40 year-old pregnant actress Nicole Kidman will no longer be representing the iconic rich old ladies’ fragrance Chanel No. 5. She’s been replaced by cutesy French actress Audrey Tautou, 29, who played the wide-eyed childlike role in Amelie:

[Nicole Kidman] has been replaced as the face of Chanel No.5 by French beauty Audrey Tatou…

It is not known exactly how much the lucrative deal was worth, but sources say it is at least £4.3 million.

Kidman has been associated with the fragrance since 2004, when she appeared in a $60million advertisement directed by fellow Australian and Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann.

Meanwhile things are smelling Rosy for 29-year-old Tatou who will be reunited with Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet calling the shots for the advertisment campaign.

[From The Daily Mail]

We had some Chanel No. 5 in the house at one point that my husband probably inherited from an ex and I remember smelling it and wondering what the big deal was. It didn’t appeal to me and I certainly wouldn’t use it. I wore Angel at the time, (which is incidentally now repped by Naomi Watts) but it’s become way too popular and you don’t want to smell like everyone else.

Wikipedia notes that Coco Chanel created her signature fragrance in 1921 with the intent to make it smell nasty and artificial. That’s not exactly how they phrase it, but that’s what I got out of it:

“I want to give women an artificial perfume,” said Chanel. “Yes, I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made. I don’t want any rose or lily of the valley, I want a perfume that is a composition.” [1] No. 5 is famous for being the first perfume to heavily rely on synthetic floral aldehydes as a top note. Before synthetics, perfume either had to be applied heavily or frequently so that the fragrance would last.

Chanel applied the French aesthetic theory that “ugly” placed next to “beautiful”[citation needed], by contrast, makes the beautiful object appear more so. In this era almost all perfumes were floral and “pretty” - designed to enhance a woman’s beauty with more beauty. Instead of the scent of flowers, Coco wanted a perfume that “reflects my personality, something abstract and unique”. She believed that a perfume should serve to spotlight a woman’s natural beauty using contrast - i.e. the artificial perfume would make the woman’s natural beauty more evident.[citation needed]

[From Wikipedia]

So somehow an expensive perfume that was purposely made to smell artificial using the less scientifically advanced chemicals available 85 years ago is still selling well.

Losing out on an $8.5 million contract has got to hurt. I wonder if Kidman knew that she was about to replaced or if it came as a surprise to her. She’s pregnant so it doesn’t seem quite fair that she would be canned at this point.

Audrey Tautou used to annoy me, because she’s such a sweet little pixie that I used to think it was a put on. She genuinely seems like a decent person though. She hasn’t become half as successful as she should have after Amelie, and only had one big Hollywood film, The Da Vinci Code, since. Maybe this Chanel campaign will help bring her more name recognition and International success.

Audrey Tautou is shown on 2/28/08 at Paris Fashion Week, thanks to WENN.

Nicole Kidman is obviously getting a bit tired of the speculation about her puny baby bump, doing her best to make it look bigger at a United Nations Conference.

Nic’s in NY raising awareness of violence against women, in her role as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.

I can sympathize with her small bump – I had a minor bulge that well into my eighth month meant I didn’t look terribly pregnant. Unlike Nicole, I didn’t have the entire world aware of my pregnancy, and people just thought I was getting fat.

I was a little surprised to see Nicole Kidman in New York, as on that same day her father was undergoing scheduled heart surgery.

The actress’ sister Antonia revealed the news on Monday (21Apr08) at a TV prizegiving in Sydney.

Collecting the ASTRA Award for Favourite Female Personality, Antonia held back tears as she accepted the honour onstage at the Hordern Pavilion.

She said, “It is a sweet end to a sad day because my dad’s in hospital.”

She refused to reveal more, but reports suggest the Kidman patriarch, a renowned psychologist, underwent scheduled heart surgery hours before his daughter collected her TV award.

Contact Music

I guess the surgery must have been very routine and simple, but they’re still cutting open your chest, swinging open your ribcage and poking around in your chest. I think I’d make the trip to be by dad’s side if I could, and I’m pretty sure the UN would give you the day off. Even the women being subjected to violence would probably understand you needing to be with your dad on that kind of a day.

I guess there was no danger, and Nicole really wanted to fulfill her commitments. She hasn’t got much time left to perform her Ambassador duties with a baby on the way.

