Keith Urban & Nicole Kidman Updates 09/22/10

****Thanks to Google Alerts for this sweet update!*****

Keith Urban Helms Sunday’s First Recording Session

Between Hollywood and Nashville, so far Sunday Rose Kidman Urban seems to be leaning toward Nashville.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman‘s daughter, who turned 2 in July, has been getting music lessons from Dad for a while. And now, she’s had her first impromptu recording session.

“She came down to the studio the other day, and I put little headphones on her, and she came to the mic and she did two songs,” the country star proudly told PEOPLE on Monday at the ACM Honors event in Nashville.

“She did ‘ABC’ and she did ‘Twinkle Twinkle,’ beginning to end. It was so cute to see the little headphones on her. It was cool.”

Urban has a new album, Get Closer, coming out in November. And his daughter’s influence is all over the record, he says, even if he doesn’t mention her by name.

“I haven’t written literally about Sunday,” he says, “but there’s a deeper purpose that’s come from my marriage and now from fatherhood. So, I’m drawing inspiration from that sense of purpose and a feeling of love that I’ve never had in my life before, and that has come from both my girls.”

Urban, 42, was honored at the event with the Jim Reeves International Award for being an ambassador of country music around the world.

– Eileen Finan




Clips From Keith's Acceptance Speech at The ACM Honors







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Lee Ann Womack Hosts Star-Studded ACM Honors

On Monday night (September 20), several country hit makers, musicians and fans attended the Academy of Country Music's 4th Annual ACM Honors to recognize special awards recipients and off-camera winners from this year's ACM Awards. The sold-out bash, held at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, was hosted by Lee Ann Womack,

The event kicked off with Luke Bryan presenting Industry awards to specific performance venues, talent buyers and promoters. "At some point, everybody I'm announcing, I have played in their bar or they've written a check to me," Luke tells The Boot. "So, it's nice to see them get recognized for their hard work."

Lee Ann's producer-husband Frank Liddell presented honors to the musicians, Audio Engineer and Producer of the Year recipients, which included guitarist Brent Mason, fiddler Stuart Duncan, steel player Paul Franklin, keyboardist Michael Rojas, multi-instrumentalist Randy Scruggs, bassist Michael Rhodes, drummer Shannon Forrest, producer Dann Huff and engineer Justin Niebank. Afterward, the group of session players and live musicians performed a scorching rendition of Earl Scruggs' 'Passin' Thru.'

As Kix Brooks presented the Jim Reeves International Award to Keith Urban, he recalled seeing the guitar slinger at a Music City dive bar. During the ceremony, Kix said, "He's a rock star, but he is heart-and-soul country music." Prior to the show, Keith told The Boot, "It's a bit surreal, and it's a huge honor. I know for me, growing up in Australia, I listened to country music and my dad's record collection was all country. Johnny Cash was the first concert I saw when I was about five, and then I saw Tom T. Hall after that. Since then, in Australia, I've seen Charley Pride and Dolly Parton, and there's been so many other artists. It seems that in the last decade, it slowed down; people weren't touring internationally as much through the '90s. I'm really happy to see that come back again. I mean, Tim McGraw's in Australia right now. Brooks & Dunn have been down there a couple of times as well as Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley. Alan Jackson's looking to go next year for the first time. And of course, internationally, Taylor Swift's touring everywhere that has an outlet. It's just great. It's absolutely great."

During Keith's segment, a video presentation included a taped message from pal Brad Paisley, who told the crowd he was proud of Keith's contribution in taking country music to the masses, ended with "Let's get together and pick!"

For more on the night, click link above.

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Could Keith Urban Be Going Down Under with Oprah?



