Nicole Kidman: A Kind of Life

by James L. Dickerson

  Once the first surge of publicity over Tom’s divorce subsided, he and Nicole relaxed somewhat when out in public. They were spotted holding hands and smooching in shopping malls. It was during this time they discovered they had more in common than simple physical attraction. Both are consummate daredevils, risk-takers who are willing to put their lives on the line. To Nicole’s delight, Tom took her skydiving. At one point, as they fell toward earth in free fall, Tom zoomed in on her and planted a kiss on her mouth, then broke away and yanked his parachute cord. For Nicole, who thrived on adrenaline rushes, romance couldn’t possibly get any better than that.

  Once Tom and Nicole became an item, Janelle Kidman wasted no time flying to America to get a personal assessment of the situation. Nicole and Tom met her in New York, where she spent two weeks getting to know her daughter’s new boyfriend. She was surprised at how much alike they were. She described them as “two peas in a pod” and she told her daughter it seemed to her that they had found in each what they always had been looking for—a best friend.

  Before Janelle returned to Australia, Nicole gave her one more bit of information: She and Tom planned to live together in his four-million-dollar Pacific Palisades home once work on Days of Thunder was completed and Tom’s divorce was finalized in April. Janelle was not entirely surprised, for when it came to affairs of the heart, her daughter had never been overly cautious. She went after love with the same ferocity and determination with which she went after movie roles.

  During her first year as a live-in companion to Tom, Nicole did her best to adapt to stardom Hollywood-style. She gave the obligatory interviews, she toned down her Aussie accent, and she attended one party after another, although the latter was her least favorite thing to do. It was during this period that Tom learned that Nicole’s cool, confident exterior was little more than camouflage for a cauldron of emotions that she struggled to keep in check while out in public.

  She suffers from what psychologists generically call panic attacks. When photographers and reporters press in around her, the strobe lights from the cameras blinding her eyes, her heart races and she struggles to not run away. Typically, people who are in the throes of a panic attack feel a suffocating sense of doom, as if they are going to die if they cannot escape whatever pressure instigated the attack.

  Nicole’s father, Antony, describes panic attacks this way: “Physically, symptoms appear—rapid heart beat, muscle tension, perspiration, trembling. Cognitively the person thinks he may die, go mad or lose control of himself.”

  Early on in the relationship, Nicole learned to depend on Tom to get her through situations like that. The public saw photographs of Nicole holding Tom’s hand, their bodies pressed close together, his lips close to her ear whispering sweet nothings—and they thought it was the most romantic thing imaginable.

  Beyond any doubt, Tom and Nicole were very much in love at that point, but those romantic images of them were not always what they seemed. More likely, especially in a public arena, Nicole pressed in close against Tom because she was experiencing a panic attack. Tom helped her get through those times by holding her hand tightly and whispering into her ear that everything was going to be all right.

  After weeks of public scrutiny of their relationship, Nicole was relieved when the time came to take Tom to Australia to meet the rest of the family. She gleefully told him that they would encounter no paparazzi in Australia.

  When they arrived in Sydney, she felt a great sense of relief, though it turned out to be short-lived. Since Nicole had given her apartment to her sister Antonia—and since bunking with Tom in her parents’ home did not seem a viable option—they checked into a hotel and discussed all the places they wanted to visit.

  Unfortunately, reporters surrounded them the moment they stepped out of the hotel. Nicole was horrified by the intensity of their interest. They were followed every place they went. That had never happened to her before. She had considered Sydney a safe haven and now that bubble had been burst. They did manage to have several fun-filled visits with Antony and Janelle, and Nicole was able to show Tom the places that were important to her, especially the Harbour Bridge.

  Then, for some reason, known only to Nicole, she took Tom by Marcus’s apartment to meet him. Presumably, she felt their friendship would survive his broken heart. The visit was well intentioned, but it was much too soon for the friendship card to be played. Marcus, still bruised by the breakup, was at home when they arrived, but he asked a friend to answer the door and say that he was not there. Nicole still had volumes to learn about men.