Nicole made no mention of her son Connor entering into the film industry, appearing in Seven Pounds with Will Smith. While I think the news was released after her appearance, I also get the impression that Nicole doesn’t see as much of her adopted children with Tom Cruise as what she once did. They (Isabella and Connor) are now 15 and 13 respectively, and probably want to spend more time with their friends than with their parents. Nicole has just bought a home near the Cruise compound in LA, so she might be able to start using that 50/50 shared custody agreement she has with her ex-husband, although it might be too late to reverse the Scientology brainwashing.

Nicole Kidman is still barely looking pregnant and she’s supposedly due in July, according to a statement given by her mother. That would make her six months along. Maybe her dress is just designed so well that she doesn’t really show, along with the fact that she’s tall with a slender build. It just seems odd that she’s still not looking pregnant yet. She did get boobs, though, that’s for sure.

Kidman was at the CMT Music Awards last night to support her husband, Keith Urban. Urban was nominated for Male Video of the Year for “I Told You So,” but Trace Adkins took home the award in that category. Urban performed “Raise The Barn” at the awards last night with Brooks & Dunn. The big winner of the night was Kellie Pickler with three trophies for her song “I Wonder.”

Asking George Clooney to be the godfather to your kid could either be a very good or a very bad thing – but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing in the middle. It’s either the best idea ever, or the stupidest thing a person could do. George is supposedly pretty fun, would probably buy the kid a lot of great stuffed animals (do kids still like those?) and has a great house on Lake Como. All essential qualities for an awesome godparent. On the other hand, George is a notorious playboy with a penchant for women much younger than him. So if you end up having a daughter, you’d have to keep a close eye on her after her eighteenth birthday. And really, isn’t that the age at which you’d like to start relaxing a little? But Nicole Kidman is either quite sure she’s having a boy, or she really wants access to that Lake Como house, because she’s named George Clooney as her future kid’s godfather.

Nicole Kidman doesn’t know if she is having a baby boy or girl with husband Keith Urban, but she’s already picked out a godfather for the tot - her good pal George Clooney! Now that she’s no longer married to Tom Cruise, Nicole has abandoned the Church of Scientology and has embraced her Catholic roots, so she is planning on having the baby baptized in the Catholic Church, an insider tells Star. “Nicole asked George to be her baby’s godfather, and he agreed.” Nicole has been good friends with George since they starred together in “The Peacemaker” in 1997.

[Star Magazine, print edition, March 24, 2008]

All kidding aside, George strikes me as the kind of guy who’d make a perfect godfather. In fact he kind of makes more sense in that role – or as a cool uncle - than he does as an actual father. Again, probably due to the excessive womanizing and general playboy/bachelor lifestyle. Right after Nicole announced her pregnancy, George told People magazine that she’ll make a perfect mother. The phrasing seemed to ignore the fact that Nicole already is a mother to her two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise, but point taken. Having George as a godfather seems like the perfect counterweight to having Nicole as a mother. One will be a little strict, the other will probably give you a few spoonfuls of champagne at your fifth birthday party. Either way, you’re a pretty lucky kid.

Update: George Clooney’s rep has said that this rumor is not true and that he will not be the godfather for Nicole’s upcoming baby. [In US Weekly, print edition, April 7, 2008]

Update: video available at FlyNet’s website. (NSFW language)

Nicole Kidman’s people sure are aggressive with the paparazzi. On Thursday Kidman’s bodyguard got out of the car he was in with the actress and approached the SUV of a photographer who was trailing them. He then proceeded to beat the shit out of the guy, who of course caught it all on tape. The video is above, thanks to Flynet Online.

The photographer had to call 911 to get treatment for his injuries, and from the look of him he was beat up badly. He sure looks like he has a case against Kidman’s bodyguard.

This follows an incident on Wednesday in which Kidman’s personal trainer stole the camera of a photographer who was following them. It was returned later.

Both of these people were employed by Kidman so you have to think she’s encouraging them somehow. If you looked out the back of your window and saw your bodyguard beating the shit out of photographer wouldn’t you get out and tell him to stop? Would you even let your bodyguard get out of the car to approach a photographer? That strikes me as something she would have to tell him to do, or could at least tell him “no, I don’t want you getting into a confrontation now” if he asked the driver to stop.

Given that it happened twice, you have to think Kidman is at least not reigning in her help or at worst encouraging them to be violent against the paparazzi. The paparazzi are annoying and can shout really obnoxious questions, but they don’t deserve to get the crap beat out of them.

