Revealed: Kidman’s small fee for Reader

Nicole Kidman's decision to pull out of the Stephen Daldry movie The Reader - she was replaced by Kate Winslet in January after she became pregnant - is certainly not going to damage her bank balance. A reporter from the Village Voice, who recently found himself rummaging through the garbage of the film’s producer Harvey Weinstein (the hack, Tony Ortega, claims it was all quite by accident), discovered that the Australian actress was receiving just $100,000 for the part, a shred of her usual $10m-a-movie fee.

As well as standard contractual details – stipulations about how big her name would appear in promotional advertising, a right not to have her hair "permanently" coloured and to keep one of each item of her wardrobe – the contract revealed that Kidman's fee would be increased by $450,000 if the movie broke even. One hopes, for Weinstein's sake, Winslet is (at least) on the same deal.