Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are starring in a huge epic movie titled Australia, which from what I can guess the whole world is waiting desperately for, except Australians who are sort of rolling their eyes at another movie about us all running around in the bush with cattle and horses. Because we do that all the time. There are no cities here, and we go to work in a kangaroo, okay?

The movie is set for release in 15 days, and director Baz Lurham has just changed the unpopular ending, and is still desperately trying to finish the film.

Warning: Spoilers!

Hugh Jackman is a hard man to kill. Just ask director Baz Luhrmann, who has buckled in the face of negative test screenings and reshot the final scenes of his epic movie Australia to resurrect his leading man.

The talks between Luhrmann and the various suits at 20th Century Fox, which has wagered $US130 million ($190 million) on the most expensive Australian film of all time, were described as “intense”. You can see why. With just 15 days to go before the film’s release, no one has seen a finished print. Luhrmann is believed to be living in a caravan at a post-production facility and handing in his homework reel by reel.

Only time will tell if the result is Gone With The Wind on steroids or Out Of Africa lite.

Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald points out that Baz has a stellar history of killing off his lead characters (Romeo and Juliet, anyone?) but can you really kill off your handsome dashing hero. It’s an epic, while someone should die a hero’s death, your romantic lead needs to live on handsomely. And when he’s played by Hugh Jackman, sans shirt.

The good news is the new ending gives us another thing to watch on the DVD extras.

Oddly, Hugh Jackman wasn’t first choice for the star.

And then there’s Jackman himself. He wasn’t Luhrmann’s first choice for the role of the “rough-hewn” drover. That was Russell Crowe, aka The Gladiator. A man who makes an agonising last act death look good. But Crowe wanted too much money, so Luhrmann got Jackman, a man so pleasant he can sport flesh-ripping talons and still look adorable. A man who will never be mistaken for Chuck Norris after playing Peter Allen in a musical and hosting the Tony Awards not once but three times.

But if Luhrmann was disappointed to get the Tenterfield Saddler instead of Maximus, he hid it well. “There are not many actors who have an ability to pick up a Nicole Kidman, throw her on the bed and ravish her with believability,” he has said in one of the interminable interviews spruiking the film. Then, in case anyone still entertained doubts about Jackman’s virility: “He is also excellent with a cattle whip.”

Sydney Morning Herald

Urgh, so glad that beef features isn’t playing the stockman in this film.

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were on Oprah promoting their film yesterday, where Nicole displayed baby photos and talked about having nine (nine!) women at her birth. Nicole adds that her son Connor joined her at the film shoot, which I’ve never heard any press coverage of, which sort of shows that she has more to do with her adopted children than we might think.

Australia is set for release on November 26th, and cost $AUD750,000 a minute to make.

Hugh Jackman is shown with Catherine Zeta Jones at a benefit the Motion Picture & Television Fund at Sony Pictures in Culver City, CA on 11/8/08. Credit: Bauergriffin. Nicole Kidman is shown with husband Keith Urban at the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards held at Carnegie Hall in New York on 11/10/08. Credit: WENN

Hot Aussie dad Hugh Jackman just turned 40 yesterday and he celebrated the way any man with that physique would do in the summer – he went swimming. He was seen taking a dip today at Bronte Beach, a suburb of Sydney.

On Saturday Hugh and his wife of 12 years Deborra-Lee Furness were seen at the playground with their two children, Oscar, 8, and Ava, 3. Hugh knelt down to talk to little Ava in a play house and even went down the slide.

Jackman’s much-anticipated epic film Australia, directed by Baz Luhrmann and co-starring Nicole Kidman, is out in Australia on November 13 and in the the US on November 26. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is due out next year in May.

Photo credit: Bauergriffinonline

Hugh Jackman is buff and hot and witty, and, according to Mike Walker in the National Enquirer, acted like a real-life superhero while promoting his superhero alter-ego Wolverine at Comic-Con in San Diego recently.

