Bug found in Kidman's Sydney home

SYDNEY - Oscar winner Nicole Kidman feels like a prisoner of the paparazzi, her father said today, as police investigated the discovery of a listening device near her Sydney home.

Photographers have been staking out the star's house since she arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning to begin filming her new movie, Eucalyptus.

Police interviewed Kidman today at her Darling Point home after a bug was found on Sunday in a garden across the street where her security staff gather.

"Ms Kidman has some security personnel who camp outside her premises, and it was found near to where they were situated," Detective Inspector Grant Taylor said today.

"It's not a terribly sophisticated device, it's available in kit form and can be purchased from any store.

"She is undoubtedly concerned in regards to why this device may have been placed there and if she is the potential target of this device.

"She also has concerns about the paparazzi and how they might treat her and that's something I will also be looking into.

"She is interested in getting to the bottom of why the device was there."

Kidman's father, Sydney psychologist Antony Kidman, appealed for people to leave the actor in peace.

"She's concerned that people will not let her alone -- she's here to make a film, she wants to promote Australia and she's almost a prisoner in her own house as a result," he told ABC television.

"I would be very pleased if people would just let her get on with her life -- she makes herself available for pictures in many instances."

Kidman confessed recently she puts on wigs and fake accents so she can go out without being bothered by paparazzi.

Sydney police today released closed circuit footage showing a man crossing the street near where Kidman's security men gather.

Police said the bug was found shortly afterwards.

Asked if he thought the bug could be something more sinister than the prying of paparazzi, Insp Taylor said: "It's early days, I don't believe so, but time will tell."

Meanwhile experts said the listening device had no hope of bugging the actor and Australian of the Year nominee, but every chance of hearing security staff organise her comings and goings.

Surveillance expert Craig Mitchell, director of OzSpy retail stores, said it was almost impossible for Kidman to be targeted behind the walls of her house.

Any non-directional, store-bought transmitter had a pick up range of less than five metres, he said.

The receiver, in most cases, had to be within 200 metres.

"These listening devices pick up a lot of background noise and basically have to be right under their targets to be able to make anything out," Mr Mitchell said.

The penalty in NSW for bugging someone is between two and five years in jail.

It's not Kidman's first brush with bugging devices.

In 1999, a freelance journalist was convicted in the United States of illegally taping an intercepted telephone call from Kidman to her then husband, actor Tom Cruise, and selling the tape to a tabloid newspaper.

The tabloid newspaper said a woman's voice on the tape could be heard telling a man that their marriage was "hanging by a thread".

The couple's 10-year marriage ended in 2001.

Because of work commitments Kidman did not attend tonight's announcement in Canberra of the Australian of the Year, for which she was NSW's nominee. Plastic surgeon Fiona Wood was awarded the honour.

- AAP