Screen Idol Kidman

Proving that she's on one impressive roll at the moment, Nicole Kidman is being linked to yet another high-profile flick for yet another high-profile director. Not content at having the likes of fellow Aussie Baz Luhrmann lure her into starring in his Alexander the Great epic, Kidman is apparently being feted by that not unesteemed chap of the film world, Martin Scorsese. According to IMDB news, Golden Globe winner Kidman has been approached by Scorsese to star in his upcoming movie about Hollywood impresario Howard Hughes, The Aviator - and in a role as far away from a bit part than you can possible imagine. Paying Kidman perhaps the ultimate compliment, Scorsese is allegedly after the hotter than hot redhead to play legendary screen idol, Ava Gardner. Still dubbed the most beautiful diva Hollywood has ever seen, Gardner counted RKO Pictures chief Hughes as one of her lovers in a life that saw the star climb to the very heights of tinsel town stardom but also suffer three failed marriages, including divorces from Mickey Rooney and Frank Sinatra. To further underline the sheer quality of the project in which Gangs of New York graduate Leonardo DiCaprio will play the billionaire Hughes, Scorsese has also been reported to have approached Gwyneth Paltrow to take the role of another of Hughes' lovers, actress Katherine Hepburn. Rest assured, the wage bill for this one's going to be huge. But with updated suburban horror The Stepford Wives in the works and filming for Brit director Jonathan Glazer's Birth having only just kicked off - let alone a spot of Greek action for Luhrmann - Kidman's going to be hard pushed to fit The Aviator and its starting date of June into her bulging diary. To adapt a famous phrase from her Alexander the Great co-star DiCaprio, you could say she might just be queen of the world.