A charitable group is auctioning a bathing suit left at a Swedish pool by Australian movie star Nicole Kidman to raise money to buy cows for poor families in India, the suit’s owner said Wednesday.

The bathing suit, which is currently on display in a second-hand store in the southern Swedish town of Esloev, will be sold to the highest bidder when the auction wraps up on Saturday, owner Zlatko Nedanovski told AFP.

He said the profits from the sale would be used to purchase cows for poor Indian farmers.

“Today we have enough for three cows,” he said, referring to a bid given on the first day of the auction on Tuesday.

Nedanovski, 32, said he hoped to raise enough to buy five cows, which at a price of 1,800 kronor (190 euros, 280 dollars) a head should cost a total of 9,000 kronor.

Kidman, an avid swimmer, forgot the suit at a pool she had reserved for her personal use in the southwestern town of Vaenersborg during a 2002 stay in Sweden to shoot Lars von Trier’s Dogville.

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Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban are to become the latest celebrities to launch their own clothing range.

The collection will be called ‘Hank Evie’, the couple’s nicknames for each other when they first started dating.

Urban has only sold Hank Evie t-shirts on his website so far, but has now trademarked the brand in both Australia and the US.

The pair – who are expecting their first baby in July – plan to expand their collection to include clothing, belt buckles, shoes, bags, boxer shorts and pajamas.

Other stars to venture into the fashion world include Elle Macpherson, Kylie Minogue, Gwen Stefani, Beyoncé and Kirsten Dunst.

Nicole Kidman kept some of the placenta from a miscarriage to prove that Tom Cruise was the father of her unborn child, the author of a controversial new biography claims.

British journalist Andrew Morton, whose book about Tom Cruise has sparked a $100 million legal threat from the Church of Scientology, spoke in detail about the actor’s relationship with Kidman in an exclusive interview with A Current Affair.

“They did try to start a family [but] she sadly had a miscarriage,” said Morton. “And because of all the questions over the father, she ordered that some of the placenta be saved in order to prove paternity — the fact that Tom Cruise was the father.”

Morton, 54, said the couple then decided to adopt, sparking rumours that Cruise was gay and the marriage was just a facade.

The author goes on to describe Kidman’s alleged plan to give up acting and “become a nun”, as well as the effect Cruise has had on his new wife, Katie Holmes.

“Those who saw [Katie] were shocked about how changed she was,” he said.

“Before she met Tom she was a kind of exuberant sparkly eyed girl and [after the marriage] they described her as being ‘dead-eyed Katie’ and they saw the transformation and it’s not me who is saying it, but people who interviewed her who say that she looks like a Stepford Wife — that she is robotic.”

Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography has been released in the United States but will not be published in several countries, including Australia and the UK, due to stricter defamation laws and a legal threat from the Church of Scientology.

“Publishers find that it is not really worth it,” said Morton.

The Church of Scientology has responded to Morton’s book with a 15-page statement, calling it “a bigoted, defamatory assault replete with lies.”

Morton has also written books about Princess Diana, David and Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, Madonna and Monica Lewinsky.

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Just hours after Nicole Kidman announced her pregnancy, George Clooney offered up his congratulations.

“I’m thrilled for her,” he told People at the picket-line-free Critics’ Choice Awards in L.A. Monday night. “[She'll be] a perfect mother.”

(The two have been friends for years, dating back to their work in 1997′s The Peacemaker. Kidman famously bet Clooney $10,000 he would be unmarried and childless when he turned 40 in 2001. She lost, of course.)

“She’ll be great,” Clooney said of the Aussie actress, already mother to Isabella, 15, and Connor, 12, her adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise. “She’ll be a tall mother.”

Clooney, who lost the best actor award to Daniel Day Lewis, also endured some good-natured ribbing from Ocean’s Thirteen pal Casey Affleck. “Hey you big loser,” Ben’s little brother heckled during Clooney’s chat with People. “You’re a loser!”

Clooney, who won a best supporting acting Oscar last year for Syriana, took it all in stride, noting, “[Being] a nominee, it’s fine. But when you’re a loser, you’re a loser.”

The actor was also on hand to present the first-annual Joel Siegel Award (named after the late ABC movie critic) to friend and former costar Don Cheadle for his humanitarian work.

“The fact that [George] only charged me $1,500, I thought was really nice of him,” Cheadle joked in the press room. “Matt [Damon] was around $2,500, and what Denzel wanted, I won’t even mention.”

The Darfur activist did get serious for a minute, adding that “George is . . . someone who I’ve not only worked with onscreen, but we’ve also done things for the cause – and it’s great to have an ally.”

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Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban are expecting their first child, her rep confirms.

“The couple are thrilled,” the rep says in a statement.

For Kidman, this will be her third child. She and her former husband, Tom Cruise adopted two children during their marriage: Isabella, now 15, and Connor, 12.

As for where Kidman and Urban, who will be a first-time parent, may bring up their impending arrival, the couple, though both Australian, purchased a farm near Leipers Fork, Tenn., a half-hour southwest of Nashville, in 2007.

The couple, who have been married 18 months, wed, after a yearlong courtship, on June 25, 2006, in a candlelit ceremony at Sydney, Australia’s Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on St. Patrick’s Estate at Manly. Guests at the black-tie event included Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts and Rupert Murdoch.

Before the couple even started dating, Kidman made her desire for more children clear. In April 2005, she told reporters that her biological clock was ticking. “I have got hormones running through my system,” she said. “That is why I sit wriggling, saying I want to have a baby.”

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