Women Affairs

Jano Gibson and Andrew Hornery After the loud claps of thunder and torrential rain came the screams. "Nicole! Nicole! Nicole!" yelled photographers and fans lining the red carpet at last night's Australian premiere of the fantasy adventure film The Golden Compass at the State Theatre. "It's nice to be able to show up and just say thank you to the fans, and also thank you to the country actually," said Nicole Kidman, who plays the glamorous but sinister scholar Marisa Coulter in the movie adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Dressed in body-hugging, shiny silver pants and jacket, and holding an umbrella, Kidman signed autographs for some of the hundreds of fans who turned out in the rain with traffic closed on Market Street and Pitt Street. Kidman revealed she was drawn to playing the role after receiving a personal appeal from Pullman. "[He] wrote me an amazing letter telling me that when he was writing the novels he had me in ...

Angelina Jolie signed autographs and chatted with fans today in London's Leicester Square during the British premiere of the movie Beowulf . Jolie, wearing black leather trousers and a tight sweater over her slender frame, brought along her boyfriend Brad Pitt. "It's so, so nice to see all these fans here, it always is," she told reporters as hundreds of people lined up outside the brightly lit runway to the theatre. "I haven't been here for a little bit. I lived here for a few years, and I do plan to come back more often." Pitt, dressed in a grey flat-cap, stood back. "I'm off duty tonight," he told reporters before heading into the theatre with Jolie to watch the film. Director Robert Zemeckis brings the Norse legend of Beowulf to life with technology similar to what he used on The Polar Express to capture live actors whose performances are then digitally animated. Jolie plays Beowulf's vile foe, Grendel's mother. Co-star S...

Nicole Kidman has begun piling on the pounds - not because she's pregnant, but for her next movie. The 40-year-old Australian movie star has already added 4.5kg to her svelte frame and plans to double her weight gain in coming weeks before she starts filming The Reader. "She is naturally very slim and loves to run and swim so she is always very toned," an unnamed close friend of Kidman's told The Mail on Sunday newspaper. "The part she plays demands that she gets fatter throughout the movie as her character slips into middle age. "Nicole was originally planning to use prosthetics but was told by the director, Stephen Daldry, that it would be more realistic if she gained the weight." Kidman is following in the footsteps of fellow actress Renee Zellweger, who packed on more than 13kg to play Bridget Jones in two movies by chowing down on pizza, peanut butter sandwiches and fast food. Kidman's new diet includes drinking daily protein shakes and eating ...