Last August, we covered an In Touch story that detailed Katie Holmes’ life of constant surveillance and control, which was based upon Scientology’s possession of “damaging” secrets gathered from extensive auditing of all celebrities who are dumb enough to become members. The story included details of Tom’s household staff, who are also all Scientologists and who are encouraged (even required) to report all of the ongoings within the Cruise home. There was also the implication that Tom and Katie were largely ignorant of their staff’s spying practices but that, to a degree, they also turned a blind eye because their lives are pretty comfortable, and why rock the boat?

Indeed, that boat will not be rocked. Cruise has reached OT Level VIII (and has gained amazing superpowers as a result!), so he’s basically a Scientologist lifer. Even though he underwent an emergency PR makeover to cover the crazy while promoting MI4, he’s still such a die hard that he “lovebombs” his own wife. At this point, even if he wanted to get out, the cult knows so much about him that it’s just not worth it. He’s staying put and enjoying his free slave labor that plants wheat fields and refurbishes vehicles just to keep Tom happy. In exchange? Scientology gets ownership of all of Tom’s filthy secrets. This happens at the behest of the current head of Scientology, David Miscavige, known to many simply as the “Tiny Tyrant”, which sort puts a new spin on why he and Tom get along so well. I mean, Tom even took the dude along on his honeymoon with Katie Holmes. To put it bluntly, Tom and David are thick as thieves:

Of course, Miscavige isn’t exactly a loyal friend (or whatever you want to call it) to Tom. The guy not only ordered all of Tom’s auditing sessions to be videotaped but also got drunk at parties and read Tom’s confessions aloud to all to hear. Then again, Scientology is an organization built upon spying on others for use in intimidation. Even the children of Scientology are programmed to tattle on their parents so that the CO$ automatically knows of potential defectors. It’s sketchy as hell in so many ways.

Now there’s a new article in today’s Village Voice that talks a lot about how Tom was brought back into Scientology after years of inactivity during his marriage to Nicole Kidman. To provide a bit of background (and I’m paraphrasing some findings from
Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman), Nicole was never really crazy about the CO$ to begin with, and she really didn’t like David Miscavige at all. It certainly didn’t help that Tom went OT Level III (and as such, was allowed to read the infamous Xenu story) and went batshit with rage. Supposedly, Tom was really angry about the whole experience and thought the alien story was utter crap. He couldn’t believe that he’d been promised so much knowledge and had ended up with a silly tale about volcanoes and aliens instead. So he quit the cult for a few years, and Miscavige decided that he’d do anything to get him back. This is where the Village Voice story comes into play:

​Three former Church of Scientology officials tell the Voice that for years — at least between 1991 and 2005 — church leader David Miscavige kept a close watch on Tom Cruise with the use of a man named Michael Doven, who served as Cruise’s personal assistant.

For much of that time, 1991 to 2001, Cruise, one of Scientology’s most famous faces, was actually estranged from the church (a closely-held secret until just a few years ago). While Cruise kept his distance from Scientology during that period, Miscavige still received detailed, daily reports about the Cruise household through Doven, the former officials say.

Doven was reached on the telephone Wednesday, but he hung up when he learned that it was the Voice calling. An e-mail was subsequently sent to him with specific questions about the allegation that he spied on his employer, Cruise, on behalf of the church, but he did not respond.

Part of the reason for the surveillance, says former church official Claire Headley, was that Miscavige and the church were worried that Cruise would cut ties entirely with Scientology. “Doven told us what Tom was complaining about, about what areas in his life he was having trouble with. Then we could use that information to tailor our approach to him,” she says.

​Thursday morning, the Voice published a story about Doven, who no longer works as Cruise’s assistant but photographs other Scientology celebrities for magazines. Our story was prompted by a mailer sent out recently by the church, which included a lengthy testimonial by Doven about how he had become the first Scientologist to complete testing on a corrected set of L. Ron Hubbard materials which were published in 2007, the “Golden Age of Knowledge for Eternity.”

After that story appeared, Marty Rathbun, formerly Scientology’s second-highest ranking executive, made public his allegation that for many years Doven had spied on Cruise for Miscavige. Since Rathbun made that allegation public at his blog Thursday afternoon, we have been confirming his statements with other church executives who worked with Miscavige, Cruise, and Doven.

Rathbun went through a detailed history with us of Tom Cruise’s involvement in Scientology, and his own role in helping to bring Cruise back into the fold in 2001.