  After a few outings escalated into mob-like chaos, Tom and Nicole retreated to their hotel room, where Nicole sat down at the window and wept, gazing out at the skyline that had earlier held so much promise. For the love of a man, she had given up her country, her friends, and her family—not to mention a big part of what she was. Now, facing the painful realization that you really can’t go home again, she understood, for the first time, what it meant to be a prisoner of her own fame.

  ~ ~ ~

  After a courtship of less than a year, Tom and Nicole were married on December 24, 1990, in a sunset ceremony in Telluride, Colorado. Surrounded by snow in a lily-and-rose arbor outside a cozy cottage they had rented, Nicole wore the off-white, vintage bridal gown she had purchased in Amsterdam years ago and kept in her hope chest.

  Antony and Janelle Kidman, along with Nicole’s sister Antonia, who served as her bride’s maid, were in attendance, as were other friends from Australia. Also present were Tom’s mother, Mary Lee Mapother, Tom’s best man, actor Emilo Estevez, and actor Dustin Hoffman and his wife.

  At age twenty-three, Nicole was embarking on the greatest ad­venture of her life, although she never really saw it as a radical change in her lifestyle. ”We have so much in common that it’s al­most as if we are the same person,” she explained to Cosmopolitan not long after the ceremony. “People who know us see that so clearly. Marriage won’t change my life. I mean, it is a commit­ment, but it doesn’t really change anything.”

  Or so Nicole thought. One thing that did change was her concept of religion. Although she and Tom had both been raised Catholics, he had veered in another direction as an adult. Tom was a member of the Church of Scientology, a multi-billion dollar religious organization built on the writings of the late L. Ron Hubbard, whose books, according to his publisher, have sold over 120 million copies in thirty-two languages.

  Celebrities have been a recruiting target of the religion almost from the beginning. “Celebrities are well-guarded, well-barricaded, overworked, aloof quarry,” Hubbard once wrote. “They are important people because they reach a lot of people. They set trends in society.” In addition to Tom Cruise, the church’s Hollywood recruits include John Travolta, Jenna Elfman, Kirstie Alley, Dustin Hoffman, and Goldie Hawn.

  The focus on celebrities is so great, according to Variety, that the organization operates an ornate “Celebrity Center” in a building constructed by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, a magazine titled Celebrity, and a movie production company named Golden Era Studios. With all its high-profile celebrity connections, you would think the church would be revered by the mainstream Hollywood media—but that’s not the case, primarily because of the organization’s sometimes hostile reaction to media coverage of its activities. Books with titles such as The Scandal of Scientology by Paulette Cooper and L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman by Bent Corydon have prompted lawsuits and what Corydon has described as “hounding” by church officials.

  L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986, seems like an unlikely messiah. For most of his life he financed his research to discover what he called the “basic principle of existence” by writing science fiction novels and short stories. He traveled extensively and, for three months in 1948, he worked with inmates in a Georgia mental hospital. In 1950, he expressed his theories in a book titled Dianetcs: The Modern Science of Mental Health, a bestseller that catapulted him into an international spotlight.
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br />   For twenty-five years, Hubbard toured the world, giving lectures and demonstrations of his powers (followers claim to have witnessed him read minds, change his body size, and move objects with telekinetic power). To true believers, he was the reincarnation of a prophet with one foot in the Far East and the other set squarely in the new power center of the new universe—Hollywood, California.

  The Church of Scientology is Hubbard’s vision of religion in a modern, humanist context. It is based on several principles, including the belief that Man is an immortal spiritual being whose experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. Scientology believes that humans are basically good and can find salvation by attaining brotherhood with the “universe.” “Scientology holds in common with all great religions the dream of peace on Earth and salvation for man,” explains the church’s literature. “What is new about Scientology is that it offers a precise path for bringing about spiritual improvement in the here and now and a way to accomplish it with absolute certainty.”

