Cruise, Kidman avoid messy court battle

Although the divorce of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman appeared to be heading to a nasty -- and very public -- courtroom showdown, the couple has averted that outcome.

The New York Daily News says that after nine months of legal squabbling (and gossip-column warfare), Cruise and Kidman have reached a settlement.

The most eyebrow-raising accusation came from Kidman's friends, who told gossip columnists that Cruise was challenging the date on which the couple officially broke up, to prevent the marriage from reaching the 10-year mark. A clause in their marriage contract would have given Kidman a bigger chunk of Cruise's estimated $300 million fortune if the union had lasted a decade.

Now those issues won't be explored in court, and a friend of Kidman's told The Daily News she's happy with the settlement.

A statement from the couple's lawyers said they will remain friends, and in fact, Cruise is expected to join Kidman and the couple's children in Sydney next month, The Daily News said.

Cruise signs on for IMAX space film

Tom Cruise has signed on to lend his voice to an IMAX 3D film detailing the construction of the NASA space station.

"Space Station" is scheduled for release in the giant IMAX format in the spring of 2002. It will document the construction of the international space station, which a press release from IMAX described as "one of the most challenging engineering feats and important accomplishments ... since landing a man on the moon."

"The minute I saw the amazing 3D footage shot by the astronauts in space, I knew I had to be involved with this very special film," Cruise said in the press release.

"My family and I have enjoyed IMAX movies for many years -- particularly the ones about the NASA space programs, and I'm honoured to participate with the 'SPACE STATION' team in this historic project."

IMAX trained astronauts and cosmonauts in the use of 3D space cameras designed especially for the project. They shot 12 miles of 65 mm film between December 1998 and July 2001.

Cruise ordered to pay ex-wife of porn star

Tom Cruise's lawsuit against a porn star suffered a set-back after a judge threw out the actor's claim against the porn star's ex-wife.

The AFP news agency said that Cruise was also ordered to pay $27,900 in court costs to Kristina Ann Kristin. Cruise had hoped to include her in a $100 million suit he filed against her ex-husband, Chad Slater.

Cruise is suing Slater for defamation after the adult-entertainment figure was quoted in a tabloid saying they had a sexual relationship. Kristin was sued as well because Cruise claimed she tried to sell her story to a tabloid, saying Slater left her to conduct his affair with Cruise.

AFP said Cruise's lawyer tried to introduce into the court record a statement from Slater declaring that Kristin's story was false, but the judge refused to enter the statement and ordered Cruise to pay Kristin's legal costs. (More on Tom Cruise)

'Erotic wrestler' won't contest Cruise lawsuit

Former porn-actor and "erotic wrestler" Chad Slater has thrown in the towel on Tom Cruise's $100 million defamation lawsuit.

The BBC reports that the 33-year-old, who also goes by the name Kyle Bradford, will not contest the defamation lawsuit put forward by Cruise.

Cruise unleashed his lawyers after the French gossip magazine Acustar printed an interview with Slater claiming he had a homosexual relationship with Cruise, and that was the real reason for his breakup with actress Nicole Kidman.

Acustar has since printed a retraction of the story, while Slater says he never spoke to the magazine. He added that he won't "feed into this media circus" and wants to spare his parents any further grief.

"If (Cruise's lawyers) persist, they will get a judgment against me for $100 million. Then I file bankruptcy and it's dismissed," Slater told the BBC.

"They exposed me and my whole personal life by doing this to me. It's like I'm being harassed by the celebrity ... I don't think I ever want to see another Tom Cruise movie in my life."

If Slater thought this would de-escalate tensions with Cruise, he apparently was mistaken.

The New York Post reports that Cruise has expanded his lawsuit, and is now going after Slater's ex-wife Kristina Ann Kirstin, who sold her story to the National Enquirer.

The post said Kristin's lawyers have admitted that the Enquirer paid for an interview, but she said she only responded to their inquiries after Cruise drew attention to the controversy with his lawsuit.

Cruise, Zellweger reuniting for 'Cold Mountain'?

Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, and "The English Patient" director Anthony Minghella are planning to team up for a movie version of the recent Civil War best-seller "Cold Mountain," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

If negotiations work out, Cruise and Minghella (who also directed "The Talented Mr. Ripley") would start filming the project, based on Charles Frazier's best-seller, in February, the report said.

Cruise would play Inman, a wounded soldier returning home to the South after the war, to reunite with his love, Ada, who has been forced to cope with maintaining her family farm after the death of her father.

The Hollywood Reporter said Renee Zellweger, who starred with Cruise in "Jerry Maguire," is in talks to play Ada, but would have to work out a shooting schedule that would accommodate her planned participation in Miramax's adaptation of the Broadway musical "Chicago."

