WORLD / Newsmaker

Nicole Kidman uses the f-word
(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-17 10:26

Nicole Kidman may still have feelings for ex Tom Cruise, but that doesn't mean she's not ready for another go-round at the altar.

Nicole Kidman arrives at the 78th annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California in this March 5, 2006 file photo. Oscar-winning actress Kidman, ex-wife of actor Tom Cruise, says she is engaged to marry country music star Keith Urban, People magazine reported May 16, 2006.
Nicole Kidman attend the 78th annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, March 5, 2006. Kidman, ex-wife of actor Tom Cruise, says she is engaged to marry country music star Keith Urban, People magazine reported May 16, 2006. [Reuters]
Keith Urban performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans in this May 5, 2006 file photo. Country music star Urban and Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman are engaged to be married, People magazine reported May 16, 2006. According to People, Kidman revealed her engagement to Urban while discussing her work for UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
Keith Urban performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans in this May 5, 2006 file photo. Country music star Urban and Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman are engaged to be married, People magazine reported May 16, 2006. [Reuters]

In New York Saturday to host the 30th anniversary gala for UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Kidman confirmed what's been the subject of tabloid speculation for months-that she and her country star beau Keith Urban aren't just dating-they're officially engaged.

"He's actually my fiance," the 38-year-old Oscar winner told People magazine. "I wouldn't be bringing my boyfriend."

Kidman and Urban first went public with their relationship back in July. But when the Moulin Rouge! star was photographed sporting a large diamond on her ring finger while the couple was cavorting around Boston last November, the gossip mill went into overdrive guessing when she and the 38-year-old Kiwi were planning to make their union permanent.

The confirmation comes just days after Kidman's recent interview in the June issue of Ladies Home Journal when she revealed she suffered a "major shock" when Cruise filed for divorce in 2001 and said she still "loved him."

"He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him," she told the magazine.

While her superstar ex-hubby has just gone and had baby Suri with new fiancee Katie Holmes, Kidman and Cruise still share custody of their two adopted kids, 13-year-old Isabella and 11-year-old Connor. Urban, for his part, has no kids.

So far no word on a wedding date.

A rep for the country crooner couldn't be reached for comment. Kidman's camp was also mum on the report.

Aside from her newfound love, the actress and United Nations goodwill ambassador was also happy to tout one of her favorite pet causes, three decades worth of work by UNIFEM to empower women around the globe and improve their lives.

"Commemorating UNIFEM's 30th anniversary is a special opportunity for me to bring UNIFEM's accomplishments to the attention of a larger audience of concerned citizens," Kidman told 500 guests in a packed ballroom at New York's Hilton Hotel.

As emcee, Kidman helped the organization pay tribute to two women whom UNIFEM has singled out for helping advance the cause of women's rights.

Liberia's first female president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was honored with the group's Global Leadership Award for her historic election win while Terry Lundgren, the chief executive of Federated Department Stores, the parent company of Macy's, received UNIFEM's first Global Championship Award for giving Rwanadan female basketweavers an opportunity to sell their goods online and at Macy's flagship store in the Big Apple.

Kidman's currently shooting an untitled project for The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York. She then is scheduled to segue into The Lady From Shanghai, Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's update of Orson Welles' classic 1947 thriller. The erstwhile Interpreter will then star opposite Russell Crowe in a untitled Oz-based romantic epic that will reuniting her with her Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann.