Madame Tussauds to open in Sydney

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are expected to be among the first Australian stars to feature when waxworks museum Madame Tussauds opens a venue in Sydney next year, the company said Thursday.

The world-famous London attraction will begin welcoming visitors in the Darling Harbour tourist district of the city next May.

"The latest attraction will reflect the franchise's 200 years of expertise and research, with each figure crafted with both a high level of artistry and accuracy," the company said.

"Most contemporary figures are also produced following sittings with the celebrities themselves, and talks are already well advanced with a number of Australian icons."

The first Australian to be waxed will be "Home and Away" soap opera actor Ray Meagher, who has played Alf Stewart in the popular series since 1988. Politicians and sports stars are also expected to feature.

There are already branches of the museum in cities across the globe, including Hong Kong, Las Vegas, New York, Amsterdam and Bangkok. (AFP)

Kidman, Urban welcome new baby girl

LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and her country star husband, Keith Urban, have added a second daughter to their family, born via a surrogate mother in the United States.

The Australian couple today announced the arrival of Faith Margaret Kidman Urban, born on December 28 at a Nashville, Tennessee, hospital.

Faith was born at the Centennial Medical Centre under a veil of secrecy, involving the celebrity couple booking out the entire top floor of the hospital and secretly entering the facility via a staff-only service elevator.

Kidman and Urban are Faith's biological parents. Initial reports had said the baby girl was born last week. Kidman and Urban released a statement thanking everyone for their support.

"Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret," the couple said.

"No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular our gestational carrier."

Kidman and Urban, both 43, were married in 2006 and have another daughter together, Sunday Rose, 2.

Kidman credited Sunday's unexpected appearance to swimming in the waters of a small Australian outback town during the filming of the film Australia.

She and six other women became pregnant after swimming in Kununurra.

Kidman and Urban probably deserve this year's best actress and actor Academy Awards for keeping Faith a secret.

Kidman has been on the hustings in the US, Australia and Europe undertaking numerous interviews to promote her latest project Rabbit Hole, a harrowing drama she produced and stars in as a mother dealing with the sudden death of a young son.

Urban has also sat through plenty of interviews.

And the pair made no mention of Faith yesterday when they attended the Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles.

Kidman missed out on the Golden Globe best dramatic actress award for Rabbit Hole, with expectant mother Natalie Portman taking the gold statue for her performance in Black Swan.

Kidman has two adopted children with former husband Tom Cruise, 18-year-old daughter Isabella and 15-year-old son Connor, who live with Cruise in Los Angeles, but the teenagers are rarely seen in public with Kidman.

Kidman has hinted about her desire to have children and said in the latest issue of the US edition of Harper's Bazaar magazine that Isabella and Connor do not regularly visit her in Nashville.

"No, they don't," Kidman said.

"They're not crazy about Nashville. They're so grown up now. I mean, they're adults."

New Celebbrity Trend?

Sandra Bullock surprised the world last April when it was revealed that she had adopted a baby boy at the beginning of the year, yet had managed to keep him a secret through a shocking split from husband Jesse James and a slew of public appearances during a successful awards season where she won the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and Critics Choice Award.

And now it seems fellow awards nominee Nicole Kidman was taking notes.
In a statement released on Monday, reps for Kidman and her country crooner husband Keith Urban confirmed that the Australian couple is biological parents to Faith Margaret Kidman Urban, who was born on Dec. 28 at The Women’s Hospital at Centennial in Nashville via a gestational carrier.

"Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret," the family said in a statement. "No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular our gestational carrier."

But is the “surprise baby” becoming a Hollywood trend?

“The revelation that Nicole and Keith had quietly become parents again last month was definitely a huge surprise, I don’t think anyone saw that coming,” pop culture/entertainment expert Scott Huver told Pop Tarts. “It certainly feels like a replay of last year’s Sandra Bullock story, where she navigated the entire Hollywood awards show circuit without giving the media any hint that she had a new baby at home. Sandra definitely kept her awards tour focused away from what she had going on at home, avoiding allowing baby news to overshadow her successful bid for the Oscar. But with big events left to Nicole to hit – she’s up for a Screen Actors Guild Award and is in the running for an Oscar nomination – she’s definitely opened the floodgates for questions about the new baby to take center stage.”

Kidman and Urban happily relished in all the glitz and glamour of awards season over the weekend, showing no signs of being weary parents with a newborn at home.

“I haven’t been with familiar with awards season recently so it is just really nice to part of it again with this film,” Kidman exclusively told FOX411’s Pop Tarts at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday evening, where she was nominated for her work in “Rabbit Hole.” “It’s been five years in the making and I’m just so grateful to be included. Sometimes you can’t help but hear what critics say about you, but I have to say the critics took this film and really made it what it is.”

