In brief: Nicole Kidman takes the blame for Australia

Nicole Kidman (pictured) has accepted that her performance in Baz Luhrmann's epic film Australia was not all it might have been, saying that she "squirmed" in her seat as she watched the Sydney premiere with her husband, Keith Urban. "I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done," she said. "I sat there, and I looked at Keith and went, 'Am I any good in this movie?' ... It's just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally"………… Barack Obama says the choice of breed for First Puppy – as promised to his daughters on the day he won the presidential election – is down to a Portuguese water dog or a Labradoodle........... Gordon Brown has reportedly offered Alastair Campbell a seat in the House of Lords, a move that would allow the PM to give the former Downing Street spin-doctor a ministerial job in advance of the next general election. But Campbell has yet to agree…………. Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has written to the tenants who share his apartment block in New York apologising for the media scrum that attends his every move. "Please accept my profound apologies for the terrible inconvenience that I have caused over the past weeks," he writes, Ruth [his wife] and I appreciate the support we have received"………… Charlotte Church, the singer turned TV presenter, gave birth to her second child, a boy, on Sunday. Her partner is the Welsh rugby international, Gavin Henson………….According to the Sunday Mirror, Sienna Miller has been dropped from Ridley Scott's £110m Robin Hood movie, in which the 27-year-old actress was to have played Maid Marion alongside Russell Crowe's Sherriff of Nottingham, because of her "partying lifestyle"………… Ryan O'Neal, star oif the 1970 film Love Story, has been ordered to go on an 18-month rehabilitation programme after pleading guilty in a Los Angeles court to possessing drugs…………The romance between Lily Allen and Jay Jopling, the multi-millionaire owner of the White Cube gallery, is over. A source close to the 23-year-old pop star told the Daily Mail: "They have had a lot of fun together, but Lily has said it's finished”………… ·