"Chicago" is to begin shooting in November, which could give Zellweger enough time to tackle both projects, the report said.

Cruise, who recently made headlines with his divorce from actress-wife Nicole Kidman, will next be seen opposite his new girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, in Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky," opening Dec. 14. He also stars in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," which is set for next summer.

Cruise to play cameo in 'Austin Powers 3'?

Tom Cruise, who played a top-secret agent in the "Mission: Impossible" movies, will join forces with to-secret swinger Austin Powers, according to The New York Post.

A draft of the upcoming "Austin Powers III" has Cruise playing a spy who gives Mike Myers' character a helping hand, while at the same time sending up his "Mission: Impossible" role.

No one has yet been cast as the villain (does this mean Dr. Evil is out?), and producers are trying to line up original James Bond Sean Connery to portray Myers' father, The Post said.

Cruise kept his cool

It was during the filming of Vanilla Sky that Tom Cruise separated from Nicole Kidman.

"It was such a difficult time in his life but you'd never have known it," says Jason Lee, who stars opposite Cruise in Vanilla Sky. "Given Tom's celebrity, it's amazing how he handles his daily machine. He left his personal problems and the media frenzy at the gate of the set. It was never an issue for him while he was working."

"I play a writer who is Tom's best friend. I learned so much by just watching him act and conduct himself on the set."

In Almost Famous, Lee portrayed a rock star and on Vanilla Sky he got to observe what he calls "the biggest star on this planet.

"I never want that kind of celebrity because I want to be around for a long time.

"The big publicity machine wants to make you an instant celebrity and then eat you up and spit you out. The only magazine that has ever approached me was Jane for its beefcake issue. I was more amused than anything. They need to rethink their definition of beefcake."

Lee worked with another celebrity when he filmed Stealing Stanford with Tom Green.

"I play a guy who promised his niece he'd pay to send her to college. Suddenly he needs to come up with $30,000.

"Tom Green plays my sidekick. He wears bad teeth and bad glasses. It's his first time playing a real character."

Kidman furious with Cruise & Cruz: report

The liaison between Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz has angered his ex-wife Nicole Kidman, who resents how quickly the actor has insinuated the actress into the lives of their children, New York's Daily News reports.

Friends of Nicole say Cruise angered Kidman by inviting Cruz to his Telluride, Colorado, spread during time that was supposed to be devoted to Connor, 6, and Isabella, 8, the paper says.

"He parked the children with his sister at what he calls 'Camp Cruise,' so that he and Penelope could spend their days together," the friend told The Daily News.

"Nicole is furious ... She feels that if he wants to move on with Penelope, fine, just let the kids stay with their mother."

Cruz -- who co-stars with Cruise in the upcoming "Vanilla Sky" and is currently on screen opposite Nicolas Cage in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" -- recently took the children on a toy shopping spree, telling them they could buy whatever they wanted, something Kidman, who has steered clear of spoiling the kids, would disapprove of, the report said.

Cruise's publicist told The Daily News that Kidman had turned the kids over to her ex-husband so that she would be free to promote her new film, "The Others."

Cruzing for a bruising

Tom faces backlash while Nicole earns sympathy

For more than a decade, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have basked in the glory of celebrity.

No light shone brighter or more lovingly on any couple. Until Cruise filed for legal separation on Feb. 7, they were Hollywood's perfect couple.

Since that moment a new spotlight has been turned on them and, individually, they have been scrutinized like never before. At 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 8, their marriage officially ended.

Ironically the night before, the Los Angeles premiere of the eerie ghost movie The Others marked the first time since February that Kidman and Cruise appeared in public at the same event.

The Others was a project Cruise and Kidman had begun together. He produced the movie as a showcase for her talents. Their attendance at the premiere was meant to show their support for the movie.

Kidman arrived first. Twenty minutes later and after she was in the theatre, Cruise arrived with his producing partner Paula Wagner.

He was as casual as Kidman was elegant.

Though he entered the theatre to speak with invited guests, Cruise did not stay for the screening. He praised Kidman's performance but left the theatre shortly after the screening began.

Janet MacKenzie of Reflections is a Calgary clinical psychologist who does extensive relationship therapy.

She feels both Kidman and Cruise made very specific statements by their look and demeanour at The Others premiere.

"Nicole was acting as if this event truly mattered. Tom, on the other hand, seemed to be saying the evening was not that important," says MacKenzie. "This is basically the same thing Nicole and Tom have been saying about their separation right from the beginning."

MacKenzie points out that "Nicole has maintained all along she has been devastated by the separation and divorce proceedings. Tom has been almost cavalier and nonchalant by comparison."

