It’s the Nicole-assance.
Nicola Kidman is not just in her prime as she nears 60 — she’s taking on Hollywood’s stuffy old men.
Following her shock split from husband Keith Urban last year, Kidman is everywhere at the moment. She stars in the third hit season of Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ hit “Lioness,” she’s filming the new thriller “Discretion” for the streamer and will reprise her role in the HBO hit “Nine Perfect Strangers” — not forgetting she’s also the face of Chanel.
But a Tinseltown source also revealed that Kidman is fighting the industry after unfair criticism surrounding the release of her latest film, “Practical Magic 2,” in which she stars alongside Sandra Bullock.
“All of the trades [magazines] slated it because it opened at $30 million,” the source told Page Six. “But the [following] week, Brad Pitt’s movie, ‘Heart of the Beast,’ opened with $20 million and they were celebrating it as a great opening for him. I don’t know what other movies have opened that’s not ‘The Odyssey’ or a horror movie that did what [‘Practical Magic’] did.”
(Plus, Kidman’s ex-husband Tom Cruise’s new movie, “Digger” made just $8 million its opening weekend on Oct. 2)
To be fair, “Heart of the Beast” has now outperformed “Practical Magic 2” at the box office, with $156 million total worldwide gross compared to $105 million.
But, the source said, the takeaway is that Hollywood still struggles to take women-fronted projects and female audiences seriously.
However, it’s something that Kidman, who turns 60 next June, takes very seriously. She made a public pledge in 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival to work with a female director at least once every 18 months, later surpassing her goal by collaborating with 19 female filmmakers over eight years.
Industry insiders tell Page Six that the willowy Australian has now worked with a woman director 67 times across TV, film and shorts, as an actor, producer and/or executive producer.
“As a woman in this industry, if you have a little power, if you have the chance to get something greenlit, if you have the chance to say who you want to direct it, if you go, ‘I want a female to do this,’ that will help,” Kidman said at a Variety event in 2018.
Susanne Bier, Kidman’s frequent collaborator and the director of “Practical Magic 2,” told British Vogue, “She is the ultimate seducer — and I don’t mean that in a sexual way. She has an incredibly enticing energy, where you get very willingly drawn into her sphere. She’s from outer space.”
She even has a hit song named after her. Released in September, Adéla’s catchy “Nicole Kidman” went viral and reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on US Spotify charts.
“Nicole Kidman has long displayed a keen understanding of how modern celebrity is a bigger job than mere movie stardom,” said Ethan Alter, deputy editor of Gold Derby. “Whether embracing television —both in front of and behind the camera — or the viral nature of social media, she balances the self-awareness and authenticity that’s central to the appeal of the stars that younger audiences latch onto.”
“Funnily enough, she did more for the movie industry as the face of that ubiquitous AMC ad than almost any of the films she’s made recently. As audiences returned to theaters in a tickle — and now a flood —after the COVID pandemic, Kidman was there to welcome them back. And she also ensured that they’d see her face anytime they went to the multiplex, even if she wasn’t in the film itself.”
Kidman barely takes a rest. Not content with showing off her Amazonian legs at the Chanel show this month — clad in only a blazer — she’s already filmed a second season of her Amazon Prime show, “Scarpetta,” and is set to return for a fourth season of “Lioness.” On the latter, she plays Kaitlyn Meade, a high-ranking, senior CIA official and Clandestine Service supervisor who oversees the high-stakes Lioness Engagement Team, helmed by Zoe Saldaña’s character.
The Oscar winner, who won the Best Actress honor in 2003 for “The Hours,” has managed to achieve all of this despite a heartbreaking split from her second husband, country music star Keith Urban in 2025.
The break-up reportedly came as a surprise to Kidman and left her devastated.
Page Six revealed that Urban disliked her raunchy 2024 movie “Babygirl,” in which she plays a CEO who is seduced by a junior colleague.
Indeed, one source told Page Six this week how Urban made it clear he didn’t want to promote the movie alongside his wife — even though she won plaudits and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
The source stressed, “Nicole is a risk-taker — look at ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ with Tom Cruise, that’s who she is.”
She filed for divorce in September 2025 after 19 years of marriage. The divorce was finalized this past January and Kidman has sole custody of their daughters, Sunday Rose, 18, and Faith Margaret, 15.
She told the British Vogue September issue that the divorce left her adrift and that she pondered, “Like, where am I going? And what’s next?”
And, she admitted that it has not been the easiest year, telling the magazine, “I’m like, ‘OK, I didn’t expect this. I had a different view of what my life was going to be, but this is what it is now.’ You make all these plans and you have all these ideas of what it’s all going to be like and then it’s … not. You have to adjust. You adapt.”
A Hollywood source said that Kidman is nothing if not resilient.
“Even when Nicole lost her mom, she went to an event to promote ‘Baby Girl’ and told everyone she was there to work, even when people told her she didn’t need to be there,” the source recalled.
The star is never one to sit quietly and lick her wounds, friends told us, with one reminiscing how she got herself back on her feet amid the headlines to promote her Amazon Prime show “Scarpetta” amid the split.
In October 2025, she had the ultimate revenge moment as she stepped out in front of the cameras at a Chanel show — after being unveiled as the fashion house’s global ambassador — with her girls, looking stunning in a sexy, oversized white shirt and jeans.
Asked by British Vogue if she took any guidance from her very high-profile split from Tom Cruise, with whom she has adopted children Bella and Connor in 2001, she laughed. “It’s all new … Every time!”
The star’s crew is made up of high-profile pals including Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern.
But she’s happiest at home — a 10,925-square-foot mansion known as the “Queen of Northumberland” in an upscale, gated community called Northumberland just outside Nashville, Tenn.
“Above all, her home base is Nashville and she’s a mom,” said a longtime pal, adding, “Her family is her biggest priority.”
Sunday Rose is working as a model and recently posed for the cover of German Vogue, saying of nepo baby claims, “I’m very aware that I’m given opportunities that not everyone can have, and I’m truly grateful to be able to take advantage of them.” She also wants to get behind the camera to direct.
Faith Margaret has yet to work professionally, but has joined her mom on red carpets and at fashion shows, including Chanel in Paris last month.
“Because she’s seen as a totemic power in Hollywood, Kidman is able to present herself like she’s floating above the industry fray,” added Alter. “She makes the projects she wants to make, appears where she wants to appear, and always looks for ways to surprise. It’s all part of the practical magic of making stardom seem effortless, no matter how skilled she is at navigating the industry’s trenches.”
Despite working for more than four decades, “Nic is still very humble,” said the longtime pal, who adding that Kidman was overwhelmed with the support following her divorce.
“She is very much like, ‘Why do they care about me?’ But she’s very touched by it.”