Nic's Piling On The Pounds

Nicole KidmanHas Nicole Kidman been heading down to the pie shop?

One thing we do know is she's doing a Renee Zellweger...

And beefing up for her latest film role.

The word is that she's popped on 4.5kg (10lb) in order to be believable in her part.

She wants to woo us as a convincing post-war seductress in The Reader.

Let's face it, we've seen this done before by both Renee in Bridget Jones and Charlize Theron in Monster - and they were both storming performances.

So we have super-high hopes for this movie co-starring Ralph Fiennes, due for release in 2008.

A buddy of Nic's told Aussie paper the Herald Sun: "The part she plays demands that she gets fatter throughout the movie as her character slips into middle age.

"Nicole was originally planning to use prosthetics but was told by the director that it would be more realistic if she gained the weight."

Apparently she's managing to crank up her weightage the healthy way.

She ain't loading up on cream cakes...

Nope, her new diet involves drinking protein shakes and eating carbohydrates with every meal - which doesn't sound like the most fun way to gain weight.

We recommend ice cream, Nic... and lots of it.