To her critics, it seems Kidman is trying to play a sympathy card while Cruise has spoken primarily through his publicists.

MacKenzie applauds Kidman for this approach.

"Once the separation was out there, Nicole could have chosen to hide everything ... Instead she chose to be somewhat open about her feelings and especially about the toll the divorce was taking yet she did so without ever begging for sympathy."

In her interview with Extra, Kidman tried to explain why she had granted so many interviews.

"If by exposing my soul I can help other women who are going through similar situations to realize there is a tomorrow, then all the public scrutiny will not have been in vain. It will have had some real meaning."

"By going public with her feelings, Nicole has given women who are going through a similar situation a reason to feel better about themselves. They can rightfully conclude that if Nicole Kidman can be dumped maybe it's not so bad. Maybe it's not the end of the world," says MacKenzie.

Since the separation notice, Kidman has not dated anyone.

She has sought the comfort and friendship of Russell Crowe, who she knew as a young actress in Australia long before she met Cruise.

He, on the other hand, has announced through his publicists that he and Penelope Cruz are officially dating.

He allowed himself to be photographed kissing Cruz at Spago's restaurant in Beverly Hills and took the Spanish actress to a resort in Fiji.

MacKenzie feels these two very public displays with Cruz were meant to bolster his macho image.

"It appears Tom wants to make it clear he is the one who severed the marriage and that he is still sexually active and still desirable."

MacKenzie feels this might just backfire on Cruise. "Penelope is a beautiful, younger woman. This may gain him points with his male fans but it will likely lose him face with his female fans.

"It says he has rebounded too quickly when Nicole's actions make it obvious she is still hurting."

Cruise asking for 75% of assets: report

Tom Cruise has backed off his original plan to split his assets 50-50 with estranged wife Nicole Kidman, and is now demanding 75% of the spoils of their marriage, according to The New York Post.

The paper said Kidman's lawyer has revealed that Cruise is now taking a hard-line, insisting on three-quarters of their estimated joint fortune of $350 million.

The actor, 39, claims he can account for $225 million of that bankroll, while Kidman is worth $110 million. They also jointly own three estates: an $8 million Los Angeles place, a $5 million luxury townhouse in London, and a $4 million home in Kidman's native Australia, the report said.

Cruise is insisting the couple broke up in December, a month before California's 10-year-marriage threshold for 50-50 assets division kicks in. Kidman says they didn't break up until February, which would garner her half of the dough. To bolster her argument, she says Cruise got her pregnant during that time. The baby miscarried in March.

An Oct. 4 hearing date has been set to sort out the financial details, as well as custody of their adopted kids, Isabella, 8, and Conor, 6.

Penelope and Tom Cruising together

Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz has earned a reputation for enslaving the emotions of her leading men, on screen and off.

Her latest conquest is Tom Cruise, her co-star in the romantic drama Vanilla Sky, scheduled for a December release.

As early as last December, when she was doing interviews for her Christmas 2000 movie All the Pretty Horses, Cruz was having to deny rumours she had bewitched Hollywood's most powerful actor.

When Cruise announced in February he was seeking a divorce from Nicole Kidman, both he and Cruz insisted their growing friendship was not an issue.

She continued to protest well into March when production ended on Vanilla Sky in New York that she and Cruise were nothing more than friends and co-stars.

The protests ended on July 6 when Penelope attended Tom's 39th birthday party in Santa Monica.

They did not arrive or leave the party together but they did dance three times and the following week were seen dining at L.A.'s popular celebrity eatery Spagos in Beverly Hills.

Later that same week, Cruise's publicist Pat Kingsley finally confirmed "Tom and Penelope have been out together a couple of times."

A week later, Kingsley also confirmed that Penelope was among Tom's guests at the exclusive $1,500-a-night Wakaya Club resort in Fiji.

"It is true that Penelope Cruz is one of Tom's guests at the Wakaya Club," offered Kingsley in a formal press release refusing to comment further on the status of the relationship.

The news was particularly distressing to Kidman, who had reportedly questioned Tom back in November and December about the rumours of his flirtations with Cruz on the New York set of Vanilla Sky.

Kidman felt she had good reason to be worried.

Cruz's seductive reputation preceded her and it didn't help that Vanilla Sky's director Cameron Crowe had said of Cruz that "she has the ability to create fire with any object or moving thing."

That seems to have been the pattern with most of her leading men.

In 1998 when Cruz was filming the western The Hi-Lo Country there was a buzz she and Woody Harrelson were having an affair.

For the press it was basically a non-issue.

