Yesterday we covered Nicole Kidman’s glowing and enviably gorgeous appearance at the CMT Awards on Monday to support her husband, country singer Keith Urban, who was nominated for best male video. I said that she barely looked pregnant to me and many of you schooled me that all women show differently and that there are some women who don’t show until the very end of their pregnancies. I was big as a house from the fifth month on, so it’s hard for me to relate.

There is some speculation that she’s still using Botox and Restylane since she looks perfectly fresh-faced still, but others say that she’s got that pregnancy glow and it could be compensating for a lapse in visits to her surgeon. Commenter headache points us to documentation about Botox online, which says that they recommend against use during pregnancy, but that it is still up to the patient. Restylane is similarly advised against, but there are no definitive studies. It’s possible Nicole’s face just filled out during pregnancy. A Botox advisory site states that “Pregnant women who have enjoyed the benefits of the effects of Botox on the signs of ageing may find that this cosmetic treatment becomes superfluous during pregnancy, as water retention naturally puffs out the skin causing fine lines such as crow’s feet to become less visible.”

Either way, Nicole is looking great and you can’t underestimate the ability of a stylist, makeup artist and hairdresser to transform a woman.

Nicole told Access Hollywood in a brief interview before the show Monday night that she’s had terrible morning sickness. She also revealed that she’s waiting for her third trimester:

“I’ve had severe morning sickness…

“[I’m] good actually, really good. Waiting for the third trimester. Everyone says that is hard work.”

I don’t think you know hard work as a mom until the kid can start to walk, but that’s just my experience. I also only have one child, and I’m sure there are many moms of two children and more who would shake their heads at me calling just one child work.

[Credit to commenters headache and frewt for the Botox speculation and Bellatrix for the pregnancy glow theory.]

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban just bought a mansion in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood that US Weekly describes as “just down the road from her ex Tom Cruise.” Does this mean that Kidman wants her adopted children with Cruise, Isabella, 15, and Connor, 13, to be a part of their upcoming sibling’s life? Kidman is said to be due to give birth in July, although it’s hard to tell she’s that far along considering how thin she is and the loose outfits she wears.

The couple bought a home just down the road from her ex Tom Cruise in L.A.’s Brentwood neighborhood, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Price tag: $7 million.

The five-bedroom digs, located at the end of a cul-de-sac, features rolling lawns, koi ponds and city views, as well as 5,600 square feet.

Kidman last lived in the neighborhood with ex Cruise, but sold that home four years ago for $10.5 million after her divorce was finalized.

[From US Weekly]

There was a story that came out in November that Nicole Kidman said that Connor and Isabella didn’t call her “mom,” and Katie Holmes gave an interview a few weeks later saying that they did call her “mom,” so that sounded as if Kidman had been shut out entirely. It wasn’t exactly the case, though, Kidman was misquoted. She said that “They don’t call me mummy. [They call me] Mum. Or sometimes Nicole.”

Even though Kidman’s comment was misquoted, it’s not like she’s been able to see much of her children with her ex and it seems like this move is a deliberate effort to be closer to them - if they’re even home. There’s little doubt that they spend most of their time being taught the psuedo-scientific belief system of a failed science fiction writer in lieu of a real education. They could be away at some co$ “school” if they’re not being taught at home by Tom’s sister.

Here’s Tom Cruise’s compound. It’s worth around $30 million, is 9,858 square feet and has seven bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms. Thanks to Splash News.

Here’s a quick update on currently pregnant celebrities.

Halle Berry is due any second! I think she is going to have the cutest baby with her model boyfriend Gabriel Aubrey, but will she sell the pictures?

Jamie Lynn Spears – some sources are saying she is due very, very soon, but just doesn’t seem to have a big enough bump to be close to popping. Must be those 16 year old abs of steel.

Cate Blanchett is expecting her third with husband Andrew Upton, and I’m hoping for a girl because she already has two boys. Girls clothes are so much cuter.

Nicole Kidman is still pregnant, definitely not drinking alcohol, and is due around June where the baby will be born in Australia.

