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

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.