  Scientologists believe in God, but not necessarily the God found in the Old and New Testaments. “Scientology is not a dogmatic religion in which one is asked to believe anything on faith,” says church literature. “An individual discovers for himself that Scientology works by applying its principles and observing or experiencing the results.”

  Scientology is a religion that Tom Cruise took to, almost immediately, in his mid-twenties. The main attraction to him seems to be its philosophy that it can help repair any difficulty and overcome any adversity. “Life pounds you—you know what I mean?” Tom once told Vanity Fair writer Evgenia Peretz. “You come across losses. All of a sudden something happens and how you feel like you cannot go forward or it invalidates you . . . Scientology has helped me be able to figure out tools to understand exactly what a problem is, and how to overcome those problems.”

  Tom wasted no time early in their relationship exposing Nicole to the teachings of the Church of Scientology, and she promised to keep an open mind about it. In the beginning, there were rumors that she had to embrace Scientology in order to marry Tom, rumors she steadfastly denied. “No way,” she told Rolling Stone. “I would never have married him if that was it. That would’ve been forcing me to do something I didn’t want to do. He and I allow ourselves to be who we are. Am I someone following one philosophy? No, but there’s parts of Scientology that are great.”

  Nicole did not go into detail about the aspects of the religion that she felt were “great,” but one of them certainly must have been the way in which church members network with each other. Her first glimpse of that would have been while she and Tom were filming Days of Thunder, because fellow church member John Travolta showed up to pal around with Tom. The second could have been when church member Dustin Hoffman recommended her for a role in his next motion picture, Billy Bathgate.

  ~ ~ ~

  Based on the novel by E. L. Doctorow, Billy Bathgate seemed to have all the ingredients for a blockbuster hit. Americans have a long-standing fascination with organized crime families and it does not take much in the way of a story line to entice them into a movie theater to cinematically commune with the likes of Al “Scarface” Capone, Carlos “Little Man” Marcello, or Benjamin “Bugsy” Seigel.

  In the case of Billy Bathgate, the focus is on mobster Dutch Schultz, a New York nightclub owner who came under the watchful eye of U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, one of the toughest prosecutors in the nation. When he learned he was the target of a federal investigation, Schultz put out a contract on Dewey, a clear violation of the Mafia’s code of conduct (prosecutors were off limits, for obvious reasons).

  The hitman went straight to Mafia Godfather Charlie Luciano and told him about Schultz’s plans. Fearful that Schultz was out control, Luciano met with other New York crime families, all of whom agreed that putting out a contract on Schultz was the only solution. In October 1935, Schultz was dining at a New Jersey restaurant with three associates when gunmen cut them down as they sat at the dinner table.

  Billy Bathgate is the coming-of-age story of a young man of the same name who signs on to be a flunkie for Schultz during the time period covered by the federal investigation. The mobster’s criminal activities are secondary in the story to the youth’s discovery of the jaded and morally gnarled world that surrounds him.

  To bring the story to life, producers Arlene Donovan and Robert F. Colesberry hired director Robert Benton, who had demonstrated that he had box-office savvy with hits such as Kramer vs. Kramer and Still of the Night, both of which he also wrote. Actually, it was as a screenwriter that he was best known, with hits such as Bonnie and Clyde, Superman, and What’s Up, Doc? With that stellar background, it is a mystery why he asked Tom Stoppard to write the screenplay for Billy Bathgate.

  Dustin Hoffman was asked to play the role of Dutch Schultz. He had come off a string of duds—Istar (1987) and Dick Tracy (1990)—and box-office hits such as Tootsie, Kramer vs. Kramer, and All the President’s Men (1976). To some movie observers, Hoffman was an enigma, primarily because he sometimes seemed reckless in the judgment he showed during script selection. In truth, he is simply disrespectful of the Hollywood tradition that holds that motion picture stars should play it safe once they have reached a certain level of success. Hoffman likes to roll the dice.

  Chosen to play the title role of Billy Bathgate was Loren Dean, a twenty-one-year-old veteran of only two movies, Plain Clothes and Say Anything. He had just the right amount of fresh-faced, John-Boy innocence to make the character believable.

