Nicole Kidman was taken to a hospital just after midnight Thursday morning after becoming involved in an automobile accident on the set of her new movie “The Invasion.”

A Jaguar carrying the actress and several crewmembers slammed into a pole in downtown LA after the driver towing the vehicle took a turn quickly, causing Nicole’s car to slide on a watered down road. Streetlights were knocked out by the impact, witnesses believe clocked in at approximately 45 MPH. A large metal trashcan was also thrown into the street as a result of the crash.

Authorities confirm a non-paramedic fire crew was called out to the set at 6th Street and Broadway around 12:25AM for an on-set traffic accident. “All parties” were complaining of injuries, Police say.

The crew stayed for at least 20 minutes checking out victims of the crash before leaving without taking anyone to the hospital.

Kidman walked away from the scene and was taken back to her on set trailer sources say. Shortly thereafter she was taken in a SUV to nearby Cedar’s Sinai Medical Center where she was treated and released two hours later.

“There was an accident involving a rigged camera vehicle on the set of ‘The invasion’” Warner Brothers confirmed in a statement released today. “Nicole Kidman was in the vehicle at the time of the accident and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. She was released shortly thereafter. No other actors were involved in the scene at the time of the incident.”

Kidman’s husband Keith Urban and son Connor Cruise are believed to have been on set at the time of the accident.

Earlier reports that Kidman’s co-star, ten-year-old Jackson Bond was in the car for the accident have now been discredited. He was filming earlier in the evening sources tell Access, but had left the set before the accident occurred.

Several stunt men, believed to be playing zombies in the film, were on top of the car at the time of impact but managed to stay on the vehicle. Their injuries were said to be minor according to Warner Brothers.

The car was attached to a camera rig truck. It had been driving around downtown erratically, the result of a scene where zombies are attacking a car being driven by Kidman’s character.

“The Invasion” is a take-off on an older horror film, Kidman told Access recently.

“It’s based on the ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’ in the original kind of concept but in terms of the way this director is interpreting it he is giving it a whole new angle,” she said.

Academy Award-winning actress Nicole Kidman, is at the forefront with her concerns and caring especially with the health of Australian youngsters and is a frequent visitor to and supporter of Sydney’s Children’s Hospital. Ms. Kidman has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for the purchase of medical equipment. Says Professor Les White, Executive Director of the hospital, ‘Ms. Kidman, the world’s highest-paid actress, contributes more than just monetary assistance. She also interacts and makes regular personal visits with the children and their families. She lifts their spirits and gives them hope!- Ms. Stillman hopes to join Ms. Kidman by donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of her products in Australia also to Australian Children with disabilities and their families.

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LADIES and gents get ready to place your bets on the Nicole Kidman Cup at Bowen’s Ben Bolt Park.

Hollywood is coming to Tomato Central and they’re going to the races.

The gala race day, expected to be held over the May Day long weekend, is expected to attract movie stars Nicole Kidman, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson and Hugh Jackman. The quartet of moviedom royalty will be in Bowen filming the Baz Luhrmann epic, Australia.

Mayor Mike Brunker and and Bowen Turf Club vice-president Cyril Vains are quietly preparing for what they are sure will be the biggest racing event in Bowen’s history.

Paul Brennan from Queensland Racing Ltd told the Townsville Bulletin yesterday that the race day was ’99 per cent’ certain to happen.

Bowen is already allocated four race meetings a year, but needs the green light from Queensland Racing to run what a fifth to coincide with the six weeks of filming scheduled to start on April 29.

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A STOUSH between actress Nicole Kidman and celebrity photographer Jamie Fawcett rolled into a Sydney court today but without either of the main players.

Fawcett is accused of possessing a listening device outside Kidman’s mansion in the harbourside suburb of Darling Point.

In January last year, security staff found a plastic-covered device submerged in water and hidden by foliage across the road from Kidman’s home.