“Doven was there the entire time, reporting to Miscavige everything that Tom was doing,” Rathbun told me. When I asked Rathbun how he knew that, he answered in Scientology jargon: “How do I know that? Because I was on that line.”

“Doven was personally reporting to you what Tom was doing?” I asked him, for clarification.

“Absolutely,” Rathbun answered. “He’d be telling me what was happening with Nic [Nicole Kidman], what was happening in the household, what was happening between Tom and Steven Spielberg. He had been reporting to us from the early 1990s.” After 1996, Rathbun says, Doven was making those reports directly to him, and Rathbun was in turn giving the information directly to Miscavige.

In 1998 or 1999, Claire Headley says she too became part of those communications while she worked with Rathbun at the Religious Technology Center, one of Scientology’s entities at the church’s secretive desert base.

“I was a party to the conversations that Doven was supposed to be, you know, feeding us information and getting Tom back on lines,” she says. “I do remember that Doven’s reporting led up to retrieving Tom. And subsequently I had a lot of involvement with Marty when he was running Tom on OT IV and OT V.” (We’ll explain that jargon later in the story. If you’re new to the subject, you might want to read our primer, “What is Scientology?”)

I asked Headley what kind of information Doven was turning over. “What was happening with Nicole and the divorce. And I remember hearing about problems with Nicole’s parents — or the problems that Tom perceived, with them not wanting Nicole to continue with Scientology,” she says.

In 1990, Cruise had begun dating Kidman. But if Miscavige was hoping that Cruise was going to become a more involved Scientologist, instead the actor pulled away. Late in 1990, Cruise and Kidman were married. In 1991, Cruise all but separated from Scientology, but the church managed to keep it quiet.

“Nicole was really sour on Scientology and kept pressing Tom to stay away from Int Base,” Marty Rathbun tells me. Until 2004, Rathbun was perhaps the highest-ranking official in the church after Miscavige. (He wore the title of the RTC’s Inspector General-Ethics, but all that really mattered was that he answered to only one person — Miscavige.) “Nicole spotted Miscavige and didn’t like what she saw. Her big issue was that Tom was becoming like Miscavige. Nicole didn’t like the relationship that was developing between them,” Rathbun says.

[From Village Voice's Runnin' Scared blog]

LMAO. So Nicole didn’t like the “relationship” between Tom and David Miscavige, and she wasn’t gung ho about Scientology to begin with, so the CO$ declared her a suppressive person. Now Nicole can’t even see her own children, Isabella and Connor, with Tom — although I do have hope that Connor will eventually leave the cult.

Anyway, the Village Voice article goes on at great length and is well worth a read when you can set aside some time to fully digest it. Of particular interest is more discussion on how the CO$ targeted South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, which turned into quite the convoluted matter. Long story short — since Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, Miscavige dispatched Michael Doven to apply pressure on both Paramount and Viacom to shut up the South Park guys. Further, Miscavige attempted to use CAA to force the LA Times to actually stop associating Tom Cruise with Scientology. Seems odd, right? Well, this all occurred at the height of Tom’s 2005 crazy, but the LA Times reportedly stood firm. Miscavige’s demands turned an already huge mess into a collosal clusterf–k, and the “end result” was that Tom parted ways with Paramount in 2006. In other words, this was “yet another case of Miscavige creating enemies in his fervor to try and protect his image.”

So why is Miscavige still around when Scientology is clearly imploding under his leadership? Well, it will take awhile for the “mighty” to fall in this case because the CO$ still has tons of money and plenty of slave labor. However and thanks to the internet, recruits are way down, and it’s only a matter of time. Especally when fundraising emails are leaked in such an amusing manner. Now if only the IRS would again revoke the tax-free status of the CO$, this cult would fall much more quickly.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and Freedom Magazine

It’s safe to say that Hugh Grant has some issues with the paparazzi. In just the past few years, he’s hauled off and thumped one over the head with a tub of baked beans as well as kicking a photog in the crotch seemingly just for giggles. To be utterly fair, Grant’s got a pretty understandable reason to dislike the tabloids and their paps, for he was one of the thousands of public figures targeted within the huge wiretapping scandal involving the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World and The Sun. That particular scandal went down a couple of years ago, and it’s such a huge mess that we’ll probably not see the end of it for quite some time.