Enquirer reports that Hugh saw two female fans in the parking lot dressed as X-Men characters Magma and Storm. To his surprise, the woman playing Magma then set her arm on fire. The stunt went awry because “Storm” wasn’t able to douse the flames fast enough, and “Magma’s” hair caught on fire.

Moving like a real superhero, Jackman swiftly yanked her costume’s cape over her head, smothering the flames as he yelled for security.

[From National Enquirer, print edition, August 18, 2008]

Medics treated the woman, who luckily only received superficial scalp and head wounds.

Unless I see video or phone-cam pictures or at least a fan’s blog report on this, it sounds like fiction, but it’s still better than the plot of X-Men 3.

Not that I doubt Hugh could pull this off. Anyone capable of believably portraying both Wolverine and Peter Allen can certainly put out a flaming fan-girl in his down time.

Hugh Jackman’s next film role is in Australia, opposite new mom Nicole Kidman. X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens May 1, 2009.

Note by Celebitchy: Since this is alleged to have taken place at Comic-con, which I would venture to guess is filled with tech-savvy people who would be eager to spread the news of such a fantastic story, I doubt it’s true. Mike Walker’s column in the Enquirer is the only place I’ve seen this news at all and google searches turn up nothing. Here’s a video of Jackman on stage at Comic-con and when they pan to the audience about every third person is taping with a video recorder or their cell phone. This is alleged to have taken place in the parking lot, but wouldn’t we have heard of it already?

Either way, Jackman is a hero to me. Watching that video of him speaking to the audience at Comic-con, he is super grateful to his fans. Plus he has that cute accent.

Hugh Jackman is shown filming Australia on 8/11/08. Credit: ICON/Fame Pictures

Now the fact that I take dance classes with Lisa Rinna will have no effect on this posting… unless she reads it and tells Louis Van Amstel to ’86′ my ass from class!

Harry Hamlin has always been a personal favorite of mine. I mean Clash of the Titans is an all time favorite and only because not just because he was in a loin cloth for the entire film. What I am thankful for about Mr. Hamlin, is even though he has been moving into voice-over work since being voted off Season 3 of Dancing with the Stars, he hasn’t gone the way of Jack Nicholson and THAT man’s shirtless body. I mean I get it: Harry Hamlin is 56 freakin’ years old. He must be so sick of hardcore working out (yes, Mario Lopez I’m talking to you. One day you too will get sick of working out unless you become like Jack LaLanne which is a horrifying thought in itself.), so at least we can see where everything is supposed to go on Harry, which gently reminds us of how sexy Harry is and was back in 1987 when he was named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.

Now Liam Neeson, 56, here at “Club 55” (ironic) beach in Saint Tropez is another story.

Now I love me some Liam Neeson. High Spirits is like the best movie ever! (Oh and Schindler’s List too!) But I think here is a lovely example that it’s time to stop taking your shirt off my good Irishman. We’ve seen it already in The Big Man, The Good Mother, Husbands and Wives, Leap of Faith and frankly we saw all of it in Kinsey. In the words of Diana Summer and Barbra Streisand: Enough is Enough!

Talk about putting the HUGE in Hugh Jackman, NOW we’re talking! Can you believe he’ll be 40 this October! I’m sure this is still the body he had from the filming of 2009′s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but being on the beaches of St. Tropez (with his adopted son Oscar Maximillian) with that body, could change this gay boy from saying ‘Oui-Oui’ in the south of France to having his wee-wee go north in the south of his pants… if you know what I mean.

Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman are making friends with their neighbours. No, they aren’t leaving their respective partners to shack up in a private love nest, but are making a movie in the Australian outback, appropriately titled Australia.

The stars flew in to Western Australia last week, after the Kununurra set dried out.

There had been a major delay in filming because of torrential rains in the outback area, forcing the entire cast and crew back to Sydney for a few weeks.

But when Kidman finally jetted into Kununurra’s tiny airstrip, she was thrilled by the warm welcome.

A number of town residents, including schoolgirls with posies of flowers, were on hand to greet her.

“She was completely surprised,” an insider close to Kidman said. “She wasn’t expecting anything, but there were a number of fans at the airport.”

