Tom Cruise

Profession: Actor
Place/Date of Birth: New York, USA, 03 July 2020
Associated with: Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman

Sabine Weber, a spokeswoman for Scientology in Berlin, said she was "shocked" that politicians would speak out against Cruise starring in the movie, saying it was a "call to discrimination" against someone because of his religious beliefs, which violates German and European human rights codes.

Film producers maintain the criticism is misguided and accuse politicians of making hay from a non-issue.

"Basically some politicians are using the popularity of Tom Cruise to become popular themselves," Babelsberg studio chief Carl Woebcken said. Babelsberg is set to co-produce the film in Germany.

"This is not a Scientology film, it is a Bryan Singer film, and Bryan Singer is Jewish ... and they want to make this film to show that during the Nazi regime there was heroic resistance," Woebcken said.

"The personal beliefs of Tom Cruise have to be separated from his skills as an actor; he is one of the best, if not the best, actors in the world for heroic roles and that is why Bryan Singer approached him."

Germany bars Tom Cruise movie - June 27 2007
Germany has banned the makers of Tom Cruise’s new movie from filming at a German military site because the Hollywood star is a Scientologist.

In the film Valkyrie, scheduled for release next year, the actor plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the leader of the 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler using a bomb hidden in a briefcase.

But German defence ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer said film-makers "will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count von Stauffenberg is played by Cruise, who has professed to being a member of the Scientology cult".

Kammerbauer added that Germany’s military "has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20 1944 and Stauffenberg’s person".

Paula Wagner, Cruise’s producing partner at United Artists Entertainment, denied the actor’s Scientologist views influenced the film.

She said: "Aside from his obvious admiration of the man he is portraying, Mr Cruise’s personal beliefs have absolutely no bearing on the movie’s plot, themes, or content.

"And even though we could shoot the movie anywhere in the world, we believe Germany is the only place we can truly do the story justice."

She added that "Valkyrie is a historically accurate thriller".

TomKat expecting second child? - June 19 2007
Speculation is mounting that Katie Holmes is expecting her second child with hubby Tom Cruise.

The actress donned a loose top when she visited Bernabeu Stadium in Spain at the weekend - where she and Tom where guests of honour at David Beckham’s last game at Real Madrid - which might mean she was trying to hide a baby bump.

And a source has told The Sun: "Katie and Tom are thrilled about having another baby on the way. She is glowing with happiness."

Katie, 28, gave birth to baby Suri in April last year and she married Tom, 44, in Italy in November.

Earlier this month, when asked on US television’s Entertainment Tonight about the possibility of more children, Katie replied: "Yes, definitely."

Tom and his ex-wife Nicole Kidman have a 12-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter, and Katie told the US TV show that the role of stepmother is one she relishes.

She also said of her famous beau: "He’s a great father and so it came as no shock that when we had Suri, he was amazing with the baby."

Tom plans UK holiday - June 14 2007
Tom Cruise and wife Katie Holmes are apparently planning a vacation in the UK to escape the pressures of Hollywood.

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Biography

New Yorker Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3 1962) may have reached the heights of the heart throb-o-meter in the eighties but since his split with Nicole Kidman has ruined many a young woman’s fantasy with increasingly bizarre behaviour. So where did it all go wrong for the sofa leaping strange one?

Born in Syracuse Tom grew up in relative poverty following his father’s departure from the family, the actor has since claimed that he suffered abuse before the split. While Thomas III refused to pay child support, Tom’s mother Mary Lee Pfieffer moved her son from city to city, eventually settling in New Jersey where Tom, who once aspired to become a Catholic priest, then a Wrestler, took up acting. His first role was as lead in a High School production of Guys and Dolls.

1981 saw Tom take his first acting role, alongside Brooke Shields in Endless Love. He followed this up with increasingly important roles before in 1983 appearing in Risky Business, the underpanted lip syncing scene of which brought him to the attention of movie goers worldwide as well as to Director Jerry Bruckheimer who asked Tom to star in his next project. Rumour has it that the actor turned down the role of fighter pilot Maverick in Top Gun but in 1986 there he was on our screens, ready to become a cinematic icon.

As the 80s rolled on The Colour of Money, Cocktail and Rain Man ensured Tom’s place at the top of the Hollywood A list, taking him in to the nineties able to demand huge pay cheques for his work and earning him Academy Award nominations (for Born on the Fourth of July). In 1990 he met Australian actress Nicole Kidman on the set of Days of Thunder who he would soon work with again on the less successful Far and Away. Fresh from his divorce from Mimi Rogers, whom he had married just three years earlier, Tom whisked Nicole up the aisle before embarking on a roll call of more ’serious’ film work from The Firm to A Few Good Men and Interview With The Vampire.

1996 proved a successful year for Tom. He began a long relationship with the Mission:Impossible franchise and earned himself another Oscar nomination for the unforgettable Bruckheimer release Jerry Maguire. But this time seemed to mark a turning point for America’s most personable lead man. In 1999 he and Nicole took on the bizarre and controversial Kubrick movie Eyes Wide Shut which he closely followed with the Oscar nominated Magnolia which saw a further move away from his usual ’arrogant nice guy’ roles.

In 2001 the Cruise/Kidman van screeched to an unexpected halt. The couple, who had two adopted children - Isabella and Connor - were divorced just before their tenth wedding anniversary. Nicole, three months pregnant, later miscarried. Tom was soon in love again, this time with Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz with whom he was linked until 2004. He continued to create box office successes, from a second Mission Impossible movie to Collateral and Minority Report.

Following his split from Penelope Tom became ever more vocal about his beliefs as a Scientologist. The controversial religion was expected to affect his 2005 outing, War of the Worlds, however whilst the film still managed to net millions, Tom’s religious ramblings coupled with his unexpected relationship with Dawson’s Creek and Batman Begins actress Katie Holmes, sixteen years his junior, saw his own popularity wane.

Tom’s pro-Scientology and anti-psychiatry comments, a very public battle with Brooke Shields and some truly over the top, overacted protestations of love signalled the end of Tom’s relationship with Paramount pictures with whom he had worked as a Producer. Paramount weren’t the only ones to go off the actor either. The newspapers and magazines who not so long ago loved him and his movies turned against him, branding him a laughing stock and turning up the volume on the gay rumours which have plagued Cruise for so many years.

Tom and Katie carried out their fast forward relationship under the glare of the press - first bringing baby daughter Suri in to the world in April 2006 just a year after they first met, then marrying in November of the same year.
upated December 2006
November 2007