There are rumors dogging Kidman that she’s not really pregnant and is either having a surrogate have her child or has lost her baby. Lainey of Lainey’s gossip mentioned the rumor that she could be wearing a prosthetic belly to try and continue looking pregnant. I don’t believe that at all, and it sounds kind of cruel to speculate about it. Kidman was seen lifting up her shirt to show her belly to a photographer last week when she was out running. It certainly sounds like she’s hormonal considering how she’s allowing her people to harass the paparazzi.

Cindy Adams wrote on Tuesday in two lines at the beginning of her column that “Boozing backstage during the Oscarcast is a no-no. But if you’re pregnant Nicole Kidman it’s a yes- yes. She wanted white wine. She got it….” and that was all she wrote about it before jumping into a story about Jack Nicholson.

I read this story yesterday morning but didn’t publish it because this tidbit was given without much evidence, along with the subject being controversial. Some doctors say that it’s ok to have one or two glasses of wine a week after you’re past the first trimester, but this is understandably a heated issue and many experts and groups recommend abstaining entirely during pregnancy.

Gwyneth Paltrow was eight months pregnant in March of 2006 when she drank a beer while out at a sushi restaurant, and then had two or three glasses of wine another night at dinner, according to a witness. Her rep confirmed that she drank the beer, but was careful to say she didn’t have any sushi. This led to a lot of criticism of how she was possibly endangering her baby.

Rachel Weisz made a controversial statement later that year by answering a reporter’s question about whether she thought it was ok to drink while pregnant by saying “Personally I do. They say not in the first three months though, but I think that after that it’s fine. I mean in Europe they drink it.”

When I was pregnant I gave up all alcohol, coffee, my favorite food sushi, and did just about everything I was told to do. I was super careful like that, but it doesn’t give me the right to judge anyone else for something that is a minor transgression at worst. If Kidman only had one glass of wine and she was really nervous, at least she wasn’t popping pills or anything. A lot of people were saying “with her history of miscarriage, she should be careful,” etc., but we don’t know if she had a sip, a full glass, if it was for someone else, or if her doctor told her it was ok.

According to Nicole Kidman’s rep, it’s not even true that asked for white wine backstage at the Oscars. Given the way this is so harshly worded, I tend to believe her:

“I try to ignore your [Perez’s] column, unlike most of the rest of the world, because it is so nasty. But I have to tell you that Nicole Kidman most certainly did NOT drink white wine or any other alcoholic beverage backstage. She had water and lemon zinger tea. That’s it. I know, I was there with her I cannot remember that last time that Cindy Adams got anything right. She’s an idiot, and you can quote me.”

[From PerezHilton.com]

Maybe Kidman drank her water out of a goblet or something, because they’re probably fancy like that at the Oscars.

The thread for this story on Oh No They Didn’t mentioned the infamous picture of a very pregnant and topless Catherine Zeta Jones puffing away on a cigarette. The photos were taken in 2003, and Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas sued to make sure that the photo was pulled from websites where it was posted.

Sinead O’Connor similarly sent cease and desists to websites that posted photos of her supposedly smoking while pregnant, with her lawyer saying she wasn’t pregnant at the time the photos were taken.

Commentor JoiGirl on our article about Rachel Weisz semi-advocating drinking while pregnant said “I think we have a huge problem in our society right now with people viewing expectant moms as public property, and feeling entitled not only to grope their bellies but also to tell them how to be good pregnant women.”

And when we do this to the celebrities, most of them make sure to let us know that they weren’t doing anything wrong in the first place.

For five months along, Nicole Kidman sure is doing a good job of hiding her growing stomach. Especially because it seems from these pictures that she’s not trying to hide it at all. Nicole is supposedly five months along. I am no pregnancy expert, but I had no idea a person could have such a small stomach at that point. That’s what J-Lo looked like 48 hours after conception. I have don’t know what’s going on here, but something is fishy. Nicole was out and about promoting her film “The Golden Compass” in Japan. Depending on who you believe, the film supposedly promotes atheism.

“These books denigrate Christianity, thrash the Catholic Church and sell the virtues of atheism,” asserted [Bill Donohue, president and CEO] of Catholic League, who earlier this month called on Christians to boycott the movie.”

[From the Christian Post]

Interestingly, Nicole said that both of her children, who are being raised as Scientologists by ex-husband Tom Cruise, have seen the film. One would think this could cause quite the parental skirmish between the former spouses. Though Scientologists aren’t Christians, many say that the film promotes atheism on the whole. However it should also be mentioned that Nicole has said she considers herself Catholic, and yet she starred in the film.

