While testifying before a House subcommittee hearing on violence against women, actress Nicole Kidman conceded that Hollywood has "probably" contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak sex objects, the Associated Press reported.
Kidman, a goodwill ambassador to the U.N. Development Fund for Women, was there to seek aid for the fund and to promote the International Violence Against Women Act.
During the hearing, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, asked Kidman if the movie industry had "played a bad role" in violence against women.
"Probably," Kidman replied, but said she's not interested in those kinds of demeaning parts.
"I can't be responsible for all of Hollywood, but I can certainly be responsible for my own career," she said.
Kidman added that the movie industry also has made an effort to contribute to solutions for ending the violence.
The subcommittee is considering legislation that would address violence against women overseas through humanitarian relief efforts and grants to local organizations working on the problem, according to the AP.
The legislation has stalled in the past, but a sponsor, Rep. Bill Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he and others plan to reintroduce it soon.
The U.N. women's fund, known as UNIFEM, was established in 1976, and provides money and other help to programs that fight discrimination and violence against women.
Target: Cruise
Meanwhile, it's been a bad week for Kidman's ex, Tom Cruise. First, Bronson Pinchot reportedly slammed the star in an interview, saying Cruise often made homophobic comments while they filmed Cruise's breakthrough film, "Risky Business," back in the '80s. Furthermore, no one thought the film would be a hit because "We thought Tom was the biggest bore on the face of the Earth," Pinchot declares.
("Obviously, this is so far removed from who Tom Cruise is as a person, this must have been said in jest," Cruise's publicist said in a response to Entertainment Weekly.)
Now, Mary Harron, who directed Christian Bale to critical acclaim (but, sadly, not an Oscar) in 2000's "American Psycho," says Bale based his portrayal of the giddily murderous Patrick Bateman on one of Cruise's talk-show appearances.
Said Harron: ". . . One day [Bale] called me and he had been watching Tom Cruise on 'David Letterman,' and he just had this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy."
Granted, that "Letterman" appearance was many years ago for Cruise. And, Pinchot sets his sights on more than just Maverick in his interview, casting Denzel Washington as "abusive to me and everybody" on the set of "Courage Under Fire," Bette Midler as a bully toward the director of "First Wives Club," and Eddie Murphy as depressed about his career while filming "Beverly Hills Cop 3." But there's a third reason Cruise probably isn't sweating any of this: He's still richer and more famous than both of them.