One of the ways the Scientology cult ropes in vulnerable recruits is through their sham drug rehab front, Narconon. Narconon tries to sound official with a name that can easily be confused for the legitimate self-help group, Narcotics Anonymous, with which they are in no way affiliated. They make addicts go cold turkey and advocate a medically unsound detox regimen that includes saunas and vitamins. Narconon uses mind control tactics to convert people to Scientology.

It’s not surprising, then, that Cruise is said to have recommended Narconon to Keith Urban, who was just released from an accredited rehab for alcoholism treatment. The National Enquirer reports that Tom Cruise and his ex, Nicole Kidman, are battling a religous war over how to raise their two children, Isabella, 14 and Conner, 11.

Now Cruise is pushing Nicole to get back into the fold and to bring her troubled new husband along with her.

Tom has suggested that Keith explore Scientology as a means to conquer his addictions, continued the friend.

That opened up a lot of old wounds from Tom and Nicole’s previous religious clases.

Tom, 44, also is worried about the children being around Keith until he can be sure Keith has conquered his demons, and he’s made that clear to Nicole…

Another close source confirms that Tom and Nicole’s long-standing friction over Scientology has resurfaced with a vengeance - especially since Tom has offered to help Keith get clean through the religion.

“Nicole feels she’s got everything under control and Keith is well on the way to a full recover,” said the source.

“The last thing she wanted to hear was a Scientology pitch from Tom - especially regarding Keith…”

[From The National Enquirer print edition, January 22, 2007]

They also claim that Tom’s new Stepford bride Katie Holmes backs him on the Scientology issue, and that Nicole probably feels like she’s being teamed up on.

The article quotes a cult expert who says that Nicole, who has left Scientology and is now a Catholic, risks losing her children entirely if she says one bad thing about the cult. It sounds like Tom is threatening to take away her children if she doesn’t play along. She seems to barely see them as it is.

Keith Urban has been released from rehab and was seen out at a Golden Globes after party with Nicole. He will start touring Europe in April, which is sure to test his newfound sobriety.

Here are Katie and Tom leaving a Golden Globes after party. Pictures from KatieHolmes.com.

I thought this was a joke when I first read it on aggregate news engine WeSmirch (from which I get a lot of stories - props to them.) Page Six is claiming the “biggest proof” that Nicole Kidman is trying to get pregnant is the fact that she’s sporting bangs now. She was said to be pregnant for like the past year for various reasons, so I thought they were being funny, but no, The Post says that it’s evidence she’s laying off the Botox to prepare her body for pregnancy. Bangs are the newest hair trend, couldn’t that be the reason she changed her style?

NICOLE Kidman is not pregnant - yet. She’s said to be trying with her husband, country crooner Keith Urban, even though Urban is still in the Betty Ford Clinic. The biggest proof Kidman is trying to conceive is her latest haircut: She just got bangs to hide her forehead. As a Hollywood insider said, “If Nicole is pregnant or trying to get pregnant, she will have to stop all Botox treatments like Courtney Cox Arquette did when she was pregnant. It would show most on her forehead.” A rep for Kidman didn’t return emails.

Kidman told reporters at the “Happy Feet” premiere that she wanted to have a bunch of kids running around and her hair flowing down to her waist on a tropical island like in some Gauguin painting. I thought that quote was made up because it sounded pretty hackneyed, but who knows.

Meanwhile Keith Urban, Nicole’s husband of five months, is out of rehab. Now they can focus on that pregnancy that all the tabloids are rooting for:

Country singer Keith Urban is out of rehab and has reunited with his wife of five months, actress Nicole Kidman, Us reports exclusively. The couple had brunch on Sunday at the Polo Lounge in Los Angeles.

They were last seen together on November 12, outside of the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, where Urban was being treated for alcohol abuse.

Urban had been in the in-patient rehabilitation program since October 19 and was expected to stay there for 35-40 days. Urban’s rep said the singer is “still undergoing treatment.”

Pictures are of Kidman at an Omega event in Geneva, Switzerland. She does look to have gained a little weight and looks healthier. Pictures found at Saving Face Forum and from Celebrity Nation.

Yes, I know this rumor keeps getting recycled whenever Nicole Kidman suffers a little bloat or it’s a slow news day, but this time the National Enquirer is reporting it so it must be true. Kidman was said to be undergoing fertility treatment before her boozing beau went off to rehab for a little PR treatment, and now she’s said to be finally pregnant for good. When did she find the time?

