Nicole Kidman attended a special screening of the animated children’s film Happy Feet, in which she voices the character Norma Jean, for sick children from the Sydney Children’s Hospital. Around 400 children saw the film in Australia on Monday.

Kidman is a long-time supporter of the hospital and donated the screening for the children:

Kidman paid for and hosted a preview showing of her new movie, Happy Feet, for more than 400 patients at the Sydney Children’s Hospital and their families.

Kidman, who provides the voice for Norma Jean – mother of the animated star Mumble, the dancing penguin – in George Miller’s hit movie, met privately with a number of the terminally ill children before the screening.

“It puts life in perspective,” Kidman, who was accompanied by her daughter, Isabella, said as she walked into the theatre past a horde of photographers and television cameras.

But the screening was so low-key that there was not a fan in sight at the Hoyts complex at Sydney’s Fox Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park.

“It is just lovely to be able to do something for the children,” Kidman said.

The actor – who has been a financial supporter of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation for years – smiled sweetly for the cameras and then disappeared into the theatre with a young patient who was so enamoured with the Hollywood star that he told her he had handcuffs to keep her tied to her seat.

A number of doctors and nurses from the hospital also attended the screening in case the excitement proved too much for any of their patients.

A medical spokesman for the Sydney Children’s Hospital said that Kidman’s support was invaluable as she not only helped projects financially but also interacted with the children and their parents.

“She has known many of our long-term patients for a number of years,” he said.

A steady stream of obviously ill children – many in wheelchairs, others being carried and many with the distinctive baldness caused by treatment – stopped to cuddle a bloke in a Mumble penguin suit on the way in.

“This is just fantastic,” said Lindy Kingsford, whose son is being treated for leukemia.

“We usually can’t take him to the cinema because of his condition.

“This is the first movie he has been to since he was diagnosed last year.

“We didn’t tell him he was coming until this morning because we have had too many occasions where his illness has, at the last minute, prevented him from going.”

It was the first time Kidman had returned to her native Australia since her June marriage to country star Keith Urban. Urban is out of his latest stint at rehab and will spend his first Christmas with his new bride.

Kidman looks a bit fake to me, and I think her dress is too young-looking, but since she’s donating her time to a good cause I’ll leave it at that.

Pictures from Gossip Rocks and ICYDK.