By Becca

Keith Urban was honored with the Jim Reeves International Award at last night’s ACM Honors in Nashville. Keith reflected on the red carpet about all the country artists who came to Australia when he was growing up that he was able to see in concert, including Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride and Dolly Parton. He’s happy to see a resurgence in artists who are visiting his home country, including Tim McGraw who is there now, Brooks & Dunn, Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert who have been there previously, and Alan Jackson who is planning his first tour down under next year. As for the thought that he might be influencing young, aspiring artists all over the world today like Glen Campbell, Don Williams and others inspired to him when he was growing up, Keith views it as an awesome responsibility. Sometimes he obsesses over the details when he’s making music but he told us, “It does matter to me and I think if it’s done right, like it was when I was growing up, it can have the same influence and the same inspiration, because for me it’s not about impressing, it’s about inspiring. And if we take that responsibility like I certainly do, and have fun with it but remember it’s a responsibility, then we end up at a place like this tonight (at the Ryman being honored with the Jim Reeves International Award).”

Keith obviously has a lot of pride and a lot of love for Australia, so we asked him how he felt about Oprah surprising her entire audience with a trip to Australia on the season premiere of her show last week. “It’s beautiful, and it’s a great time to be down there, so, go Oprah!” he said. He also alluded to the fact that he could be involved in the Oprah trip. “Everybody’s gonna have a great time, and hopefully, we may end up down there,” he said with a grin. “That would be great if we could.”

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Nicole Kidman Returns to Form in Rabbit Hole


by Melissa Silverstein on September 21, 2010

Lionsgate picked up Rabbit Hole produced and starring Nicole Kidman at the Toronto Film Festival. It is directly by John Cameron Mitchell and co-stars Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest.

It will be released this year and puts Kidman right smack into the Oscar race.

Very excited.

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Loss powered "Rabbit Hole"



Director John Cameron Mitchell talks about his own familial tragedy fuelled his approach to his latest film



"Rabbit Hole," starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as parents grieving the accidental death of their four-year-old son, is the last thing you'd expect John Cameron Mitchell to direct. He's better known for boundary-pushing stuff like "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," a musical he directed and starred in as a transgendered rock star, or "Shortbus," a sweet-natured, mainstream porn film he put together in 2006.

"Rabbit Hole," however, is as chaste and un-flamboyant as they come. So Mitchell, who accompanied Kidman and Eckhart to the film's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, says he had to earn the job of directing it based on his personal connection to the story, as well as his actor-friendly approach.

"My agent showed me the script and suggested they needed [a director]," Mitchell reveals in a backstage interview at the festival. "And I just loved it. I had experienced loss in my own family and it brought everything up in a great way. It felt very healing."

His first task was to convince Kidman, who'd bought the rights to the stage play and was producing the adaptation, that she should hire him. She'd already tried Sam Raimi, but he dropped out to work on the next "Spider-Man" movie.

"I had a conversation with Nicole on the phone. We couldn't meet up. It was a little weird," Mitchell admits. "I was mostly talking, she was listening and she went on instinct. I was saying all the right things. Mostly it was my emotion about it and passion for it."

He told her what had happened in his own life that helped him relate to Kidman's character, who finds herself unable to be comforted by religion or group therapy after her son's death.

"When I was fourteen I had a little brother who was four who passed away from a heart problem unexpectedly," Michell says. "And our whole family, we didn't know exactly what grieving [was]. We didn't know what to do. This was the '70s - [we were a] military, very Catholic family. So there's no therapists, there's no talking about your feelings. You get on with it. You pray to Him as an angel or a saint up there looking down and you try to figure out what lesson or what God..." His voice trails off. "I couldn't figure it out."

He recalls the exact moment he lost his faith. "I just remember praying for [my brother] to live and being alone in my room and my mom coming upstairs and saying that he was in heaven. And I was like, 'No. There's no heaven.'"

Mitchell then pitched Kidman on how he intended to shoot the film. "I really wanted the directing style to be completely invisible," he says. "Whatever technical thing I could do to make it easier on the actors, I would. Another director might exhaust an actor because [they] need this fancy angle or whatever. That wasn't this film at all. There was nothing showy about it. It was just meat and potatoes, performance, good story, simple."