The following day, Kidman, 43, made an appearance at the BAFTA Los Angeles Award Season Tea (sans Urban) and on Sunday was all smiles as she and Urban strode hand-in-hand down the red carpet at the Golden Globes, where Kidman was again nominated for "Rabbit Hole."

However, the evening didn’t end for the proud new parents who later hit up the Relativity Media and The Weinstein Company's Golden Globe After Party, followed by the CAA party at the famed Sunset Towers.

“It definitely seemed unusual that, with a new baby at home and with their primary residence in Nashville, Nicole and Keith made time in their schedule to make the full rounds on the party-packed Globes weekend rather than just slipping in for the big day on Sunday,” added Huver. “I'm sure they're enjoying a doubly celebratory time in their personal and professional lives right now.”

Married in 2006, Kidman and Urban welcomed daughter Sunday Rose into the world in July 2008. Kidman and former husband Tom Cruise also adopted two children, Isabella and Conner, during their marriage. PE1

Just a couple of weeks before Faith was born, Kidman was pinching herself that life was real.

“I’m in a state of absolute wonder, having all this in my life, I never thought this was going to be me in my forties. A new baby. I just love the energy of young children in the house, it is just lovely. It puts me in a state of humility and compassion,” Kidman told Pop Tarts while promoting “Rabbit Hole,” which she both starred in and produced. “I just want to have my husband, my baby and Bella and Conner. For me, they’re my favorite people in the world.”

A Minute With Nicole Kidman working on "Rabbit Hole"

Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman has scored positive reviews, and a Golden Globe nomination, for her role as a mother dealing with the death of her child in the independent film "Rabbit Hole."

The film was released last week in major US theaters and expands around the country starting on Christmas day.

"Rabbit Hole" is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire. Kidman stars alongside Aaron Eckhart as grieving couple Becca and Howie. Kidman also produced the film, marking it the inaugural project from her company, Blossom Films.

Kidman, who lives in Nashville with her country star husband Keith Urban and their daughter Sunday Rose, spoke about the film, her family and being a mother.

Q: How did you come across the play?
A: "I read the review of 'Rabbit Hole' in the New York Times. Living in Nashville, I get the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. That's my contact with the city because that's where I used to live and I'm a theater buff. When I read the review, I thought, 'Gosh, that sounds like rich material.'"

Q: As a mother, you felt for Becca's pain?
A: "When we first optioned the play, I wasn't pregnant. This has been years in the making, so there wasn't a thought of being pregnant. I thought I'd never get pregnant. But I get what she goes through. I get her relationship with her mother, her sister, God. I get the way in which she is so angry."

Q: How did you prepare to play a woman who goes through something no parent should ever have to face?
A: "I read stuff. I tried to go to a grief group but I was told 'No, you're not allowed. You can only step into these rooms if you lost a child.' I totally get it, yet for whatever reason, that rawness was available to me. Maybe it was from giving birth (to daughter Sunday Rose) 11 months prior."

Q: The subject must have made for a difficult shoot.
A: "It was more like there was a big thrust to honor the people who are going through this right now. There's almost something lifting you up, going 'Come on, if someone can actually be living this, I can be living this.'"

Q: How has motherhood impacted your career?
A: "Time is the most precious thing. I'm very particular about how I spend it. I'm more reluctant to leave my family. Keith and I are very tight, and we're never separated. If we are, it's no more than three days."

Q: How is motherhood today different than it was when you were raising Connor and Isabella (with ex-husband Tom Cruise)?
A: "I raised two kids when I was in my 20s, but that was a different thing. I was a kid and still so young mentally and emotionally -- a totally different mom."

Q: And now?
A: "There is something about mothering late in life. A lot of it is I want to stay alive for Sunday. There is plenty of deep fear and emotion. Sunday has healed an enormous amount in me. It's a very private thing, but she just has."

Q: What's Sunday like now?
A: "She's two and a half and in what we call 'the raccoon' stage because she's into everything. She's into this, she's into that. She's just really hard to wrangle at this stage."

Q: Were you like that as a kid?
A: "I don't think so. I was more placid. But Keith rode BMX bikes and grew up in a pretty rambunctious family. Sunday's got a lot of her dad's face and a lot of his DNA."

Q: You and Keith were both raised in Australia and you're now living the country life in the United States. Does Sunday have any of your Aussie roots in her?
A: "Our daughter is a Tennessee girl, but she still says 'G'day mate.' She says both 'Hi y'all' and 'G'day mate.'"

Q: Any plans on expanding the family?
A: "We're hoping for another one!"