Kidman portrayed as self-obsessed power monger in new book

In the biography, American film critic David Thomson portrays Kidman as a power-hungry woman who married Tom Cruise because she was well aware of the openings that would be available to her as the Top Gun star's wife, and who ended the marriage once she no longer had any use for him.

Thomson also suggests that Stanley Kubric's 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut hit too close to home for the couple, and that while filming Kidman realized that the 'student-teacher' relationship she had first shared with Cruise was over.

"I think she learned from him just what was required in taking charge of yourself. That's what broke them up. She realized she could be as big as him if she became as strong and self-centered. He wanted a beautiful, bright, obedient consort. She wanted a teacher. It worked. Then it stopped," the Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

"I think Eyes Wide Shut was the process that brought it to an end because the characters they played were so close to themselves," he added.

However, Wendy Day, Kidman's agent said that when the actress had spoken to Thomson, she had been "misled" into believing that he was actually working on a number of "film essays"and not a biography.

"Nicole has never met David Thomson--she has only spoken to him briefly on the phone about her acting processes and various films," the Daily Telegraph quoted her, as saying.

"He's a well-respected film writer and she accepted to the interview only because she was under the impression he was writing a series of film essays," she added.

Thomson's book hits American stores this week, and will be published in Kidman's native Australia in October this year.