He took this approach because he believes "Rabbit Hole" is "the kind of film that Hollywood made all the time in the late '70s, early '80s - 'Kramer vs. Kramer,' 'Shoot the Moon,' 'Ordinary People' - which were very mass market films but [also] very quiet."

Mitchell did his best to keep the set quiet, too, for Kidman's sake. "I was learning when not to say anything because she's a very self-correcting actor," he notes. "She knows when the last take wasn't working. So I often would say, 'Do you need me?' Which was a good way to put it 'cause you can interfere with someone's meditative state."

He got very protective of Kidman while making the film. "She had a baby and was kind of exhausted. We had to be careful not to tire her out," he says.

Then there was the matter of who else was watching her performance. "The paparazzi were weird," Mitchell says. "Sometimes they want to catch her looking bad 'cause she's done a crying scene outside. They're really mean. I don't envy that kind of notoriety."

The other actors each required different things from Mitchell. He says Eckhart's approach was "more instinctual. He's always like, 'Oh, I suck!' [So I had to get] him out of that with jokes. We had a really good joking relationship, whereas Nicole prefers to keep things quiet and concentrated. Aaron often wouldn't mind some schtick right before an emotional scene."

Dianne Wiest, who plays Kidman's mother, preferred direction that was "very subtle that she could interpret, rather than [something] specific."

And as the group therapy veteran with whom Eckhart's character gets stoned, Sandra Oh "had her own thing," Mitchell says. "She was very casual and fun and cuddly."

Speaking of getting stoned, those lighter scenes were a welcome and necessary break from all the grieving going on. "With this heavy material, I was very conscious of wringing every possible laugh out of it," Mitchell says. "A bit of gallows humour [is] what people in those circumstances need. For me, when I've experienced loss, you gotta feel it but then you gotta laugh. You gotta have relief from that."

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During the Rabbit Hole TIFF press conference Nicole cited Stanley Kubrick as one of her early film influences. The website ReelRave spotlights that part of the discussion. Click on the link to hear audio from Nicole. She's pictured below, on set with the director, filming the final scene of Eyes Wide Shut.

NICOLE KIDMAN REMEMBERS A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON HER WORK





In the upcoming drama RABBIT HOLE, a horrible tragedy forever changes the lives of a married couple. Based on the play by DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE, the film was the brainchild of NICOLE KIDMAN, who acquired the rights as a starring vehicle for herself. She and AARON ECKHART play parents who turn to strangers for solace after their son is killed by a car. Directed by JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL, the cast also includes DIANE WEIST, SANDRA OH, JON TENNEY, GIANCARLO ESPOSITO and promising newcomer MILES TELLER. A true tragedy by the very nature of the plot, the film also contains a surprising amount of humor and proves to be a good fit for KIDMAN. At the Toronto press conference for the film, KIDMAN fielded questions about the film and talked about an early influence in her career: friend and collaborator STANLEY KUBRICK.

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Nicole's current choice of denim, J Brand, has made fashion blogs take notice.

Nicole Kidman in J Brand


Nicole Kidman promotes her latest film, The Rabbit Hole, at The Toronto Film Festival. Nicole was busy promoting the film with her co-star, Aaron Eckhart. Apparently the film has been acclaimed by critics and received a standing ovation. One critic stated Nicole’s, “Performance recalls her great work in To Die For, a movie that her fans still cite as a cult favorite.”

Nicole looked chic in an all blue ensemble. She paired her blue shirt and tweed blazer with a dark wash pair of J Brand jeans. This outfit really brings out the blue in her eyes, they look amazing! Nicole has worn J Brand jeans before. Buy J Brand at Singer22 and Boutique To You.




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We brought to you previously an article on Lucy Punch and her gratitude for Nicole dropping out of Woody Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. Here in a new peice on the cast, is more behind the story!

‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’ Cast Interviews


Whenever Woody Allen directs a new movie it always seems to be a hot commodity among actors. Everyone wants to work with this enigmatic director. Gemma Jones – soft spoken and reserved – was in disbelief that she got the opportunity. “I never imagined such a thing would be possible. I certainly hadn’t anticipated it in any way.” Jones screen tested for Allen and then read two scenes with the casting director before hearing that she got the role. “I was just thrilled when I read it – such a lovely part.”