Hugh’s story picks up a few months ago when he was merrily driving along in his Ferrari (he calls it “my midlife crisis car”) and broke down on the side of the road. Shortly thereafter, a bloke stopped to help him but then pulled out a long-lens camera and commenced snapping away. At some point, Hugh realizes that this guy is Paul McMullan, a former News of the World pap and one of the key whistleblowers in the aforementioned wiretapping scandal. McMullan now bides his time running a pub, but that certainly didn’t stop him from selling the photos and story about finding a broken-down Hugh to the Daily Mail.

Hugh then later contacted McMullan and, unbeknownst to the former pap, recorded their conversation, which is now published in New Statesmen for all to see. Amongst many other revelations recorded by Hugh, McMullan actually thanks Hugh for breaking down on the side of the road and helping him make £3000 for the story, and also for being “a very good earner” for him in the past. McMullan goes on to claim that, in the past, Daily Mail was also just as bad about tapping cell phones as the two tabloids that got popped in the wiretapping scandal. He also bemoans the fact that the days of analogue mobiles have since passed, for that was a time when it was incredibly easy to use a cheap scanner and record the full phone conversations of Princess Di, Prince Charles, and the like. The entire article details a rather riveting discussion, which is well worth reading in full, but here are some relevant excerpts pertaining to McMullan’s former employ under NOTW:

Grant: Murdoch, yes . . .
McMullan: So I was sent to do a feature on Moulin Rouge! at Cannes, which was a great send anyway. Basically my brief was to see who Nicole Kidman was shagging – what she was doing, poking through her bins and get some stuff on her. So Murdoch’s paying her five million quid to big up the French and at the same time paying me £5.50 to f*ck her up . . . So all hail the master. We’re just pawns in his game. How perverse is that?

Grant: I suppose the fact that they’re dragging their feet while investigating a mass of phone-hacking – which is a crime – some people would think is a bit depressing about the police.
McMullan: But then – should it be a crime? I mean, scanning never used to be a crime. Why should it be? You’re transmitting your thoughts and your voice over the airwaves. How can you not expect someone to just stick up an aerial and listen in?
Grant: I’d rather no one listened in, to be honest. And I might not be alone there. You probably wouldn’t want people listening to your conversations.
McMullan: I’m not interesting enough for anyone to want to listen in.
Grant: But celebrities you would justify because they’re rich?
McMullan: Yeah. I mean, if you don’t like it, you’ve just got to get off the stage. It’ll do wonders.
Grant: So I should have given up acting?
McMullan: If you live off your image, you can’t really complain about someone . . .
Grant: I live off my acting. Which is different to living off your image.
Him Yeah, but you’re still presenting yourself to the public. And if the public didn’t know you . . .
Grant: They don’t give a sh*t. I got arrested with a hooker and they still came to my films. They don’t give a f*&@ about your public image. They just care about whether you’re in an entertaining film or not.
McMullan: That’s true . . . I have terrible difficulty with him [points to pap shot of Johnny Depp]. He’s really difficult. You know, I was in Venice and he was a nightmare to do because he walks around looking like Michael Jackson. And the punchline was . . . after leading everyone a merry dance the film was shot on an open balcony – I mean, it was like – he was standing there in public.
Grant: And you don’t see the difference between the two situations?
McMullan: You can’t hide all the time.
Grant: So you’re saying, if you’re Johnny Depp or me, you don’t deserve to have a private life?
McMullan: You make so much more money. You know, most people in Dover take home about £200 and struggle.

[From New Statesman]

All of these admissions essentially speak for themselves, and the paparazzo comes off looking like a huge douche. Of course celebrities (especially those like Johnny Depp, who would never sell wedding photos to a tabloid) don’t deserve to have their private conversations targeted by hackers. The argument always exists whether people who purposely seek out fame even deserve privacy, and to a degree, they necessarily give some of it up by not being able to walk down a street without having their photograph taken. And of course, they shouldn’t be stupid enough in this day and age to put nude photos on their cell phones, but they don’t deserve to be hacked.

Photos are from September and December, 2010 and March, 2011. Credit: WENN.com

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were also at the Academy of Country Music Awards last night, although I don’t think Keith took anything home…? No, he didn’t. He was up for two awards but he didn’t win. Well, at least he and Nic had an excuse to be there. Nicole wore her biggest high heels (Manolo Blahnik) and this fascinating L’Wren Scott dress. I would have loved to have seen this on Taylor Swift… right? Swifty would have looked really cute in it! But on Nicole… I don’t know. The combination of the “python” (I think that’s real python too) and fur detailing…it reads like “dominatrix lite” to me.

