In the talk of two hemispheres, Nicole Kidman and rocker Lenny Kravitz are keeping company these days, and New York's Daily News goes so far as to say that the two are engaged.

"That's over the top," Kidman's publicist Catherine Olim tells USA Today. "To my knowledge, these guys are friends and spend time together." (Kravitz's publicist did not return the paper's calls.)

But in what may eclipse news of Ben and Jen, Nic and Len sightings are now being fervidly reported. The New York Post's Page Six revealed Monday that "The Hours" Oscar winner, 37, and the musician, 39, recently helped Naomi Watts celebrate her birthday at the trendy 66 restaurant in Lower Manhattan.

According to the Post, Kidman sent her two children home in an SUV while she remained outside the eatery with two female pals to smoke. Kidman, however, reportedly scurried back inside when a male admirer offered her one of his cigarettes.

Last weekend, says the Daily News, Kravitz visited the set of Kidman's latest film, "The Stepford Wives," and the two, said the paper, were "mighty cuddly."

Meanwhile, Kidman's hometown paper, Australia's Sydney Morning Herald (noting that this would be her first serious relationship since her 2001 divorce from Tom Cruise) reports that the star has been living at Kravitz's New York apartment while she is having her $8 million Greenwich Village loft built nearby.

As chronicled by USA Today, the Nic-Len relationship started in June, with reports of their "canoodling" at Manhattan's SoHo House, two nights before they attended Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs's birthday party together.

This was followed by sightings at Tavern on the Green and other New York restaurants, not to mention magician David Copperfield's Sept. 19 birthday bash and the Apollo Theater memorial for dancer Gregory Hines in Harlem on Sept. 21.

Kravitz was married to actress Lisa Bonet for four years until a 1993 divorce -- they have one child -- and he recently split from model Adriana Lima.