Nicole Kidman Seeks Restraining Order

SYDNEY, Australia – Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman (search) has asked a court to issue a restraining order against two Sydney photographers, their lawyer said Wednesday.

Lawyer Roland Day said his client Jamie Fawcett and another photographer whom he declined to name had been served papers filed on behalf of the Australian-born actress notifying them that the application would be heard in Waverly Local Court in Sydney on Thursday.

Police officers were called to Kidman's home on Sunday after an electronic listening device was found near a security vehicle that was monitoring her Sydney mansion from the street.

The bug was apparently discovered when security officers searched the grounds in preparation for Kidman's return to Sydney to film her new movie, "Eucalyptus."

Kidman's chief bodyguard Neil McMaster said Monday that surveillance footage taken from the house provided "conclusive evidence" that the bug had been intentionally planted to intercept conversations between Kidman and her bodyguards outside the mansion.

It was not immediately clear whether Kidman's application for a restraining order was related to the bugging incident.

"Ms. Kidman appears to be trying to control how the media covers her personal and public life," Day said Wednesday.

He said his clients were merely doing their jobs, and that granting Kidman's request for a restraining order would "have the dangerous consequence of encouraging anyone under the scrutiny of the media to do the same thing."

Kidman's father, Sydney psychologist Antony Kidman, said Tuesday that photographers had been staking out his superstar daughter's home since she arrived in Australia on Sunday.

"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 the Australian Broadcasting Corp. 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 has said that she sometimes wears wigs and uses fake accents so she can go out without being bothered by paparazzi.

Kidman has also been pursued by eavesdroppers in the past. Paparazzo Eric Ford recorded a telephone conversation in 1998 between Kidman and her then husband Tom Cruise (search) and sold it to the U.S. newspaper The Globe.