollywood is a tough business." Kidman has moved on to Leslee Dart at 42 West.
Olim still handles Glenn Close, Ed Harris, Donald Sutherland, Legendary Pictures, and others.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY Sunday Rose

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY
SUNDAY ROSE
07 JULY 2009

Baby's First year, my how it's flown
Look how you've changed.
Wow! How you've grown
You've filled the hearts of your Daddy and Mummy with so much joy.
They're so very proud of their little girl.
Wishing an extra Happy Birthday especially to you.

What a little angel!
Happy 1st Birthday Little Sunday.
How amazing how one year has passed already for your Mummy and Daddy.
Australia would love to send there very special 1st birthday wishes.
Hope you had a fun birthday with lots of yummy cake and presents.
What an incredibly lucky little girl to have such special parents as Keith and Nicole.

Many happy returns
God Bless
from
Shellsey
Sydney Australia

PS...... May you have many more!

Keith Urban Brings His ‘Escape Together World Tour’ Home

This coming Australian summer, Keith Urban will bring his "Escape Together World Tour" home to Australia. This two-hour, high-energy concert event, packed with hits, guitar slinging and what has become an Urban concert trademark; the unexpected, will reach the East Coast of Australia on Saturday 12 December and will be the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

The tour starts in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday 12 December, before travelling north to Wollongong's WIN Entertainment Centre on Monday 14 December. Next on the itinerary is Sydney's Entertainment Centre on Wednesday 16 December before finishing up in Keith's home state, performing at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday 18 December. Tickets for the Sydney show go sale through Ticketmaster, and all other shows through Ticketek at 9am on Tuesday 30 June.

Keith Urban's "Escape Together World Tour" began on May 7 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. Since then he has received rave reviews in cities throughout America; “A captivating performance” (Hartford Connecticut’s Courant), “The dude from Australia rocks” (Minneapolis’ Star Tribune), “What makes Urban one of the best live acts in the country, is his ability to connect with the crowds (Green Bay’s Press Gazette), etc.

Fans and critics alike have marveled at Keith’s ability to connect with his audiences. A 3600 square foot stage, which melts into the “floor seats,” certainly helps to afford Urban the ability to simply walk from the stage into the crowd. As a result, Urban has found himself performing from the floor, the first tier seats, as well as walking through the audience to get to a satellite stage located directly opposite from the main stage. In fact he’s appeared in the crowd some three dozen times to date, giving his fans unparallel access to him during the show.

“Our goal every night is to play with the crowd, not at them…we designed the stage to make that possible” said Urban.

No doubt Keith will come ready to play with his Australian fans this December when he'll be performing hits from his extensive repertoire including tracks from his fifth studio release "Defying Gravity". The album, which debuted at number one on the American Billboard chart is certified Gold in Australia after just a nine weeks in the ARIA charts. It has maintained a consistent top 30 position. The gold status of this latest record, which also features the hit single "Kiss A Girl" has helped Keith reach in excess of half a million combined sales of CD's and DVD's in Australia.

Keith's recent tours of Australia have seen him playing sold-out Arena's across the country, headlining the Blues and Roots festivals from East to West coast, jamming on stage with John Fogerty and John Butler and constantly winning over news fans with his electrifying guitar playing and high energy live performances.

For more information please check out www.keithurban.net.au

KEITH URBAN - ESCAPE TOGETHER WORLD TOUR

Hey! It was announced last week that Keith will be returning to Australia in December...and now we have information to share! Monkeyville Pre-Sale Ticketing for all five shows will begin on Tuesday 23 June at 12pm Noon and will end on Thursday 25 June at 10pm. There will be a four (4) ticket limit per member. IMPORTANT: Monkeyville members will receive an email on Sunday with the password and purchase information. Monkeyville members must be logged in to see it. Keith will be making the following stops... December 12 - Melbourne - Rod Laver Arena December 14 - Wollongong - WIN Entertainment Centre December 16 - Sydney - Sydney Entertainment Centre December 18 & 19 - Brisbane - Entertainment Centre

No Regrets

According to director Gail Edwards, actor Marcus Grahama is catnip to an audience.
Photo: Marco del Grande

MARCUS GRAHAM tells a funny story about the moment, many years ago now, when he gave up on Hollywood. It meant, as for any actor, letting go of a big dream and, like any adult, discovering that the dream wasn't what you thought it would be. But in that pivotal moment in Graham's life, he grasped the seeds of something else.

"I've learned that the less the ambition, the greater the happiness," Graham says cheerfully. He's sitting - dressed warmly in a scarf, jeans and sneakers - in a spartan upstairs room at the Newtown church hall that's serving as the rehearsal space for the coming Bell Shakespeare production of Pericles, in which he plays the eponymous hero. He reveals he is recently single, following the end of a relationship in which he had expected to settle down, have children and tend to his vegie patch in the country.

"So now I've moved back to the Cross, on my own. I'm single and 45," he says, with a rather Shakespearean sense of the great cosmic comedy. "I must remind myself not to make plans. I obviously have no control over what's happening … resistance is futile, isn't it? You've just got to roll with it and be who you truly are."

