Geez, You'd Think She'd Worked with Bogie

By Rebecca Winters

Sixty years ago, LAUREN BACALL showed Humphrey Bogart how to whistle. At the Venice Film Festival last week, the husky-voiced screen veteran showed attendees how to handle hot air. While publicizing the film Birth, Bacall, 80, was asked by a reporter how it felt to work with her co-star, fellow "legend" NICOLE KIDMAN, 37. Bacall, who also shared the screen with the waifish Cold Mountain star in last year's Dogville, replied that "[Kidman's] not a legend. She's a beginner." The dig seemed to be aimed more at the breathless journalist than at Oscar winner Kidman--Bacall later said the two have "a fabulous relationship both onscreen and off." It's just that to be a legend, the blunt Bacall explained, "you have to be older." Now, that whippersnapper Meryl Streep--she's getting there.