The Sydney Morning Herald is playfully writing that Nicole Kidman is under siege by the critics.
Nick Curtis from London's Evening Standard fired the first salvo, condemning her English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley as "a showcase for her worst acting tics, all her prissy pouts and expressions of 'Botoxed' startlement". Kidman's "Barbie-perfect bosom, bottom and ironing-board hips" did nothing for Curtis's libido. The actor has a"curiously sexless screen presence", he fumed.
This, remember, is the same woman who gave London a dose of "pure theatrical Viagra" when she appeared in the buff in The Blue Room in 1998.
Curtis's bitter ad hominem attack is almost benign compared to a frothing column by Melanie Reid from The Times. She wrote that Kidman is "exquisitely accomplished at being awful" and that women - all women, apparently - do not like her because she cannot act and looks "frozen, brittle and vapid".
As a thesis it's a bit thin. Kidman has won an Oscar. And if women hate her because she isn't a brilliant actor why don't they chuck eggs at Sandra Bullock and Andie MacDowell?
For a start Jennifer Anniston and Sandra Bullock are much more charming than 'Our Nic'. I think it very unsuprising that a lot of people are expressing a great deal of Kidman-Hate. The defense that she won an Oscar would only serve to irritate those whodislike her more - most likely because they probably thought the Oscar was largely undeserved.
I myself think an Oscar is not a barometer of talent, but a prize for navigating the jungle of Hollywood successfully, and Nicole Kidman sure has done that very well. Did Kidman deserve that Oscar as an indication of talent? Not in my opinion. But I'd be the first to say that anybody with such scant acting talent who could rise to the top of the Hollywood system deserves much recognition. Why not give her a golden statue?
Occasionally I get asked why I think so many people hate Nicole Kidman, and I have to say it is because she comes across as cold and charmless. There's no saving grace because there's no saving charm. All I see is somebody who is earnestly acting, but never ceasing to be 'Nicole Kidman, Movie Star'. It's an unfortunate function of her hailing from the Sydney North Shore.
Yes, We Are All Paying For It
Suddenly the SMH noticed that Baz Luhrmann's company is going to get the 40% rebate on the $197m movie.
AUSTRALIAN taxpayers will end up paying for close to 25 per cent of the production costs for the movie Australia, thanks to a tax deal between director Baz Luhrmann and the Federal Government.
Arts Minister Peter Garrett has defended the Producer Offset scheme, which allows Luhrmann to claim back 40 per cent of his production expenses at the end of this tax year. The rebate was 12.5 per cent before Australia was made.
"It's not only Australia but a range of other motion pictures that will qualify," Mr Garrett said. "That's a really good thing because it means we're seeing significant investment in the Australian film industry, but also in the ancillary services such as transport, technicians, the staging, hotels - all of the expenses that can happen in and around a film.
"It's providing significant investment and economic boosting into our economy."
While Australian taxpayers have been unaware about how much public money will go towards the making of Australia, US publication The Hollywood Reporter has hailed Luhrmann's ingenuity in raising funds from the Australian Government.
"Luhrmann also had another miracle up his sleeve. This time, instead of making the sun come out, he made it rain - dollars," said American film critic Shannon L. Bowen.
"Before Australia went into production, the Australian Government had already planned to increase its film production rebate from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent," the report said.
But Australia producer G. Mac Brown told the influential industry magazine: "Baz was able to convince the Government that Australian-based productions would get a higher incentive of a 40 per cent rebate, which is a huge difference."
A flop, and yet so rewarding for Baz Luhrmann, is what they're saying between the lines. This 40% rebatething just got a lot harder to sell to the people.
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