Who that is, according to directors who've worked with him, is a talented, hard-working actor with a taste for physical comedy, an ability to not take himself too seriously and a magnetic stage presence. Certainly the years have been kind to him - he's more handsome now than he was as a young man, with those feline good looks, olive skin and clear, long-lashed eyes. Notable ex-girlfriends include Nicole Kidman (who famously left him for Tom Cruise), Packed To The Rafters star Rebecca Gibney, Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities actress Asher Keddie and Hollywood B-list beauty Claudia Black.

"He's sex on two legs, isn't he?" says director Gale Edwards, who has worked with Graham several times and will direct him with Sacha Horler in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of God Of Carnage later this year. "He's handsome and sexy and he has a twinkle in his eye. He's catnip to an audience, instantly appealing - Marcus is one of those actors they love instantly. I don't know how you define that quality, you certainly don't learn it, it's something you have or you don't have.

"But in addition to that he's a very good actor. As he gets older, he's maturing into an excellent actor. I think he's ready to take on the heavyweight roles, like Pericles."

Graham was not the first choice to play Pericles - Underbelly actor Damian Walshe-Howling, who dropped out to follow his own Hollywood dreams in the sequel to Point Break, was announced first. Graham had been originally considered for the role, the company says, but was unavailable. The stars have since aligned.

Pericles is among the lesser known of Shakespeare's plays, last performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company in 1994. Its wide-ranging, melodramatic storyline bounces from the court of King Antioch throughout the ancient Mediterranean and Asia Minor and involves incest, shipwrecks, tragedies and longed-for reunions.

"This play, particularly, is more an emotional than an intellectual piece," John Bell says. "More a ripping yarn or adventure story. Emotionally, [Graham's] very open and his emotions are very accessible. He has no trouble jumping in the deep end."

The only child of an actor father and a ballerina mother who divorced when he was young, Graham has always been a jobbing actor, busy in theatre, local film and television. His breakthrough role was the wheelchair-bound heart-throb "Wheels" in the early-'90s soap E Street. Its success later led to the more complex character of Elvis Maginnis in Good Guys, Bad Guys, the Melbourne drama series written especially for him. He was in Underbelly and 13 years earlier had a role in Blue Murder.

He's worked a steady run of leads in theatre, including The Blue Room with Sigrid Thornton, the roguish poacher in Irish melodrama The Shaugraun (directed by Edwards) and years earlier donned fishnets and a suspender belt to play Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. Quite recently he took a small role, for kicks, in Edwards's production of Jerry Springer: The Opera. He has conducted acting workshops and masterclasses, is writing a short experimental film script and is developing a "very Gothic" production of Macbeth with Bell's Marion Potts. It is not an obvious nor predictable career path for someone once considered more soap dish than serious actor.

"[E Street] was the first thing I'd ever done so I was branded with that, which freaked me out completely," he says, adding he is still occasionally called "Wheels" in bars. "In one sense it was terrific because it launched me but everyone seemed to have such a concise idea about who I was: this brooding guy. I think that's why I went into Rocky Horror, because it seemed like the antithesis of the public image I'd created. But that was all ego crap, too, such nonsense! I consider myself a character actor, I never thought about developing that movie star persona."

He often points out that his father, Ron Graham, was an actor and probably the biggest influence on his life.

"I viewed him from afar a bit," he says. "I think that isolation of being an only child and having a father who was an actor on the other side of Australia, that impacted [on] me quite a bit and I was quite desperate to find out who my dad was and be like him, I think. To have him notice me or something. Probably about five years' worth of therapy just there!"

It was his father who said if he wanted to act he should study formally at drama school rather than just "trying to wing it".

"That was really good advice," Graham says. "In fact, that's probably why I work in the theatre all the time, because I had good training."

Graham's brief US career saw a small role in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and the lead role in a cable series, set in Miami, called Sins Of The City. It was following that "nonsense" show that Graham had his tragi-comic Hollywood epiphany.

"I had all this money and I moved to LA and I bought an apartment and I was doing all these auditions. I was screen-testing for this stupid television show called Mysterious Ways, right? Great title," he chuckles.

"You do all these auditions for panels of people; each time you go back there's more people. It's Mysterious Ways - he solves crime and is he in touch with other forces or is he a charlatan … blah, blah. Very mysterious. The writers are ringing my agent, saying: 'We love Marcus.' I'm trying to give the writers what they want. The head of the network, he's not sure whether I'm too mysterious or not. And the writers are going: 'Well, yeah, but it's called Mysterious Ways and actually what we were hoping for is someone that's a bit mysterious.' And the head of this network is still not convinced, so he says: 'I'd like to pay Marcus $US10,000 to not take a job for two weeks while I decide whether he is too mysterious or not.'

"So I'm sitting in my apartment in LA going: 'Bloody hell, here I am getting paid all this money to not work, while I wait for a job that I actually don't want. What the f--- am I doing here?' So I took the $US10,000; they decided I actually was too mysterious and I left town."

A period of reckoning followed, during which he felt "a bit down on it all" and thought about quitting acting. Instead - and here's that rule about not making plans - he soon began working harder than ever, especially in theatre. Anyway, he jokes, he can't do anything else. Letting go of the blind ambition of his 20s and 30s made him happier and calmer. Now, he says, he no longer watches his performances on screen - a kind of abandonment he finds liberating.

"I've learnt that it's nothing to do with me," he says, shrugging. "I have to give them raw material and allow them to make it and get out of the way and I think my work's better because of that. Theatre is really the actor's medium … while film is the filmmaker's medium. I used to go in front of the camera and try to control it, like a good little fascist. I've grown out of that. The first Underbelly I did, I've never seen it."

