Kidman, karma, cossies & cows

I once met Nicole Kidman at a party in London. Very few people believe me when I say it... actually, even I don't believe me when I say it... in fact... was it just a dream? No, unless I'm suffering from a charmed strain of false memory syndrome the event did actually occur. I had just left school and had been taken to said party by a particularly confident and precocious fellow teenager who vaguely knew the posh sub-aristocratic Italian financiers holding the party.

As I stood - balancing in my stiletto winkle pickers and clutching at my ruched taffeta cocktail dress - with my posse of fellow adolescent-cum-sophisticates (probably looking about as confident as a Bedouin camel-herd who has accidentally signed up for an ice-dancing contest), I found myself being introduced to our Nic.

There she was; all auburn frizz and porcelain skin, on the arm of someone called Maurizio. I didn't even know who she was (How long ago was this? I hear you ask) and I think I said something utterly beguiling like "I'm going to uni next year... what do you do?" before downing my Chianti in one. "I'm an actor," she said: and I said something like "Yeah right!" and necked a handful of dry roast peanuts as she politely explained that she had just finished shooting "Dead Calm".

Who would have thought that several eons later I would be marvelling at the power of a one-piece worn by that erstwhile star-in-waiting. Kidman's mega star status notwithstanding, I am still dumbstruck to discover that a single fashion item worn by her - a non-descript black swimsuit no less -- in a municipal Swedish swimming pool (glamour glamour) is being auctioned to raise funds for a charity that buys cows for poor families in India.

Kidman filmed the movie Dogville in Sweden some years ago and hired the pool to maintain her privacy. Having been forgotten in the change room the cossie was donated to a cancer charity where it raised 30,000 kronor ($5215) at auction. It later travelled to the Salvation Army where a fellow named Nedanovski bought it at another auction for 5500 kronor. Five years on, the framed swimsuit has made it as far as Erikshjalpen, the unpronounceable Indian-cow-purchasing charity. "I hope we can get five cows.

Each cow costs 1800 kronor," Nedanovoski is reported to have said. I've often wondered; do celebrities realise how crazy their lives seem to us little people?

Does Kidman think the papal-relic like power of one chlorine impregnated fashion item is a tad spooky? Or does she just want her bloody swimming costume back? One of my fave trash mags has a wonderful spread called "Celebs, they're so normal!" - showing Cameron out with her acne or Drew wielding a pooper scooper or whatever; but really, if you have a $12 million deal to endorse Chanel No. 5 perfume and your togs are doing their bit to solve the Third World dairy deficit, how normal can you be?

By Kat Walker