Tom Cruise

"Eyes Wide Shut," the final film of director Stanley Kubrick, presents the late filmmaker's admirers with a tantalizing but ultimately confounding coda to one of the most formidable bodies of work in the cinema.The psychological portrait of a marriage at a pivotal moment, "Eyes Wide Shut" raises some fascinating questions about commitment, intimacy, sexuality and the power of imagination in relationships. And Kubrick's last gasp, which was bound to be a haunting final statement, will surely leave filmgoers with a lingering sense of the mysteries that abound in every emotional transaction.

In further solidification of 1996 as the year of the independent film, the lion's share of Screen Actor Guild Award nominations announced yesterday went to performers in small pictures made outside the major studios.Nods went to the casts of "The English Patient," "Marvin's Room," "Shine," "Sling Blade" and "The Birdcage" and to many of the actors who starred in those films. Of the eight films given multiple nominations, only two ("The Birdcage" and "Jerry Maguire") were the products of major studios (MGM/UA and Columbia/TriStar, respectively)

WASHINGTON -- The agent for hot country-western star LeAnn Rimes was busy promoting his client to celebrity networker Alma Viator when the conversation turned to the young singer's favorite causes. The teen, he confided, plans to take a public position on children.Let it be known: She intends to support them.Viator came all the way to Nashville to hear something like this. A Washington matchmaker who links celebrities with charity work, took Viator no time to imagine the perfect campaign.

If this movie star thing ever peters out on him, Tom Cruise just might have a promising career as a stuntman. Cruise, who dabbled in race driving for a while and enjoys the odd act of aerial derring-do in his own plane, is the kind of thrill junkie who finds putting life and/or limb on the line for a "cool" (his word) shot "fun" (see previous parenthetical comment).His latest vehicle, "Mission: Impossible," a high-tech, $64-million updating of the cloak-and-dagger CBS-TV series, gave him plenty of opportunity.

Here's another way they get you. Oh, it's clever. It's really clever. You watch, yeah, you watch and this'll happen."Honey, honey, look. There's a new sports movie out. Tom Cruise is in it. It's called 'Jerry Maguire.' It's about football. Oh, honey, you'll just love it."And, you think, Yeah, great, a sports movie. Tom Cruise, the guy in "Top Gun." Cool. Let's go.See, it's already out on the chick network. They already know what's going on. They have very good intelligence, I'll say that.

"Mission: Impossible" is the movie unlikable.A shame, particularly for aging boomers who remember the original show with affection. Diverging from the capers that were the heart of that legendary series, the new Brian De Palma and Tom Cruise collaboration is long on meaningless spectacle, short on charm, wit and -- most of all -- sense.In fact, it's as if director De Palma and star-producer Cruise don't really understand the core appeal of the series; they just like the music. They all too quickly abandon its format: In this permutation, the CIA's crack IMF team, specialists in cowboy operations and clever subterfuges, is wiped out in the first several minutes, indicating the presence of a traitor in CIA hierarchy.

The question before Channel 13's Dave Ricklin is this:Once you've reported on zit horror stories, dressed up like a member of "The Love Boat," and swiped a handful of jelly beans on the air, what do you do for an encore?To him, the answer seems obvious. With Valentine's Day near, you go to Loyola College, troll for tales of first kisses, and, when all else fails, engineer a peck on the cheek between two students who are complete strangers.This is Dave's World, and welcome to it.As WJZ-TV's new twentysomething reporter, he's bringing Jiffy Lube-style journalism to the 5 o'clock news, playing a smart-aleck and stand-up comedian during his Monday segments.

For filmmakers contemplating gorgeous Prague in the Czech Republic as a location, the message from Tom Cruise is: Don't bother.Mr. Cruise, on his first outing as a producer -- a movie version of "Mission Impossible," in which he stars -- recently ended three weeks of shooting in Prague believing he'd been unfairly overcharged for a location site. "At one point we were told, 'If you don't sign the papers by 4 p.m., you don't get the locale,' " said Katherine Orloff, the movie's publicity agent.

One of the best regular features in Premiere is Libby Gelman-Waxner's film column, "If You Ask Me," in which Cher's tattoos and Daniel Day-Lewis' buns are far more relevant than Martin Scorsese's vision or Robert Altman's cultural criticism.Ms. Gelman-Waxner, a cosmetically enhanced and militantly superficial New Yorker, submits to an interview with play- and screen-writer Paul Rudnick in New York for Oct. 31, and the result is a big giggle.Ms. Gelman-Waxner, who says her readers are "people from all walks of life and all dosages of Zoloft," states her credo: "I join with Naomi Wolf and Erica Jong and Shari Lewis in saying yes, I am a woman.

"Interview With the Vampire" author Anne Rice shot a letter off to People Weekly on Tuesday taking issue with a short magazine article on Tom Cruise and advising the magazine not to be "so eager to whore for [Pat] Kingsley or Cruise" by writing "idiotic trash" from the publicity machine run by Pat Kingsley.The May 9 People article says Ms. Rice didn't want Tom Cruise to play the Vampire Lestat because she wanted "a less clean-cut lead."Ms. Rice wrote, "Did Pat Kingsley dictate it to you, or are you really that stupid?"