I will say this, however: I prefer Nicole in this kind of gear than what she wore throughout the awards season, which amounted to a series of ill-fitting, too-frilly gowns. Remember that fug Christian Dior? Yeah. This is much better. But here’s a question: what’s going on with the fit of L’Wren dresses these days? Penelope Cruz’s L’Wren dress seemed to be oddly tailored too.

Oh, and people are still talking about Nicole’s frozen face. The Mail has an interesting piece (plus photos!) here. I don’t know about her Botox (well, I do), but her lips are seriously out of control. This is what I could find:

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Despite repeated claims that her crazy Botoxy marble-head was “completely natural”, Nicole Kidman is finally coming clean about the ‘Tox. Sort of. A little bit. Nicole Kidman claims in a new interview “I’ve tried a lot of things but apart from working out and a good diet most things don’t help. I even tried Botox but I didn’t like how my face looked afterwards. Now I don’t use it anymore – and I can move my forehead again.” Yes, Nicole “tried” Botox. For about EIGHT YEARS. She tried it and tried it and tried it again. And then she “tried” lip injections. And she also “tried” a boob job. And she “tried” a pillow-baby pregnancy. Too far? I apologize. I can’t even see the computer screen, I’m laughing so hard.

Botox? Not me! That, at least, used to be Nicole Kidman’s response to questions about how she kept her complexion so porcelain perfect. Now, however, she has performed something of an about-face.

The Oscar-winning actress, 43, has finally admitted to having Botox injections. But she insisted she no longer uses it, because she did not like the results. She wasn’t the only one.

In 2008, one cosmetic surgery expert told a medical conference that Miss Kidman was so ‘over-Botoxed’ she was giving the industry a bad name.

Miss Kidman, 43, made her confession to a German magazine interviewer who asked her about keeping wrinkles at bay.

‘I’ve tried a lot of things but apart from working out and a good diet most things don’t help,’ she replied. ‘I even tried Botox but I didn’t like how my face looked afterwards. Now I don’t use it anymore – and I can move my forehead again.’

Her previous declarations on the subject included: ‘I am completely natural. I have nothing in my face or anything.’

[From The Daily Mail]

THIS is why I love Nicole Kidman. She brings me so much joy. Pure joy. Not even those Jon Hamm photos gave me this much pleasure. I mean… does she think we’ll stop bothering her about her Crazy Botoxface if she just admits that she “tried” it? God, I love her. This crazy bitch.

Note by Celebitchy: The last photo of Kidman is her wax figure. It doesn’t look that much different from the other photos now does it?

Note By Kaiser: I really couldn’t see a difference between the wax figure and the real Nicole. My bad!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Nicole Kidman’s 1-year-old daughter Sunday Rose isn’t one of those celebrity babies who’s always up for a candid photo-op. Nicole has only been photographed with Sunday a handful of times since giving birth to her in July of 2008, and for the most part, Sanday has been pretty covered up. I was hoping Sunday would take after her mom – that we would see a little pale, carrot-top style-icon-in-training. It turns out that Nicole and husband Keith Urban are pretty happy raising Sunday away from the spotlight of New York and Los Angeles, setting up their home base in Nashville.

It was in Nashville that Nicole, Keith and Sunday were photographed chilling out. Keith stopped by their Nashville home base between tour dates – and I would assume that Nicole’s been in Nashville for most of the summer. These are the best pictures I’ve seen of Sunday, and I can see now that she definitely takes after her dad. She’s a cute little brunette, and I don’t see much of Nicole in her sweet little face. She’s still adorable, but I had my heart set on a ginger. Oh, well.

The only thing I’ve heard about or seen of Nicole in the past few months has been her brief appearance on Project Runway’s “All-Star Challenge”. The news of Nicole’s appearance leaked a few days before the premiere, and I had my heart set on something really cool. Unfortunately, Nicole only appeared on the show via some kind of pre-taped thing, where she basically read off a prepared speech to the designers. It sucked. There’s some talk that Nicole would wear the winning “red carpet look” to one of the premieres of Nine, which comes out in November. The winner of the challenge turned out to be Season 2’s runner-up, Daniel Vosovic. I like Daniel, but Korto Momolu’s line was so much prettier – and Nicole would have looked gorgeous in any of her fantastic, more sophisticated dresses. I seriously doubt Nicole will end up wearing the black-and-white cocktail dress Daniel designed. Daniel later told the Los Angeles Times, “I thought it would be phenomenal on Nicole Kidman. We’ll see if we can get her in it!” Good luck with that.