Are Brangelina having twins? What’s the due date? These two haven’t confirmed or denied reports, but it’s all too obvious they’re having a fifth and maybe a sixth.

Jessica Alba is still flying to promote her film, so she must have quite a few weeks to go. She has declined to confirm a due date.

Matthew McConaughey is expecting a boy with model Camila, and he wants him to like beer. Enough to name the boy after Budweiser. He probably won’t wear a shirt either.

Gwen Stefani is expecting her next child with hubby Gavin Rossdale, and had a great time practicing baby making.

These babies will start popping out (if only it was that easy) in September

Kimora Lee Simmons just announced her pregnancy. A little sibling for her older children from her previous relationship, Ming and Aoki.

Alessandra Ambrosio has also just announced on her official blog that she is expecting, saying “This is a dream come true.”

Matt Damon and his wife Luciana, who have nine year old Alexia from her previous relationship, and Isabella, 20 months, are expecting another.

Lisa-Marie Presley confirmed her pregnancy this week, but don’t you dare suggest she’s carrying some pregnancy weight, you pack of coyotes.

Hopefully the celebrity weeklies have their checkbooks ready, these new additions are going to cost a fortune.

Picture note by Celebitchy: stock photos from Morguefile users Prisonbreak and © P. Winberg. Header image thanks to PRPhotos.

I know that couples out there have pet names for each other, like ‘Muffin’ or ‘Honey’ and even ‘Schmoopy’. But who knew couples actually gave each other names like ‘Fred’? Well, at least one celebrity couple has done it: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, and now they want us all to know about it.

Celebrity couple Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman once kept their pet names for each other secret.

Now they want the world to know that they call each other “Hank” and “Evie” - so they are using the names to make millions by selling clothing under the Hank Evie label.

In the latest in an avalanche of celebrity label ranges the country music crooner has trademarked the phrase in both Australia and the US, a move that allows the pair to start selling everything from belt buckles to clothing, shoes, bags, boxer shorts and pyjamas.

Until now the only items sold under the label were concert T-shirts, but few knew it was owned by Urban and was based on the couple’s noms de plume.

Urban recently revealed during a pre-concert fan question-and-answer session that in the early days of their relationship Kidman referred to him as Hank, and he to her as Evie. It remains unknown why they chose these names.

Sydney Morning Herald

How is revealing that Nic and Keith have pet names going to help shift sales of t-shirts? It kind of grosses me out - pet names are not my thing. Actually, given the high end range of gear that Nicole Kidman already promotes, like Chanel No 5 and whoever she’s wearing to a red carpet event, I’m a little surprised she’s endorsing her hubby’s dull duds.

On the subject of pet names, maybe that’s how Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin came to name their daughter Apple. They thought it was cute, and they have similar food based pet names for each other. Obviously they forgot the golden rule of pet names - they are always hideously embarrassing, and never to be used in mixed company if you don’t want to cause the gag reflex in those around you.

Nicole Kidman is still not showing much of a baby bump, in the pictures taken of her and Keith at the Australian open. She is reportedly due in July.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are shown at the Australian open on January 21.

The most important people in Heath Ledger’s life have come out to speak about him - his family in Western Australia. I assume that they are heading to the US to be with their son, whether he will be buried in the US or Australia, and hopefully they will be able to move around with minimum harassment from media.

Here is their statement, delivered from outside of Heath’s mother’s house.

Ledger’s father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Ledger-Bell and sister Katie Ledger appeared outside Ledger’s mother’s house in Applecross at 10.50am, when Mr Ledger read a short statement to the media.

“We, Heath’s family, confirm the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda, who was found in a peaceful sleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3.30pm (New York Time),” he said.

“We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their kind wishes at this time.

“Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life, but few had the pleasure to truly know him.

“He was a down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and unselfish individual who was an extreme inspiration to many.

“Please now respect our family’s need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately.”

News.com.au

Heath also has two half sisters, Olivia and Ashleigh. he and his sister Kate are named after the characters from Wuthering Heights.