The crowd was back out in force for Jackman, who arrived after Kidman.

Sydney Morning Herald

Being an Australian myself, I’m looking forward to this new Baz Lurhmann film. He’s the guy who cast Claire Danes and Leonardo DeCaprio in Romeo and Juliet, and made Moulin Rouge. I don’t know if Australia is going to be the same kind of thing, but then again, I’ve never gone anywhere near an outback cattle station and I didn’t come from a family of farmers. To me, living in Australia is actually kind of like the soap opera Neighbours. Which might be a more accurate portrayal of Australian suburbia, but not as compelling as drought and flood. Actually, I hope Baz puts the flood in the movie. In a time when it is illegal to wash your car or water your lawn due to drought, you’d be in trouble if you wasted all that water.

Here’s what imdb.com has to say about the plot. Don’t read anymore if you’d like to be surprised.

Luhrmann’s film is set in northern Australia prior to World War II and centers on an English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle driver (Jackman) to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country’s most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

Maybe Australia was like this 40 years before I was born? Actually, sounds like a good movie, but not likely to have any of Baz Luhrmann’s signature musical numbers in it.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Header image of Nicole and Hugh on set on 5/24/07 thanks to Splash News.

Scarlett Johansson is one of favorite actresses. She’s humorous and witty, and manages to look gorgeous without being pompous. She doesn’t go out partying when she could get into any restaurant, club, or exclusive event in the world.

In a recent interview with InStyle magazine, Scarlett says that it’s “weird” knowing all the details of her fellow celebrities’ lives, and that she prefers to keep hers private:

The 21-year old star said that knowing ‘everything’ about another celeb’s life was “weird”, and that she was better off staying in the dark.

“I can’t stand those articles where people spill their life story. After a while, I feel like I know more about them than their best friend does – and that’s weird. It’s better when you don’t know everything,” InStyle quoted her, as saying.

Johansson insists that revealing intimate details also has a negative effect on the stars’ professional careers, for people then find it even more difficult to believe in their on-screen personas.

“People are having a harder time buying into the glamour of movies. They want reality TV and tabloids – that escapism into other people’s personal business,” she added.

Scarlett obviously knows how to keep people interested in her, and has wisely chosen a low-key lifestyle.

Here she is with Hugh Jackman at “The Prestige” premiere in London on November 5. [via] Scarlett and Hugh play rival magicians in the film. I don’t really like the way her dress gathers at her midsection, although it does make her look stacked.

Update Scarlett has confirmed that she’s making that crazy album of Tom Waits covers, saying “it’s coming along…” and “I just love his music.”

Scarlet Johansson and Josh Hartnett are said to have bought a $6 million loft in New York City – and to have requested extra soundproofing around their bedroom:

Scarlet and Josh lived together in Josh’s Tribeca apartment from about December of last year until late March, when Scarlet is said to have spent $2 million on her own Tribeca condo. They’ve tried to keep a low-profile relationship, and that’s great news that they’re moving in together and giving it another try.

It could be true that just Scarlet’s buying the place, but if she’s requesting a soundproof bedroom there’s got to be a good reason.

Here is Scarlet playing a journalist in “Scoop” with Woody Allen and hot Hugh Jackman. [via]

The Stars of XMen 3 were on hand to promote the film at the Cannes film festival. Halle Berry, Rebecca Romjin, Hugh Jackman, Anna Panquin, and Famke Janssen were among the celebrities at a photocall for the movie today.

Berry has said that she can’t party as much as she’d like in Cannes because she’s busy promoting her film:

Ratner is indeed known to party. He has been linked with Lindsay Lohan and was said to have made the teenager jealous when she found him in bed with a hot model.

Halle Berry asked a BBC radio DJ if he was “having a racist moment” when he inexplicably decided to impersonate a “big, fat, black guy” by his own admission. People are saying that Berry overreacted, but asking if someone is having a racist moment is a mild reaction, and seems justified based on the description of what happened.

Here are the pictures from the photocall. Halle Berry is shown with Brett Rattner in the inset picture.