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]