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None of the potential candidates really grabs me, except maybe Condi. I have no idea where Romney or Allen stand on the issues, or what qualities they may possess. (Been too busy to investigate). I wish Santorum - like Frist, Lott, et al. - would exhibit more backbone. He does give the impression of wimping out at times, even though I know he has very firmly held beliefs on certain issues. There's no way we can afford to be single-issue voters this time 'round, however. Giuliani appears electable, despite his messy marital history and pro-choice stance. It would help to know his positions on other issues, for instance, can it be said he's conservative on anything? That's not an indictment, but a sincere question for anyone who knows where he stands.

Rush & Molloy report:

Tom Cruise must be getting sick of reading those snarky stories about his romance with Katie Holmes.

Despite his public smile, the actor has banished virtually all print reporters - including your humble gossip-slingers - from the New York premiere of his movie "War of the Worlds" tonight. A Paramount rep says only one print outlet has been deemed housebroken enough to tread the red carpet. Which outlet is that?

"It's nobody's business," the rep told us, though we understand the exclusve has gone to People magazine.

Only the exclusive isn't that exclusive. More than 30 carefully vetted TV crews are also expected.

Cruise did deign to meet with print reporters yesterday at the Essex House. But he seemed a little testy when someone asked how he "popped the question" to Holmes at the Eiffel Tower last week.

"I didn't know I needed to pop it," he said. "Is that a thing?"

Director Steven Spielberg interjected, "Wow, it was 20 minutes before someone asked [that question]."

Holmes hugged and smooched her 16-years-older fiancé after the press conference. But some friends worry that he's taken over her life. You've heard about Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez, the Scientology "minder" who has shadowed her as she promotes "Batman Begins." Her indoctrination apparently has been going on for weeks. On May 27, Cruise took Holmes to Canadian, Okla., to visit a Scientology-backed drug rehab center called Narconon Arrowhead, Cruise's sister and press rep Leanne DeVette confirmed to Hollywood-elsewhere.com columnist Jeffrey Wells.

Sources say Holmes' parents, who raised her as a Roman Catholic, told fellow churchgoers in Toledo that she wouldn't be converting to the controversial sect. But then she announced she had.

"She's not consulting her family on any of her decisions," a family friend tells us.

Still, Cruise seems to know that there's nothing like a home-cooked meal to win over the in-laws. We hear that his family recently met with the Holmes clan - and his mom even made fried chicken.

Nancy Reagan is moving a little slower after taking a spill in London's Ritz Hotel last weekend. The former First Lady was rushed to the hospital, and though nothing was broken, she missed out on a dinner with Prince Charles. She's now getting some fresh air aboard a yacht in the Mediterranean.

Chances are her friends will be shielding her from Huffingtonpost.com, where Norman Mailer writes that her late husband was "the most overrated president in American history and the second most ignorant."

The first? You guessed it: "George W. is not only a horse's ass, but vain and platitudinous to boot."

P.S. Blogmistress Arianna Huffington wants it known that she makes no guarantees about the accuracy of her forum's contributors. "Our only rule is that if something they write is proven to be factually inaccurate [like Lyn Davis Lear's recent dig at CBS], they need to write a retraction and/or a correction."