Sydney
There are bumps and there are celebrity bumps. Then there is Nicole Kidman's bump, a modest swelling which has generated more headlines than the American presidential campaign since it was unveiled to the Sydney paparazzi.
Gossip writers have been in frenzy about the impending birth. One newspaper columnist declared that the Kidman bump was 'one of the hottest anticipated pregnancies in the world'. Women's Day magazine is running a competition to choose a name for the child, whose sex remains a mystery.
Only the untimely death of Australian actor Heath Ledger, reported in New York yesterday, was big enough to halt the media juggernaut unleashed by news that Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, are expecting their first child - an event which is being treated by the press here with the same reverence once afforded the British royal family.
'It's not surprising,' explains New Idea's editor-in-chief, Robyn Foyster. 'She and Keith are Australian royalty. She's turned 40 and we've seen the marriage go through difficult times in the past few months. Now she's expecting a baby. With all her ups and downs, everyday people can relate to her.'
Both Kidman and Ledger have had a rocky, often acrimonious relationship with the Sydney media. Ledger, the star of Brokeback Mountain, Casanova and other movies, fled his adopted city 18 months ago after paparazzi sprayed him with water pistols at a red-carpet event. His father, Kim Ledger, blamed the media for his son's decision to leave Sydney (his home for the past decade) and his A$7 million (HK$47 million) beachfront mansion.