  Bruce Willis was added for an important cameo role as Bo Weinberg, Drew Preston’s first gangster boyfriend. Although his screen time was slight, the character sets the tone for the remainder of the story and serves as a point of reference.

  For the role of Drew Preston, Schultz’s girlfriend, someone was needed who could be believable as a society-oriented married woman who is attracted to the adrenaline rushes associated with organized crime. She had to be beautiful, careless with her love, manipulative, and speak with a Park Avenue accent. Nicole Kidman thought she could handle that role just fine. So did the producers and directors who auditioned her for the part, except for the accent. After the reading, Hoffman called his pal Tom to tell him about Nicole’s audition. “Ah, man,” he intoned. “Where did she come from?”

  Benton gave Nicole the name of a voice coach and told her she had two weeks to lose her Aussie accent. Privately, he was skeptical she would be able to do it. When she returned two weeks later, speaking flawless “American,” he could not stop bragging on her. “She was phenomenal,” he told Cosmopolitan. “Her American accent was perfect. After a long day of shooting, though, she’d revert right back and speak in her natural Australian accent, and the crew was amazed. They asked me, ‘Why does Nicole talk like an Aussie? Is it some kind of joke?’”

  Billy Bathgate begins with Dutch taking Bo out on a tugboat to kill him. As Bo’s girlfriend, Nicole makes her first appearance in the movie as New York socialite Drew Preston. She sits and watches as Bo sits tied to a chair, his feet resting in hardening cement. Also present is Billy Bathgate. There is a flashback to show how Billy got involved with the mob. It began simply enough, with Dutch spotting him in the street juggling balls. He tips him and Billy uses the money to buy a pistol.

  Nicole’s first nude scene in an American movie occurs when Drew is taken home after the murder. She knows better than to tell anyone what she witnessed on the tugboat, especially her homosexual husband who has his own after-hours agenda. Now an accessory to the crime, she does the only safe thing and becomes Dutch’s girlfriend.

  When Dutch is charged with racketeering in upstate New York, he takes Drew and Billy with him to attend the trial. Shortly after arriving in town, Dutch goes to a local bank to deposit a bag of cash. He introduces Billy to the banker as his “prodigy.” After the banker leaves the room, Drew corrects Dutch. “If I make a tiny criticism, do you promise not to get all sulky and pout?” she asks. “It’s protégé.�
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  “What did I say?” asked Dutch.

  “Prodigy. It means child genius.”

  So much for gangster rap 1930s-style.

  At first uncertain why Dutch wanted him along, Billy soon learns that his main job is to baby-sit Drew. In one of the more effective scenes, Billy takes Drew out into the country to get her and himself out of Dutch’s sight. She finds a waterfall and sits on the ledge, high above a pool of water. She asks Billy how it was when Bo died.

  In a flashback, the scene switches to the moment Bo is pushed off the boat. As he sinks, there is a flash back to the present, where a nude Drew has jumped into the pool. She sinks beneath the water, just as Bo sinks. When she pops out of the water, Billy helps her into her dress.

  “Did he really ask you to protect me?” she asks.

  “Yes,” he says.

  “I mean . . . that he would think that I couldn’t take care of myself. And you promised him you would?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you always keep your promises?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you have a girlfriend?”

  Drew turns up the heat on Billy by seducing him. He tells her she does not appreciate the position she is in—“You’re Schultz’s girl.”

  “No, I’m not his girl. He’s my gangster.”

  Later, in bed at the hotel, Drew says, “Poor Billy Bathgate. You made a promise to protect me. I’m not making it easy for you, am I?”

  “No mam, you’re not.”

  Toward the end of the movie, when Billy says about Drew, “She’s not like ordinary people. She’s not scared of anything,” he might well have been talking about Nicole herself. Although the part of the girlfriend was one that she was weary of playing, she never lost sight of the strengths of her character. There was little room for character development as written, but she pushed it to the limits allowed within the story.