Thursday, 19 October 2006

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Nicole Kidman: 'Mental' cheating is most dangerous

Cold Mountain star says it's all in the mind

She's been happily married to Keith Urban since June, but Nicole Kidman has a reason to think about bumpy unions these days: Her new movie, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, takes a fictionalized look at the troubled marriage of the late photographer.

In Rome promoting the film, Kidman, 39, was asked her thoughts on fidelity. "I don't think that sexual faithfulness is the most important one," she said. "It is the easiest type to define, but mental unfaithfulness is far more subtle and dangerous. How far can you go in this type without being 'really' unfaithful? It's a difficult issue for which I don't have answers, only questions."

Arbus, who in 1971 committed suicide at age 48 in her Greenwich Village apartment, was acclaimed – and criticized – for her stark black-and-white photographs of transvestites, nudists and others on the fringe of society. She was also the mother of two daughters who managed a successful career at a time when it was rare for a woman to make her mark in the workplace.

"Reading Arbus's biography by Patricia Bosworth (on which Fur is based), I found many things in common with myself," Kidman said. "I have a passion for photography. I collect black and white photos by Man Ray and Lee Miller, also her wish to explore the world – to not give up on hopes and dreams and to live life in a brave way."

Kidman also noted that women face the same dilemma Arbus did in the 1960s: "Despite the fact that we live in a different era, women are still torn between having a family and a career. During the time I was divorced, I was able to explore different roads. Now that I am happily married again, there are limits."

In the film, Arbus develops a fascination with her neighbor (Robert Downey Jr.), who suffers from a rare disease that causes his entire body to be covered with fur.

Could Kidman herself ever fall in love with an ugly man? "Why not?" she said. "Of course I could fall in love with an ugly man ... even a very ugly man. True love is about loving firstly and, above all, the soul of the other person, and souls don't age. Nor do they develop wrinkles."