Harrelson and his longtime girlfriend Laura Louie have always had an open relationship and Cruz was a virtual unknown in America outside the art house cinema circuit.

The supposed affair made no headlines.

It was a much different scenario a year later when Cruz was reportedly having an affair with Matt Damon, her leading man in All the Pretty Horses.

Damon was Hollywood's newest golden boy.

Cruz fended off the rumours in her best coy, flirtatious manner.

When asked about Damon, she insisted "he's an absolute angel. We became very close friends almost immediately.

"I felt very comfortable with him. He is one of my best friends.

"As actors we have this job that makes us interesting to people but that does not mean we have to say to everybody what we do or who we sleep with.

"It's so absurd. That is why everybody (in this business) lies so much."

Her flippancy worked for the press but failed to convince Damon's then-girlfriend Winona Ryder.

The couple split soon after filming wrapped on All the Pretty Horses.

By this time, Cruz was in Greece filming Captain Corelli's Mandolin with Nicolas Cage and having to deal with stories he too had become her lover.

When asked how she felt about being linked with so many of her American leading men, Cruz was far more cautious than she had been dealing with the earlier Damon question.

"It doesn't bother me because I know the truth. I just wish the press wasn't so interested in my private life because I have always refused to talk about my private life.

"This is not something only the American press do. It's all the press that do this. It's what they think they have to do."

It was during the filming of Captain Corelli's Mandolin that Cage's then wife Patricia Arquette announced the couple was separating.

They later tried for a reconciliation but that failed and they have since divorced.

Cage is currently dating Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the late Elvis Presley.

When asked if she'd heard the rumours that she was responsible for destroying Cage's marriage, Cruz was indignant.

"Please, come on. I don't think people should be so stupid to write something like that.

"I just don't get angry anymore with those things but I also don't reply or answer such accusations.

"Am I supposed to say I'm sorry I did such a thing when I haven't done it. There are some things that would be ridiculous to even talk about and this is one of them."

Before coming to America, Cruz dated Spanish pop singer Nacho Cano the lead singer for Mecano and Czech filmmaker Thomas Obermaier.

Upon arriving in America, she was pleased to trumpet her status as a single woman.

"I spent most of my early life being someone's girlfriend, so it feels good that I am single.

"I think being single is good for me," said Cruz in March when she was promoting the dark drug thriller Blow.

"I think it will be better when I get involved with someone the next time because I took this time for myself. I just hope I don't get too used to being on my own."

Little chance of that now that she is dating Tom Cruise at the height of his headline-grabbing divorce from Nicole Kidman.

Kidman to press for sole custody: report

Tom Cruise's next "Mission: Impossible" may be trying to see his kids.

The New York Post reports that Cruise's estranged wife, Nicole Kidman, is preparing to take their two children, Isabella, 8, and Connor, 6, to her native Australia.

Quoting Kidman friends who attended her 34th birthday in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Kidman will press ahead to gain sole custody of the children when the divorce case goes to court in the coming months.

The Post said Cruise is determined to raise the children in the U.S., but he recently allowed Kidman to take the children to London while he was busy completing work on Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report."

Now that the kids are with her, Kidman is planning to return to Australia in the next week. Speculation is that if Kidman doesn't like the outcome of the L.A. court, she will appeal to family courts in Australia -- where Cruise's religion-of-choice, Scientology, is dimly viewed, the report said.

Kidman's friends told The Post she's prepared to put her acting career on hold to prove she's a more suitable parent than Cruise, whose packed schedule will keep him travelling around the world for the next several years.

For her part, publicist Pat Kingsley, who handles public relations for both parents, told The Post: "Tom has had the children for the past six weeks while he's been filming in Los Angeles. They were being home-schooled and are now on their summer break. Tom has had to go to Virginia to finish up 'Minority Report', and the children were put on a plane to London on Monday."

Kingsley added that the couple has worked out a formula for sharing time with the children but added she didn't know if Kidman would take the children to Australia during her custody time.

Cruise-Kidman divorce proceedings turn nasty

Cruise sues porn star for $100 million

Cruise files to divorce Kidman

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Tom Cruise filed for divorce Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for splitting with actress Nicole Kidman after 10 years of marriage.

The Superior Court petition filed two days after the couple disclosed their separation said they will share custody of their adopted children Conor, 6, and Isabella, 8.

"It is Tom Cruise's desire that the dissolution of the marriage be handled amicably," attorney Dennis Wasser said. "His major concern is the welfare of the parties' children."

The couple separated in December, the filing said. On Monday, the couple blamed "difficulties inherent in divergent careers" for keeping them constantly apart.

Publicists said the actors would have no additional comment.