Another person to come out and express sadness at Heath’s death is the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.

“It was with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Heath Ledger,” he said.

“It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation’s finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger’s diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor.”

Mr Rudd said the nation’s thoughts were with Ledger’s family and close friends, especially his two-year-old daughter Matilda.

news.com.au

Being from Australia originally, my phone and emails have been flooding in all day with people from home asking me if it’s true, like I’m the New York Police Department or something. Right up until his family and the Prime Minister made their statements about his death I had been wondering if it was a prank pulled to promote a film. Which admittedly would be a pretty cruel prank.

Heath’s family are also adamant that he has not committed suicide, and that they had been advised by police that his death was accidental.

I can think of nothing worse than having all of Australia’s entertainment reporters on your front door step - and they’ll ALL be there, there’s not much else to focus on in a small country -while you are trying to cope with a time difference and a foreign legal system. I hope that they have lots of support.

Other prominent Australians who have spoken out about the death include Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett. Unfortunately for Blanchett she was celebrating her Academy Award nominations for I’m Not There, the Bob Dylan biopic that Heath Ledger also plays Bob in, when she heard the news.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the video of Heath’s family’s public statement. In accordance with their wishes, and with common decency, we will post no photos of any of Heath friends and family grieving nor will we publish pictures of the scene or funeral. We may put up photos of average people paying tribute to Heath with flowers and notes.

And here are two photo tributes to Heath, thanks to Darule16:

And libertyangel:

Tom Cruise’s life seems to involve a lot more talk about placentas than the average man’s. Or the average woman’s, for that matter. Tom once famously claimed that he was going to eat Suri’s placenta after she was born. When people freaked out (Western cultures generally don’t partake in the birth products of their young) he claimed it was all a joke. But because it’s Tom Cruise, most of us know he doesn’t make a lot of jokes, and the crazier something sounds, the more likely he means it. Apparently Suri’s birth wasn’t the first time Cruise has made placenta demands. According to author Andrew Morton’s highly unauthorized Tom Cruise biography, Nicole Kidman saved some of the placenta after she had a miscarriage. Why? To prove to the media that it was indeed Tom’s.

Tom Cruise’s controversial biography stirs up more outrageous allegations. The book claims that Nicole Kidman reserved some of the placenta from her miscarriage to prove Cruise was the father of her child.

Andrew Morton, the author who is facing a $100 million legal threat from the Top Gun actor and the Church of Scientology for his unauthorized biography of the actor, asserts that Kidman saved the placenta to quash media speculations regarding the paternity of the unborn baby.

“They did try to start a family [but] she sadly had a miscarriage,” Morton says. “And because of all the questions over the father, she ordered that some of the placenta be saved in order to prove paternity - the fact that Tom Cruise was the father.”

[From All Headline News]

Sounds a little unbalanced right? Who do you think is more likely to be the brains behind that idea: Nicole Kidman – who seems relatively sane, if not a little over-botoxed, or Tom Cruise – who… does the crazy things Tom Cruise does? I can’t even begin to give a list of all the unbalanced things the man has done and said. I wouldn’t know where to start, and I certainly wouldn’t know where to stop. There are too many things to choose from. So who do you think masterminded the whole, “let’s save a chunk for the press” idea? Probably a couch jumper.

What I really want to know is – if Tom and Nicole did indeed save some placenta for the media – what in the world did they intend to do with it? Would they have actually given it to a reporter to have it tested? Would the reporter have had to ask, or would the Cruises have been polite enough to offer? How does that kind of discussion even work? I’m a pretty big nerd whose read a lot of etiquette books – I don’t think I’ve ever run across that situation. Leave it to Tom Cruise to chart new waters every day.

The Sydney magazines and newspapers are all hovering around their expectant mother-to-be like a dozen eager grannies. Of course, they don’t bear any relation to Nicole Kidman, but that won’t stop them speculating about everything from her due date to what hospital she’ll be birthing in, to whether she’s too old!!

