Cruise overshadows new movie
2005-06-27 09:34
Los Angeles - Tom Cruise has been criss-crossing the globe touting his new movie War of the Worlds, but his off-screen antics, crowned by his surprise engagement to Katie Holmes have stolen the blockbuster's thunder.
The megastar is on a promotional tour to tout director Steven Spielberg's film ahead of its opening next week, but it's his passionate red-carpet smooches with Holmes and a televised face-squirting stunt in London that have snatched the aliens invaders' limelight.
The once very-private star, 42, kicked off the latest media frenzy with his stunning announcement during a War of the Worlds press conference in Paris that he had proposed to Holmes, 26, at the Eiffel tower on June 16.
A series of very public displays of affection and some alarmingly ebullient expressions of the Mission Impossible actor's love for his new leading lady of about three months followed.
Then, just when Jaws filmmaker Spielberg thought it was safe to go back to the campaign trail, his $135m cinematic behemoth was once again overshadowed by Cruise the superstar last week.
A phoney television reporter squirted the actor in the face with a water pistol disguised as a microphone at the film's London premiere, eliciting a furious response and threats of legal action from Cruise.
The antics have generated acres of news coverage, but little of it focused on the hugely-expensive movie that must draw in huge audiences in order to break even.
Spielberg admitted he was concerned by the media attention on his star's off-screen persona, attention first triggered when Cruise excitedly jumped up and down on talk show host Oprah Winfrey's couch last month as he revealed his love for Holmes, the star of Batman Begins, which opened this month.
"I was a little upset," Spielberg told Newsweek magazine this week. "I was a little upset - not at Tom, but at the press for making such a big deal out of a kind of small thing.
"Tom lost his cool because he was deliriously happy, and now he was being punished for his public display of happiness," the legendary filmmaker said, adding that the actor was frequently equally expansive on the movie set.
Cruise's bizarre Oprah appearance sparked a frantic media and public debate over whether Hollywood's hottest romance was genuine, or simply a cynical publicity stunt aimed at promoting the new movies of both actors.
"We know the poor guy has to go on Oprah and pretend to be in love with Holmes, and we don't mind - he has a movie coming out," wrote columnist Tina Brown in The Washington Post last month. "But can't he, like, fake it with more conviction?"
The focus has remained firmly on the actor, rather than his movie, as Cruise used his frequently-testy movie press conferences and interviews to tout the image of the Scientology church of which he is a devoted member.
On Friday Cruise clashed on air with US television host Matt Lauer over the benefits of psychiatry and mood-altering drugs, both of which are shunned by Scientologists.
Image consultants said that Cruise's public expression of private emotions and beliefs over the past months represented a major publicity blunder.
"He has taken quite a few significant missteps over the past few weeks," Peter Montoya, an expert on personal branding and image told AFP.
"He was very, very private about his past relationships but he's been very open about this one," Montoya said of the twice-married Cruise whose previous marriages to superstar Nicole Kidman and actress Mimi Rogers ended in divorce.
"He's been so exuberant about it, sharing about how excited he is, sometimes to the extent that he could appear irrational. I think it was an honest, authentic expression, but it went too far," he said.
But while Cruise's public image may have taken a short-term battering from scoffing media, he will likely emerge from the firestorm with his status as Hollywood royalty very much intact, Montoya stressed.
"Hugh Grant was discovered having oral sex with a prostitute, we forgave him. Winona Ryder was convicted of shoplifting, we forgave her. Robert Downey has been in and out of drug rehabilitation and we forgave him. Tom Cruise is in love and happy about it - big deal," he said.
- SAPA