Nicole Kidman is beyond worthy of an Oscar nomination for her role as Becca. She is distance from her Howie, while rarely leaving the house. Combined with the uncomfortable experience of watching her bottle up her feelings, Becca is a frightening character to empathize with, but we do so out of instinct. Her cold disposition and uninviting demeanor keeps the audience at arm’s length as we struggle to embrace her and say “its gonna be ok.”

Howie, on the other hand, pursues a completely opposite approach to coping with the loss of his sun. He goes about life with a positive demeanor, while quietly honoring his son’s memory. This becomes a direct conflict as Becca subconsciously works to remove any evidence of their son from their daily lives. Eckhart also delivers a surprisingly deep and accomplished performance, sharing a side of him self no seen before. Kidman and Eckhart work brilliantly together. Dianne Wiest is a welcome face, portraying Becca’s mother, who also has had her share of loss to cope with, but her efforts to support Becca develop into an additional level of tension that adds depth to Becca’s world.

- wearemoviegeeks.com

As posted about yesterday, Nicole’s husband Keith Urban released his new album in the US earlier this week. With that, of course, came lots of interviews, and needless to say there were a few mention of Nic. Here are a few of them, and feel free to let me know of any other ones you may have come across:

On the release day of ‘Get Closer,’ Keith explained that his albums have always been used as snapshots of where he is in his life.

“The songs aren’t just about where I am today. The feelings on the records have been very accurate,” Keith told us. “The feeling on this record is where I am today. This record is made in 2010. This is where I am.”

And where he is, as echoed in several tracks of ‘Get Closer,’ is a place of much joy and comfort. With a blissfully happy home life with his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, and their daughter, Sunday Rose, Keith explained that he’s now in a place where he embraces intimacy instead of running away from love –something he’s done a lot in the past.

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Nicole Kidman has revealed that she felt ‘so alone’ on the night she won an Oscar, even though her mum and daughter Isabella were at the ceremony with her.

The Australian star won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours.

But when she collected the Oscar in 2003, she was single, having divorced her first husband Tom Cruise two years earlier.

Kidman – who has since married fellow Aussie Keith Urban, with whom she has a two-year-old daughter, Sunday Rose – tells The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I realised how alone I was, because I had no one to share it with. Those moments are about sharing.

‘I had my mum and I had Bella, who was 10 years old, sitting in the front row – but that’s different. I’m talking about a love, a life partner. It’s my thrust to have that. That’s always been me.’

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DaemonsMovies.com have posted the first stills from Just Go With It – unfortunately there is no Nicole in them (we think she just has a small cameo role), but you can view them if you would like to here.

AUSTRALIA’S world champion 470 crew Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page are hoping their new dinghy will give them as much success as their previous one as they take on seven of the top 10-ranked crews in the world at the Perth International Regatta this week.

They have continued the tradition of naming each new boat in honour of actress Nicole Kidman, choosing her movie My Life as their latest inspiration to reflect the all-consuming nature of their 2012 Olympic campaign.

The naming tradition began when Page and his former skipper Nathan Wilmot attended a party where a friend joked that they looked like they had just been released from the Bangkok Hilton. “We thought it was a good name for a boat and have kept to the Nicole Kidman theme,” Page said.

Belcher and Page won the world title and the World Cup this year on their previous boat Nicole, while Wilmot and Page won the Beijing Olympic gold medal on Australia. “I think we have named about seven boats after Nicole Kidman now and I’m thinking that Golden Compass might be a good one for the London Olympics,” Page said.

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If you were to fall in love with a world renowned, Oscar-winning actress, the most important thing on your mind would be whether or not she liked country music, right? Well, it was for Keith Urban, who fell for now-wife Nicole Kidman even though she wasn’t familiarized with his lifeblood, country music.

“When I first brought my wife to Nashville I thought, ‘I hope she loves Nashville, but I really hope she loves country music,’” Keith told Sirius XM’s The Highway with a laugh. “She didn’t know a whole lot about the genre and I thought, ‘What’s a good way to ease her into this music that I’ve grown up loving?’”

If all else fails, go to the store, as Keith and Nicole. “So, we went to the record store and I bought a Waylon Jennings record and several other records,” Keith explains. “I put them in the car and the first song I played for her was ‘Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way,’ and I didn’t tell her who it was or what it was. I just said we’ve got a lot of music to listen to.”