They’re also predicting the baby’s name (the parents probably haven’t got a name picked yet) and the baby’s gender. According to New Idea magazine it’s a girl, to be called Mary. Just in case they’re wrong, they also suggest Robert or Anthony for a boy. I figure that the double name premonition is so next week they can speculate it’s twins?

But causing the most interest is where Nicole will have the baby. There aren’t that many birth wards in Australia, so the paparazzi are sure to get shots of a large bellied Oscar winner on her way in to give birth.

“The family are joking that this is going to be a million dollar baby.

“At the moment Nicole is keen to go private but it’s a bit sensitive because of her sister, to whom she is incredibly close.”

The friend also revealed that Kidman wants husband Keith Urban to stay at the private hospital when their baby arrives.

“Nicole and Keith are very impressed with the Prince of Wales,” the friend said.

“Nicole will be in for at least four days so she and Keith are estimating the birth will cost them close to $50,000 once they have paid for a full-time obstetrician.”

Sydney Morning Herald

The reason that having the baby is a private hospital might upset Nicole’s sister Antonia is that she had her four children at the state-funded Royal Hospital for Women, rather then the private facility the Prince of Wales Hospital. Do you really think her sister will care?

At least this report says that Nicole will be employing an obstetrician, not having her father deliver the child, with her mother assisting. Nicole’s dad is not a medical doctor, but a psychiatrist. I doubt he’s delivered a baby in his life, he’s not likely to start with his grandchild. Nicole’s mother is a nurse, but not a midwife so is also unlikely to be delivering a baby. Some sources are saying that Anthony and Janelle Kidman delivered Antonia Kidman’s fourth child, but I can’t find any reliable confirmation of this. Given that she was in the process of separating from her husband at the time perhaps they were in the delivery room for moral support rather than medical support?

Just to add my two cents, I think she’s having a girl that she’ll name Alison.

Header image thanks to NachoBaby.

Nicole Kidman sometimes seems to act as though she doesn’t already have two kids. Vanity Fair did a really great cover story on her a few months ago, and while the article was very good, when Nicole talked about her desire to have a baby, her phrasing made it sound like she’d forgotten that she’s already had two. Coupled with the fact that she said her kids don’t call her mom – they call her Nicole – and she doesn’t seem to see a lot of them – it definitely seems like Conner and Isabella are more Tom’s kids that Nicole’s. Despite whatever issues she has going on with her two children, George Clooney seems to think she’ll make a great mom. And while George isn’t a parent, he’s got that avuncular quality that makes me trust his judgment.

Just hours after Nicole Kidman announced her pregnancy, George Clooney offered up his congratulations. “I’m thrilled for her,” he told PEOPLE at the picket-line-free Critics’ Choice Awards in L.A. Monday night. “[She'll be] a perfect mother.”

(The two have been friends for years, dating back to their work in 1997’s The Peacemaker. Kidman and Clooney famously bet $10,000 on whether he would be married when he turned 40 in 2001. She lost, of course.)

“She’ll be great,” Clooney said of the Aussie actress, already mother to Isabella, 15, and Connor, 12, her adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise. “She’ll be a tall mother.”

[From People]

I didn’t realize height was an indicator of potential good parenting skills. That could explain some of the issues I have with my mother. That could also explain why it’s probably a good thing that George Clooney doesn’t have any kids of his own yet.

In other Clooney news, George lost out to Daniel Day Lewis for best actor at the Critic’s Choice Awards last night, but didn’t seem too stressed about it.

Clooney, who won a best supporting acting Oscar last year for Syriana, took it all in stride, noting, “[Being] a nominee, it’s fine. But when you’re a loser, you’re a loser.”

The actor was also on hand to present the first-annual Joel Siegel Award (named after the late ABC movie critic) to friend and former costar Don Cheadle for his humanitarian work. “The fact that [George] only charged me $1,500, I thought was really nice of him,” Cheadle joked in the press room. “Matt [Damon] was around $2,500, and what Denzel wanted, I won’t even mention.”

The Darfur activist did get serious for a minute, adding that “George is . . . someone who I’ve not only worked with onscreen, but we’ve also done things for the cause – and it’s great to have an ally.”