Nicole, Keith and Sunday are shown outside their home in Nashville on 8/18/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

Commenter Trillion sent in a link to a really fabulous website called Project Rungay. It’s obviously a one-off from discussing the incredible reality show Project Runway, which is returning tomorrow night on Lifetime. But Rungay also has great features on other fashion stuff, as well as information on former PR contestants. I enjoyed this piece, on Cristian Siriano’s line for Payless Shoes, which looks incredible. Little Gwyneth Paltrow-booties and knock-off Chanel-type Mary Janes. Wonderful.

The biggest news coming from the publicity machine surrounding the premiere episode isn’t that none of the returning judges have anything nice to say about guest judge Lindsay Lohan. No! The biggest news is that Nicole Kidman, The Epic Red Carpet Diva herself, has deigned to appear on a very fancy, very special “All-Star Challenge” episode of Project Runway. This will not be part of the traditional Project Runway series that is about to premiere – this is a special show that just been announced, featuring what I think will be former finalists from the first five seasons of PR. Nicole’s task is to help “set up” the contest for the designers.

From her Oscar gowns to her Chanel ads, Nicole Kidman sizzles with style. Next on her sartorial schedule: “Project Runway.”

Cable’s Lifetime network says the actress will make a cameo on a special edition of the franchise, “Project Runway: All-Star Challenge.”

She will help set up a design contest for eight top contestants from past seasons.

The special airs 8 p.m. EDT Thursday, just before the long-awaited debut of the series’ sixth season.

“Runway” regulars Heidi Klum, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and Tim Gunn will also appear.

[From Huffington Post]

I actually think it’s really cool of Nicole to come on PR. My guess is that her daughter (Bella, not Sunday) probably loves the show, and got her mom to watch a few episodes. One thing I’ve always given Nic credit for – she can rule a red carpet like no one’s business. She takes fashion very seriously, and she knows a lot about the history of fashion, and what the next trends will be. She’s more of a student of fashion than most designers. Those PR contestants are going to worship her.

Thanks again to Trillion for the Project Rungay link!

Here’s Nicole Kidman looking immaculate as usual outside of Sotheby’s Auction House filming her new movie ‘Rabbit Hole’ in New York City on June 1st. Images thanks to INF Photo.

What in the world is happening with Katie Holmes? She and Tom have kind of fallen off the gossip radar – granted, there have been a few stories about them here and there, like about how Katie wants to wait to have another baby until she has “another” hit film, or how she doesn’t even want Tom around while she’s working. In a gossip age where Angelina’s absence from one red carpet creates weeks of drama for the tabloids, I kind of expected Tom and Katie’s temporary locale-split to create more drama. According to Lainey, Tom and Katie haven’t been photographed together for a month, and she asks who Tom has been doing for the past month.

In the scope of their now-seeming temporary separation, this story from the Enquirer seems like a throw-back to simpler times in the TomKat relationship. At issue? Katie Holmes goes shopping. A lot. Like, she blows hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. One of the Enquirer’s sources even does a side-by-side comparison between Tom’s current wife, and his last ex-wife, saying that though Nicole spent a lot of Tom’s money, she was nothing comared to Katie. We already knew this – Katie spent $14 million in six months while she and Tom were staying in New York earlier this year. But here’s more proof:

[After Katie] is done on the Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark set in Melbourne, Australia, Katie heads for the stores with 3-year-old daughter Suri in tow.

“She loves to shop,” a source told the Enquirer. “In Melbourne, she goes everywhere from the high end shops on Chapel Street to the low-end stores like Target. That woman can give a credit card a workout!”

In the last year, Katie’s shop-until-you drop-forays: blowing through $200,000 at Barney’s in one year; spending $14 million in New York; spending $43,000 in spa treatments this spring.

Tom appears undisturbed by his wife’s frenzied spending. The actor is said to be worth $250 million.

A friend told the Enquirer: “His ex-wife Nicole Kidman was a spendthrift, but compared to Katie, she’s a coupon clipper.”

Tom is just happy that Katie is happy. “It’s a situation where he does his thing, she does hers – and hers is shopping,” said the friend.