Fawcett was charged last October with its possession.

The matter returned to court today but the Oscar-winning star was not present, having flown to Los Angeles on her private jet with husband Keith Urban last week.

The pair reportedly complained to police after Fawcett trailed them on a holiday to the NSW south coast.

Fawcett was not in Downing Centre Local Court today either. He was represented by solicitor Roland Day.

“This is the Nicole Kidman-Fawcett roadshow, the paparazzi matter,” Mr Day explained to Deputy Chief Magistrate Paul Cloran.

Mr Cloran granted his request for access to subpoenaed police material and adjourned the case until February 8.

Outside court, Mr Day said Fawcett’s legal team was seeking recordings from police.

“They’ve provided us with a very short period of recordings of what’s happened in her street and we want to know what other things were recorded, in circumstances where our client says it certainly wasn’t him,” he said.

A hearing date is likely to be set when the matter returns to court next month.

Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Catherine Keener and her husband, Dermot Mulroney, weren’t the main stars at the premiere of “God Grew Tired of Us” (film review on page 12) on Monday night.

“This isn’t about me,” said Kidman, who narrates the award-winning documentary, opening today, that details the odyssey of three Sudanese who arrive in the U.S. after wandering through the African wilderness for a decade to avoid civil war, famine and disease. “It’s about a remarkably genuine, generous and humorous trio who survive and prevail.”

Mulroney, a childhood friend of director Christopher Quinn, and Keener brought Kidman and Pitt on board when they were shown an early cut of the film shot between 2001 and 2005. “This came together because we’re a bunch of friends who care about the world and wanted to support a project depicting reality in Sudan,” said Mulroney, who was joined at the premiere by Ed Norton, Roseanne Barr and Johnny Knoxville.

Pitt executive-produced the film, which opens today, and Jolie became a “publicist” the second she stepped on the red carpet at the Pacific Design Center. “It’s important to see this film to understand what’s going on in Sudan,” Jolie said. “I want to help get the message out because things get worse there every single day.”

Electricity, cars, cold food, salty food, sweet food, dog food, alarm clocks and shaving cream initially befuddled the Sudanese when they arrived on the East Coast. Now they’re trying to use their experience, the film and their American friends to help their war-torn country.

“The people here tonight understand our culture and our problems,” said John Bul Dau, who launched the nonprofit American Care for Sudan Foundation (www.acsudanfoundation.org). “They’ve helped put smiles on the faces of African people.”

Oprah Winfrey has teamed with ABC for a primetime Oscar special.

The daytime talk show queen will host and executive produce “The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special,” which will air Feb 22, the Thursday before the network’s broadcast of the 79th annual Academy Awards.

The one-hour special will feature Academy Award winners Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Jamie Foxx doing one-on-one interviews with an Oscar-winning actor of their choice.

The three Oscar winners were invited to pick their favorite Academy Award victor and interview them for the upcoming Oprah TV special.

Roberts will interview George Clooney at his Los Angeles home. Kidman will meet Russell Crowe at the Beverly Hills Hotel for their first-ever on-camera appearance together, and Foxx will sit down with Sidney Poitier on the stage where the veteran actor collected his Oscar for “Lilies of the Field” in 1963.

“The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special” will not interfere with Barbara Walters’ 25th annual Oscar Special, which ABC will air as usual the night of the Awards.

Walters’ guests this year have not been announced yet. Last year, she interviewed Clooney.

The north Queensland town of Bowen might be a long way from Hollywood but it sure knows how to roll out the red carpet for movie stars.

And the Bowen Turf Club is “very confident” of holding a one-off race meeting featuring the Nicole Kidman Cup in May to coincide with the filming there of the Baz Luhrmann-directed movie, Australia.

Bowen Mayor Mike Brunker said Luhrmann had all but guaranteed that not only Kidman would attend the meeting but also the movie’s other big names – Hugh Jackman, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson.

