San Francisco may not seem much like Ernest Hemingway’s Havana or Key West, Fla., right now, but just wait until Hollywood works its magic. And you won’t have to wait long.

HBO Films has agreed to base the production of the new film “Hemingway & Gellhorn” in San Francisco, providing a welcome boost to the local film industry and injecting a little more star power around town, city officials said Wednesday.

The film, starring Clive Owen as Hemingway and Nicole Kidman as war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, examines the duo’s tumultuous romance and five-year marriage. Much of the film is set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, as well as depicting Shanghai, Havana and Key West. Shooting is expected to start in February.

None of the film is set in San Francisco, but director Philip Kaufman said the city’s historic buildings and varied topography make it ideal to shoot more intimate scenes depicting World War II-era locales, said Jennifer Matz from the mayor’s economic development office.

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Buried deep in an article about Nicole Kidman doing humanitarian work in Haiti and being an ambassador for the United Nations to promote women’s rights is a juicy nugget: she’s coming to TIFF. Speaking with USA Today from Port-au-Prince, Kidman says she’ll be dropping by Toronto to promote Rabbit Hole, “a passion project about a grieving couple, and how you get through trauma and loss together and how it affects a marriage.”

It’ll be a brief appearance because she said she wants to spend more time with her family and focus on her charity work. Skipping free gift bags and parties to fight for women’s rights and make the world a better place? Next step: adopting a bunch of Cambodian kids.

During a visit that concluded today, Inés Alberdi, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, part of UN Women) and UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman have called for the urgent need to address gender-based violence among affected populations, and stressed the critical need to support long-term initiatives that advance women’s livelihoods as part of the rebuilding efforts. In Haiti, Ms. Alberdi and Ms. Kidman met with survivors of violence living in a temporary camp, with Haitian and UN officials, and with national non-governmental organizations working to support women’s needs in recovery efforts after the devastating earthquake.

“During this trip I saw first-hand how this humanitarian disaster is impacting women and girls. The lack of shelter and security makes them more vulnerable to violence, in particular sexual violence,” UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman said. “Yet, I have also seen the determination and resilience of women and men in Haiti to rebuild their country. Today I visited a temporary shelter for women and girls who experienced sexual violence or are at risk, where women leaders work to make sure there are medical and legal services as well as counselling and livelihood training. This needs to be done on a large scale and they need our support.”

Even before the earthquake hit, violence against women and girls was pervasive. A national census in 2006 found that one in three women in Haiti had experienced violence. Women in Haiti also carry the disproportionate burden of care for children and other family dependents. Some 45 percent of households are headed by women, many defined by stark poverty, due to lower educational levels and lack of opportunities on the formal labour market. The average annual income of women in Haiti is US$626, compared with US$1,695 for men. Meetings with women advocates during the visit highlighted women’s economic empowerment as a priority, including the immediate need to integrate women in jobs creation programmes and provide access to credit and training opportunities for sustainable livelihoods.

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Our Nicole was out on official duties today, attending the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Installation Luncheon in Beverley Hills. Nicole looked pretty in a green dress with her classic red curls. She was pictured having what appears to be a rather lively chat with Glee‘s queen of mean Sue Sylvester herself (for those not familar with the show, that’s wonderful actress Jane Lynch ), as well as talking to Eva Longoria and Annette Benning. The first few HQs have been added to the Gallery, and many more photos will be added later today/tomorrow.

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association Annual Installation Luncheon – High Quality x9

Running from September 9 to 19, the Toronto International Film Festival has announced a partial line up of 15 Galas and 35 Special Presentations including 25 World Premieres. In its 35th year, the festival has cineastes the world over rubbing their hands together at the exciting selection of films on offer.

The 11 day event is set to ‘drop the puck’ with a premiere screening of Score: A Hockey Musical, written and directed by Michael McGowan, starring Australian musical icon Olivia Newton-John. Following this very Canadian opener, the festival will feature premieres of films from Denmark, France, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Darren Aronofsky, Francois Ozon, Robert Redford, Mark Romanek, Michael Winterbottom, Julian Schnabel, John Cameron Mitchell, and Woody Allen will join an impressive assembly of renowned directors whose works will feature at the festival.

A couple of the most hotly anticipated movies include John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole, which features Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman, and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan starring Natalie Portman as a jealous ballerina.