But despite letting go of ego, he still has the drive to act.

"I do feel it can shift or expand people's thinking," he says. "That's what life is all about, the expansion of thought. Otherwise you're just trudging along, waiting for the pizzas to be shot into your letterbox by the armoured cars going by, to quote Bill Hicks. I don't want that world."

Pericles opens at the Sydney Opera House on June 30.God Of Carnage opens at the Sydney Opera House on October 3.

Happy Birthday Nicole

Dear Nicole,

May your life be filled with more heavenscent on your special day.

God Bless
Love Shellsey
Sydney Australia

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Photo: Wild Cockatoo Sunset | My Unique Photos album | Shellsey@Heart2HeartCreations | Fotki.com

Photo: Wild Cockatoo Sunset | My Unique Photos album | Shellsey@Heart2HeartCreations | Fotki.com

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Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban homeward bound

NICOLE Kidman is planning an Australian Christmas this year when she accompanies country singer husband Keith Urban on his tour Down Under in December.

The Grammy-winning country singer confirmed the family would stay in the country for the holidays after his show at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on December 18. It will be 11-month-old daughter Sunday Rose's first Australian tour.

Urban's Escape Together World Tour follows the success of his latest album Defying Gravity, a No.1 hit in the US.

In a candid interview with The Sunday Mail, Caboolture-born Urban revealed he still considered himself a Queenslander, despite his Nashville lifestyle. "I'm a beach guy and I just have a very laid-back attitude to most things, which is very Queensland," he said.

Urban also hinted he will perform a second Brisbane show that is yet to be announced: "We're doing two nights in Brisbane and the guest list is just through the roof."

Keith Urban fills his life with sweet things

KEITH Urban is in a good place. He has a family that keeps him grounded, a No.1 album and is about to start a tour that of where it all started.

It will be 11-month-old Sunday Rose's first tour of Australia.

"I've got a beautiful photo that Nic sent me of Sunday in this nice little hat," her famous father Keith Urban says down the line from New York, where he and mum Nicole Kidman keep an apartment.

"And she's pointing – she has a thing where she points – and she's got a big smile, and Nic put a little caption that read, 'Our first tour, Daddy'. I've got it on the tour bus, it's great."

The country music star, usually based in Nashville, is midway through a tour of the US, following his No.1 album Defying Gravity, and today he announces he will be bringing that tour – and his family – to Australia in December.

Urban, 41, is now in New York, where he has been staying between gigs while Kidman, 42 on Saturday, is shooting the film Rabbit Hole.

It seems the country star isn't the only singer in the house.

"That's my baby in the background," he says proudly. "She's got some serious pipes on her.

"I'm so glad that we called her Sunday," he adds, "because she has such a sunny disposition and she's just very animated and pleasant and curious. We feel immensely blessed to have her."

Urban's relaxed attitude makes it easy to forget he's one of the most famous Australians in the world.

When Defying Gravity debuted at No.1 in the US, he became the third Australian act (after INXS and Men at Work) to achieve the feat.

Since he hooked up with Kidman, his fame has shot to stratospheric levels with paparazzi dodging a regular part of life.

"It definitely was a new way of looking at things," he laughs. "But when you find the one that you're meant to be with, you deal whatever you've got to deal with. And I feel very fortunate to have found the right person regardless of anything, and ultimately we have a really extraordinary life, so I feel very, very blessed."

The jet-setting lifestyle is a long way from performing in shopping centres in Brisbane as a child. Urban has memories of growing up in Queensland, including attending school at East Brisbane, Toowong and Ashgrove before moving to Caboolture when he was 10.

Although he didn't raise a glass to Queensland for the Q150 celebrations (he has been a teetotaller following drugs and alcohol rehabilitation), he's proud to be a Queenslander.

"I totally consider myself a Queenslander," he says. "It's inherent in my attitude and the way I look at things. I'm a beach guy and I just have a very laid-back attitude to most things, which is very Queensland. And I actually think it fits in great with Nashville because it's a very rural state, Queensland, let's face it. And Nashville's the same. Nashville thinks it's a city but it's really a big town."

To remind him of home, Urban keeps Vegemite, Cherry Ripes and Picnics on the tour bus. Having lived in the US since 1992, he's used to straddling two cultures. His favourite Australian expression is "no worries" and he's a fan of the southern US term "y'all".

"I like that the plural of 'y'all' is 'all y'all'," he says laughing.

Urban is in a good place right now – he says he feels "awake" and that's in no small part to the love he feels for his wife and young daughter. The title of his album Defying Gravity is a "spiritual metaphor" and the record is full of songs of love and hope.

"There's a song on the record called If Ever I Could Love, and that song really talks about having the courage to love and that's something that I've learned from my wife," the singer says.

"When I met my wife and we'd been seeing each other for a little while I said 'How's your heart?', and she said 'It's open'. And I thought it was an extraordinary thing to say, but it was a beautiful thing to say."

Urban is looking forward to playing hometown shows in Brisbane, where he says he has the longest guest-list of any on tour.

"I've been doing it for a long time now.

"I think I started in the Westfield Super Juniors in Toombul when I was seven. It seems like another lifetime ago . . . but it seems to continue to get more and more exhilarating performing live. And for something I've been doing for so long to keep unfolding and opening up and yielding new depths to me is just absolutely beautiful, so my family gives me all of that strength and gives me a tremendous balance in my life, so I'm deeply, deeply grateful."

