Kidman, Urban to marry

Sydney, Australia – Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have returned home to Australia to be married, the couple announced in a joint statement.

“We are very happy to be back in Australia,” they said Monday in a statement carried by Australian Associated Press. “We have come home to celebrate our wedding with our family and friends.”

Australian media have widely speculated that Kidman, who will turn 39 today, and Urban, 38, will wed Sunday at a Catholic church in a northern Sydney suburb close to where the Oscar-winning actress attended high school.

Kidman, who was born in Hawaii, was photographed leaving a private jet as she arrived in Sydney early Monday.

She told People magazine last month that she and Urban, a Grammy-winning country singer based in Nashville, Tenn., were planning to marry. “He’s actually my fiance,” she said after hosting a gala event in New York. “I wouldn’t be bringing my boyfriend.”

Kidman was divorced from Tom Cruise in 2001.

Another adoption planned

New York – Angelina Jolie says she and Brad Pitt, who have a newborn daughter, are planning to adopt another child.

“Next, we’ll adopt,” Jolie tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview to air today on “Anderson Cooper 360” (9 p.m. CDT).

Jolie, 31, gave birth to Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt in Namibia last month. The actress adopted 16-month-old Zahara from Ethiopia and 4-year-old Maddox from Cambodia.

“We don’t know which – which country. But we’re looking at different countries,” Jolie tells Cooper. “And we’re – I’m just – it’s gonna be the balance of what would be best for Mad and for Z right now. It’s, you know, another boy, another girl, which country, which race would fit best with the kids.”

Both Maddox and Zahara’s surnames have been legally changed to Jolie-Pitt after Pitt, 42, announced his intention to also adopt the children.

Jackson’s tigers rescued

Los Angeles – Absentee pop star Michael Jackson’s pet tigers just “Beat It” from Neverland Ranch to a new home.

“The Birds” star Tippi Hedren has adopted the orphaned Bengal pair, Sabu and Thriller, at her Acton, Calif., feline sanctuary.

Hedren, an animal activist who runs the Shambala Preserve, took in the 7-year-old males late last month, Dr. Martin Dinnes, Jackson’s longtime veterinarian and Hedren’s fiance, told the New York Daily News.

“They are very happy at Shambala. It’s a great environment,” said Dinnes, who has cared for Jackson’s zoo critters for 18 years and is working to find them good homes.

Hedren, 76, best known for starring roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers “The Birds” and “Marnie,” plans to build a special $70,000 compound for her new four-legged guests. The mom of actress Melanie Griffith runs the 80-acre sanctuary on donations raised by her nonprofit Roar Foundation.

Jackson moved to Bahrain in the Middle East last summer after his acquittal on child-molestation charges, leaving behind a host of exotic creatures at Neverland, including elephants, giraffes, orangutans, birds, reptiles, horses and pet deer.

Clooney lawsuit dismissed

Paris – A French court doesn’t think George Clooney stole “Syriana.”

The judge dismissed a lawsuit against Clooney and Warner Bros. filed by a screenwriter who alleged “Syriana” was plagiarized from her script, court officials said Monday.

Stephanie Vergniault had claimed the thriller borrowed “very largely” from a script she completed in 2002, but the judge said the two scripts were “obviously different.”

Like 2005’s “Syriana,” Vergniault’s story line, titled, “Oversight,” involved CIA intrigues with oil companies in the Persian Gulf. The judge said the overlap was coincidental.

Lewis recovering nicely

Las Vegas – Jerry Lewis was back working the phones for his annual Labor Day telethon as he recuperates on his boat in San Diego after heart surgery, his manager said Monday.

“He’s recovering and already working on the telethon,” his longtime manager, Claudia Marghilano, said about Lewis’ benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Lewis, 80, was released from a hospital Saturday after having surgery to insert a stent in an artery following a June 11 heart attack, she said.

Lewis postponed shows set for July 13-16 at The Orleans hotel-casino after his heart attack. Orleans spokeswoman Candi Cazau said that for now, he will not perform there this year.

Plans are still going ahead for Lewis to direct a version of his 1963 comedy, “The Nutty Professor,” as a musical by next year.