Madame Moulin

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Moulin Rouge was also delayed when Luhrmann's father died on the first day of shooting. Fox was ultimately forced to postpone the film's release, originally scheduled for last Christmas. "It means a hell of a lot to me," says Kidman of the movie, which finally came in at a cost of more than $50 million, "because I see how much it means to Baz. Also because it's a musical. If it does well, it will mean audiences are willing to embrace different things."

Kidman certainly is. Her next project could be a film for Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark). She'll also appear, opposite Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, as Virginia Woolf in The Hours, an adaptation of the Michael Cunningham novel directed by Billy Elliot's Stephen Daldry. Asked if her choices will change now that she's on her own, she laughs. "Now that I've got to support myself? No," she says. "I love theater. I love art films. Now I have the freedom to go to Denmark and work with Lars. Different things are available to me. I've got a very different life now."

In the near future, Kidman, who has been living in the Pacific Palisades home she shared with Cruise, will spend a lot of time hunkered down with her divorce attorney, William Beslow, whose past clients include Sarah Ferguson, the renegade Duchess of York. (With some $250 million at stake, Cruise has his own big gun, Dennis Wasser, who also represented James Woods in a divorce case.) Once that is settled, Kidman will probably spend more time in Australia, where her parents and sister still live.

In August, however, Kidman and Cruise will find themselves back in business, at least professionally. In The Others, Kidman stars as a 1940s British war widow with two children in a haunted country manor. Cruise doesn't co-star, but he is a producer on the movie. "I feel like I bled for that film," says Kidman, who shot it right after Moulin Rouge. "It burned me out. I hope it's good." Chilling and elegant, The Others will remind you that Cruise and Kidman can still make beautiful (if creepy) music together. Meanwhile, Moulin Rouge will show that Kidman can also make it on her own.