Nicole Kidman is pregnant — and she broke the news to hubby Keith Urban at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where he’s in rehab, The ENQUIRER can reveal exclusively.

Two home pregnancy tests confirmed the 39-year-old actress is expecting her first child, sources say — but, ironically, her four-month marriage to country crooner Keith, 39, is in serious jeopardy. “Nicole’s dream of having a child finally came true when two home pregnancy tests came up positive,” an insider tells The ENQUIRER.

“But she’s devastated that Keith lied to her about kicking his addictions to booze and cocaine. She’s hoping the baby will save their relationship.”

I’ll believe it when I see it, but if it’s true good luck to her and all. She’ll need it.

Thanks to D-Listed for linking this. The header picture is from a few months ago.

Star is running a story with the headline that Keith Urban’s cheating sent him into rehab. Inside the article, though, they say that the cheating took place back in March way before their June wedding. Keith is said to have screwed a pr0n star for three full hours at a bachelor party. Nicole must have forgiven him because she ended up marrying him and supposedly knew about it. The article kind of half-suggests that Keith’s infidelity is the reason he’s drinking so heavily now.

Sources close to Nicole say Keith had to fess up to Nicole after reports came out that he had bedded a porn star for three hours at a wild bachelorette party in a ritzy L.A. hotel in late March. Keith had reportedly also been drinking champagne that night. Nicole was “cut to the bone” after learning the truth. “She’s grown up enough to know that boys will be boys,” says a friend of hers. “She didn’t threaten to leave, but she told him he had a lot of bridge burning to do.”

[From Star print edition, November 6, 2006]

It seems like the actual reason may have more to do with the expected failure of his new album, which is out November 7th. He desended into drug abuse after his first album flopped, and he seems to have reverted to old habits again. His first single off the album, a tribute to Nicole called “Once in a Lifetime,” is said to suck.

People reports that “he’s a perfectionist” and that pressure from recording his new album may have pushed him over the edge.

People also says that Nicole and Keith will weather this storm together, but I’m not so sure

“She is standing by him,” a friend says of the actress. “The have a commitment to each other. It’s incredibly painful, but they’re working it out together.

[From People Magazine print edition November 6]

We’ll see how things turn out for Nicole and Keith, but with Keith cheating on Nicole in the spring, then heading to rehab after just four months married, it just doesn’t look good.

Thanks to Sammie’s effluvia for these magazine stories.

Before Keith Urban was whisked off to rehab for “letting his guard down” on his recovery, Keith and his new wife Nicole Kidman were trying to conceive a child with the help of fertility drugs.

Nicole suffered from an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage during her marriage to Tom Cruise and she’s now less fertile at age 39. According to The Enquirer, she and Keith have visited a fertility clinic.

Keith’s sperm were judged motile but groggy, and Nicole has started taking fertility drugs, which may explain her bloated abdomen that all the bloggers (like me) were mistaking for a baby bump:

Nicole recently began taking the fertility drug Clomid to induce ovulation before she left to finish shooting the fantasy film “The Golden Compass” in London.

“Meanwhile, Keith has had tests done, and he was found to be able to have kids,” said the insider.”

“He knows how much Nicole wants to get pregnant.”

[From The National Enquirer print edition. October 30, 2006]

Nicole’s past history of a failed and ectopic pregnancy makes it more difficult for her to get pregnant, while the drug she’s on adds to the risk of another ectopic pregnancy.

The article notes that Nicole and Keith haven’t had a lot of time to conceive a child as their work schedules keep them apart.

With the latest news that Keith has checked into rehab to get treatment for his alcohol addiction, it might be a while before they’re able to start trying for a baby again.

National Enquirer story [via]

Here are pictures of Nicole Kidman in Kosovo as a goodwill ambassador for UNIFEM on 10/14. [via]

No wonder these poor celebrities work their asses off at the gym and plastic surgeon’s office. A little bloat and the Internets and celebrity glossies declare they’re pregnant. Poor Nicole lost her imaginary baby bump in a miscarriage of gossip this week. She was photographed outside her gym with a perfectly flat tummy poking out of her top.

Nicole Kidman joined her new husband, country singer Keith Urban, on the opening night of his North American tour in Ontario, Canada. Kidman did not join her husband on stage, but he made a reference to her, dedicating his song “Making Memories of Us,” to “my lovely bride.” He also told concert-goers that he was “happy to join the married crowd”.

Security at the concert was beefed up after a local radio station said they would pay $75,000 for a picture of the famous newlyweds kissing.