[From People]

Clooney is involved in a lot of charitable causes. Despite my joking, he seems like someone who’d be a good dad when he’s ready for it. Of course that means he’d probably have to stop dating a new girl every month… though if memory serves me, he’s been with the current one for almost half a year now. That’s got to be some kind of record. You never know, we may be making George Clooney-related pregnancy announcements sometime soon.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s George last night at the Critic’s Choice Awards. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Despite all the sort-of bump pictures and the breathy gossip columns citing “multiple insiders,” I still don’t believe that Nicole Kidman is pregnant this time around. There have been too many close calls with her, and she often wears loose clothing and looks like she could be in the early stages of pregnancy. Page Six and the British papers are really pushing the pregnancy, but the trashy ones that are often right, Star and The National Enquirer, didn’t say anything about Kidman this week. My pregnancy-dar isn’t always accurate, but it’s just not going off for Kidman. I hope I’m wrong though, because she has said so many times that she wants a baby.

Page Six claims that Kidman has quit an upcoming film to make time for her much-anticipated arrival. It couldn’t be over the writer’s strike or creative differences or anything like that, because they have “extremely well-placed sources:”

Page Six has heard from extremely well-placed sources that the Oscar-winning Aussie - who’s suffered miscarriages in the past - not only has a bun in the oven but is so concerned about the welfare of her unborn child that she’s taking a break from her film career and has dropped out of director Stephen Daldry’s post-World War II Germany drama “The Reader,” which she was supposed to start shooting this month…

Kidman’s rep, Catherine Olim, didn’t return our calls or e-mail. Weinstein flack Matthew Frankel said: “I am being told that the status on ‘The Reader’ has not changed.” He declined to be more specific.

On Friday, a reporter for Daily Telegraph in Sydney, Australia, asked Kidman point blank whether she was in the family way. She “refused to answer,” the paper said. But our insider said: “Of course, everyone knows she’s pregnant and lying about it.”

Another source told us a Vanity Fair editor was recently overheard talking about pushing up Kidman’s photo shoot for the magazine’s annual Hollywood issue. “It’s because the costumes she’s set to wear won’t fit her much longer,” the spy said.

[From Page Six]

IMDB lists The Reader as being in “filming” status, so presumably it’s already written and won’t suffer too much from the writer’s strike, but maybe the script isn’t complete or needs edits and Kidman isn’t willing to work under those circumstances. It’s also very interesting that the setting of the film, Nazi Germany, is similar to Kidman’s ex Tom Cruise’s upcoming film, Valkyrie. Valkyrie has a release date of October 3, 2008, while The Reader is listed with a release date of December 12, 2008. Maybe Kidman wasn’t willing to make a film that was similar to another high-profile movie starring her ex and coming out two months ahead of hers. Or maybe she’s pregnant like everyone is saying. It just seems like there are plenty of other reasons for her to back out of that film other than a pregnancy.

Nicole Kidman is shown out having brunch with girlfriends on 1/6/07 in Sydney, Australia. There are no pictures of her standing up that I can find, so those billowy dress photos that came out a few days ago can’t be verified or disproved. Thanks to WENN for these photos.

Tom Cruise is flaming. And by that, I mean the little bugger is flaming mad. Famous celebrity biographer Andrew Morton’s new, highly unauthorized biography of Cruise is hitting American bookshelves next Tuesday, despite attempts by both Cruise and the Church of Scientology to halt the publication. What could possibly get the Scientologists so riled up? The usually low-key, live-and-let-live followers of Xenu have got their panties in a bunch over the majority of the revelations in Morton’s book. As we had previously written, Morton actually had to go into hiding a few months ago due to threats from Scientologists. Then why am I writing this? Well I’m a horrible combination of highly principled and incredibly stupid, which just so happens to be the most successful personality combination for a celebrity blogger.

