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Nicole warns: don’t push our son

The Aussie star speaks out as her ex Tom Cruise guides their son into a life in front of the cameras. Matthew Denby reports.

Nicole Kidman has warned Tom Cruise against pushing son Connor into a movie career, in a rare public statement about how the controversial Scientologist is raising the couple’s two adopted children.

With Connor, 14, set for a starring role in a remake of the brutal war flick Red Dawn, about a group of high school children who become terrorists to defend their town, Nicole has voiced her concern that he’s becoming a child star.

“It’s not something I would be pushing,” she said last week of the perils of child stardom. “It has to come from within, because that’s what acting is. It’s in your blood. It runs through you.”

While Tom insists he isn’t pushing his son into anything, he has made no secret of how excited he is about Connor making it in movies. Revealing that he feels the pair have bonded over Connor’s big-screen ambitions, Tom leaves little doubt he would like his son to follow in his footsteps.

“Driving him to the audition for his first film role was a great father-son moment,” Tom recently crowed. But for all the talk of auditions, the truth is that Connor has already been given a fast track, thanks to his superstar dad’s connections.

His first role was in Tom’s close friend Will Smith’s recent film Seven Pounds. And it seems networker Tom already has his son schmoozing with the right people — getting him onto the set of Hannah Montana to rub shoulders with teen superstar Miley Cyrus.

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