British actress Kate Winslet is reportedly set to replace Nicole Kidman in The Reader, after she dropped out because “She is so concerned about the welfare of her unborn child that she’s taking a break from her film career and has dropped out of the film,” said a source.

Insiders told People.com that, in fact, Winslet, 32, was originally offered the role as Hanna Schmitz, but couldn’t commit due to schedule conflicts.

“Kate was offered it first before Nicole but couldn’t do it but the dates clashed with commitments to Revolutionary Road,” says an insider. “So the dates changed, Nicole then got pregnant and now it has come back to Kate.”

Based on German author Bernhard Schlink’s bestselling 1995 novel – and Oprah’s Book Club selection – the film is about an affair between a teenage boy and an older woman in post-WWII Germany.

“Actually everyone is happy now – Nicole as she has a baby on the way, Kate because she has this great role she originally wanted to do, and the filmmakers are too,” says the source.

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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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A new biography of Tom Cruise claims he was encouraged to end his marriage to Nicole Kidman by Scientology bosses. Andrew Morton’s controversial book alleges the church soured towards Kidman after she gave an interview describing herself as a “Catholic girl”.

Morton alleges that in 1999, Cruise took a course that would identify those in his life who create problems and difficulties and Kidman was identified as such. Shortly after her interview, senior Scientology leaders discussed their strategy to keep Tom in the fold. Their fear was that Nicole could fatally compromise Tom’s commitment to his faith.

He claims that Kidman discovered she was pregnant after the split and Tom sent flowers but never visited.

Nicole Kidman has dropped out of a new movie after denying she is pregnant, it has been reported.

The Oscar-winning star was due to start work on post-World War II drama, The Reader, later this month.

But now sources on set say the actress has quit the film to protect her baby.

An insider told a US newspaper: “[She] is so concerned about the welfare of her unborn child that she’s taking a break from her film career and has dropped out of the film.”

A spokeswoman for Kidman, 40, last week dismissed reports she and country music star husband Keith Urban were to be parents as “unreliable gossip”.

The source continued: “Of course, everyone knows she’s pregnant and lying about it.”

Sources say producers of the Stephen Daldry directed film are now looking for a replacement leading lady to join Ralph Fiennes and Bruno Ganz and the largely German cast.

The film is based on Bernhard Schlink’s award-wining book about a man who carries a longtime sexual obsession for an older woman who’s later prosecuted for war crimes after it emerges she was a member of the SS and a guard at Auschwitz.

Matthew Frankel, a spokesman for the Weinstein Company, which is producing the film, told a US newspaper: “I am being told that the status on ‘The Reader’ has not changed.”

A spokeswoman for Kidman was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, a source at Vanity Fair also fuelled the pregnancy rumours after being overheard talking about re-scheduling the US magazine’s annual Hollywood issue. It features Tinseltown’s biggest stars dressed up for a lavish photo shoot.

According to the New York Post, the source said: “It’s because the costumes she’s set to wear won’t fit her much longer.”

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Pics: Nicole Kidman with husband Keith Urban at Bondi Beach on January 6th.

Nicole Kidman is not pregnant, her Australian press representative has said.

Kidman’s expecting a baby was first reported by the U.K.’s Daily Mail, which said The Hours Oscar winner, 40, had told friends and family members over Christmas that she and her husband of 18 months, Keith Urban, were expecting their first child together.

But the Melbourne Herald Sun quotes Kidman’s Australian publicist as denying the Mail’s story.

“It is incorrect,” the spokeswoman tells the paper. “She must have had about 30 babies by now.”

As for Kidman, says the rep, “She’s in Australia making a film” – director Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australia, costarring Hugh Jackman – “and her family are in Australia. She’s happily ensconced away somewhere having a few days break. It’s the silly season. As far as we’re concerned, it’s another rumor out of London.”

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Nicole Kidman and her husband of 18 months are expecting their first baby, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The Oscar-winning actress and Keith Urban, the country and western singer she calls the “love of my life”, broke the news to their families over the Christmas holiday.

The 40-year-old Australian star had already spoken of “winding down” her film-making activities as much as possible next year.

The baby, whose expected arrival date has not yet been revealed, will be the actress’s first natural child.

She adopted Isabella, 14, and twelve-year-old Conor during her first marriage to Tom Cruise.

Miss Kidman was stunned when he filed for divorce in 2001.

Shortly after they split, she revealed that she had suffered an ectopic pregnanacy and a miscarriage during the marriage.

Miss Kidman spent her Christmas holiday in Syndey, after finshing work on Baz Lurhmann’s epic romantic adventure film “Australia” on December 21.

She is due to film The Reader with Ralph Fiennes and British director Stephen Daldry in Berlin next month, but has no more cinema work planned after that.

“I just want to spend as much time as possible with my husband,” she told the Daily Mail.

Earlier this month the actress also dismissed the idea of returning to the stage next year.

“It wouldn’t fit in with the logistics and dynamics of my family”, she said - a remark given extra meaning by the news of her pregnancy.

Her most recently-released film is the extravagant fantasy The Golden Compass.

Although the film was attacked by some critics, the actress’s performance as the glamorous villain Mrs Coulter won wide praise.

Miss Kidman married Urban in Sydney in June 2006.

The early months of the marriage were described as difficult as the actress helped her new husband deal with a drink problem.

Urban spent several months in a rehabilitation clinic in the U.S.

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UPDATE: It is being called a rumor now:

However, Kidman’s Australian publicist yesterday denied the reports, saying it was simply a rumour made up over the silly season.

The Daily Mail’s respected entertainment editor, Baz Bamigboye, reported the Oscar-winning actor, 40, and her husband, Keith Urban, broke the news to their families over the holidays after Kidman finished work on Baz Luhrmann’s epic romantic adventure film Australia on December 21.

Kidman’s spokeswoman said: “It is incorrect. She must have had about 30 babies by now.

“She’s in Australia making a film and her family are in Australia,” she said.

“She’s happily ensconced away somewhere having a few days’ break. As far as we’re concerned it’s another rumour out of London.”

But one of Kidman’s friends said it was “conceivable” the actor was almost three months pregnant.

“She did have a small baby bump a month ago, so it would be reasonable she’d now be three months and telling her friends and family,” the friend said.

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