From The NATIONAL ENQUIRER Oct 29, 2002

Selected quotes:

TOM CRUISE has abandoned his gay lawsuit and entered into a secret payoff deal!
"Cruise had been very aggressive in the case - but he walked away with a wimper", famed New York attorney Roaul Felder told The ENQUIRER.
The actor - who vigorously pursues those who question his sexual orientation - sued Kristina Kirstin Slater last year. He claimed she had defamed him in an ENQUIRER interview in which she simply confirmed published reports that her ex-husband claimed to have had a gay affair with Cruise.
The angry actor fired back with a vengeance - slapping a stunned Kristina with a whopping $100 million lawsuit. A judge threw out the suit - awarding Kristina nearly $28,000 in attorney's fees. But a determined Cruise appealed.
Now the "Minority Report" star has suddenly and quietly backed down, says the delighted defendant.

See The NATIONAL ENQUIRER for full story.

Appology - I posted the above in the wrong section.

The Nat. Enquirer cover screams:
Tom Cruise settles GAY Lawsuit.

What a dope Tom was to sue in the first place. Hubbard's "always attack" policy has created one footbullet after another.

Tom Cruise is not only an idiot, he's also got a severely over-inflated opinion of himself, and I personally think he can't act his way out of a wet paper bag. The only movies I thought he was ever even halfway decent in were, "Top Gun," and, "The Firm." He ruined "Born On The 4th Of July." If I were Ron Kovik, I would be PISSED! He ruined, "The Outsiders." His bogus southern accent made him sound even more hokey than real honest-to-goodness trailer trash. He ruined Anne Rice's, "Interview With The Vampire." Anne Rice even said that Tom Cruise was NOT the Vampire LeStat. Someone slipped her some cash though, because a few weeks later, she turned around 180 degrees. "Mission Impossible," was like, "Movie Impossible." (Impossible to follow or remain awake in!) Whatever that retarded-assed movie was, where he's involved with some sex cult... Gawwwwwwd, what a horrible piece of shit that movie was. Good grief... I wonder how many more movies he will ruin before his thin veneer of charm wears through and he becomes a has-been... He makes Keannu (sp?) Reeves look like a genius!

It was "Eyes Wide Shut".

I think Tom Cruise tends to come across really fake, without naturalness, true feelings or emotions. His most bizarre role was the pool hustler in The Color of Money. His wacky hair out-acted him.

Mission Impossible and MI2 were both devoid of any real human emotion. Both seemed totally fake to me. High tech yawn fests.

Eyes Wide Shut was typical Kubrick, so I don't blame Cruise for that one. He and Nicole were both awful in that one, with the exception of when he got found out and had to unmask in front of the "group." That was well done. I also liked A Few Good Men. His good acting moments are the exception.

He shoulda done Risky Business 2-8, and stayed away from the CoS.

Galileo

Aw come on folks, he was GREAT in Magnolia (playing himself!). (I actually admired that performance except perhaps...it wasn't...a "performance"....)

Hee hee Galileo - "his wacky hair" !!

Ten Tigers - yup.

Nice to be seeing Nicole upstaging him since he dumped her for ditzCruz. Refreshing to see her dignity in the face of it all.

I agree that Tommy Boy's best part was from Eyes Wide Shut - the scene from where he goes into that big mansion, to check out the Satanic sex cult, upto where he gets caught.
So, from 20 years of making films, his greatest achievement is the 10 minutes when he's wearing a mask.

I agree that he was good in Magnolia playing
either "himself" or himself.

As far as Eyes Wide Shut goes, such promise,
such a premise, and all we get is Nicole
talking too slowly and a few good images,
like the unmasking scene and the scene in
which he passes through the hospital doors.

And, natch, his then-wife in her undies and
nude, using that dirty little smile at the
very end.

But yeah, a failure.

OT5 Tom Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman has a new biography just released - called "Nicole Kidman:The Biography".
I've just looked in the index of the book and there is NO mention of Scientology.
She was the guest on a talk show, in the UK, a few months ago, and she never mentioned scientology on that either. Looks like she is keeping silent about the cult.

Some bits from the book:

Nicole and Tom first met in 1989 to discuss working on the film "Days of Thunder". Almost immediately an unforseen problem arose.
"When Tom stood up and we shook hands, I found I was looking down at him," said Nicole. "It was terrifically embarrassing to learn I was at least a couple of inches taller. I knew it wouldn't do, having the girlfriend tower over the macho race car driver."
But there was a definite spark between them.
"My first reaction to meeting Nic was pure lust," said Tom, who at the time was married to actress Mimi Rogers. "It was totally physical. I thought she was amazingly sexy and stunning."
Nicole vividly remembers their first date. "We went to the movies and he was wearing a T-shirt and I took one look at his biceps and I could not watch the movie. I was a goner after that."
Tom and Nic got married, and enjoyed extreme sports. However, that passion almost cost the actress her life while the two were on vacation on Stromboli, a tiny island off the Italian coast.
Tom was off scuba diving and Nicole decided to climb the semi-active volcano on the island. She and her inexperienced guide reached the top at sunset and found everything covered with black sulphuric ash making it impossible to see.
Panicking they slowly made their way down the other side, a shorter but more dangerous route - especially in the dark.
"There were moments there where if you put one foot wrong, you fall and you're dead", said Nicole.
She did fall and sprained her ankle. Cold, hungry and thirsty, Nicole realized she needed to stay put and wait for rescue.
Tom searched desperately for his missing wife. He raced up the mountain but he failed to find her.
Nicole was missing for more than eight hours before her cries were heard by two skydivers who led the exhausted actress to safety. A sobbing Nicole was reunited with her husband.

