Cruise and Kidman bypass each other in Venice

Hollywood's former golden couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are reportedly going to great lengths to avoid bumping into each other at this week's Venice Film Festival.

The pair are both due to attend the event to promote new movies - but have arranged the schedule so their projects are showcased on different days, according to gossip site The Scoop.

Cruise will promote Collateral on September 3 and Kidman will push Birth four days later.

A source tells the site: "It's always terribly awkward, especially if the press is there and makes a big deal over it.

"Besides, some of the tabloids keep trying to say they're getting back together again - which they're not. So, if they're photographed together in Venice, that will just be fuel for the fire - unless they snub each other, which, of course, then causes a whole new type of story."

But Kidman's representative disputes the story, insisting: "She's there when she's there because that's when her film is showing. She can't be there earlier because she's filming Bewitched and doesn't have the luxury of going any earlier."