Nicole Kidman branded 'awful' by British columnist

Melbourne, Nov 26 : Australian actress Nicole Kidman has been accused of being unable to act, a kiss of death for a movie, a woman who turns off other women and accomplished at being awful by a British columnist.

The Times of London columnist Melanie Reid has cast doubt on the career reputation of the 41-year-old, wife of country singer Keith Urban and mother of their baby Sunday Rose,

"Oh dear, oh dear. The Australians are investing a huge amount of expectation, and many millions of promotional dollars, in an epic movie intended to reinvigorate tourism and a sense of national pride," the Daily Telegraph quoted Reid, as stating in the Times.

"You know the kind of thing. Great raw, soaring landscapes, wild brumbies, rough blokes, mystical Aborigines, a gorgeous sheila, fair bit of Foster's. Sort of Crocodile Dundee with gravitas, or Picnic at Hanging Rock with sex - and therefore, in most people's eyes, a potential hit.

"Australia the movie, however, has one huge problem. It stars Nicole Kidman. Big mistake. Big, big mistake. At a stroke, the world's female cinemagoers will say as one: I'm not going to see it if she's in it.

"Kidman is one of those women who turns other women off. And no, not just because she's pretty and we're jealous. It is because we perceive, and men don't, that she's one of the most overrated actors in the world, a woman who has been the kiss of death in practically every movie she has starred in.

"Kidman is exquisitely accomplished at being awful. Did anyone see Cold Mountain? The sweeping American epic foundered on the rocks of her gormless mirror-gaze. She can't act.

"Instead, she drifts around films like a lost porcelain doll, looking frozen, brittle and vapid, staring at the camera with her oh-golly-look-how-I'm-looking-interesting blue eyes," Reid added.

ANI