Kidman defends nude scenes with boy in new film

NICOLE KIDMAN yesterday denied a nude scene she shared with a 10-year-old boy in her latest film, Birth, had paedophile overtones.

The film was booed by the media at the Venice Film Festival. But the Oscar-winning actress turned on her critics yesterday when she appeared in Normandy at the Deauville Festival of American Cinema.

The flak was around her scenes in Birth with a boy played by Cameron Bright who, at one point, shares a naked bathing interlude with her and also is involved in discussions of a sexual nature.

In the film by British director Jonathan Glazer, the boy believes he is the incarnation of her dead husband.

Kidman said: "There is no amorous or sexual feelings towards the child by my character. That would be disgusting and horrible. I have a child of Cameron Bright's age myself and anything like that I would find revolting," she said.

"The relationship between my character Anna and the boy is not about attraction but about belief in the manifestation of my dead spouse. She is fascinated by the boy because he believes he is the reincarnation of my husband Seán even although that seems unlikely to believe, part of her wants to believe it.

"She would desperately like to think it is true that her husband has returned in the guise of a child and the young Cameron Bright is able to give the boy a credible maturity."

Kidman also scotched rumours that there was any rift in the relationship between her and the legendary Lauren Bacall, who plays her mother in the film.

Asked if she believed in reincarnation, Kidman said that was not the point. "It wasn't my script or my creation I am just building a character who needs to believe in it.

"When you lose someone who is very close then you often say that you will refind each other, and at some points in your life you let yourself be manipulated by the notion."

Before any future projects come into view, Kidman plans to take a holiday with her children.

She plans to start filming soon with In the Mood for Love director Wong Kar-wai with a story set in New York.

Puncturing the myth that she lives a charmed, exotic and glamorous life, Kidman claimed that she often would sit alone in her hotel room after a ritzy awards ceremony or premiere wondering exactly whom she could phone for comfort at that time of night now that the ex-Mrs Tom Cruise is single again.

"It's a bit like Cinderella returning from the ball and taking off her gown. Even on the night of the Oscars, after all the parties, I found myself alone, wondering who I could talk to. This job can really takes its toll."