Keith Urban performs at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday, December 18. Tickets go on sale through Ticketek on June 30. The Sunday Mail is giving away a free download of a live version of the song Sweet Thing.

Click here for your download.

Nicole on the Set

How Amazing Does Nicole Look?

Lots of rumours floating around about a possible 2nd pregnancy for Nicole.

I think it is very possible, check the photos out for yourself.

Stars help out

All Saints star Alix Bidstrup was one of many volunteers who helped make the Dreaming Festival at Woodford a memorable experience.

Alix, who lived in Crystal Waters behind Maleny for a number of years, has been a regular visitor to the annual festival but this is the first time she has volunteered.

“Everyone is relaxed and they leave their lives behind, and because everyone is in a really open heart space you have really beautiful connections with people,” Alix said.

“That’s why I really love working at festivals, because you spend more time with people.”

The Dreaming attracted record crowds this year, with about 5000 people through the gates each day.

Executive director Bill Hauritz said ticket sales were up about 30% on last year.

Aboriginal artist and dancer Wiruungga Dunggiirr said seeing the masses enjoy his culture had filled him with warmth and happiness.

“Because when I was growing up they were trying to take us away and lock us away, people weren’t allowed to see Aboriginal culture,” Mr Dunggiirr said.

Mr Dunggiirr, who has performed and taught Aboriginal art across Europe, said indigenous culture had long been appreciated overseas but not in Australia.

“Now they’re starting to get on the bandwagon and see it, but many of the artists are still not recognised,” he said.

“I’m here meeting people and telling people we exist, we ain’t going to go away whether they like it or not.”

Nicole Kidman

NICOLE Kidman did nothing to quell rumours that she may be pregnant when she dropped out of a high-profile role as a presenter at the Broadway Tony Awards at the last minute.

While there was no sign of her at the red carpet event at New York's Radio City Music Hall yesterday, a glowing Kidman was captured emerging from her nearby apartment in a loose white summer dress, revealing just a shadow of a protruding belly, the Daily Telegraph reports

Kidman, who has just started filming her latest feature Rabbit Hole in the city, had been confirmed as one of the star presenters for the Broadway Musical Awards alongside Anne Hathaway and Jane Fonda.'

But she was a no-show at the awards, replaced instead by veteran actress Jessica Lange who presented fellow Australian Geoffrey Rush with the best actor award for his role in Enter The King.

In recent weeks there has been speculation that Kidman, 42, and husband Keith Urban are expecting a sibling for their 11-month-old daughter Sunday Rose.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Broadway crowns Rush its acting king

GEOFFREY RUSH had better rearrange the Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta awards in his knick-knack cabinet to make way for a coveted Tony award.

On Sunday in New York, Rush won the best actor award for his performance as the ailing king in Ionesco's comedy Exit The King.

The production, which played at the Belvoir Street Theatre in 2007, marked his Broadway debut at the Barrymore Theatre in March in a production co-starring Susan Sarandon.

"I want to thank Manhattan audiences for proving that French existential absurdist tragicomedy rocks," Rush told the Radio City Music Hall audience as he accepted the award.

As thousands more watched the ceremony on the big screen in Times Square, Rush said he thought the relatively obscure 1959 comedy would work with New York audiences.

"A friend once said to me they thought seeing the play would be like eating spinach - it would good for you. But I had the feeling Manhattanites would get Ionesco's pithy humour and zingy burlesque sensibility, as well as the emotional undercurrents that sneak up on you."

Rush had been the favourite for the award even though he was competing with the much admired Sopranos star James Gandolfini in Yasmina Reza's comedy God Of Carnage which won the Tony for best play.

Rush found instant fame in the US in 1997 when he won the best actor Oscar for his role in the Australian film Shine.

Four other Australians were nominated for Tonys but did not win.

Dale Ferguson attended the ceremony but missed out for his sets and costumes for Exit The King. Russell Goldsmith was nominated without success for best sound design for the same production. And New York-based Ross Mollison and David Foster were part of the production team nominated for best special theatrical event for Slava's Snowshow but missed out to Liza Minelli's Liza's At The Palace.

Billy Elliot The Musical dominated this year's Tonys, winning 10 awards, including best musical.

Report: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban want to adopt a baby from Vietnam

Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban reportedly want to adopt a baby from Vietnam.

Dang Minh Dao, deputy of the Department of International Adoption at the Ministry of Justice in Hanoi confirmed the story, Britain's Daily Mail reports.

The couple is looking for a sibling for daughter Sunday Rose, who turns one next month. Dao refused to comment on whether they are looking for a boy or girl.

The process is slowed because the U.S. and several other countries will not allow adoptions from Vietnam due to fears of baby trafficking and corruption. Inspections from UNICEF and other organizations could take up to a year before adoptions are allowed again.

Kidman and Urban, both 41, are Australian citizens however, and there are currently no restrictions on adopting from Australia.

Officials would not comment on the application, but Nick Keegan from the Kianh Foundation, that supports the Hoi An Orphanage in Hoi An City, said, "We've heard rumors our orphanage is being considered but we haven't heard any more."

Kidman previously adopted two children during her marriage to Tom Cruise. Isabella, 16, and Connor, 14, live with their father and his wife Katie Holmes.

