FILM stars Crowe, Kidman staying at same Fiji resort, tourism director says

Thursday, July 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SUVA, Fiji (AP) _ Australian actors Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman are vacationing at the same luxury resort in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji, a tourism official said Thursday.

Management denied that the actors were at the Wakaya Club, but Fiji Visitors Bureau marketing director Bill Whiting said both stars were staying there.

``They're both definitely here on Wakaya Island,'' Whiting said. ``They both arrived separately, not on the same day.''

The Wakaya Club's accommodations include beach-front, palm-thatched cottages known locally as bures. Its management routinely denies that celebrities are staying there as a way of protecting their privacy.

Kidman and her two children arrived in Fiji on July 6 aboard a private jet, the Fiji Sun newspaper reported Thursday.

Crowe, who won this year's best actor Academy Award for his role as Maximus in ``Gladiator,'' arrived on his private jet Tuesday and immediately boarded a flight to Wakaya Island.

Sources at Nadi international airport, on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, said Thursday that both stars' jets remained at the airport.

Kidman and Tom Cruise announced their separation earlier this year after 10 years of marriage. They have two adopted children, Isabella, 8, and Connor, 6.

The glamor couple was the toast of Sydney last year, living in a sprawling harborside mansion while filming separate projects. Cruise won the hearts of sports-crazy Sydney residents by supporting a local rugby league team, and pictures of him sitting with Crowe, both draped in the team's colors, were splashed across newspapers and tabloids.