DVD Valkyrie ** (2 stars) Starring Tom Cruise. Directed by Brian Singer. Released by United Artists. $34.98 (Blu-Ray $39.95). Tom Cruise, who once could seemingly do anything in the movies, tries to revive his reputation, resuscitate United Artists and kill-off Adolf Hitler, all in the same movie. Valkyrie details -- that is, excruciatingly details -- a 1944 plot by a handful of enlightened German officers to assassinate the fuhrer. Had it been made 50 years ago, when exciting, star-studded World War II films were al l the rage, Valkyrie would have been filled with colorful performances, multiple climaxes and lots of stirring, bombastic music.

IN A way he is a modern breed of film star. A man as interested in the business of show as he is in performance. An amalgam of magnetism and marketing savvy. Talented and shameless. A charming control freak. George Clooney minus the smugness. Arnold minus the skeeve. Tom Cruise minus the crazy. Ryan Seacrest, if Seacrest were a man." That's Alison Glock writing in Men's Journal about Dwayne Johnson, formerly known as pro wrestling's "The Rock" and later as a tight-jawed, heavily muscled action hero in over-the-top projects such as The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King.

Get ready! American Idol superstar Clay Aiken joins the Tony award-winning musical Monty Python's Spamalot, causing a line at the doors of the Shubert Theatre on West 44th Street beginning Friday. And he'll stick with this hilarious show through May 4. Director Mike Nichols: "Clay is amazing, beyond that glorious voice. Turns out he is an excellent comic actor and a master of character. People are going to be surprised by his wide-ranging talent, since the first impression is of great country charm and a singer to remember.

The problem with Lions for Lambs isn't its political engagement but its cinematic disengagement. Robert Redford directs and stars in this ambitious talkathon, which would have been more effective as a radio play. Redford is all flashing teeth and conscience as a professor intent on pushing a gifted but complacent frat boy in his political-science class (Andrew Garfield) into some commitment to our civic life. Tom Cruise is all flashing teeth and cunning as a hotshot Republican senator shopping a scoop about a bold strategic change in Afghanistan to a seasoned journalist (Meryl Streep)

AS Queen Elizabeth II departs the United States today, she remains very much in the news. The now-famous Annie Leibovitz photograph of the queen published on the eve of her visit to the United States showed her sitting in bejeweled, be-satined, ermined and crowned splendor in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. In this photo, the queen is looking out an opened doorway. The photo is astonishing for its old-fashioned glamour and for its implied power. I couldn't think at first what this photograph reminded me of, certainly not the comparison made in Great Britain that the portrait resembled the queen's own mother back in 1939.

Tom and Katie held hands like newlyweds while they watched the Washington Redskins from Daniel Snyder's box Monday night. No sign of the new baby, but it was just as well since Dan doesn't like to compete for attention. Of course, for those of you who don't spend your time in the grocery line flipping through Us and People, I'm referring to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who became young Dan's new best friends when Tom signed a big production contract recently with a company controlled by Snyder.

HOLLYWOOD -- Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone was crowing Wednesday, the day after his harsh public dismissal of superstar Tom Cruise sent shivers through Hollywood and destroyed the feel-good spirit that had imbued his company's Paramount Pictures studio this summer. For Redstone, a bump in Viacom's stock price - however slight - outweighed any hangover in Hollywood his blunt remarks about one of Paramount's most bankable stars may have caused. Redstone said he was justly reassuring Wall Street that Paramount would not squander profits by overpaying stars in an effort to help lift Viacom's recently sagging stock price.

Memo to: Jerry Bruckheimer Knowing you, Jerry, you were embarrassed by last week's massive tribute in Variety as Showman of the Year. Even stars like Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage took ads (we all know movie stars never pay for anything) and Disney's Dick Cook, the King of Understatement, called you his "cleanup hitter" - zealous praise coming from him. Your latest film is obliterating the record books, Jerry, but I've got to ask : Why didn't you knock an extra 30 minutes out of your big fat pirate movie?

Things got messy this week with the girlfriends on The View. What was supposed to be a carefully choreographed series of lies, told to save face, spare feelings and protect careers, devolved into a nasty catfight, leaving a veteran newswoman, Barbara Walters, in the position not only of having admitted lying, but of accusing her now-former co-host, Star Jones Reynolds, of lacking dignity for failing to lie about why she was leaving the show. Jones Reynolds, for her part, had already been slammed for (allegedly)

THE QUESTION Mission: Impossible III was tops at the box office, taking in $48 million, about $10 million less than Mission: Impossible II (its first week). And if you didn't go to see Tom Cruise in M:I:III , you could have seen him on cable or network television in his other movies Jerry Maguire, The Firm and Collateral. Is there too much hype around Cruise, whose odd behavior, belief in Scientology and relationship with fiancee Katie Holmes continue to make headlines? Some critics say he has turned off the American public, mostly women.