Lucy Punch had a similar experience. “I went on tape. [Woody Allen] didn’t know who I was,” she says. Allen liked her audition and Punch was ready to fly out to meet him and then she found out that the part had been given away. “I was completely devastated,” she confesses, but the she found out it was given to Nicole Kidman and she was more understanding. “But she dropped out,” Punch explains, “And I did end up doing a number of scenes from the script in the end to get the part…. [It feels] insane [to replace Nicole Kidman] and a bit intimidating. If I ever meet her I’ll have to present her with a bouquet or something.”

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And to close, it seems every year there are more and more "best of" lists with more and more niche categories. To that end, Nicole has landed the top stop in, drumroll please, the Top 7 Cutest Feminists! Our question....If you're going to gather a list, why only 7?!

1. Nicole Kidman



The Academy Award-winning actress and heralded survivor of the Tom Cruise marriage experience is not only a two-time cover model for Ladies Home Journal, but also a Goodwill Ambassador on the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

The “Days of Thunder” – yes, she was in that, star has spent years helping raise awareness for women’s rights throughout the world, including a recent crusade in Haiti to discuss the post-earthquake sexual exploitation ravaging the still-recovering nation.

Happy Father's Day Keith!

And to all the other fathers in Australia including Bob, Antony, and Shane, we hope you have a wonderful day!

Another Aussie Actor Joins Nicole Kidman In Trespass; Aussie Star Troy Cassar-Daley Talks Keith Urban

Huge thanks to our Aussie friend timtam and an anonymous reader for these stories! It just goes to show the skeptics are full of it when they say that Australia and the Urbans' Australian contemporaries don't want anything to do with them!

Actors decide to 'Trespass'

Thesps join Kidman, Cage for Nu Image actioner
By DAVE MCNARY

Ben Mendelsohn ("Animal Kingdom"), Dash Mihok and Liana Liberato ("Trust") are rounding out the "Trespass" cast opposite Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage in Nu Image/Millennium Films' action-adventure.

Shooting starts Monday in Louisiana with Joel Schumacher directing and a nine-week shoot planned. Cam Gigandet and Jordana Spiro also star.

Reports earlier this month indicated that Cage had left "Trespass" but he subsequently re-committed to the production. He and Kidman signed on to "Trespass" to portray a married couple.

Story, written by Karl Gajdusek and Eli Richbourg, centers on a husband and wife taken hostage by four brutal perpetrators seeking easy cash. Complications ensue amid the unexpected discovery of betrayal and deception.

""Trespass" marks the fourth collaboration between Cage and Nu Image/Millennium Films following the recently wrapped 3D adventure "Drive Angry," "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" and "The Wicker Man."

"Trespass" will be produced by Irwin Winkler and David Winkler of Winkler Films and Rene Besson. Avi Lerner executive produces for Nu Image/Millennium Films, along with Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson and John Thompson, and Jill Cutler exec produces for Winkler Films.


timtam let us know that Ben Mendelsohn has just come off a very popular Showtime Australia drama called Tangle and that he is a very sought-after actor on Australian television. This isn't the first time he's worked on a film with Nicole Kidman. Readers may recognize him as "Captain Dutton" from Baz Luhrmann's Australia.



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DAVE'S DIARY - 7 MAY 2009 - TROY CASSAR- DALEY INTERVIEW

KEITH URBAN

"From the day we met I have to say/ my life's been blessed/ and that old sky above ain't got nothing on/ this big, big love." - Big, Big Love - Troy Cassar-Daley.

The singer credits fellow pre-teen Tamworth busker and latter day expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban for the disc's entrée single and video.

"I was having real trouble writing last year," Troy recalled.

"I ended up catching up with Keith on a plane, going over to Phoenix, Arizona, to do his show.

He said to me 'how's the writing going?'

I said "to tell you the truth, it's not going too well. I'm having a bit of a writer's block.'

