Kidman seeks court order on stalker
Nicole Kidman, separated from superstar Tom Cruise, has gone to court to protect her and a children from a man she claims is a stalker.
In a petition filed at Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday, the actress sought a temporary restraining order to protect her and her two children, Isabella and Conor.
The petition alleges her harasser is Matthew Hooker - described as 40, white, six feet tall and 10 stones.
Kidman states that Hooker ‘‘has come to my home on numerous occasions’’ and ‘‘threatened to commit acts of violence.’’
According to her court papers, Hooker, who styles himself as a poet and screenwriter, tried several times to reach her through her management company. Rebuffed, he posted an ‘‘urgent and important message for Nicole’’ on his Web site last month.
‘‘Whoever is telling you what to say or do to me is ... involved with a horrible and illegal violation of my rights,’’ Hooker stated in the Internet declaration Kidman submitted to the court. ‘‘You are letting them sabotage any chance we have of being close.
‘‘You won’t find a more wonderful man, a better soul-mate, or a better husband,’’ Hooker went on. ‘‘The fact that you have two lovely children doesn’t bother me at all. I’m ready to be a father to them.
A week later, Kidman states, Hooker wrote to her offering to ‘‘tutor’’ her kids ‘‘to give us the chance to get to know each other.’’
The following day, on March 22, Kidman states, Hooker approached the gate of her Los Angeles home and ‘‘rang my call button at least eight times.
He told me that he wanted to take me and the kids for ice cream.
Mr Hooker would not leave the property and continued to talk to me for approximately five minutes’’ before moving along.
Six days later, she states, he returned with a ‘‘bouquet of flowers behind his back.’’ Speaking on the intercom to one of Kidman’s staff, Hooker allegedly said: ‘‘I want to invite her to the ballet tonight. She’s playing hard to get.’’
When her security guards told him to leave the property, Kidman states, ‘‘he became aggressive and told one of them, ’This is between me and Nicole.’’’
A policeman who went to the home said Hooker was probably ‘‘mentally unstable and advised that a restraining order was necessary,’’ Kidman states.
Kidman is at the Cannes Film Festival for a gala screening of her film Moulin Rouge. Her spokeswoman said, ‘‘Obviously, her greatest concern is the children.’’
