ACTOR Nicole Kidman has made more than just a mark on Hollywood – she’s made a sizeable dent.

The elegant star has put Australia on the map in Tinseltown and around the globe.

The red-headed beauty has come a long way since being teased by classmates about her hair and fair skin.

Now she is considered Australia’s top international export, an exceptional actor – and the perfect ambassador from Down Under.

Today she is appointed a companion in the general division of the Order of Australia (AC) for services to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer.

Kidman was also recognised for her dedication to health care through her contributions to the improvement of medical treatment for women and children and her advocacy for cancer research.

This acknowledgment also took into account her passion for youth services and her support for young performing artists, and for humanitarian causes, both domestically and internationally.

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Russell Crowe told me that he and his best girl pal Nicole Kidman are getting ready to ‘swoon’ before the cameras in a big romantic epic that Baz Luhrmann will direct on location in Australia in June.

“It’s set in the 1930s and 40s and I can tell you that it’s a romance and I do a bit of horseriding and a bit of swooning with Nic,” Russell told me when we chatted at a hush-hush private party thrown over the Golden Globes weekend by Vanity Fair.

“Baz – the other Baz, not you Baz – has talked to Nic and me a lot about this film and we’re both up for it.

“I’ve known Nic for a long time, but we’ve never worked together; and I’ve known the other Baz for a while. And the important thing is that it’s nearly six months working in Australia. We start rehearsals in May and the cameras roll in June.”

Russell said he particularly wanted to film in Australia so he can be with wife Danielle, who is pregnant with their second child.

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Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe will make their much-anticipated film together in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, in a set created from scratch by director Baz Luhrmann.

Crowe has revealed the location and timing for the film project, which he says is being planned for later this year.

“I can only tell you certain things . . . but it’s very exciting,” said Crowe, during a one-on-one chat with S at his home in Woolloomooloo last week. “I look at this thing that Baz has shown me, what he wants to do, and you just have to realise Baz Luhrmann’s [genius] . . . he’s just not Bazza from the block, mate, he is a 100 per cent, solid gold cinematic artist.”

Crowe described the first time he read the draft script for the as-yet-untitled film, which was co-written by Luhrmann and Stuart Beattie (the Aussie scriptwriter behind Collateral and the sequel to Pirates Of The Caribbean).

“The first draft was a double goose bumps with tears, it was just a magnificent read,” Crowe said.

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Nicole Kidman is reportedly set to wed rock star Keith Urban.

The smitten pair have set a date in March for the nuptials – and the stunning actress is said to be ‘thrilled’ to be tying the knot again.

Nicole, who has been spotted sporting a huge diamond ring in recent weeks, has told friends and family to set the day aside for the secret ceremony.

A source is quoted in Britain’s The Sun newspaper as saying: ‘Nicole is getting married in March. She’s the happiest she’s ever been in her life and doesn’t want a long engagement.

‘Keith proposed at Christmas and she was thrilled. They’re happy and in love.’

Nicole, who was previously married to Hollywood star Tom Cruise, wants to keep her big day low-key.

The source added: ‘Nicole is only inviting close friends and family – she doesn’t want a media circus.’

“She’s quite simply extremely happy and just wants to be married to Keith. Their parents met and got along and Nicole’s buzzing with excitement.”

The pair, who are both 38, have yet to decide on a wedding venue but are said to be considering tying the knot in Nicole’s native Australia.

Keith Urban and Hollywood film star Nicole Kidman continue to be seen hanging out and doing the town in Nashville.

This past Wednesday, Jan. 18, the two were spotted at one of Keith’s favorites, Bread & Company, in the upscale Green Hills area. Keith and Nicole also hit a Starbucks in the same part of town. Later, several shoppers recognized Nicole at a Bed, Bath & Beyond, where she purchased a hamper and towel bars. Rumors are flying that the couple plans to buy a residence somewhere in Music City. In other Keith news, his latest CD Be Here has been certified triple platinum for sales of three million copies.