He said 'how are you approaching it?'

I said 'on guitar.'
"He said 'try a drum machine - in your Mac computer you'll have garage band.'

"I often go to it when I need energy in a song. I started that when I got home. I started on electric guitar that I normally don't write on a lot. I got it going and was having a ball.

Three or four songs into this project I thought I've broken the drought - it's finally flowing again."

Cassar-Daley confessed that both the Cassar-Daley and Urban spouses and offspring inspired the song.

Troy wed fellow singer and 4KQ breakfast DJ Laurel Edwards many moons ago and they have two sons.

Urban, 41, took the plunge much later in life with a Sydney born thespian named Nicole.

"When Keith and Nicole's baby was born we texted him and said 'congratulations, it must be a huge thrill for you being a dad the first time.'

His reply - beautiful result, she's absolutely gorgeous. We're all tired. Big love to the family - Keith.'

"I was in the middle of this track. I was working out real rocking drum feel. I thought it doesn't get much bigger than that. I might head for that as the hook line and go for that direction. I worked the demo up in a couple of days, sent it to Keith and he loved it.

He really thought I nailed what he was talking about. It kicked a door in for me - opened up another avenue. You can write this. So far he hasn't asked for a share of the royalties."

PATERNAL ADVICE

Instead the singer gave the new father free paternal advice.

"He asked me a lot about the balance of family and career," Troy revealed.

"At any level it's hard to balance. I said to him 'you probably already know that but what it comes down to is priorities. As long they're the No 1 priority everything else will fall into line behind that and will happen in its own way. You tell the record company when you want to tour. You keep your time off in big blocks for Nicole and you like Laurel and I do. He found it refreshing to hear it coming from an Australian voice - someone he's known for more than 20 years."

Urban, once signed to fellow expatriate Australasian Barry and Jewel Coburn's publishing company Ten, Ten, didn't offer Troy advice on landing songs in movies and TV shows.

"No, we mainly talked about guitars and about old memories we had back in Tamworth," Cassar-Daley recalled.

"We used to go and busk outside Cheaper Music in Tamworth as 12 year-olds. We continued doing that over the years, even after we had our record deals. He would ring up and say we're raising money for the kids ward at the hospital - can you come over and do a few songs at the front of the music store. I would go to his gigs and he would come to mine - a cross-pollination. The first time I met Jerry Flowers (Urban's U.S. bassist from his era with embryonic trio The Ranch) they were going to smash a few guitars on stage in Tamworth. But Keith missed the stage and cut Jerry's hand in the middle of show. It was a big moment when they were doing a Garth Brooks piss-take. I don't think he would have as many Australian friends come through that would have as much history."

The singer confessed that he hadn't read the controversial Urban biography.

"I'm waiting for Laurel to finish it," he confessed.

"I'm looking forward to having a read because a lot of people and events I would have been part of. It's nice to see someone's take on Keith but I would much prefer to hear one from Keith. It would be nice to hear it from the horse's mouth. I don't think I would be interested in learning someone else's take on personal battles he has had - everybody already knows about that.'

No One Believes E! Online Skeptic Nomorefan

nomorefan
July 21, 2009
"Sorry, I don't live, breathe or eat Skank"




August 16, 2010
12,736 posts posts later

nomorefan: "The Others" was on last night, and my son never saw it, so we watched it. It was the first time I had seen the movie in years, and wow, that woman just can't act. I kept thinking I was watching some community theater - ya now where your next door neighbor, who you would never imagine on stage, is playing the lead role. My daughter noticed that she lost the English accent in about half the scenes - just like in "Awfulstralia". I noticed it right away, but laughed when it was apparent to my daughter. Her face never changes in the movie - never, and she needs to show fear several times, but all she knows how to do is breathe heavily. When I saw the movie years ago, I said then that the kids were by far better actors - even the old maid is better than her. She makes it hard to watch what should be a good movie.

Keith Urban Talks To Texas

Here's a recent interview from The 93Q in Houston, TX.