Scientology is one of those religions/cults (depending on your view) that’s so secretive it’s impossible to separate fact from fiction. And frankly, I think that if you’re going to keep so much of your “religion” private, you’ve got to expect that people are going to call it a cult and all sorts of urban legends are going to be invented. The problem with the secrecy is that it makes it hard for the rest of us non-cult members… I mean those of us who are not Scientologists… to make educated guesses about what’s fact and what’s fiction. And considering the whole legend of Scientology, I don’t think it’s ridiculous to believe a lot of the stories we hear about the inner workings of the cult/religion.

According to Andrew Morton, Tom Cruise has risen so high in the Scientology echelon that he’s effectively the number two in charge. This is one of many points in the book that’s being disputed by the church.

Tom Cruise has become the de-facto second in command of the Church of Scientology, according to a new biography - which makes an extraordinary attack on the star by comparing his 20-month-old daughter Suri to the Devil’s child in the film Rosemary’s Baby. Andrew Morton’s unauthorised biography claims Scientology has taken over the 45-year-old actor’s life, with its officials selecting many of the staff at his Hollywood mansion. The biographer of Princess Diana alleges Cruise is consulted by Scientology leader David Miscavige on “every aspect of planning and policy” and is tailoring his career to fit the aims of Scientology.

[From the Daily Mail]

Frankly, that’s one of the least salacious points in the book.

He [Tom Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields]criticized a passage in which Morton claims some “fanatical” Scientologists believed Suri Cruise was actually the result of a sperm donation by Scientology’s dead founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Morton writes that Ms Holmes may feel she was in “the horror movie Rosemary’s Baby, in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the Devil’s child”.

[From the Daily Mail]

You’ll note that Andrew Morton doesn’t claim that Katie Holmes was impregnated with L. Ron Hubbard’s sperm, but simply that some fanatical Scientologists think she was. I’m going with ex-fiancé Chris Klein, but L. Ron Hubbard is a good second choice.

The book appears to portray Scientology leader David Miscavige as Tom Cruise’s biggest fan – to an almost creepy extent. Morton mentions a story that has been told for several years about Tom Cruise wanting to run through a field of wild flowers with Nicole Kidman before they were married. An earlier mention of this anecdote said it was a field of wheat, but the point remains the same.

Miscavige is said in the book to have gone to extraordinary lengths to charm Cruise, even ordering his staff to plant a field full of wild flowers at a Scientology base in California after Cruise had told him of his fantasy to run through a wildflower meadow with his then newlywed wife Nicole Kidman.

“A team of 20 Sea Org disciples was set to work digging, hoeing, and planting wheat grass and wildflower seed near the Cruises’ bungalow. Naturally the work was regularly inspected by David and Shelley Miscavige [his wife], who would ride over to the site on his motorbike. They were apparently unhappy with the finished appearance and had the area ploughed over and reseeded.”

Although Scientologists deny the wildflower planting ever happened, Morton claims to have legal affidavits from several witnesses.

[From the Daily Mail]

Much of the Daily Mail’s article about the book focuses on Scientology’s recruitment attempts. While they’ve always paid special attention to their celebrity followers (who many people claim are actually just paid celebrity endorsers), Scientology gets the bulk of their wealth from charging exorbitant fees to regular parishioners. Thus the more converts they have, the more money they get, and Morton accuses them of recently targeting the German people.

The author says Germany’s population of 80 million made it a perfect “new market” for Scientology, although the church is not recognized officially as a religion there.

“David Miscavige and his lieutenants were in Scientology’s war room at Hemet, planning the invasion of Germany. From time to time they were joined in their desert bunker by Tom, who these days is the organization’s second-in-command in all but name, involved in every aspect of planning and policy.”

[From the Daily Mail]

That’s interesting, considering how unwelcoming the Germans appeared to be towards Tom Cruise when he was filming Valkyrie around Germany. The film initially had trouble getting permission to do much of the necessary filming, though the German government eventually acquiesced. However it doesn’t appear that Tom Cruise – or Scientology – won over the hearts and minds of the German people during his tenure there.

Andrew Morton’s Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography comes out January 15th, and I’ll be in line to get it that day, and I hope I’ll see the rest of you at Barnes and Noble.