As Cruise makes the rounds promoting "War of the Worlds," the often-guarded actor can't stop gushing about the "Batman Begins" actress. "I love this woman," Cruise told "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush in an interview airing Monday. "I am so happy, and I am not going to pretend or hide it or be shy. This woman is magnificent."
Giddy Tom pulled Katie onstage during his chat with Oprah Winfrey, also airing Monday. "I've never seen him like this before," says Oprah. "He's gone."
Usually, it's around this time that some creepy hustler crawls out of his go-go cage to spoil the joy. You may remember Chad Slater, aka Kyle Bradford, the "erotic wrestler" who claimed in 2001 he'd been Cruise's lover. Cruise, who was starting to date Penelope Cruz, filed a $100 million defamation suit against Slater - coming away with a $10 million judgment.
You haven't heard about another porn actor, known as "Big Red." In November 2002, porn-actor-turned-private-eye Paul Barresi heard through the gropevine that Red - named for his carrot top and ample appendage - was trying to sell his story. Barresi says he arranged for Red to meet him and infamous Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano. Red told them he'd had an encounter with Cruise at his London home when the actor and then-wife Nicole Kidman, were shooting "Eyes Wide Shut," according to Barresi, who promptly informed Cruise's pit- bull lawyer, Bert Fields.
Fields hurled one of his fireball letters. "As you well know, this story is an utter fabrication," wrote Fields. "[Tom Cruise] has never had a homosexual experience or encounter with you or anyone else."
Fields tells us he was unaware of any involvement by Pellicano, who thereafter went to jail for possessing illegal explosives. The lawyer confirms Barresi's role but says, "Pellicano was not acting for Tom Cruise." link
From the same NY paper:
Sen. Hillary Clinton is planning to host Iowa supporters at her D.C. pad. The fund-raiser is for her 2006 Senate campaign, but the mere mention of Iowa is bound to fuel talk that she's eyeing the Iowa caucuses in the 2008 presidential primary season. Meanwhile, Hillaryites love the speculation about who'll run against her in New York. "Every time another wanna-be Senate candidate is mentioned there's an uptick in contributions," a source tells The News' Ken Bazinet...
New York Times bosses allegedly fired former Baghdad bureau chief Susan Sachs, claiming she ratted out colleagues John Burns and Dexter Filkins by sending anonymous notes to their wives, alleging flings in the war zone. NY Daily News.
Back on the subject of Arianna's blog, this time from the same NY Times (excerpted):
.... But we were most interested in talking to ARIANNA HUFFINGTON about her new celebrity-written blog, the Huffington Post, which has been the talk of the Huffington Post.
So Ms. Huffington, do you keep up with what is written about the blog?
"You know, I always catch up with it but not always in real time, because if I read everything on our blog, and read everything about our blog, I wouldn't be doing anything else all day."
What's your favorite blog response to your blog?
"I mean there's been a lot. MICKEY KAUS has been writing. I just saw before I left that he linked to my female orgasm blog. And I've been linking to what he's doing. I've been linking to what JACK SHAFER is doing. I've been linking to criticisms of the site. I've been responding to some of these criticisms.
"I've been trying to use the little box that I have at the top to answer some of these questions, like tonight I just did one about 'Why are people blogging?,' 'Why are people from other platforms - books, movies, articles - blogging?' "And the answer was given by NORMAN MAILER, who just blogged for the first time, and he said, 'I now understand why anyone may want to blog.'" ....