In the story, a malevolent governing body called “the Church,” which answers to the “Vatican Council,” is known to kidnap children for experimentation. With the help of a golden compass that reveals a coded answer to any question asked by the user, Lyra, by the trilogy’s end, gets to the bottom of the missing children and kills a character called “God.”

[From the Christian Post]

“The Golden Compass” sounds very interested and complicated – surprisingly so for a children’s movie. Nicole said both her kids have seen it, and she’s glad to make a kid’s movie once in a while.

During the press conference, the five-month pregnant star revealed she had deliberately chosen The Golden Compass script because it’s child-friendly.

She said: “My Bella and Connor are 13 and 15. So they have seen the film and they loved it… my child inside won’t see the film for a long time.”

“But I think once you have children you want to balance the work you do because they give up so much of you to your work. So occasionally you want to make films that they can take their friends to, they can go to the premiere of, that they celebrate.”

[From the Daily Mail]

I can’t help but wonder how much Nicole runs by Tom and visa versa. I would love to know what went on behind closed doors in terms of Connor and Isabella’s religious upbringing. Since her divorce, Nicole has gently said that she considers Scientology to be hogwash, and always did. Her father is a very prominent Australian psychologist, and Scientologists are famously opposed to psychiatry. However her kids were obviously already being raised as such, so whether due to Tom’s insistence or Nicole’s acquiescence, their kids still go to Scientology camp every summer. It’s hard not to wonder if “The Golden Compass” got them thinking. Reading about it has gotten me thinking too. Though I’m still mostly thinking about Nicole Kidman’s confusing lack of visible stomach.

Nicole Kidman is shown at a press conference for The Golden Compass in Tokyo yesterday.

We were wrong about the state of Nicole Kidman’s womb - she is pregnant, according to her rep and is predictably “thrilled.” Congratulations to Nicole and Keith:

Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban are expecting their first child, her rep confirms.

“The couple are thrilled,” Catherine Olim says in a statement.

For Kidman, this will be her third child. She and her former husband, Tom Cruise adopted two children during their marriage: Isabella, now 15, and Connor, 12.

As for where Kidman and Urban, who will be a first-time parent, may bring up their impending arrival, the couple, though both from Down Under, purchased a farm near Leipers Fork, Tenn., a half-hour southwest of Nashville, in 2007.

[From People.com]

I was such a skeptic about those pregnancy reports as the gossip rags were getting to be like the boy who cried that the famous frozen-faced lady was pregnant over and over again, but this is wonderful news for Nicole. I hope everything goes perfect for her with her pregnancy and upcoming baby. She has spoken so frequently about wanting a baby and it’s so nice to hear her dreams have come true.

Nicole was photographed out looking happy as she lunched with a group of friends in Sydney on Sunday. I bet she broke the good news to them.

Nicole Kidman is shown on 12/18/07 at a screening of The Golden Compass in Australia for sick children from Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick. She is also shown on 12/16 at the Sydney premiere of Golden Compass. We already published these photos but they’re the newest ones I have access to where she’s standing up.

While I love any list, particularly a top ten, Film Threat’s list of Hollywood’s Coldest People is one of my absolute favourites.

FILM THREAT’S FRIGID 50: THE COLDEST PEOPLE IN HOLLYWOOD 2007

1. George W. Bush
2. Angelina Jolie
3. Jim Carrey
4. Comedies Not Associated with Judd Apatow
5. Owen Wilson
6. Nicole Kidman
7. Hilary Swank
8. Eli Roth/Torture Porn
9. Jennifer Lopez
10. Jon Heder

While I might have to question George W. Bush’s inclusion on the list, it’s apparently because of his ‘appearances’ in movies like Transformers or TV shows like South Park. Number two Angelina Jolie currently has the number one film in the American box office Beowulf, so it seems particularly bad timing to have her on the most frigid list. Although, have you seen her legs lately? Not hot.

You can check out the full list of 51 on Filmthreat, and the reasons for inclusion, but I have to add that number eleven was Star Wars. I am completely on the anti-Jedi bandwagon. Sci-fi lovers, just because the films were great in the 70’s doesn’t make their prequels good – in fact, it’s like remaking The Dukes of Hazzard or Invasion of the Body Snatchers – perhaps a good idea in theory, but not in practice. Now, commence my stoning to death as I have violated the sacred nature of The Force.

Nicole Kidman may rank high on the coldest people list, but I think she’s hot after she spoke out about the Australian government’s attitude to domestic violence.