“She thinks nothing of heading off to Paris and buying designers’ latest creations. Price tags mean absolutely nothing to her.”

Katie’s publicist denies the big shopping trips, and one source says it’s “totally out of character for her” and that it shows how much she’s changed since becoming Tom’s gal. “She’s the youngest of five children, and with three older sisters, Katie wore a lot of hand-me downs. It’s like she’s making up for lost time.”

[From National Enquirer, print edition, August 17 2009]

Honestly, I think Tom Cruise is worth way more than $250 million. I’ve heard older estimates (back when he was hot stuff, and getting a percentage of the gross of his huge, hit films) of Tom’s fortune hitting the $400-500 million range. But does a bigger number make any difference? Is Katie taking out her issues by shopping and hording?

Katie Holmes is shown on the set of Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark in Australia on 7/28/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

It was reported several weeks ago that Rubina Ali, one of the young child stars in Slumdog Millionaire, was going to publish her autobiography. Rubina is 9 years old. I kind of hoped the rumor was just crap, but the Daily Mail got their hands on an early copy of Slumgirl Dreaming: My Journey to the Stars. In case any of you thought that Rubina might have sat around typing up her autobiography, the Mail points out a person they refer to as “the book’s writer, Divya”. Technically, according to Random House, the book was co-written by Rubina, Divya Dugar, and Anne Berthod, although Rubina is the only one to get credit on the book’s cover.

Anyway, the book promises the inside story on Rubina’s life – the making of Slumdog Millionaire, and everything that happened after. This includes the tabloid story that originated out of News of the World that Rubina’s father and uncle were trying to sell her. Divya Duger claims that Rubina has “blind faith” in her family, and refuses to believe they would do anything to harm her.

The most-tabloid friendly revelation comes from Rubina’s take on meeting Nicole Kidman. Rubina and Nicole filmed a Schweppes ad together several months ago in India. The ad itself is extremely bizarre, and I hope I’m not offending anyone when I offer the opinion that Nicole’s creepy frozen face is a large part of why the ad didn’t work. At one point, Nicole is rubbing Rubina’s face, and Nicole tries to smile and it comes out as a grimace. Well, Rubina thought Nicole was a strange bird too – Rubina describes Nicole as quiet and shy, and Rubina thought it was “strange” that Nicole refused to go out in the sun at all, fearing for her skin:

She may be only nine years old, but Slumdog Millionaire actress Rubina Ali has made history by becoming the youngest person to ‘write’ an autobiography. In her new book Slumgirl Dreaming: Journey to the Stars, the child star gives an insight from her rise from the slums of Mumbai to Hollywood fame and back again.

She also gives her opinion on ‘strange’ Nicole Kidman, who she starred alongside in a soft drinks advertisement.

In the 192 page book written by journalist Divya Dugar, who spent the past six months following Rubina, only 24 pages feature her pre-Slumdog life. As well talking about making the multi Oscar-winning film and the recent demolition of her home in the Mumbai slums, Rubina also discusses her more recent acting job.

Rubina was reportedly paid more than her Slumdog salary for three days work on a French Schweppes advert, which she filmed on location in India with Nicole. Rubina played a small child enchanted with Nicole’s Indian princess character in the bizarre ad’s confusing plotline.

Despite sharing a trailer together, Rubina admitted she didn’t get to know the Australian actress very well. In the book, she said: ‘I really liked her, but she was very quiet and didn’t speak much. I think she was a bit shy.’

She goes on to describe the actress as ‘strange’ because she refused to come out of her trailer over the whole shoot, seemingly afraid of the sun on her alabaster complexion.

Rubina was discovered by director Danny Boyle when he auditioned hundreds of children from the Mumbai slums last year and cast her as the younger version of Freida Pinto’s character Latika.

In the book, Rubina admitted the success of the film hasn’t changed her life so much, because she returned to the slums again after attending the Oscars in Hollywood March. But she admits she now has higher standards of hygiene and will walk a long distance to find a pay-for toilet rather than urinate by the railway tracks like she used to.

The book’s writer Divya said: ‘She knows a lot more about the world beyond the slum. She has seen what life is like for the rich. She has seen the other side of the picture and knows now that life can be better.’

Rubina’s father Rafiq also vehemently denies reports he tried to cash in on his daughter’s movie fame by offering to ‘sell’ her for £200,000.

Divya added: ‘She has a blind faith in her family, she thinks they couldn’t have done anything to harm her.’

