Nicole Kidman’s Bottom-Bearing Cover

I’ve always thought Nicole Kidman looked older than she is. Not that she looks “old” like an old lady, just that she always appears so stoic and mature; it makes me think of her as a motherly figure. She is sure not acting like the mom next door these days, however! The 45-year-old actress looks a lot more like the 25-year-old girl you don’t want your son bringing home on her most recent cover shot for V magazine. Wowza!

The mother of four (two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise and two biological children with current husband, country singer Keith Urban), is shown sporting a short, bleached, messy hairstyle with exposed dark roots, heavily lined eyes, and…very little else. Her pale lips match her almost gossamer skin, which is striking against the only article of “clothing” she is donning – a teeny tiny black silk skirt with a decorative gold chain that, despite its best effort, is covering only the top half of her bum.

In all honesty, it’s hard to know where to focus one’s eyes on the picture. She’s got that coy expression on her face, her beautiful blue eyes, those long legs…and, of course, there’s the pert bum. Mustn’t forget that.

So where the hell did this version of Kidman come from? Perhaps Kidman has been inspired by her most recent role to let loose a bit. In The Paperboy, Kidman plays a strange and rebellious woman who desperately wants to marry a man (John Cusack) on death row. Her character, Charlotte, seems up for anything, including peeing on her much younger co-star, Zac Efron. Granted, the act is not intended to be sexual (Efron’s character was stung by a jellyfish), but it’s hard not to sexualize pretty much everything Kidman does when she’s dressed in tight, short, cropped-top clothing and gobs of make-up.

“Nicole Kidman really is terrifically good as Charlotte: funny, sexy, poignantly vulnerable," wrote The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "In her own way, she is a romantic, though the romanticism resides very greatly in the sheer auto-erotic potency of that sweaty, dangerous criminal who is behind bars. Charlotte is like Blanche DuBois, but with no illusions."

Kidman shares in her accompanying interview with V that she doesn’t necessarily agree with the demure image commonly associated with her.

“I don’t really make decisions, I go with the flow,” the actress said. “If I were a strategically minded person, I think I would have a far different career. But I would be more outlandish if I could. A lot of times you just don’t get the chance.”

If you want a better look at Kidman’s recent chance to be outlandish, her V magazine becomes available on August 30.