It is the second failed marriage for Cruise, who divorced Mimi Rogers in 1990 after three years. That same year, Kidman and Cruise met on the set of "Days of Thunder" and were married that Christmas Eve in Telluride, Colo.

Cruise, 38, has starred in a number of high-grossing and critically acclaimed films, including "Born on the Fourth of July," "A Few Good Men," "Jerry Maguire," "Mission: Impossible," "Rain Man," "Top Gun" and "Magnolia."

Kidman, 33, spent three months in Spain last fall filming "The Others," and Cruise was one of the executive producers. Her movie credits include "Batman Forever," "Malice" and "To Die For."

The couple also starred together in the films "Far and Away" and 1998's "Eyes Wide Shut, the erotic final film of Stanley Kubrick.

The couple divided their time between homes in New York, Los Angeles, Colorado and Kidman's native Australia, where news of the breakup hit hard. A front-page headline Wednesday in The Australian read: "Tom and Nicole admit it's mission impossible."

The couple were the toast of Sydney last year, living in a sprawling mansion while filming separate projects. They appeared regularly at social functions and Cruise won the hearts of sports fans by throwing his support behind a local rugby league team.

The Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday reported sadness among locals who said they would miss Cruise. Ros Reines, a gossip columnist with the tabloid Sunday Telegraph, said she was shocked.

"They were the Hollywood dream couple -- our Nic and Tom," she said.

However, not all papers were sympathetic.

"Balancing work and family life is a formidable challenge for us all, but Tom and Nicole are among those best-equipped to do it," The Australian said, pointing out the couple was worth an estimated $250 million. "Who do Tom and Nicole think they're kidding?"

Marriage impossible

Absence did not make Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's hearts grow fonder.

Through their publicist Pat Kingsley, Hollywood's power couple made it official yesterday that they are ending their 11-year marriage.

"Citing the difficulties inherent in divergent careers, which constantly kept them apart, they concluded that an amicable separation seems best for both of them," said Kingsley.

Cruise, 38, and Kidman 33, have two adopted children, Isabella, 7, and Connor, 5.

It is not known yet whether custody will be shared as Kingsley refused to comment beyond the official release.

It's ironic that Cruise and Kidman would cite their divergent careers as the cause of their breakup. They worked together for 52 weeks over a 15-month period on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut -- and Cruise recently executive produced Kidman's film The Others.

Cruise and Kidman's marriage has been plagued by rumours, though they have managed to squelch most of them through lawsuits. In 1998, the couple successfully sued the British newspaper Express on Sunday for an article which claimed their marriage was a business arrangement and that one or both of them was gay. Cruise and Kidman received an apology, a retraction and $320,000, which they donated to a children's charity.

The same year, Cruise and Kidman sued the supermarket publication The Globe and photojournalist Eric Ford, 27, for publishing a transcript of an alleged argument the couple had over their cell- phones. They sued and won for invasion of privacy.

Cruise also won a suit against a German magazine which published a story claiming he was sterile.

During the filming of Eyes Wide Shut, the couple sued the National Enquirer and the Globe for printing stories claiming the actors had hired a sex therapist to help them make their screen love scenes more authentic.

Cruise and Kidman met on the set of the 1990 drama Days of Thunder. At the time, he had been married to actress Mimi Rogers, 45, for three years.

Kidman just pulled out of David Fincher's drama The Panic Room, citing a knee injury.

Cruise to star in WWII movie

Tom Cruise is hoping he can conjure some box-office magic with the offbeat-but-true military tale "The War Magician," The Hollywood Reporter says.

The project -- which Cruise's production company and Paramount Pictures hope will be underway once Cruise finishes production in April on "MInority Report" -- is the true story of Jasper Meskelyne, a British stage magician who used his talents to dupe the Germans during the Second World War.

Among his accomplishments were creating enhanced camouflage, making the Suez Canal seemingly disappear, causing the Alexandria Harbor appear to change locations, and creating a "phantom army" during the battle of El Alamein, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project is based on a 1983 book detailing Meskelyne's exploits, the report said.

-- JAM! Movies

Cruise, Crowe to re-team

Hollywood has apparently shown Tom Cruise the money.

The star is in talks to star with "Jerry Maguire" writer/director Cameron Crowe to star in an untitled love story, Variety reports.

Cruise earned some of the best reviews of his career after starring in "Maguire" for Crowe, whose latest film, now titled "Almost Famous" -- a memoir of his days as a teenage scribe for Rolling Stone -- will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

No details are being released about the story of Crowe's new project, Variety said.

"Maguire" was nominated for five Oscars in 1996. Cruise's co-star, Cuba Gooding Jr. won as best supporting actor.