“I know why people call violence against women a pandemic.

“It is perhaps the most widespread human rights abuse violation.”

The star called for a greater level of support for victims.

“I urge the Government to do more in relation to victim support services,” she said.

“There needs to be a dramatic increase in counselling services for victims of sexual assault and victims need to be supported better by police and the courts.

“And secondly, there needs to be a huge increase in short and long term accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence.

“At the moment, I believe, one in two women who approach a refuge are turned away.”

news.com.au

Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but in Australia celebrities don’t get behind political parties like they do in the United States, and an election is only days away. Voting is compulsory there, probably because Australians care so little about politics if it wasn’t no one would vote at all, and if you didn’t make it law for everyone over 18 to vote you’d have to ambush people on the street and force them into polling booths.

Note by Celebitchy: I wanted to find fictionalized portrayals of George W. Bush, and while Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive list it wasn’t that easy to dig up clips and photos. I did find one though, a clip from Family Guy of George W Bush showing up for Vietnam.

Family Guy George Bush Misses Vietnam

Family Guy shows us how George W Bush missed Vietnman.

Get humor videos at NothingToxic

And here’s a link to a full length clip from the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII that first aired in October, 1996 featuring Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. I looked hard for Clinton’s appearance on the “Max Power” episode of the Simpsons where he tells Marge he’ll be in the shed out back just in case, and the one where Lisa tells him he gave a lousy lesson and he says “Well, I’m a pretty lousy president” but this was all I could find. Presidents are always fair game for parody, although I doubt Clinton would have made this coldest list ten years ago. I am striving for neutrality here if it isn’t obvious.

Nicole Kidman tends to come off as pretty classy (if at times a bit bland) in most of her interviews. Post-divorce, Tom Cruise has come across as an elfin control freak who randomly accuses people of being glib (which is a pretty good way to describe Cruise in general) and promoting pseudo-sciences (again, a pretty good way to describe some Cruise does in general). Nicole hasn’t trashed Tom, but when questions of her marriage to him arise, she manages to make it clear that he squashed her personality. I can’t really explain how, but Nicole seems to still do this in a way that isn’t unseemly. She gave an interview to USA Today in which she talks about how she lost her identity, and how she’s worked on getting it back.

Head’s up, Katie Holmes. In a new interview with USA Today, Nicole Kidman said she lost her self-identity during her nearly 10-year marriage to Tom Cruise because of the couple’s constant traveling. “Tom and I, we moved and moved and moved. Your sense of where do I come from becomes less and less relevant,” said Kidman, 40, who split from Cruise, 45, in 2001 and shares custody of their adopted children Isabella, 14, and Connor, 12.

“A lot of my life, particularly when I was working so much, it was about trying to fill in the gaps,” she added. “Now there’s much more reason to exist in the world without my identity needing to be through work.” She said her life is finally making sense again. “I have a new niece, I have a new marriage, we just bought an acreage in Tennessee, which we’re really happy to build a house on and spend some time doing that,” she said. “I’m just not willing to give up my life with my man anymore.”

Kidman says she and Urban, 40, are “inseparable” (she even plans to hit the road with him on his world tour). “I also like seeing him do what he does,” she said. “He can really play, and he can really sing. I’ll vouch for it.” Kidman said she isn’t as adamant about working so prolifically, either. As for her recent string of box office duds (The Invasion, anyone?), she said she has no regrets. “You always strive to make a good movie,” she said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You step into something with the best of intentions and you hope. I think that kind of approach to a career, and a life, is the healthiest way to be.”

[From Us Weekly]

I find it really annoying when articles always call her Connor and Isabella her “adopted children” instead of just her children. But that’s neither here nor there. Nicole has been making the publicity rounds lately, and was on the cover of Vanity Fair last month with a long interview. She seems pretty demure and low-key, but also very honest. She talked about Keith Urban’s struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. Before I always thought she came off as sort of an “ice princess” who wouldn’t talk about anything in her life that was less-than-perfect. But she talked about loving someone who has issues, and how they work on it and keep their relationship intact. Nicole said something in the Vanity Fair piece that I thought was remarkably profound. “I kept looking for happiness, and then I realized: This is it. It’s a moment, and it comes, and it goes, and it’ll come back again.” It sounds like she has an optimistic yet realistic outlook.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s Nicole at the Margot At The Wedding’ Movie Screening at the New York Film Festival on October 7th. Images thanks to PR Photos.