Kidman has a history of difficulties bearing children. She suffered an etopic pregnancy early in her marriage to Cruise and had a miscarriage around the time he filed for divorce in 2001.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/06/01/2009-06-01_nicole_kidman_and_keith_urban_looking_to_adopt_a_baby_from_vietnam.html#ixzz0HGNii2Q8&B

Indigenous peoples demand more involvement in environment affairs

A United Nations conference on indigenous affairs wrapped up its two-week gathering making a host of recommendations, including the worldwide establishment of a mechanism requiring patent offices to publicize the origins of products derived from indigenous knowledge when exclusive rights to the design are requested.

The Eighth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues also called on States and corporations to involve indigenous people in all negotiations relating to the entry of mining industries, infrastructure projects and other development schemes into their communities.

One of the texts approved by the Forum, a subsidiary of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), called on the international community to ensure the application of culturally relevant, gender-balanced and gender-based analysis and gender budgeting as critical elements of economic and social development, consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Declaration, a landmark text adopted in 2007, outlines the rights of the world's estimated 370 million indigenous people and outlaws discrimination against them. It sets out rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.

The 16-member Forum -- which drew around 2,000 indigenous representatives from all regions of the world, as well as representatives of Member States, civil society, academia, some 35UN entities and other intergovernmental organizations -- approved a provisional agenda for next year, including a half-day discussion on North America.

Cate Blanchett urges business leaders to cut down on carbon emissions

LONDON - Cate Blanchett has urged global business leaders to cut down their carbon emissions and invest in eco-friendly schemes to save her native Australia from suffering more devastating bush fires.

The stunning actress made the plea at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen on May 25.

The Elizabeth star referred to the life shattering Victoria bush fire earlier this year to drive home the urgency to save the planet.

“Political failure at Copenhagen in December is quite simply unacceptable and this powerful room must play a major role in preventing this failure,” the Daily Star quoted her as saying in the conference.

“Australia’s best climate scientists have been warning us that we’ll face many more catastrophic fire days in south-east Australia unless the world acts to dramatically cut greenhouse pollution,” she added. (ANI)

Cruise to recruit for Scientology church in Australia

LONDON - Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise will launch a recruitment drive for Scientology church in Australia.

Dailymail.co.uk reports that his employment drive will begin when he relocates to Melbourne for four months with his actress wife, Katie Holmes who will begin work on her latest film “Dont Be Afraid Of The Dark in August.

Tom knows that he will have his work cut out as the church attracts protesters. But he hopes his presence will help change minds and dispel the myths that Scientology is a cult, said a source.

The state of Victoria outlawed Scientology for six years in the 1960s after it was branded evil by a local lawyer. Sources also claim that the real-life film couple want to recruit a large entourage.

http://www.youtube.com/churchofscientology

Channel 9's biggest spenders

Presenters splurging on working wardrobes
Some spend $2000 a month on clothes

• Survey: Which celebs do you love and loathe

THE rest of the world might be belt-tightening, but a secret look at the books of Channel 9 has exposed the network's biggest spenders when it comes to dressing the part of a TV star.

While 60 Minutes may be struggling to win its Sunday night timeslot, the program's presenters have rated atop the list of on-air talent who splashed out the most cash on their working wardrobes.

Tara Brown and her colleague Liam Bartlett led the spending by Nine's news and current affairs department, according to leaked figures from the last financial year.

Brown claimed $24,448 on clothes and grooming for her globe-trotting gig, while Bartlett spent $16,916 to dress the part.

Adding to 60 Minutes' styling bill, former reporter now 6pm newsreader Peter Overton spent $11,011 with Liz Hayes charging $8784 to the company account.

Viewers may be used to seeing her in bikinis or ballgowns, Getaway's Catriona Rowntree splashed out $23,943 on her travelling wardrobe, while A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw claimed $20,182 for her collection of desk-bound duds.

The figures should raise a few Botoxed brows in the Nine newsroom, with general reporter Allison Langdon paid $18,205 for her clothes costs, ahead of more notable network personalities like Kerri-Anne Kennerley ($12,918) and Natalie Gruzlewski ($9000).

A Nine spokeswoman would not comment on individual payments yesterday but said "the different allowances are negotiated when they each do their contracts."

Nine's spokeswoman said in the tight economic times management were "now more diligent about making sure the clothes our talent buy and claim are for their work".

State Of Play

Thriller/Suspense

Run Time - 127 minutes
Rated M
Country - United States
Director - Kevin Macdonald

Actors
Russsell Crowe, Helen Mirren
Rating Stars-4

"SHE'S cheap and she churns out copy every hour." So says Helen Mirren's newspaper editor in summing up the virtues of the paper's latest attraction, a popular young internet blogger.

Her words are directed at the newsroom's ageing star - its chief investigative reporter, played by a fractious Russell Crowe - and her pragmatic endorsement of the paper's new ingenue is not convincing him. Nonetheless, he knows it's futile to argue. He's looking at the future and his survival depends on his getting used to it.

I sat down to watch State Of Play with a sense of anticipation slightly blunted by deja vu. After all, it was hard to imagine that Paul Abbott's 2003 BBC television series could be improved upon. Its sinuous plot was weighted perfectly over its six-hour running time and its theme, centring on the corruptibility of people in power, was all of a piece with its Westminster setting - a fact that was confirmed flamboyantly by recent events.