Maybe Nicole would be speaking up if she didn't have children....and maybe Lisa Mcpherson, in dying as she did, will be the one who ultimately causes the whole scam to be broken. When the cos is exposed, all these people who keep quiet because of their families and their fears will be able to speak, and take control of their lives once more! This is my hope!

raised 11th

Friend, you and I share the same hope. De Oppresso Liber! (Motto of the Special Forces: Liberate The Oppressed)

Sadly, I'm a Tomophile, trapped in a world of Tomophobes.

There is an interesting website about "Eyes Wide Shut" that contains the unfortunate sentence: "Technically, like all other Kubrick movies, Eyes Wide Shut is a masterpiece." Call it the school marm in me, but it should rather say that like all other Kubrick movies, EYES WIDE SHUT is a masterpiece of technique.

They have some nice streaming video from the movie, also.

If you like Kubrick and film, there is a long piece on EYES WIDE SHUT and its origin in Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle," which I have yet to see ubersetzted into English. I understand that the original story had unsavory sexual elements -- including the orgy in a country manor -- and that the long pauses and silences in the film were intentional. Kubrick was playing a strange game when he made this movie, and I enjoy it immensely.

This second piece has some funny stuff in it, hidden among academic jargon. Michael Herr, who worked with Kubrick earlier, says of the final scene between Cruise and Sydney Pollack, "I don't even know what [the scene's] supposed to be about, unless, as I suspect, it's really just about the red pool table" -- which just about sums up that repetitive and drawn-out conversation.

Tom Cruise is a photographic object like any other, and Kubrick used him well in this film. In MAGNOLIA, Cruise seemed to tap into a weirdly malevolent energy, and even in his latest action movies the camera seems to love him. The sci-fi movies he's making are at least interesting.

At the same time, I agree with Galileo that he seems "really fake, without naturalness, true feelings or emotions" -- but I like movies because they contain ideas and beautiful photography, not because I believe that Robin Williams really is a weepy cross-dressing father with issues, or that Meg Ryan is a sweetheart. Fakeness should not be a stumbling block to acting.

"Fakeness should not be a stumbling block to acting."

It isn't for many actors!

There was a very good 2-hour "The Directors" about Stanley Kubrick on Encore, which helped me to understand his approach to film making. His work is mostly appreciated by other film makers and those in the movie business.

I agree that his films are often beautifully photographed, but the lighting and cinematography often conflicts with and drowns out the human elements or the element that contribute to the story. Some might call that "contrast" but I personally don't care for it. With a very few exceptions, I find Kubrick's style to be very contrived and annoying, introducing unnatural elements that clash with a good story. I feel distracted from any story that uses weird techniques that don't contribute to the story. Contrast Kubricks's techniques with the techniques use by Sodderberg in Traffic. Sodderberg's methods contribute to the realism and authentic textural asmosphere of a story. Riddley Scott is another great filmmaker who uses techniques to contribute to a film, not distract from it.

There are a few Kubrick exceptions: The first part of Full Metal Jacket and One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest. Also 2001 a Space Oddysey is better than most of his films, but not by much. The human element is so subdued in 2001, that it might as well not exist at all.

Tom Cruise fit the bill very well for Eyes Wide Shut, because his acting tends to be contrived.
The scenes with Sydney Pollack are awful, and the Encore special shows why. Kubrick takes so long to finish films because he goes for take after take after take. Any acting spontaneity is lost.

I really dislike the lighting used in much of Eyes Wide Shut, especially the heavy blue lighting in the bedroom scenes between Tom and Nicole.

I like the scene in the costume shop, and Tom is great when he gets unmasked.

I did not care for Magnolia, but Tom is pretty good in that role. "Playing himself." Chuckle!

My two pennies.

Galileo

Well hell, G-boy, would you rather I'd said "Playing with himself???

I thought Magnolia was a "not bad film" about extreme alienation, especially in places like El A - Psychollywood, belabored in the last quarter and smaltzy at the end.

For me, TC was very convincing in that role. OK, I'll give him a leeetle credit for that. And seeing him as "playing himself" just suits my own agenda don't you know! I unabashedly admit this...

BG