Nicole Kidman Exits Woody Allen's Next Movie

You know who could use a good movie? That Nicole Kidman. Kidman is - or was - a movie star. She did great work for about three years straight. She won an Oscar. And then, suddenly, she had worse instincts than Kate Hudson. The last good movie she made may have been The Interpreter but more than likely it was Cold Mountain. Fur, Birth, and Dogville were all honest efforts that backfired through no real fault of her own, and anything with a budget made in the last five years has been met with apathy at best. That's a Detroit Lions-esque nine-movie skid. For someone earning over $10 million a movie for her studio work and with an Oscar in the last decade, that's a terrible track record. So Kidman has lined up some potentially great project, like the upcoming musical Nine and a new Woody Allen movie. Nope...sorry, scratch that. She just dropped out of the Woody flick. She gave no official reason, but it sure couldn't have been the company she would have been keeping. In addition to best pal Naomi Watts, Woody had secured the services of Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto, and Josh Brolin. What, did that sequel to The Invasion finally come through? Another Stepford Wives movie? Perhaps it's none of those things and maybe she just wanted a break. But again, she sure could use a movie that gives people a reason to pay to see her, so you'd think she'd jump at the chance to spend a few weeks in London with her best friend working with a rejuvenated master. I think Kidman can be a very impressive force on screen, but by laziness, bad luck, disinterest, or whatever, I sure wouldn't be led to think that based on her work in the past half-decade. I hope she knows what she's doing here.