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THIS
just in from
Tom Cruise: “Life isn’t perfect.”
Well, you could have fooled us. On Friday’s The
Oprah Winfrey Show, sponsored, apparently, by the
Telluride Chamber of Commerce,
Oprah Winfrey and her camera crew made the long,
though terribly scenic, trek to the movie star’s
Colorado home for their first interview since the
infamous “couch bounce” three years ago. After a
strangely brief appearance by
Katie Holmes and her astonishingly perfect hair,
Cruise and Winfrey went on a tour of the family
home—from “the mudroom,” where a pair of fleece-lined
slippers marked “Oprah” filled one cubby, to daughter
Suri’s little “office” under the stairs, to the study
where bound scripts from Cruise movies line the
bookshelves (yes, there was Cocktail, front and
center)—before settling into an overstuffed sofa.
“This is
just so normal,” Winfrey exclaimed, as the two stood in
the enormous, professionally outfitted kitchen while the
camera went from the breathtaking mountain views to the
plate of cupcakes on a kitchen table. You bet. Just two
superrich, overexposed media icons sitting around
talking.
Obviously, the interview, the first of two, if you can
imagine, was Cruise’s attempt to “settle all family
business,” to put to rest the rumors of mental
instability that ran rampant through Hollywood after his
manic appearance on Oprah was swiftly followed by his
denunciation of Brooke Shields for taking
antidepressants and his antipsychiatry diatribe against
Today host Matt Lauer. Since then, he has married
Holmes, welcomed baby Suri, been “fired” from Paramount
by Sumner Redstone, resurrected United Artists with
production partner Paula Wagner, and, perhaps most
important, returned to a haven of professional
handlers—after the Oprah debacle, he jettisoned his
sister, who had been functioning as his publicist, and
hired Paul Bloch from Rogers & Cowan.
Now with
United Artists treading water after a lackluster debut
(Lions for Lambs) and a stalled Valkyrie, Cruise has his
eye on Mission: Impossible 4 and, perhaps, a return to
the hearts of moviegoing America.
“You’re
living your dream,” Winfrey told him several times
toward the end of the interview, to which he replied:
“And I’m getting ready to turn this up.”
It was
difficult not to hear this as a threat. Turn what up?
His public persona? I thought we were hoping to turn
that down.
He
certainly cannot have been referring to the famous grin,
which was so blinding during the interview that one
wondered if computer graphics were not involved. Nor did
he seem to be talking about his on-camera presence,
which was subdued to the point of near catatonia at
times. No one would confuse Tom Cruise with William F.
Buckley or even
Robert Downey Jr., but there were moments when you
really felt for Oprah, when you saw her straining every
synapse to coax a complete sentence out of her subject
until she finally gave up and filled in the words
herself.
And it’s
not like the questions were all that difficult.
“What
was going on with you [during the sofa incident]? How
important is friendship to you? How is your relationship
with Nicole? Does the press affect your kids?” were a
few of the more burning queries. “Were you surprised?”
she asked of the public reaction to his couch bounce,
his marriage to Katie, the birth of Suri. It was “a
moment” (the sofa bouncing). Friendship is the most
important thing, his relationship with former wife
Nicole Kidman is great—“We share custody
whenever”—his kids love him and know he is there for
them, and sometimes he is surprised by the rumors that
swirl around him. “Sometimes it’s like ‘I get it, I get
to make movies,’” he said, “...but certain things, you
go: “Come on.’”
Indeed.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
I don’t
want them to worry. I take care of things. Getting ready
to turn this up. I wish for you the peace this mountain
can bring. |