This could have been the ‘do or die’ moment for their relationship, but since we know how the story ended, Nicole obviously had a positive reaction. “I hit play and the minute that bass drum started and the guitar started she said, ‘Oh I like this, turn this up!’” Keith recalls. “We turned it up as loud as the stereo would allow in the car and she instantly fell in love with this song and I believe from there country music. What a perfect way to get her into it.”

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Rabbit Hole screened at the AFI Film Festival last Sunday, and Screened.com posted a small review after they saw the film:

Sunday night was Rabbit Hole starring Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman. Both of them were great in the film, which is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play about a couple struggling with grief after the death of their young son. Although I think Kidman has a shot to get an Oscar nod for her performance, it was Aaron Eckhart that really impressed me. There’s a moment where the two get into an argument after Kidman actually accidently deletes a video of their dead son that really blew me away. The raw emotion that comes out of Eckhart was stunning to watch. There are some other extremely powerful moments in the film, which, like Blue Valentine, got a lot better as the story progressed. I ended up really liking this one. Go see it if you’re a fan of emotionally charged dramas.

Afterwards, Eckhart, James Cameron Mitchell (the director), and Miles Teller (another actor from the film) did a Q & A. They all praised Nicole Kidman’s performance and pointed out that she was the driving force behind getting this picture getting made. Eckhart also talked about preparing for the role and had this quote:

“All I had to do was think about my son who has died. My work as an actor is to imagine your child is dead and you feel responsibility and guilt… It seems like an uncomfortable place to be, but it’s a wonderful place to be as an actor.”

One of the year’s few straight-up serious dramas

Two words: Nicole Kidman. The Oscar-winning superstar returns as a mother coping with the death of her son in an emotional performance that has Academy recognition etched into its every icy stare and tearful cry. As one of the year’s few straight-up serious dramas, “Rabbit Hole” stands out for its simplicity and delicate touch, which could lead to kudos for Pulitzer-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (adapting the screenplay from his own stage hit).

Grieving dad Aaron Eckhart does his best to match Kidman’s intensity, and former Oscar winner Dianne Wiest’s sage, sorrowful older mom delivers the piece’s key lines. But the show really belongs to Kidman, who also serves as a producer.

Ever since its critically acclaimed Toronto fest premiere, “Rabbit Hole” hopped to the forefront of the Oscar chatter, but the indie drama could encounter hurdles in the major categories. The film lacks the epic scope of traditional picture winners and may even seem too similar to “Ordinary People.”

Stage-savvy “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” director-creator John Cameron Mitchell makes a notable transition to weightier material here, working with writer Lindsay-Abaire to open up the play. If the Academy connects with the emotional material, both could be honored for their efforts.

- Variety

Here’s a cute little update for all the Nicole/Keith fans visiting :p A big thanks goes to our eagle-eyed forum members Libbie, Marta and Fanya for pointing out Nicole’s inclusion in her husband Keith Urban’s new album ‘Get Closer’ material! Fans on his official Facebook page were asked to vote for which photo they’d like to see used as the album cover, one of which featured a pale woman’s arms wrapped around him – Nicole, perhaps? The photo on the back of the album features those same arms and you can clearly see Nicole’s wedding ring. On the official album cover a woman with red hair can be seen lying in the bed behind Keith, and again, chances are it’s Nicole, yes? Last but definitely not least, the booklet inside the album features a very touching ‘thank you’ to Nicole and their daughter Sunday.

Have a look for yourself, as I’ve added the photos to the Gallery! And I guess this post wouldn’t be complete without a link to buy the album at amazon.com

• Miscellaneous Keith Urban related photos x5

Variety.com also have a new feature on Trespass, with a new but small still. Thanks again to Marta for posting this on our forum.

• Trespass > Stills x1 more

Schumacher’s Shreveport shoot
‘Trespass’ finds home in Louisiana

In “Trespass,” the Joel Schumacher-helmed thriller set for release in 2011, Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage play a couple taken hostage in their own home.

Since the picture is set in the South and required a Southern-type house in which to shoot, filming in Shreveport was an easy decision to make, per the director. “We found exactly what we were looking for,” he says. “A beautiful house on a lake.”

The perfect location was only part of the attraction. In a few short years, Louisiana has positioned itself as a major film and TV production center that is siphoning off work from the other L.A. — and other filmmaking hubs.

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