Expectant father Tom Cruise has succeeded in preventing the broadcast of an episode of South Park. According to The Register, the actor demanded that one particular episode, which has already aired in the US, was not shown in England. In the episode an animated Nicole Kidman (Cruise’s ex-wife) and John Travolta attempt to lure Cruise out of a closet in which he has shut himself, subtley referring to rumours that Cruise is gay. There are also jibes at Cruise’s devotion to the Church of Scientology.

According to TheRegister.co.uk, Paramount has agreed not to show the episode again, after Cruise complained. A source tells the site, “Tom is famously very litigious and will go to great lengths to protect his reputation. Tom was said not to like the episode and Paramount just didn’t dare risk showing it again. It’s a shame that UK audiences will never see it because it’s very funny.”

An excerpt from the offending episode has popped up on the Internet however, so it would seems that British fans may get to see it after all.

AUSTRALIAN star Nicole Kidman and country music crooner Keith Urban still enjoy a close relationship, it appears.

On the same day a British newspaper reported that the glamour couple had parted company, they have been spotted together enjoying a cosy lunch in the US country music mecca of Nashville.

A source close to Urban says the Oscar-winning actress and the singer, both 38, showed their affection for each other while relaxing on Sunday with a group of friends at a Nashville eatery.

The source said the pair had also planned to attend an American football match that evening.

Rumours of a bust-up were first reported in London newspaper The Mail on Sunday, suggesting Kidman had dumped Urban because he had “not turned his back on his wild ways”.

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From an [link=http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-01-18T225524Z_01_N18197010_RTRUKOC_0_UK-LEISURE-SUNDANCE.xml&archived=False]article[/link] about Sundance – Brad Pitt executive-produced and Nicole Kidman narrated director Christopher Quinn’s “God Grew Tired of Us,” which chronicles three young Sudanese refugees in the United States.

Russell Crowe, looking happier and more relaxed than ever, turned up last night at Vanity Fair’s elegant pre-Golden Globes party at the Sunset Towers/Argyle Hotel in West Hollywood. It was a most unusual low-key gathering, very much the antidote to three days of hard partying.

He told me that after taking off some time to be with his wife and toddler son, he’s ready to make a big movie. And it’s all set: He will do an untitled picture with Nicole Kidman, directed by Baz Luhrmann, the man who guided Kidman through the delicious hit “Moulin Rouge.”

“It’s like the Australian version of ‘Gone with the Wind,’” Crowe told me. “That’s the way Baz describes it, anyway. It’s set in the Australian country in the early 1930s. Baz will have to build a whole community where we’re going to shoot, since it’s a very remote area. He’ll have to put up around 260 people. It’s just like what John Ford used to do with his Westerns.”

The script is by Luhrmann and fellow Aussie Stuart Beattie, who also wrote the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, “Collateral” and “Derailed.” The studio is 20th Century Fox, which is a cousin to FOX News. Like most family members, we have to find things out about our relatives from complete strangers!

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George Clooney, one of the most eligible bachelor’s in Hollywood has revealed that his idea of a perfect woman would be someone who has the best features of some of the most beautiful actresses in tinseltown.

“The ideal woman is a mixture. She should have Nicole Kidman’s laughter, then the personality of Julia Roberts and the aspect of Michelle Pfeiffer, the quintessence of beauty,” he was quoted by The Sun, as saying.

“And finally the ambition of Jennifer Lopez. I’ll buy into the idea of finding the woman of my dreams. Who knows? Maybe one day?” ever find love and have a family,” he added.

The actor feels that his relationships suffer because his work is his first priority and friends come in next, so that he has no time for a girlfriend, and besides that he is not too keen on having kids too.

“I don’t have anything in me like most people have that says you have to reproduce. It’s not part of me. But what I do know is that I will not half-ass it with children. If that means not having kids, then I will not have kids. Kids are the ultimate responsibility,” he said.