Kidman to Wed Singer Urban in Sydney

Five years after divorcing Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman yesterday confirmed that she will marry her country singer boyfriend, Keith Urban, at a ceremony this weekend. Kidman, 39, will wed Urban, 38, at a Catholic church in a northern Sydney suburb close to where she went to high school - a far cry from the Scientology ceremony she and Cruise had in 1990.

Urban, in true country and western fashion, has not had the easiest of lives. He is a former crack cocaine addict and a recovering alcoholic.

They first met at an event for famous Australians last January when Urban, a New Zealander who grew up outside Brisbane before moving to Nashville aged 25, was going out with supermodel Nikki Taylor. By July they were dating and by Thanksgiving they were secretly engaged.

Whether Kidman was deliberately aiming to beat her ex-husband back down the aisle is unknown. Cruise first proposed to his fiancee Katie Holmes at the Eiffel tower a year ago and the former Dawson's Creek star gave birth to the couple's first child, Suri, in April.

Kidman gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal in May in which she said of Cruise: "He was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him." The couple adopted two children and share custody.

Few details of Saturday's ceremony are known, although it is reported that the label Balenciaga is providing the dress. Nor is it know whether Urban will croon from one of his biggest hits, Making Memories of Us, in which he sang: "I want to honour your mother/I want to learn from your pa/I want to steal your attention like a bad outlaw/I want to stand out in a crowd for you/A man among men/I want to make your world better than it's ever been."