So why shift the scene to Washington DC and load it on the big screen?

The answer to that is the usual one. It all comes back to Hollywood's compulsion to remake every good story in its own image. But in this case, happenstance has turned up another justification as well. The state of play has changed in the past six years, especially when it comes to newspapers, and the great thing about Kevin Macdonald's film is that it pushes this angle to the centre of the frame. Working with Matthew Michael Carnahan ( The Kingdom), Tony Gilroy ( Michael Clayton) and Billy Ray ( Shattered Glass) - three writers well versed in the art of the conspiracy thriller - Macdonald ( The Last King Of Scotland) has fashioned an elegy in praise of old-fashioned newspapering. Its heroes belong not to the media but to the press, a noun that's in danger of becoming extinct, according to the business pages of our own papers.

In the television series, Bill Nighy played the Mirren role with an amiable and slightly languid combination of moral indignation and world-weary resignation. Implicit was his air of having seen absolutely everything in some former life. Of course, the world was going to the dogs and it was only natural politicians should be leading the pack since they were, by nature, a flawed breed.

Mirren brings another slant to it. Languor has never been part of her armoury. She doesn't betray much knowledge of amiability, either. It's her air of command that harvests her such plum parts as this one. Cameron Lynne, the editor of The Washington Globe, has a conversational style that puts her in the same league as J. Jonah Jameson, the fulminating editor of Spider-Man's The Daily Bugle but who'd dare laugh? Having embodied DCI Jane Tennison plus two Elizabethan queens, Mirren wields such authority that she might be intoning household hints from Martha Stewart for all the difference it makes.

Crowe, too, brings plenty of heft to the story - in every sense. John Simm, who played Cal McCaffrey, the investigative reporter in the series, has a persuasively hungover look but he's slight enough to be blown over in a stiff Beltway breeze. Crowe, in contrast, is at his beefiest here. Even his hair, worn shoulder-length, looks heavy. His clothes - an ancient corduroy jacket and a series of rumpled shirts and creased trousers - are merely scruffy. As an actor he could never be called vain but this time he's left the concept of vanity so far behind that some other motive may well have entered the picture. It's as if he's avenging himself on every reporter who's ever displeased him by exposing the sartorial sins of the whole profession.

But it has to be said, the look works. McCaffrey is an authentic and terrier-like crusader. He even talks Lynne into letting him handle a story involving his oldest friend, Stephen Collins, an up-and-coming congressman. Played by Ben Affleck, Collins is all sharp edges - from his suits and haircut to the straight-arrow demeanour he demonstrates in his role as chairman of a committee investigating defence spending. But he's in trouble. His researcher is dead after falling in front of a subway train. The police believe it's murder and he's just confessed that he was her lover. Even worse, emerging evidence links her death to the killing of a young junkie in another part of the city.

There's no point in setting a political thriller in Washington if you're not going to take advantage of the city's lavishly displayed sense of its own importance. Its emblems of power are well covered. There's also a deftly choreographed suspense scene in a car park that evokes memories of All The President's Men. And last but not least, cast as a devious senator, there's Jeff Daniels, bearing an unnerving physical resemblance to Peter Costello.

The de facto star of the show is The Washington Globe itself. It's been sold to new and demanding owners who want the usual magic trick performed - a circulation rise achieved in conjunction with cost cuts - and its newsroom is correspondingly shabby and ill-equipped, although the place itself seems vast. Like a captain on a ship's bridge, Lynne looks down on it all from her upper-storey glass office, struggling to keep the creaky vessel afloat.

There is some hope. It's played out in an uneasy alliance between present and future as McCaffrey joins forces with Rachel McAdams's Della Frye, the young blogger. In working together to unravel the mystery and get the paper its much-needed scoop, they have to get used to one another's methods - as do we. McCaffrey has an unconventional view of journalistic ethics. Not only is he pursuing a story about his oldest friend, he's concealing the fact that he's in love with Mrs Collins (Robin Wright Penn). And he covertly videotapes an interview.

The plot does suffer in translation. Spread over six hours, its loops and spirals could just about be accommodated. Here these contortions seem so contrived that it's all ceased to matter by the time the final twist comes round. But that's OK. It's really a story about the romance of newspapers and a good one - part of a tradition that goes all the way back to Ben Hecht and The Front Page. It may also mark the genre's end.

Miranda Kerr goes nude for Rolling Stone and Koalas

IT'S a bold move but Miranda Kerr pulls it off with style.

The home-grown model has posed for her first nude photo shoot, appearing on the cover of the latest edition of Australian Rolling Stone.

She joins an exclusive club who have stripped off for the mag, including Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston and Lady GaGa.

Another famous face to have graced its cover while keeping his clothes on was former Prime Minister Paul Keating, pictured in cool Ray-Ban sunglasses.

In the US Kerr, 26, is best known as a Victoria's Secret lingerie model and Orlando Bloom's squeeze, but back home she is also the wholesome face of David Jones.

She says she decided to go "au naturel'' to raise awareness of the environment, specifically koalas.

"I feel strongly about the need to protect our natural environment because it supports our life - it really is that simple,'' Kerr tells the magazine, in stores on Wednesday.

Kerr shot the cover for Rolling Stone's first "green issue'' in Sydney in January, with photographer Carlotta Moye behind the lens.

The day-long shoot also included a real koala named Koral, as Kerr is the face of the Australian Koala Foundation's No Tree, No Me campaign.

