Nicole Kidman: A Kind of Life

Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman, a breathtaking beauty and versatile performer, is ranked by most movie insiders as one of the top actresses of her generation. But, for years, her professional success was offset by her mother's battle with breast cancer and a shattering divorce from Tom Cruise, with whom she had adopted two children.

The divorce turned her world upside down. She eventually landed on her feet, but the years in between were chaotic and marked by poor relationship and career choices.

Born in Hawaii and raised in Australia, Nicole was an awkward child who did not blossom until her teen years. Supported by activist parents (her father is a well-known psychologist in Australia) she quickly became an award-winning ingénue in Australia. Her role in the acclaimed thriller Dead Calm grabbed the attention of moviegoers as well as that of Tom Cruise, who asked her to audition for his upcoming film, Days of Thunder.

By the 1990s, Tom and Nicole had married and Nicole was appearing in one movie after another. Her breakthrough role came in 1995 with To Die For, in which she played the role of a television weathergirl who kills her husband. Several releases later she co-starred with Tom in the sexual psychodrama, Eyes Wide Shut, directed by the legendary film director Stanley Kubrick. The film generated a firestorm of publicity, primarily because of its graphic sexual content. With shocking insight, this book takes you behind the scenes while the movie was being made.

For two of her recent films, Paperboy and Fur, Nicole returned to two of her favorite themes--infidelity and sexual exhibitionism. Both films brought comparisons to two cutting-edge relationship stories, To Die For and Eyes Wide Shut.

After a string of disastrous relationships, including romances with rapper Q-Tip and musician Lenny Kravitz-she fell in love with country star Keith Urban and they married in 2006 after a courtship of about a year. She had a child with Keith and then had a second daughter with the help of a surrogate mother. Today they live in Nashville, Tennessee, far away from the glitter of Hollywood.