Urban flying solo

Keith Urban & Nicole Kidman

While Australian country crooner Keith Urban embarks on a promotional tour of Australia, his Oscar-winning wife Nicole Kidman will be on the other side of the world finalising commitments for three US films.

It was widely tipped that Kidman, 39, would accompany Urban for a week-long promotional tour of his latest offering Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing, in Sydney this week.

The couple, who married in June last year, had planned to visit their homeland together because it coincided nicely with Kidman beginning production on the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia, starring Hugh Jackman.

However, with production for the film pushed back to April, Kidman will remain in Los Angeles to complete publicity for US films The Golden Compass and The Invasion, both of which she appears opposite Casino Royale's Daniel Craig, plus comedy Margot at the Wedding, featuring actor Jack Black.

"She is still in LA finishing her commitments to films she has made over the last 12 months, before she leaves to come back to Australia for an extended period to make Australia," said Kidman's Australian publicist Wendy Day.

"She is very, very, very excited about coming back home. Obviously she can't be going back to America for any commitments while she is here filming Australia, so that all has to be finished first."

Plans for Urban to promote his seventh album and make a guest appearance at the 2006 ARIA awards in October were cancelled last year after the musician checked himself into a US rehabilitation centre for alcohol addiction.

The 39-year-old spent three months in the prestigious Betty Ford Centre in Palm Springs, California.

Following his whirlwind publicity visit to Australia, which begins tomorrow, Urban will return for a national tour commencing in Brisbane on May 11, before playing concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and wrapping in Perth on May 22.

It is expected Kidman will support Urban during the tour, her Australia filming schedule permitting.

"I presume she is going to want to try (to get to Urban's concerts), I guess it just depends on the schedule and where she is," Day said.

"I suppose she has to ask Baz whether he can let her off or not. Once you sign onto a film, that's your commitment ... it's not her call."