The campaign aims to protect koalas' natural habitat, hence Kerr's only prop for the shoot is a chain locking her to a tree.

"It's a sad thing - there are only about 100,000 koalas left in Australia,'' Kerr said.

"Something like 80 per cent of the koalas' habitat has been destroyed since Europeans arrived in Australia.''

Kerr is also set to appear in American designer Marc Jacob's new Protect The Skin You're In T-shirt campaign, joining the likes of Eva Mendes, Heidi Klum, Dita Von Teese, Naomi Campbell and Victoria Beckham to raise awareness of skin cancer.

"I'm fully covered - at least, they've covered my bits with the words,'' she laughed.

Other celebrities to have ditched their clothes for a cause include Nicollette Sheridan, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Donovan and Leona Lewis. Given Kerr's high profile, these latest striking images are likely to be picked up by America's Rolling Stone magazine.

"The great thing about having people recognise you is you can try to make a positive difference - that's what I'm trying to do, especially for young women,'' Kerr said.

Rolling Stone's inaugural green issue includes other well-known Australian faces - John Butler, Ruby Rose and Xavier Rudd - talking about environmental issues close to their hearts.

"I believe every effort we make now has a reaction - if we're making positive changes, if we're all doing the simple, small things we can do to help the environment, it makes a big difference,'' said Kerr, who tries to eat only organic food.

Keith Urban draws thousands to Roanoke Civic Center

More than 7,000 music fans converged on the Roanoke Civic Center to hear two popular country singers and their bands perform.

Music fans wait to enter the Roanoke Civic Center for the concert Friday. Despite throngs of people, a civic center official said shuttle buses, planning and a pre-show event kept the crowd moving smoothly.

Crew members for the Keith Urban concert talk to Katie Cardinal (left) and Sydney James of New Hampshire, who drove to Roanoke for the show at the civic center Friday.

Starr Eamigh (left) and Melissa Smith get their picture taken in front of a promotional tour bus by Smith's mother, Brandi Munson, before the Keith Urban and Dierks Bentley concert Friday at the Roanoke Civic Center.

Keith Urban (above) and Dierks Bentley (below) played to a packed house Friday night.

Keith Urban (above) and Dierks Bentley (below) played to a packed house Friday night.

On Friday, after a week in which Mother Nature unexpectedly channel-surfed from hard rain to steamy sunshine and back again, the climate finally got consistent.

The bright afternoon, with just enough breeze to flutter a flag, served as the ideal environment for a concert on a day when the Roanoke Civic Center hosted one of its most popular shows -- Keith Urban with opening act Dierks Bentley.

"This is the biggest show" of the year, said Chris Connolly, the center's manager. He said more than 7,000 tickets sold and predicted the last few hundred would go by showtime.

An hour before doors opened, lines for the country-pop music show stretched out from most entrances. Queues on the north and east sides grew so long that they actually stretched past each other in opposite directions.

First in line at Gate 10 were Alan and Darlene Puffenbarger from Monterey, who waited in the shade of an awning for the gates to open. He said the tickets were his Valentine's Day gift to her.

Waiting nearby, Jennifer Perkins, a gate attendant for Event Staffing Inc., used an electronic wand to search the throngs as they entered.

She said she's a huge fan of both stars but hasn't seen them live and would be too busy to catch much of the night's performances.

"Just what I see passing through," she said.

A more active fan was Katie Cardinal, 21, who drove her cherry red Mazda 3 down from New Hampshire for the show.

"I'm seeing him six times on this tour," said Cardinal, who wore an orange tank top with iron-on letters that spelled "Keith-Aholic."

Matison Embree and Kellie Tucker, both 18 and of Lynchburg, both in similar black dresses, bore Bentley's autograph Sharpie-d on their right forearms. An obliging member of Urban's road crew, known to the women only as Rusty, brokered a pre-show meeting with Bentley, who posed for pictures with them.

Bentley "was so nice. He talked to us. He didn't have to do that," said Tucker. "If there's a dream concert, it'd be Keith and Dierks."

Her enthusiasm was fairly typical of the largely female audience, many of whom posed for cellphone photos in front of images of Urban, whether the signs were part of a charcoal briquette promotion inside or pasted 12 feet high on the side of a tour bus.

But despite the high attendance, crowds were able to flow in and around the civic center with surprising ease.

Connolly said it was all in the planning. Parking lots were open all day; seven shuttle buses ran before the show, and nine afterward. A pre-show event also drew crowds two hours before the 7:30 p.m. start time.

"What we tried to do is encourage people to come early so it wouldn't be a logjam at the door," he said.

That might have turned up later, at the exit.

"When it's over, they all want to get out at the same time," joked one of the event's outdoor traffic directors.

The Art of Place and Journey

Two paintings by Aboriginal artists, collected in Wally Caruana’s Aboriginal Art.

Paddy Jupurrurla Nelson, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, and Larry Jungarrayi Spencer, Yanjilypiri Jukurrpa (Star Dreaming), 1985 (f109).

“The Australian deserts appears empty and inhospitable to those who do not know them, but to the Aboriginal groups who inhabit these areas, the lands created by their ancestors and infused with their powers are places rich in spiritual meaning and physical sustenance.

“Geographically, the desert includes mountain ranges and spectacular rock-formations, grassy plains, strands and eucalypt and mulga trees, lakes, salt pans, sandhills, and stretches of stony country occasionally broken by seasonal watercourses and rivers and punctuated by rare permanent rockholes, springs, waterholes and soakages… Across this landscape spreads a web of ancestral paths travelled by the supernatural beings on their epic journeys of creation in the Jukurrpa or Dreaming, linking the topography firmly to the social order of the people” (p97).

“The basic elements of the pictorial art are limited in number but broad in meaning… Characteristic of the range of conventional designs and icons are those denoting place or site, and those indicating paths or movement. Concentric circles may denote a site, a camp, a waterhole or a fire. In ceremony, the concentric circle provides the means for the ancestral power which lies within the earth to surface and go back into the ground. Meandering and straight lines may indicate lightening or water courses, or they may describe the paths of ancestors and supernatural beings. Tracks of animals and humans are also part of the lexicon of desert imagery. U-shapes usually represent settled people or breasts, while arcs may be boomerangs or wind-breaks, and short straight lines or bars are often spears and digging sticks. Fields of dots can indicate sparks, fire, burnt ground, smoke, clouds, rain, and other phenomena.

“The interpretations of these designs are multiple and simultaneous, and depend on the viewer’s ritual knowledge of a site and the associated Dreaming. The meanings are elaborated and enhanced by the various combinations or juxtapositions of designs in the paintings, and also by the social and cultural contexts within which they operate — whether for ceremony or public domain, for instance. The combinations of designs allow for endless depth of meaning, and artists in decribing their work distinguish between those meanings that are indented for public revelations and those which are not, and provide the appropriate level of interpretation” (p98-99).



Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Bandicoot Dreaming, 1991 (f98).

“It is by the acquisition of knowledge, not material possessions, that one attains status in Aboriginal culture. Art is an expression of knowledge, and hence a statement of authority. Through the use of ancestrally inherited designs, artists assert their identity, and their rights and responsibilities. They also define the relationships between individuals and groups, and affirm their connections to the land and the Dreaming” (p14-15).

“As a statement of authority, the aesthetic in art is often articulated in terms of ritual knowledge. Through art, individuals express their authority and knowledge of a subject, the land and the Dreaming, and artists will use their authority to introduce change and innovation” (p16).

“In ritual, paintings… are not intended to be static images requiring studied contemplation. Rather, since designs embody the power of supernatural beings, they are intended to be sensed more than viewed” (p59-60).

New lead on Daniel Morcombe's disappearance after 5 years

New lead on Daniel Morcombe's disappearance: "Network to reveal 'person of interest' in Morcombe disappearance"

Nicole Kidman Pregnant? - Picture The actress steps out with (another) maybe baby bump..

I am sorry to do this but it would be so exciting to hear the good news that Keith and Nicole would be expecting their 2nd child.

Nicole Kidman is sure to ignite another round of pregnancy rumours after stepping out with a noticeably round middle on Wednesday night.

The actress appeared to be smuggling a sizeable baby bump as she was snapped leaving a Broadway theatre after catching a performance of 'God of Carnage' with husband Keith Urban.

Nicole sparked baby gossip back in February when she seemed to place a protective hand on her tum while posing on the red carpet at the Tokyo premiere of Australia.

The star gave birth to her first child, daughter Sunday Rose, in June 2008.

Ulitmate Fan Photo Gallery : Keith Urban

KEITH URBAN

Asked if he’s proud to be bringing so many people into the large world of country music, Keith says, "If what I do encourages people to discover country music, including artists that I grew up listening to, then I’m grateful for the opportunity. I see it as a diverse genre, from the traditional to the contemporary. The point is that there is a lot of great music of all sorts out there to discover."

Make sure you add your own photos from Keith Urban's Concert Worldwide.

Keith Urban: Conversations From the Road

Join Nan Kelley for a special behind the scenes look at the incredible entertainer, Keith Urban, as he, his band, and his crew prepare to head out to a city near you on his Escape Together World Tour for 2009.

We'll show you just how the crew tackles taking down the five 60-foot tall, high-definition video screens, flown on a state of the art computerized tracking system, 120 moving, fully computerized lighting units, 12 spotlights, and the massive 3500 square foot custom built stage.

Nan chatted with several members of Keith's band and crew to get an idea of what hanging with Mr. Urban on the road is all about.

And Keith talked about everything from whether his parents were supportive when he first showed in interest in making music, to his years as an opening act, and striving to be a good entertainer.

http://www.gactv.com/gac/shows_spl/episode/0,,GAC_26200_63448,00.html

Luminous Festival

26 May - 14 June 2009

Sydney Opera House presents LUMINOUS - a festival of music, ideas, light and performance. Curated by Brian Eno, this inaugural year features a plethora of music acts, alongside public talks and spectacular light and art installations. Music highlights include Battles, Ladytron, Lee Scratch Perry, Jon Hassell, Reggie Watts and Karl Hyde. LUMINOUS is part of Vivid Sydney, a Sydney wide mid-year festival.


Brian Eno talks about Battles.

http://soh.viotv.com?mediaId=81988a80-e00b-4f56-89dc-023a9afdc088

Luminous - Vivid Launch

http://soh.viotv.com?mediaId=24754395-ef05-4c45-a166-45d6627ad551

Luminous Opening Night - Lighting the Sails

http://soh.viotv.com?mediaId=513e3504-d359-4cb4-a226-eae2a55bd729