Here is Nicole Kidman with her skinny stomach. [via]

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban drove their Bentley to Target near Nashville to pick up some sort of cleaning device. Keith went casual in a t-shirt and cargo pants while Nicole looked fresh and lovely in a white sundress and sandals. People thought that the pregnancy rumors could be put to rest when a far-away picture of Nicole in a bikini on her honeymoon came out. Her stomach looked toned and muscular, but if you squint hard enough you can still see a bump. Now she seems even more pregnant in this flowy dress. The wind could just be blowing her dress out, but it looks like she’s pregnant to me.

The Sun quotes a “source” as saying that Nicole has a bump, but their source is probably someone looking at the pictures just like us:

Reader Millie says Nicole and Keith go to the gym a lot, but that doesn’t mean that Nicole isn’t pregnant. We’ll keep saying it as we wait for Nicole to really show. She’s supposedly had two miscarriages, so if she’s really pregnant she’ll wait to announce it until she’s much further along.

No one placed a bid on the package of memorabilia from the Nicole Kidman-Keith Urban wedding last weekend. The Australian seller wanted over $3,700 USD for the items, which look fancy but not too exciting:

The auction ended July 3rd with 0 bids, but that may just be due to the fact that it hasn’t been publicized yet. Someone is surely stupid or crazed enough to pay almost 4k for that stuff.

The seller has a positive feedback rating of 14, and has only bought, not sold, items in the past. In the past 30 days they’ve bid on L’oreal lipgloss and bought a Thomas the Tank engine print, so they’re likely a mom that could use the cash. I would guess it’s someone who worked at the reception.

If you’d like a piece of the Kidman-Urban wedding you still have a chance. The wedding booklet is up for auction by another less-reputable seller at a more reasonable starting bid of $260 USD. The auction ends in about a week.

Here are the pictures of the stuff from eBay as well as some candids of Nicole and Keith celebrating the 4th of July. [via]

Australian gossip rags are reporting that Nicole Kidman did invite her ex, Tom Cruise, to her wedding with Keith Urban last weekend. He didn’t attend, but sent his regards. His two adopted children with Kidman did attend:

Earlier reports that Tom sent Nicole a picture of Suri for her 39th birthday with the message “a very nappy birthday” were false, and were undoubtedly made up in England, where most of the fake gossip originates and nappy is a common colloquialism for diaper. Nicole was also said to have wished “mother and baby well” after the birth of Suri, but that turned out to be made up, too. It could be true that Tom sent his regards after the wedding, but we’ll probably never know.

Nicole and Keith are back in Nashville after departing their honeymoon in Tahiti on Saturday. They left at night to avoid photographers, and boarded a jetboat to a chartered flight, which took them to the Island nation’s capital, where they caught a private jet home. Their honeymoon was probably not as peaceful as they were hoping, considering that Eva Longoria and Tony Parker crashed their resort.

Nicole is no longer on pregnancy watch after she was photographed looking super-fit in a bikini. Both she and Keith are headed back to work:

Here are lower resolution pictures of Nicole and Keith on their honeymoon, and some higher resolution candids of them back in Nashville. [via]

I bought The National Enquirer partially due to the headline “Nicole’s Miscarriage Secret: The heartbreak behind her wedding.” The headline makes it seem as if Nicole was pregnant, as everyone has been speculating, but lost the baby right before her wedding to Keith Urban - just like Brenda on “Six Feet Under.” This wasn’t the case at all.

All the Enquirer did was recycle the old story of Nicole’s miscarriages during her marriage to half-pint Tom Cruise and present it as some big exclusive that caused her pain during her nuptuals. This is a cheap trick to sell papers, and it worked:

(From The National Enquirer print version)

How is that news? We already knew Nicole had a miscarriage, and someone speculating that it bothers her does not make the story an exclusive. It’s also deceptive of the Enquirer to market it this way.

It may be a new revelation that Nicole had a second miscarriage, though. The “insider” says she had the ectopic pregnancy right before she married Tom in 1990.

That’s sad for Nicole, but it’s ancient history. Nicole is supposedly worried if she can carry a baby now, but who knows if that’s true. She may or may not be pregnant, and we’ll just have to wait it out and see.

The Enquirer did have one redeeming feature in the deceptive article - an inset featuring Nicole’s men throughout the years. Did you know she dated rapper Q-tip? I didn’t.

Here is a picture of the article as well as some high res pictures of Nicole and Keith in the lobby of their hotel the day after their wedding. They are carrying a present for Keith’s father, as it was his birthday. The happy couple is now honeymooning in Tahiti. [via]