Australian actress Nicole Kidman poses during a photocall for Danish director Lars Von Trier's film "Dogville" at the 56th International Film Festival in Cannes in this file photo taken May 19, 2003. Oscar-winning Australian actress Nicole Kidman won a restraining order against two photographers on January 27, 2005 after a listening device was found outside her Sydney home and after a reported high speed car chase. [China Daily/Reuters Photo]

Nicole Kidman arrives for the 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005, in Beverly Hills, Calif. [China Daily/AP Photo]

    BEIJING, Jan. 28 -- Oscar-winning Australian actor Nicole Kidman won a restraining order against two photographers Thursday after a listening device was found outside her Sydney home and after a reported high speed car chase.

    Waverley Local Court ordered Jamie Fawcett, 43, and Ben McDonald, 32, not to approach Kidman at her home or go within 60 feet (18 meters) of her harborside home at Darling Point.

    The two Sydney freelance photographers have been staking out the house since she arrived back Sunday to begin filming a new movie, Eucalyptus.

    A listening device was left across the road from the house Sunday in what police are investigating as a possible bugging attempt. Security footage shot from the home showed a man planting the listening device.

    Police have said a number of paparazzi media were around at the time.

    Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Thursday that Kidman sought the court order after two photographers pursued her at high speed Sunday, running red lights, swerving across median strips and driving on the wrong side of the road.

    "This continued for the entire journey, (and Kidman) believed she and her driver were going to be involved in a serious motor vehicle accident," said a temporary restraining order issued before Thursday's court order. 

    "Kidman has canceled arrangements for her children to stay at her home given her fears for their safety whilst traveling in a vehicle at this time," the temporary order read according to the newspaper, which said Kidman also canceled a family party.

    Lawyers for the photographers say they deny involvement in either incident.

    The restraining orders will remain in force until at least Feb. 11 when the case returns to court, media said.

    Neither the photographers nor Kidman appeared in court.

    It is not the first time Kidman has been at the center of a paparazzi media incident.

    In 1999, a freelance journalist was convicted in the United States of illegally taping an intercepted telephone call from Kidman to her then-husband, actor Tom Cruise, and selling the tape to a tabloid newspaper.

    The tabloid said a woman's voice on the tape could be heard telling a man that their marriage was "hanging by a thread." Kidman and Cruise's 10-year mariage ended in 2001. Enditem

(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)