Rubina is now living at an uncle’s house after her shanty home was demolished by Indian authorities in May. The youngster admitted she doesn’t known where her Slumdog salary has gone, but a lot of it is believed to have funded her father’s medical treatment for a broken ankle.

She said: ‘I’m not sure I got all of it, or where it has all gone.’

Thanks to a trust set up by Boyle and the Slumdog producers, Rubina and co-star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail are attending school and are having homes built for them.

[From Daily Mail]

One of the Slumdog Millionaire kids, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, has already been moved into his new apartment, and supposedly Rubina will be getting hers soon too. You know what I‘d like to hear about? Her visit with Gerard Butler! In May, while Gerard was visiting India, he treated the Slumdog Millionaire kids to a day out and he totally partied with them. That is what I want to hear about.

Here’s Rubina in Paris on July 1st. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

There are rumors swirling that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are expecting their second child together. Daughter Sunday Rose (or Sunday Roast, if you prefer) was born last July to great fanfare in Nashville (born on a Monday, I might add). Nicole turns 42 years old on June 20th, and Keith is 40 years old. The main reason people seem to be gossiping about Nicole’s womb seems to be for two reasons. First, she was photographed with a “bump” recently, which could mean she’s either pregnant or she’s just started looking less fragile and emaciated (good for her). Secondly, she’s gone back to her bright red hair after spending the past five years or so trying to convince us she’s a strawberry blonde. I don’t really see what the red hair has to do with babies, considering she was doing that blonde stuff to her hair throughout her pregnancy with Sunday, but whatever:

HAS lightning struck twice for Nicole Kidman?

Word in Hollywood is that Kidman — who recently dyed her hair back to her natural color, red, and has been sporting a poochy stomach — is pregnant again.

Kidman and husband Keith Urban have one child, Sunday Rose, but Kidman’s talked about her trouble getting pregnant in the past — and how she’d like more children.

A rep for Kidman said, “Not to my knowledge,” but we say, good luck!

[From Page Six]

I don’t doubt that Nicole would like another baby, and if she is pregnant, good for her. But I doubt it. Then again, I have significant bias about Nicole’s first pregnancy – I tended to think there was something sketchy about the whole deal, but I’m probably in the minority. In any case, with Sunday’s gestation, Nicole announced her pregnancy in the first trimester. So why wouldn’t she tell us this time?

Note by Celebitchy: I don’t think Nicole is pregnant as she doesn’t have much of a tummy at all. She sometimes has that tiny “pooch” but it’s very small and doesn’t mean she’s expecting.

Nicole, Keith and Sunday Rose are shown out on 5/6/09. Credit: Fame Pictures. Nicole and Keith are shown out on 5/28/09 in the header. Credit: INFPhoto.com

When Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman named their first child Sunday, they got some flak for going the “unique celebrity baby name” route, along with Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Apple and other famous families. There was also a lot of speculation about what the name meant, but Keith has now come out 9 months later and explained at least one of the reasons they named their daughter after a day of the week – it’s because that was the day he was loneliest, and she has made it the most joyous. How cute!

“Particularly when you don’t have someone in your life … in my experience, Sunday was the loneliest day,” Urban, 41, tells Ellen DeGeneres on an episode of her talk show set to air Wednesday. “It went from being sort of the most dreaded day of the week for us to being the most joyous day, because we just had a family.”

Although Urban and his wife Nicole Kidman are Aussies, the country musician says their nearly 9-month-old daughter – who is being raised largely in the couple’s adopted hometown of Nashville – might just develop a unique twang.

He tells DeGeneres, “I think she may say, ‘Good day, ya’ll.’ A nice mix.”

[From People]

That’s one of the more sentimental (and almost morbid) reasons for giving your child a particular name. Keith doesn’t explain why Sundays were lonely for the two of them – unless he means that he was lonely on Sundays before he met and married Nicole. Either way, it’s clear that baby Sunday has brought a lot of joy into his life.

I must say I actually like the idea of unique names. Why not name your child Apple or Sunday or even Sundae, for that matter? If Nicole and Keith’s daughter doesn’t end up liking her given name, she can always ask to be called by her middle name, Rose. The accent that she will develop is also going to be quite unique. Even though she’s being raised in Nashville, I’m sure there will be a lot of traveling to Australia to connect with her parent’s roots.

Here’s Keith and Nicole taking Sunday Rose to church services on Christmas morning in Nashville. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .