Formidable Enemies

Former besties Reese and Nicole are said to be at loggerheads over their hit TV series. 

- Nicide Wet

THEY were once the best of friends with beach houses right next door to each other – not unlike the two characters they play in the TV show that’s transported them to new levels of superstardom.

In Big Little Lies, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon play women who live in Monterey, a dreamy beachfront town in California where houses spill onto clifftop terraces and sunsets over the ocean are celebrated with champagne as gauzy curtains billow in the breeze.

But beneath the glossy surface lies plenty of darkness and intrigue – and now it seems behind the actresses’ dazzling smiles and red-carpet coos is something altogether messier too.

Nicole (49) and Reese (41) are reportedly keeping each other at arm’s length after Reese was unhappy at her Aussie co-star’s failure to promote Big Little Lies in the run-up to its debut in February.

Reese believed Nicole spoke too much about her Oscar-nominated Hollywood movie Lion, instead of promoting the mini-series the women star in with Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz and Shailene Woodley.

“Reese was furious that Nicole hadn’t done enough to support Big Little Lies,” an insider told Australian celebrity magazine New Idea. “All she talked about in interviews was Lion. Had Reese known that Nicole would put the show so far on the backburner, she’d have cast someone else.

“Reese expects loyalty from her longtime friends both on and off set.”

At the Oscars in February you could apparently cut the tension with a knife, the source says.