Actors TOM CRUISE and NICOLE KIDMAN are nearer to a divorce after a Los Angeles judge signed papers allowing their highly publicised split to be finalised on 8 August (01), a court clerk has said.

LOS ANGELES SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE LEE EDMON granted a request to "bifurcate" the case, meaning that she immediately granted the divorce. However, issues of property, custody and other things will be decided later.

Neither Cruise nor Kidman were present for the hearing, but both are expected to appear at the Los Angeles premiere next Tuesday (7AUG01) of OTHERS, The (2001), which was produced by Cruise and features Kidman as its star, according to several media reports.

The premiere would mark the first time the couple will have appeared together since their separation. Cruise, 39, filed for divorce from the flame-haired star of the musical film MOULIN ROUGE (2001) last February (01) after 10 years of marriage, claiming "irreconcilable differences".

Kidman, 34, who has two adopted children with Cruise and starred with him in the 1999 erotic thriller EYES WIDE SHUT (1999), was said to have been shocked by the split, describing it in interviews as the toughest time in her life. (PDD/WNWA)

Source: WENN