Click HERE to listen. Recorded on May 31, 2010

May Odds And Ends

Want to see more Keith Urban photos from "back in the day"?

An Australian girl shared some photos of her mum and Keith when they were young and in a band. Check out THIS LINK to see them.

We also have one that was sent to us from a reader taken at an Aussie wedding reception. Thanks Anon.



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It seems Baz Luhrmann's Australia is doing good business for the real Australia!

Australia film helps keep tourism steady


Baz Luhrmann's Australia may have been a box-office flop, but it was still a big winner for the tourism industry.

Global tourism declined by four per cent last year, but Australia held its own, attracting 5.6 million visitors despite the financial uncertainty plaguing the world.

Tourism Australia chief executive Andrew McEvoy said, if campaigns were an indicator of success, Australia performed better than most countries.

"You'd have to say it had an element of success, it was a good campaign for its time and my view ... is that Tourism Australia were clever to try and capitalise on the publicity around Australia, the movie," Mr McEvoy told a Senate budget estimates hearing.

The campaign piggy-backed on a US$100 million global marketing campaign of the 2008 film, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman.

After much hype the film was largely snubbed by cinema goers in the United States and received poor reviews from many critics.

The US, however, was one of Australia's tourism "stars" as the US market grew 10 per cent last year, with airline V Australia's entry to trans-Pacific services helping price competition.

Click HERE for more

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There's a new montage of Nicole Kidman's trip to Hong Kong



And no skeptics, Nicole is not pronouncing Omega incorrectly. She is simply using the less common British - Australian pronunciation.

More to come on the Omega trip and proof Keith was there performing! Tough luck skeptics!

Nicole Kidman: Double Winner, Australian InStyle Women Of Style Awards

Kidman triumphed over Claudia Karvan and Jessica Rowe to be voted winner of the news or entertainment category and was also selected for the reader's choice gong at the ceremony in Sydney on Tuesday night.

The 42-year-old actress was unable to attend the event because she is filming Just Go With It with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in Hawaii.

But she did record a special video message that was played to guests, including her sister Antonia and mother Janelle.

"I grew up in a family of women who are very strong and wonderfully opinionated," Kidman said, blowing kisses to her sister who had not been aware of her win before the event.

"My mother was such a huge influence on me, and my education.

"She encouraged me to have a voice and ultimately to give back, so to then be recognised for that makes me very, very proud. It's something I want to continue doing."

Kidman said she believed it was important that women collaborate and honour each other, working together as a collective to achieve change, as she is with her work at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

And to be stylish, she said, was not to compromise.

"Style means having a voice, it means not compromising who you are because of what people say; it means standing proud, and knowing that that sometimes you are going to go in and out of fashion, but still, staying true to yourself," Kidman said, adding she was enjoying her role as a mother.

"Right now I'm very much in a place of nurturing: I love my family, I love being able to take care of my family and I've worked hard so that I can do that."

InStyle editor Kerrie McCallum said Kidman represented what it meant to be at the forefront of Australian style.

"With a career spanning over 25 years, and featuring in more than 30 films, Nicole Kidman is simply an iconic Australian female," McCallum said in a statement.

"An international star, Australia's only winner of a Best Actress Oscar, a passionate charity campaigner, a proud wife and a working mother of three - Nicole Kidman juggles all roles with charm, timeless style and a unique sense of intrigue."

Other winners included designer Kirrily Johnston in the fashion category and Deborra-Lee Furness in the charity and community category.

More than 270 guests attended the red carpet event, including Jodhi Meares, Collette Dinnigan, Kylie Gillies, Claudia Karvan and Leona Edmiston.

Channel 9 News

Here's video of Nicole, her mother Janelle, and sister Antonia.

Congratulations Nicole!





Blogger's Note: Although they are correct that Nicole taped her acceptance message in Hawaii, she was already done filming Just Go With It last week.

candude: Nicole Kidman's last day with us. Very sad. She was amazing; thoroughly prepared and very nice to work with. And on we go...