She's a beautiful, critically acclaimed actress from Australia. He's a somewhat past-his-prime rap star from Queens. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the world's most mismatched celebrity couple: Nicole Kidman and Q-Tip, former front man for the rap group A Tribe Called Quest.

What? That flabbergasted feeling is echoed by plenty of Lycos searchers, who have swamped our search engine with queries about this odd romance ever since the Daily Mirror of London first reported it in January.

Queries for Nicole Kidman Q-Tip are startlingly higher than combinations the names of other celebrity couples. Last week, for example, Nicole Kidman Q-Tip was entered into the Lycos search engine 12 times more often than Jennifer Lopez Ben Affleck. That combination of names was more popular than the Boston Red Sox or actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The searches have peaked twice: once in March, after the couple attended the Oscars together, and again two weeks ago, thanks to the Cannes Film Festival. The couple was apparently introduced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and they've been spotted together everywhere from the premiere of Kidman's film The Hours to a concert by the White Stripes.

But wait -- is Kidman really dating Q-Tip? Other rumors say that she's dating Jude Law, her co-star in the holiday movie release Cold Mountain. Apparently, those rumors haven't gotten to the Lycos users, because we're not getting searches for Nicole Kidman Jude Law yet.

The Lycos 50: always keeping you informed on the latest gossip -- as long as Lycos users are searching for it.

TOMORROW: The new Lycos 50.