The program, announced so far, also includes Robert Redford’s The Conspirator, Guillaume Canet’s Little White Lies, John Curran’s Stone, Francois Ozon’s Potiche, Ben Affleck’s The Town, Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Alain Corneau’s Love Crime, Julian Schnabel’s Miral, Mike Mills’ Beginners, Rowan Joffe’s Brighton Rock, Tony Goldwyn’s Conviction, Susanne Im Sang-Soo’s The Housemaid, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go, and Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip.

Director and CEO of TIFF, Piers Handling, says the festival is thrilled at the selection of films. “The richness and diversity of this year’s Galas and Special Presentations programmes reflect the abundance of exciting works from established and emerging filmmakers in the world of cinema,” he says.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 9 to 19. For more information, visit the festival website.

Just a quick note to let you all know that forum registration is open again! I’m so sorry it’s been closed so long, and I’m sorry to those of that have emailed me and asked about it! I hope those of you that did email are still interested in joining. Forum registration is only closed because of spam posters, and the fact that controlling and stopping all the spam is hard. But we LOVE meeting new Nicole fans there, so pay us a visit, register and say hi!

EDIT: Forgot to add, registrations need to be approved by me before you can post. So you can register straight away, and I will approve your account asap. I’ll be approving accounts every couple of days.

Well this is quite a shock to me! A big thanks goes to our observant forum member ‘nic_the_great‘ for pointing out the following:

Nicole’s new official site! Knowing the internet, I’m always very wary of sites claiming to be official, but this looks to be real – don’t you think? It looks to be mainly to promote her work with UNIFEM, and she’s left a couple of messages there encouraging people to sign the Say No – Unite To End Violence Against Women petition. There’s also an accompanying Facebook page. So make sure you visit the site (which you obviously will) to hear from Nicole, and to support her and her work with UNIFEM!

I have another big update for you today, Nicole fans, and again it features some fantastic stuff! To start with, I’ve added over 40 new HQs from the 2003 Costume Institute Gala, most of which are gorgeous close-ups of an animated Nicole talking to the press – don’t miss these! Then, I’ve added lots more HQs from Nicole’s recent appearances in Hong Kong to promote Omega – she looks really stunning and statuesque in the Charity Gala ones, and there are some cute pics of her cheering along with the event. Oh, and there are also some more beautiful close-ups from this event which are worth a mention!

Moving on from appearance photos, but still with Omega, we have a couple of new/old Omega ads, plus a rather photoshopped new promotional photo for the brand that appeared during that recent visit to Hong Kong. Nicole posed for some portrait photoshoot pictures in Hong Kong, and this all-new photoshoot has been added to our Gallery too.

Various other new photos have been added, including an old and rare photo of Nicole and her ex-husband with Charlie Sheen, possibly taken in 2000. Finally, we have 3 new sets of scans from an In Style (thanks Carla!), Emporium Traveller (thanks Ella!), and TV Movie (thanks Ann).

A big thanks goes to some of our forum members for some of these photos – Emma (nickufan) for half of the Omega Boutique photos, Lica for the Omega Japan photoshoot, nueng0908 for the new Omega photoshoot, and Carla and Ella for scans.

The main new additions are listed below, but visit the Last Uploads page to see everything. And I apologise for the extra long lines of previews below, but some of these pics are just too good to not show off!

• Costume Institute Gala – High Quality x42 more
• Launch of the new Omega Boutique and Press Conference – High Quality x62 more
• Launch of the new Omega Boutique and Press Conference x24
• Omega’s ‘A Night With The Stars’ Charity Gala – High Quality x27 more
• Omega’s ‘A Night With The Stars’ Charity Gala x12
• “Music City Keep On Playin’” Nashville Benefit Concert Phone Bank x14
• “Music City Keep On Playin’” Nashville Benefit Concert Phone Bank – High Quality x1 more/rest replaced with HQ
• Omega > Print Adverts x3 more
• Omega > 2010 Promotional Photoshoot x1
• The Invasion > On the set – Unknown x1
• Unknown Events x1 more
• In Style (Sp) – April 2010 x2
• TV Movie (Ger) – January 2nd-15th 2010 x2
• Emporium Traveller (UK) – Winter 2008 x3
• 2010 – Session #001 x5

Country singer Keith Urban sacrificed a Father’s Day celebration on Sunday – because the holiday falls on his wife Nicole Kidman’s birthday.

The Moulin Rouge! actress turned 43 on Sunday and her husband decided to dedicate the weekend to her, rather than make any special plans for himself.

But Urban, who shares daughter Sunday Rose with Kidman, insists the Antipodeans will be celebrating Father’s Day in September – when Australians observe the annual event.

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