-- JAM! Movies

Nothing's Impossible

HOLLYWOOD -- Tom Cruise seemed to be out of control. His movie universe was not unfolding like it should.

At some stalled point, the always optimistic Cruise was cynically wondering if another Mission was, indeed, possible.

After the incredible success of the first movie version of the 1960s TV show, Cruise was full of enthusiasm for Mission: Impossible 2.

Despite some critical railing against the confusing plot, Brian DePalma's Mission: Impossible earned US$465 million worldwide and established a lucrative franchise for Cruise and Paramount Pictures.

One delay led to another setback, however, and before Cruise could say "green light," he was made an offer he couldn't refuse from legendary director Stanley Kubrick. Cruise and his wife, Nicole Kidman, ended up shooting Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut "forever and a day" in London, which created ulcers at Paramount and frustration among fans waiting for another Mission.

Then, the March 1999 start date in Sydney, Australia, was put back again so Cruise and Robert Towne could fine-tune the screenplay for high-concept action director John Woo.

A month later, the cast and crew were in place, ready to take on the US$100-million-plus sequel, which opens Friday to great expectations.

Bigger and bolder

In the latest incarnation, Cruise is Ethan Hunt -- again. His hair is a little longer, his expressions less grim, and the picture is bigger and bolder and less dark.

As Woo says: "Tom isn't trying to save the world, he is trying to save the girl."

In M:i-2, special agent Hunt is assigned to track down a globe-trotting villain (Dougray Scott) trying to get his hands on a deadly virus. Thandie Newton plays a jewel thief and a Cruise love interest. Ving Rhames returns from the first movie as the computer expert, Luther.

What you won't see in the sequel is a hard-to-follow plot line like the one that pervaded the first film.

"I didn't get the first story either," admits Woo, the former Hong Kong director who made his mark stateside with star vehicle hits Broken Arrow and Face/Off.

"I thought it might be me," adds Woo, whose English is as halting as his comprehension of it. "So I got the first one with Chinese subtitles and I didn't understand that either."

"He's taken Mission: Impossible and turned it into mythology," Cruise has suggested of Woo. "His action has a combination of reality and surrealism that makes the emotion in his pictures very real."

"It's all about humanity," Woo says. "And Tom said to me, 'That's why we need you.' "

All was not sunshine and happiness once the production got rolling -- torrential rains greeted their shoot. "Tennis-ball-sized hail some days," recalls Aussie actor John Polson, who plays a good-guy assistant to Cruise's Hunt.

There were other hassles during the seven-month shoot -- hovering fans were distracting and the always present paparazzi proved to be annoying.

"Being from Australia," Polson says, "the paparazzi especially were a daily embarrassment to me."

Then, rumours of "creative differences" between Woo and Cruise created some tension for the pro-Woo production team.

Exaggerated

Towne says those problems were blown out of proportion, and that disagreements were usually cordial. "Woo and Cruise developed the action sequences together and in harmony," says the screenwriter of Chinatown and The Last Detail.

Woo says most of the clashes with Cruise involved the actor insisting he do his own motorcycle, car driving and jumping stunts. The most heated debate came when Cruise demanded he be allowed to climb a 1,600-foot cliff in Utah for the film's opening sequence.

"I couldn't watch the monitor when he was doing the scene," says Woo, who reluctantly gave in.

So what gives? Is it a Cruise death wish?

"Tom has a real passion for filmmaking," Woo explains.

"Sometimes," continues Woo, smiling, "he is like a kid who wants more candy."

Newton agrees. She says Cruise's boyish charm is matched by his single-minded focus.

"When they asked me to be in the picture," says Newton, a friend of Kidman's, "I remember thinking, 'Woo and Cruise making a film together? How fantastic.' "

So, apparently, was "the sexy and suggestive stuff" Newton does with Cruise in a bathtub. It was all in fun, some of it impromptu.

"And his enthusiasm makes it so easy to do that business," Newton says. "He has amazing amounts of energy."

Not much has changed from a decade ago, when Towne remembers a fresh-faced, incredibly forthright actor on the set of Days Of Thunder, the followup to Top Gun.

"I remember clearly," Towne says. "He came into my trailer and called me sir."

Cruise doesn't do that anymore, "although he still has the directness and intensity" he had then. "In those days, he also used to carry a dictionary with him, too, in case he heard something he didn't understand," Towne says. Not now.

What else is different?

"Tom has a self-assurance in knowing when things work."

And, apparently, when he doesn't need a stunt man.

THE M:i-2 SOUNDTRACK
Hans Zimmer's score gets heavy metal in more ways than one. The signature tune is rock hard. So are some of the performers. Metallica does I Disappear. Limp Bizkit covers the theme tune like nobody's business.

