How Nicole Kidman Finds Her Power Animal

New Line is kicking off its publicity blitz for The Golden Compass, its first fantasy franchise since Lord of the Rings, with a fancy Website that allows users to create their own “daemons.” See, in Philip Pullman’s brilliant fantasy series His Dark Materials, upon which this Compass is based, each human is joined by an animal companion that is the physical manifestation of his soul: Kids love the series, because it’s basically as if every human gets his own super-cool Zen Tamagochi. Now, thanks to this new site — forward the link immediately to any kids you know — you can find your own daemon. We’ve taken the liberty of finding some for our favorite New Yorkers. Harvey Weinstein (“spontaneous, solitary, fickle, a leader, and assertive”) connects with Artemis the ermine (above center), conveniently enough. Perhaps now he can kill it and bribe Gwyneth into a Weinstein Co. flick with a fur coat. Nicole Kidman, star of The Golden Compass, would appear to be “solitary, proud, humble, fickle, and a leader” so her daemon is Photion the possum (above right), which makes sense since possums are natural actors and she’s often played dead (or appeared to, anyway). And Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro (“a leader, solitary, softly spoken, humble, and fickle”) pairs up with Loreana the ocelot (above left), a night-crawling predator. — Logan Hill

Find Your Daemon [The Golden Compass]