For the second year in a row, I got to sit and chat with Nicole Kidman backstage at the Grammy Awards. Why is an Oscar winner, and Best Actress nominee- for “Rabbit Hole”–hanging out at the Staples Center on Grammy night? Well, because her husband, and now father of two of her children, is Keith Urban, winner of the Best Country Performance by a Male Singer.
And while Keith is on stage or doing press, Nicole is backstage having dinner, and meeting music people. For a few hours, she isn’t the focus of everyone’s attention, which is nice. Backstage she ran into another “rock widow”–Heidi Klum, married to Seal.
Between Heidi’s German accent and Nicole’s Aussie ear, they almost needed a translator! Said Heidi: “I just went tenting.” Nicole: “Tinting?” “No, tenting.” Klum explained she’d just pitched a $50 tent in the Grand Canyon with the crew of her new TV show. “I loved it!” Heidi exclaimed.
Kidman is waiting for the February 27th Oscar ceremony by shooting a highly anticipated HBO movie about Ernest Hemingway and his famous writer wife, Martha Gellhorn. “It’s a terrific role,” Nicole told me, “but very demanding. I have to get up there to San Francisco and get my head into it.”
She’s got her two small daughters, Sunday Rose, and newborn Faith Margaret, with her. Sunday Rose, 2, is already fielding all of Faith’s baby presents. “Faith Margaret cannot fight back yet,” Nicole agreed with a laugh. “She’s sleeping.” And Sunday Rose is determined to pick Nicole’s Oscar dress. “I did say she might put me in a tutu. And she might!” Kidman beams when she talks about these little girls, and also is full of pride about her two older kids, Isabella and Conor.
PS Nicole also heaps praise on Gwyneth Paltrow. “She’s really become a singer,” Kidman said. “You can see how much she enjoys it. And she’s very, very good.” Couldn’t Nicole make the same transition, I asked? After all, she sang in “Moulin Rouge” and made a video of “Something Stupid” with Ewan McGregor?
“Nooooo,” she said fast.