Other moments to catch? The Foo Fighters and Brian May do a cover of Pink Floyd's Have A Cigar. Rob Zombie, Chris Cornell and Tori Amos are also featured.

 

On Cruise control

Tracking experts predict that Mission: Impossible 2 should double the U.S. Memorial holiday weekend grown-up movie record holder. That would be Air Force One at $37-million.

Looks like Tom Cruise's M:I-2, directed by John Woo, will hit the $80-million mark for its extended run after opening May 24.

Meanwhile, Cruise organizes his film future. He's prepared to begin Steven Spielberg's Minority Report by next spring, and is in the process of doing some pre-production stuff for Robert Towne's Dead Reckoning. "It's a movie about love, revenge and high adventure," says Towne of Dead Reckoning, but who could also be describing M:I-2 ...

M:I-2 composer Hans Zimmer is looking forward to a summer holiday. His spring consisted of doing final soundtrack arrangements for El Dorado, Gladiator and M:I-2.

"I kept seeing the premiere spotlights in the air from the L.A. studio where I was working," recalls Zimmer of the past few months. "I'd say, 'Oh, there is another one I missed' " ...

Cruise Mission: Impossible 2 love interest Thandie Newton, who is five months pregnant, says that she didn't give up the Charlie's Angels role because of M:I-2's production over-run. Obviously, she had a more important real-life production in mind. Her baby is due in September.

Cruise, Kidman eye 'Cat On Hot Tin Roof'

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are pondering a turn on Broadway, but don't expect "Eyes Wide Shut: The Musical."

The New York Post says the couple is planning to stage Tennessee Williams' "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" in London and New York with "American Beauty" director Sam Mendes.

Before his Oscar-winning turn behind the camera, Mendes directed Kidman in the steamy "Blue Room."

If the "Tin Roof" project goes forward, it will, like "Blue Room," first be staged at London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre, before moving to Broadway in April to qualify for the Tony Awards, The Post says.

Cruise and Kidman would only earn Equity scale for the play, but The Post says Cruise can afford the pay-cut -- he stands to make $100 million on the deal he cut for this summer's "Mission: Impossible 2."

-- JAM! Theatre

Cruise, Redford teaming up

The matinee idol dream team of Tom Cruise and Robert Redford is teaming up to make a movie about a hunky math wiz crippled by schizophrenia.

The Hollywood Reporter says Redford has already agreed to direct "A Beautiful Mind," and Cruise wants to star in the biopic, based on the life of Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr.

The likely start date on "A Beautiful Mind" would be the fall, which could put a spanner in Steven Spielberg's plan to cast Cruise in "Minority Report," which most believed would be the director's next project, now that he has passed on the Harry Potter film adaptation.

Redford is also poised to sign on as an actor in "Spy Game," a long-gestating project that would cast him as a senior CIA operative who must rescue his protegee, who has been captured by the Chinese, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Cruise made $70 mil on 'Mission'

Tom Cruise's final payout for his work on the 1996 film "Mission: Impossible" may have totaled as much as $70 million, according to the BBC.

Aside from his sizable acting fee, Cruise's deal for the Brian De Palma-directed film included a percentage of profits and revenue from TV, video and merchandising sales. Details of Cruise's arrangement were revealed by Sumner Redstone, CEO of Paramount Pictures' parent company, Viacom, at a press conference in Germany.

The BBC said Redstone pegged the "Mission: Impossible" film's worldwide earnings at $464.9 million

Cruise stars in the forthcoming sequel, which was shot in Australia under the aegis of John Woo. The Hong Kong action pioneer has helmed such shoot-em-up classics as "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer," as well as the Nicolas Cage-John Travolta blockbuster "Face/Off."

Reports from the set have said the production was plagued by delays and cost overruns. The BBC reported Cruise's basic salary for the sequel is estimated at $20 million, although his deal is rumoured to include 30 percent of the film's profits.

Recent reports have said that Mel Gibson had recently broken the record for the biggest acting payday -- $25 million for his work in the upcoming civil war epic, "The Patroit," although that sum represents only his salary for the film and not the value of any profit participation, unlike Cruise's "Mission: Impossible" deal.

-- JAM! Movies

Cruise, Kidman in wife-swapping pic

Fresh off the infidelity-obsessed "Eyes Wide Shut," Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are working on a film about wife-swapping.

Variety reports Paramount Pictures and Cruise's production company has purchased the Celia Brayfield novel "Heartswap" as a vehicle for Kidman. The story concerns two beautiful friends who become engaged at the same time and one night drunkenly agree to attempt to seduce the other's partner.

