In a better display of acting than those of us who've seen the Australia trailer could ever have hoped for, Nicole Kidman does her best to convince us that she's happy for ex-hubby Tom Cruise, calling his love for Katie Holmes "profound" in a new interview.

Discussing her own relationship with husband Keith Urban, Kidman tells Elle magazine, "I didn't foresee it, that you can meet somebody who you have a deep and more profound love with. I don't mean to take away anything with Tom, but I would hope that he has the same thing -- I know he has the same thing with Katie. You move into a stage where you're able to be a more fuller person in your relationship."

She adds, "I want to be really careful with that because I don't want to take away from 11 years with that man that were really important. Really, for our kids -- they were amidst a lot of love. It wasn't bad. And now we're amidst a more evolved love."

In the new issue, the 41-year-old (who strikes a strange, hair-pulling pose on the cover -- is she trying to pull her face even tighter? Or perhaps show off her unnaturally wrinkle-free forehead?) offers a more generous opinion of her ex than she has in past interviews. (Case in point: in 2005, she told Vanity Fair of her sudden divorce, "When it all exploded, and we were in Cannes with Moulin Rouge ... my sister and I slept in the same bed together. She would just hold me.")

Luckily, despite Kidman's magnanimous mood, her pal Lauren Bacall swoops in to save the interview from dissolving into typical Tinseltown platitudes. Recalling her time with an "unhappy" Kidman on the set of 2003's Dogville, Bacall tells Elle: "Tom had taken off for Penelope Cruz or some goddamn thing -- one of his more ridiculous moves...Tom Cruise is a maniac. I can't understand the way he conducts his life."

Thank goodness for Lauren Bacall! Remind us to send her a basket of mini muffins or something.

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