“We’re talking about the biggest assembly of Australian stars in film history, I reckon,” he said.

“In the next couple of weeks we will try and stitch it (the race meeting) up with Baz.”

The bulk of the epic Australia will be filmed at Bowen – about 200km south of Townsville – over six weeks from April 29.

It will reunite Oscar-winning Kidman with the Australian director after the 2001 success Moulin Rouge.

Queensland Racing is yet to sanction the meeting set for the May Day long weekend, but Mr Brunker said the Nicole Kidman Cup would go ahead once the movie’s big names were locked in.

Mr Brunker said Luhrmann guaranteed movie star appearances while negotiating with the Bowen Shire Council to have the film made at the town.

“During our talks we required that they (stars) all live in town and that they had some interaction with the public,” he said.

“And to his credit Baz said he would do everything that’s possible to accommodate meets and greets.

“Rather than think this is a hick town, he was very community conscious.

“He’s a very down-to-earth guy. I was very surprised.”

Once the meeting is given the green light, the stars will be in for a memorable day if the town’s other major racing meet – the Bowen Cup – is any guide.

“It gets jam packed and everyone has a drink and we get streakers and all that,” said Mr Brunker.

“But for this type of thing (Kidman Cup) there’s the risk that we could have 8,000 and just create a massive bloody riot.

“So we will sell 3,000 or 4,000 tickets so we can comfortably handle it.”

Bowen Turf Club vice-president Cyril Vains said there were already plans for Kidman to present the winning trophy and Jackman to judge Fashions on the Field.

He said the biggest name to grace a previous Bowen race meeting had been a Queensland racing minister.

To James Bond, Nicole Kidman is to die for.

“She turns me on,” Daniel Craig tells W. “In the nicest possible way, you understand.”

Kidman kids Craig, 38, with whom she appears in two movies this year, became unbearable after he starred as Bond in “Casino Royale.”

“In 24 hours, he became a diva,” said Kidman, 39.

NICOLE KIDMAN feared she’d made a huge mistake when she arrived in Spain to shoot creepy film THE OTHERS after realising the script she’d read had been overhauled. The Australian actress admits she fought with director ALEJANDRO AMENABAR for two weeks in an effort to persuade him to rethink his script changes, which turned her character into a child-beating mother. As part of a recent roundtable discussion chaired by trade paper The Hollywood Reporter and featuring EDWARD NORTON, FOREST WHITAKER and BEN AFFLECK, the actress revealed, “I read the script and thought, ‘Great.’ Then I went and did MOULIN ROUGE. “I went back and read the script, and there had been a rewrite on it, and I thought, ‘This isn’t the film I wanted to make.’ “I arrived in Spain and in this script, I am hitting a child – and I saw this film as being about a mother’s love for her children, not her desire to kill the children. “There was conflict for about two weeks between us (Kidman and Amenabar), and we ended up with a great experience together. (Later) he said, ‘I am so glad you fought for that.’” Kidman admits her ex-husband TOM CRUISE helped her through the experience: “He’d be like, ‘Nic, go in and voice your concerns. Trust me, it will be appreciated.’”

Baz Luhrmann’s ambitious “Australia” project once had Russell Crowe attached, but has now replaced with lead Hugh Jackman, is now proving a local boon for the actors.

In a past Sunday Herald Sun interview, Hugh Jackman was asked about the impact his taking the role over from his friend Russell Crowe had on their relationship. “I talked to Russell and we’re fine. I don’t really know the details, if I did know the details I wouldn’t tell you, but if it was ever a situation that was awkward I would definitely talk to him. For me no job is worth losing a friendship over. Whatever happened was solely out of my world but when that didn’t work out and I was offered the role I took it with glee; it’s the role of a lifetime. Things happen.”

Luhrmann has allegedly added local Aussie actors Barry Otto and “Star Wars” & “Kinky Boots” star Joel Edgerton for supporting roles according to The Sun Herald.

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