When Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman had to get down and dirty for their new film, Australia, their spouses Keith Urban and Deborra-Lee Furness were far from the action … on purpose!

“My wife is an actor,” Jackman, 40, tells PEOPLE. “They both get it. But I don’t think they want to be on the set watching the monitor.”

Still, filming love scenes with Kidman, 41, “couldn’t have been better or easier,” he says. “We spoke of setting boundaries.”

“I won’t tell all the nitty gritty,” he says coyly. “But %26#91;director Baz Luhrmann%26#93; treats love scenes like choreography. The camera is like a dancer. If you watch any of his movies, visually, the love scenes are like poetry.”

No Worries About Lovers

The director, meanwhile, says he was thrilled with the chemistry between his two stars.

“It’s not something you can rehearse,” Luhrmann said on his way into New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where he was being honored last week at a party hosted by Men’s Vogue and Louis Vuitton.

“I had a lot of things to worry about - equine flu, and it rained for the first time in the desert in 100 years! But the moment I saw them as lovers, I knew I had nothing to worry about in that department.”

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Source:www.People.com

Hugh Jackman is used to playing a heartthrob on the big screen - but the Australia leading man once wet his pants while singing onstage, he recounts in a new article.

While performing in the musical Beauty and the Beast, he was suffering headaches because he was dehydrated, the actor tells Playboy in its December issue. Is solution: Drink a lot of water. “I’d just gone to the bathroom, but waiting in the wings, I was like, ‘Bloody hell, I need to go again.’ I thought, ‘I’ll be all right,’ ” he says.

But it wasn’t all right: While getting ready to sing the last note of his big duet, the star says, “I thought … ‘if I sing this note, I’m going to pee my pants; if I don’t, I’m going to be humiliated.’ The actor in me took over. I was singing, thinking, ‘Wow, I’m peeing my pants.’

The Aussie hunk, 40, says he’s had fans lose control too, but laughs it off. “Once during The Boy From Oz a woman ran down to the front of the stage while I was doing the show,” he tells the magazine. “She said, ‘Hugh, I’ve always wanted to do this,’ and lifted her top. She had these massive tits. I just pissed myself laughing and said, ‘I’m glad you got that off your chest.’ ”

The Aussie star (Australia opens Nov. 26) says growing up Down Under, and getting his acting chops there, has made him stronger - a quality he says many Australian actors share.

He praises Heath Ledger in particular. “He was totally driven by the creative spirit,” says Jackman, “a character actor who happened to be unbelievably good-looking and have some leading-man qualities.”

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RELATED ARTICLE:
• See Hugh’s ’sexiest’ moment

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Just as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has sent American tourists flocking to the Peruvian jungle - well, maybe not - so are hopes flying that the upcoming Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman movie epic Australia will lure tourists Down Under once it is released this November.

“This movie will potentially be seen by tens of millions of people, and it will bring to life little-known aspects of Australia’s extraordinary natural environment, history, and indigenous culture,” says the country’s Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson - joining those who foresee a new jumpstart to an Australian tourism that has stagnated since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Associated Press reports.

Such movie magic has happened before: witness Crocodile Dundee, in 1986.

Reuniting Kidman with her 2001 Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, the $122-million Australia is described as a sweeping story about an English aristocrat (Kidman) who before the start of WWII inherits a sprawling property and falls in love with a rugged cattle drover (Jackman).
- Stephen M. Silverman

Hugh Jackman is protective over his former costar Scarlett Johansson - but says she has a good man in his X-Men colleague Ryan Reynolds.

“Ryan Reynolds is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met,” Wolverine’s alter ego, currently promoting his new movie Deception, tells Entertainment Tonight Canada.

Adds Jackman: “And umm, we had a really good chat about his girlfriend, because I’m very fond of Scarlett, and both my wife %26#91;Deborra-Lee Furness%26#93; and I are very %26#91;proprietary%26#93; about Scarlett, %26#91;and%26#93; he got a big thumbs up from me.”

Asked if he were bestowing his blessing upon the couple, Jackman replied, “I’m giving my blessing, exactly.” Fearful he was sounding old fashioned, however, Jackman further enthused about Reynolds, 31, “He’s phenomenal.”

Little baby Alexander is still a few years away from growing mutton chop sideburns - but we’re pretty sure that one day he’ll look as good as his dad. Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman sported their fresh facial hair (for their roles in the new X-Men movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Jackman happily greeted Schreiber, Naomi Watts and the couple’s 7-month-old baby on Friday in Sydney.

Watts and Jackman, of course, both hail from Australia, while Schreiber and Jackman costar in the upcoming Marvel Comics film as Sabretooth and Wolverine, respectively. The movie, due out in May 2009, also features Ryan Reynolds, the Black Eye Peas’ will.i.am and Friday Night Lights hunk Taylor Kitsch.

• Hugh Jackman, sunning himself as the family fun continued at Australia’s Bondi Beach. The actor had a date with wife Deborra-Lee Furness and his two children, Oscar, 6, and Ava, 22 months. Jackman could probably use the R%26R: He’s been busy filming Baz Luhrmann’s new epic Australia with fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman.

• Jennifer Lopez, sporting stylish shades and a casual chic getup while strolling through the lobby of the W Los Angeles - surrounded by four bodyguards. Lopez and her entourage disappeared into the elevators, reemerging an hour later after filming clips for the upcoming Selena DVD in one of the hotel’s suites.

• Former Friend David Schwimmer, joining his own friends - Nip/Tuck actor Joey Slotnick and Chicago nightlife impresario Billy Dec - at the glitzy Madhatter’s Ball at the Underground in Chicago. The crowd - some dressed in Alice in Wonderland-themed costumes - strolled through the club as waitresses with Cheshire cat tails served up specialty drinks. And Schwimmer, dressing the part in a top hat, told the crowd, “It’s about drinking, dancing and enjoying the night. I want to see everyone dancing their asses off tonight.”

• Jessica Alba, rocking out as Kelis performed for an invite-only crowd at the Lot in Hollywood at a party celebrating the celebrating the final show of the Hennessy Artistry tour. The Fantastic Four star took in the concert from the VIP section along with some girlfriends, while a beanie-sporting Adam Brody focused his attention on his friends. Before her show, the R%26B singer talked to us about her upcoming MTV reality show costarring her hubby Nas. Says Kelis: “There is nobody like me on television.”

• Pals Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, sharing a late-night supper at Stack Restaurant %26 Bar in Las Vegas’ Mirage, after Diaz appeared as a presenter at the VH1 Rock Honors show. Barrymore ate the “NYC” Sirloin while Diaz enjoyed three orders of Hot Rocks - thinly sliced sirloin cooked tableside on, yes, a hot rock. Later, they enjoyed the company of Colin Hanks and his girlfriend, and after dinner, the group made their way to Jet Nightclub for a evening of dancing.

• By BRYAN ALEXANDER, JENNIFER GARCIA, MARK GRAY, SHIA KAPOS and NICHOLAS WHITE

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