Nicole Kidman has been caught up in a row over a new film which features her kissing a ten-year-old boy while naked.

In the movie, called Birth, Kidman plays a widow who believes the boy to be a reincarnation of her husband.

Two scenes in particular have come under fire; in both, Kidman and the boy - Canadian child actor Cameron Bright - are "completely naked and caressing each other." In one of them, there is a close-up of " a very passionate kiss" as they sit in the bathtub together.

"The last thing on earth Nicole needs is a movie which is going to be jumped on by sickos and used in some perverse way to promote paedophilia," a source told the Daily Star Sunday today. "But truth is, the publicity department is already describing the movie as a nightmare. The producers, director and Nicole herself are likely to face a lot of flack."

It will cost film studio New Line around $50 million if they decide to axe the movie completely.