It's Good to be Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman these days...

Recently Nic (since that's what Keith and her one true love call her) went to Haiti for a three hour tour. The last time I heard of a three hour tour it involved Gilligan, the Skipper, the SS Minnow and an actress of bigger talents than Nic, Ginger Grant. That three hour tour was ten times more sincere than the one that Nic went on. She looked oh so earnest, oh so sympathetic, as she met with those unfortunate souls. Haven't the people of Haiti suffered enough? What exactly was accomplished? Did that school that Keith and Nic promise to fund get built? Did she meet up with Sean Penn to ask what she could personally do? Nope, she got a lot of pictures taken, sweated through her sweater and hat and left having done a good job.

Keith Urban has been doing a little touring, a little recording and a lot of insipid interviews. Again we get the 'me and Nic' verbiage. 'Nic and I aren't really the types to make ourselves be out there for what we believe in until someone told us it might be better to get more money for the cause that way'. Huh? That is what he told Country Weekly. He talked about the Tennessee flood relief work he has done; his work for the Country Music Hall of Fame; and then he added that he also supports Nic's work for the UN about violence against women.

Keith was also recently on the cover of the National Enquirer with a picture of a drunk Keith Urban and his former dalliance Amanda Wyatt with the word 'cheater' above his face. It's not just about physical violence but also emotional violence and a womanizer knows how to inflict that, don't they? Perhaps that just an avenue one shouldn't drive down.

Speaking of driving, Keith has apparently bought himself a new set of wheels - a brand spanking new Aston Martin. With all that hard charity work, one must reward oneself. After all Keith, believes he lives in a 'rarefied air' these days; or so he told Country Weekly, after growing up in the back of a store sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Not a nice way to reflect on your parents doing the best that they could, Mr. Urban.

Another recent interview was on Parade.com; Keith spewed out how important family was; how that gives a sense to maintain a balance. I guess when you can sleep on 1000 thread count sheets in five different residences all over the world one does learn one's priorities.

Finally, we have the deluxe apartment in the sky; a ten million dollar place that you drive into and a lift takes your car to your floor. Why does anyone need a car in New York City? Rumors are Nic bought this place a few months ago but waited to tell everyone until the box office numbers were in about her true love's last film. There is always that rub isn't there? But when they bought this place they bought yet another place that will be inaccessible from those little people who might want to bother them. Another bonus is no one will see who actually lives there. Just like L.A., the gated place in Oz, the high rise in Sydney and the private gated farm in Tennessee. Yes, Nic and Keith do so much for the little people. The little people give because Keith and Nic say so. So while the little people scrimp and save to go see Keith or buy groceries, Nic can sit high atop the Big Apple proud of her contribution to humankind while she smokes her cigarettes off one of her three balconies. Keith can nurse his rumored ulcer. And Sunday, well does anyone know what happened to her?

Keith Urban Covers Country Weekly

 Keith Urban covers the new issue of Country Weekly. In the 2nd part of a 4-part series on Country Stars Giving Back, Keith Urban spoke to the magazine about the charities close to his heart, why he got involved, and how it makes him feel.

“I came from nothing, basically. Our family—very, very working class—really had nothing. [We had] a pretty rubbishy car and a pretty rubbishy house attached onto the back of the corner store my parents ran. My brother and I slept on little horsehair mattresses on the floor,” Keith allows. “To come from that and to be in the strange, rarified air I find myself in these days, I can certainly feel a strong pull to want to give back. I’m immensely blessed with what I’ve been given in my life.”

Since music is his love and livelihood, it’s also a cause he holds near and dear to his heart. Keith was the honorary dean at this year’s Grammy camp.

“Getting instruments into kids’ hands is something that been really important to me all my life,” Keith says. “I started so young—I was six when I started playing guitar. I was fortunate to a) have parents that could afford to buy me a guitar and pay for lessons and b) fortunate that I went to public schools and they had music in schools and that was pretty basic, pretty standard curriculum, but it seems more and more that that’s one of the programs they’re taking out of schools for budgetary reasons. That’s a huge, huge mistake. Things like the Grammy Camp correct that and give these kids the opportunity to get instruments in their hands where they might not otherwise get that.”

Keith also has joined forces with his wife, Nicole Kidman, to bring awareness to causes. Nicole is the Goodwill Ambassador for UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) where she often talks about violence against women. The two have also shared support for flood victims in Nashville and wildfire victims in Australia.

“My wife has become involved with women’s rights and so I’ve found myself involved in that, and very gladly so, too. Not only violence against women, but women’s rights in countries where they are not being honored".

“I don’t know that there’s a common thread other than just people in need and, in certain cases, where there seems to be an extreme lack of justice—we certainly like to get involved in that,” Keith explains of the causes he and Nicole support. “There’s absolutely limitless causes on a daily basis for everybody to be involved in, it’s just looking to the ones that for me and Nic, that we feel strongly about and feel that we can actually do something about as well.”

“It’s not in Nic or I to do things for our own benefit, so we’ve shied away from more of the public stuff in the past, but it was pointed out to us by certain people that if we were to take a bit more of a public face with some of these that it might actually be more help than just the financial aid,” Keith says.

You can read more about how Keith Urban gives back in next weeks Country Weekly magazine.

The end of the interview didn't make the magazine, but Urban Myths uncovered it:

"My baby girl and I have just bought a rubbishy apartment in New York, for a measly $10 million. Nic wanted to spend more like $20 million, but I said "Babygirl, I'm OK living in a dump like this; even if we do have to use a lift to get our Bentley up to the apartment. It only has three bedrooms, so one for me and one for Nic, and of course Sunday will share with the Nanny. The chauffeur has to sleep in the servant’s quarters on the lower level. It's a hardship but we pride ourselves on living a simple life."

Stay tuned

Today we bring you a two part blog. First we present a recent interview Keith did for Country Weekly, with the addition of a paragraph that didn't make it in the magazine.

The second part will feature a reader submission on the current state of Urban/Kidman affairs. Thanks!

Going to a county fair... without their daughter?

This photo was on Twitter repeatedly today. Supposedly at the county fair. Without their daughter. And everyone else in the photo is wearing shorts. Also numerous sightings at Starbucks for coffee this morning. Yawn.

This Week's National Enquirer

Sure, it's a recycled story - from four years ago. Our question is "Why?" And why put Keith Urban on the cover? Let's discuss....