When the fidelity of both fiances fails, complications ensue. Kidman would play one of the two women who agrees to the partner-swap.

Cruise and Kidman most recently co-starred in the late director Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," which traced the fallout in a marriage after Kidman's character confessed her extra-marital desires to her husband, played by Cruise.

Kidman will next be seen in director Baz Lurhmann's "Moulin Rouge."

-- JAM! Movies

Cruise looking at war-hero script

Tom Cruise hopes to take on the true-life role of an American soldier who became a hero during the Second World War.

Variety reports that "Fertig" is a script written by playwright William Nicholson, based on the life of Wendell Fertig, who distinguished himself while serving in the Philippines. Cruise only got his hands on the script a week ago, the paper said.

Meanwhile, Variety said both Cruise and Steven Spielberg had told 20th Century Fox they still intend to work together on an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report," although there's no indication when both actor and director will find time in their busy schedules to get going on the project.

-- JAM! Movies

Cruise director for sexual predators

HOLLYWOOD -- If you boil it right down to the bare bones, Stanley Kubrick's swansong film, Eyes Wide Shut, is a movie in which Tom Cruise spends an entire night trying - and failing - to have sex.

Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson figures that's why Cruise was so eager to sign on to Magnolia, Anderson's sprawling ensemble drama about a group of loosely connected Los Angelinos, opening Friday.

Cruise plays Frank T. J. Mackey, the Tony Robbins of sexual predators. Through seminars and videotapes, he teaches men how to befriend and beguile women for the sole purpose of luring them into bed for a one-night stand. A nurturing '90s guy he isn't.

Anderson, the wunderkind writer-director who turned the ripe old age of 30 on New Year's Day, says being able to play the bad boy was what attracted Cruise to the role of the cocksure, leather-clad, stud-among-studs.

"I think that was a major draw for him," says Anderson.

"I made fun of him after I saw Eyes Wide Shut. 'No wonder you were so anxious to be in this movie. You were the repressed Dr. Bill for two years. You had to not get laid in that movie.' "

As a coincidental homage to Kubrick, Cruise's character makes his seminar entrance with the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey blasting in the background.

"Tom got this wonderful kick out of it," says Anderson. "He said, 'Stanley's going to love this.' "

Almost as surprising as the character he plays in Magnolia is the fact that Cruise is in the film at all. Anderson, who earned an Oscar nomination for his Boogie Nights script, seems to follow the Robert Altman school of filmmaking - assemble a group of lesser-known actors you like and use them in everything you do.

Making the transition from Boogie Nights to Magnolia are eight different actors, including Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Cruise was like the outsider crashing a family reunion.

"Tom knew that he was coming into a group of people that worked a certain way and had a certain vibe going and that's what he was after," says Anderson, who wrote the part with Cruise in mind.

"He totally blended in with the furniture, as much as Tom Cruise can blend in with the furniture."

Cruise's role is also smaller than most of the other primary characters' parts, and he was paid no more than anybody else for his three weeks of shooting - even though, as co-star Macy puts it, "When someone of his star power signs up, I think the budget goes up."

As the Mackey character, Cruise oozes a menacing, slimy charm, degrading the fairer sex to targets that need to be conquered. He even utters the dreaded c-word on screen, one of the few truly taboo vulgarities left.

(Some film reviewers have also pointed out that in the scene where Cruise strips down to his underwear in front of a female reporter, he seems to be packing the legendary prosthetic penis from Boogie Nights in his Calvins. Either that or his wife, Nicole Kidman, is a very happy woman).

But Cruise also shares an emotionally wrenching scene with Jason Robards, who plays his dying father. It was this versatility and commitment to the project that impressed his castmates.

"Tom Cruise is something," says Hoffman, who plays a male nurse caring for Robards' character.

"He just put it out there. He had to do that a lot, all that stuff with Jason. And he did it every time. On camera, off camera, over his shoulder.

"The guy's an athlete as an actor. He's a workhorse."

Friday December 17, 1999

 

Monday, November 22, 1999

 

Monday, October 11, 1999

 

By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun

Sunday june 27, 1999

 

By NATASHA STOYNOFF -- Toronto Sun

Wednesday, September 16, 1998

 

By JIM SLOTEK -- Toronto Sun

Saturday, September 12, 1998

 

Actor/producer quietly wields his power to make the films he wants to see

By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun

Thursday, June 4, 1998

 

Monday, February 16, 1998

 

By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun

Monday, December 1, 1997

 

By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun

Wednesday, April 23, 1997

 

December 19, 1996

 

December 16, 1996

 

By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun

December 11, 1996

Colleagues can't say too many good things about their absent star

 

By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun

December 8, 1996

 

By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun