Nervous Kidman prepares for own special love story

By Paul Tait

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Happy but nervous Oscar-winning actress
Nicole Kidman made final preparations on Sunday for her wedding
to country music singer Keith Urban, a match described by a
close friend as her own special love story.

Secrecy and security surround the ceremony, a traditional
Catholic service set to take place later on Sunday in a small
sandstone chapel in sweeping grounds overlooking Sydney Harbour
and the Pacific Ocean.

Kidman, who won a 2002 Academy Award for her role in the
film “The Hours,” had a very public divorce from actor Tom
Cruise in 2001, ending a 10-year marriage. They have remained
friends, sharing custody of their two adopted children.

“It’s a very special love story,” Australian film director
Baz Luhrmann said of the wedding.

“They’re feeling great,” Luhrmann, with whom Kidman worked
on the Oscar-winning movie “Moulin Rouge,” told The Sun-Herald
newspaper.

Father Paul Coleman, a Jesuit priest who will perform the
ceremony, has said Kidman, 39, and Urban, 38, have a “mature
love” which has impressed him.

Coleman met the couple this week to discuss their marriage
and said he had told them to “make time for each other, do
romantic things together and never part without kissing.”

Antonia Kidman, who will reportedly be Kidman’s matron of
honor, said her sister was nervous, while other family and
friends said she was excited but happy.

Kidman and Urban, both Australians but born overseas, met
in January 2005 at an awards dinner held by the Australian
government in Los Angeles honoring the two of them.

They have tried to keep a low profile over the past week
but the media have tracked their every move, with paparazzi
camped outside Kidman’s ritzy harborside home.

“I’m so happy,” Kidman told reporters as she left to see
her parents before a quiet dinner on Saturday.

Local and international media have speculated wildly about
details of the wedding.

The Sun-Herald said a guest list of 230 could include Oscar
winner Renee Zellwegger, Kidman’s “Cold Mountain” co-star.
Other guests include Naomi Watts, star of “King Kong” and
long-time Kidman friend, “X-Men” star Hugh Jackman’s wife
Deborra-Lee Furness, and possibly Russell Crowe. News Corp boss
Rupert Murdoch is also reportedly on the guest list.

Kidman’s children, Isabella, 13, and Connor, 11, will be
bridesmaid and usher. Local newspapers have speculated that the
statuesque Kidman would wear a dress described as “minimalist,
white, with a hint of old-world romance,” possibly by French
fashion house Balenciaga.

Australia’s remarkable run at the World Cup soccer finals
pushed the wedding off the front page of Sydney’s Sunday
Telegraph, but the tabloid devoted four inside pages to
“Sydney’s Hollywood Wedding.”

It said guests would travel by limousine from a luxury city
hotel late on Sunday afternoon for the 5.30 p.m. ceremony (0730
GMT) at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel, in the grounds
of a former seminary.

Urban, who won a Grammy in 2005 for best male country vocal
performance on the song “You’ll Think of Me,” spent what has
been described as a “sedate” buck’s night at a trendy city bar.

Media have speculated he will serenade Kidman with his hit
“I Want to Be Your Everything” at their wedding.