Cruise Talks of His Love Life -- When He Wants
April 29, 2005 — -- For a star who has frequently begged gossip hounds to keep out of his private life, Tom Cruise was very quick to announce that he's dating a woman 16 years his junior.
Cruise's publicist and sister, Lee Anne DeVette, confirmed Wednesday that he's dating 26-year-old Katie Holmes, the actress best known for her work on TV's "Dawson Creek."
Holmes and Cruise are in Rome this week, where the 42-year-old actor will receive the lifetime achievement award at the Italian equivalent of the Academy Awards, the David di Donatello Awards.
Cruise's life has long been nothing short of a soap opera played out on the pages of Hollywood magazines. His marriages to and subsequent divorces from actresses Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman made headlines. The events leading up to his split last year with Penélope Cruz were breathlessly reported.
Through it all, Cruise has pleaded many times for a moment of peace. Among all celebrities, he's probably been the most aggressive suing the press for false reports, especially regarding rumors that he's a closeted homosexual.
Cruise virtually exploded in a January 2002 interview with Vanity Fair, when the magazine pressed him for details on his breakup with Kidman.
"She knows why and she is the mother of my children, and I wish her well," he said. "I don't care if it piques people's interest. Honestly, people should mind their own damn business. And get a life of their own. My personal life isn't here to sell newspapers."
But Cruise has also had moments, especially when he's promoting a new project, when he's more than happy to share his private life with the rest of the world.
In December 2003, while promoting the release of "The Last Samurai," Cruise became the first to confirm speculation that Kidman was dating Lenny Kravitz. "He's a very talented musician," Cruise told CNN's Larry King.
Kidman, who had vowed to keep her love life a secret, was less than pleased with her ex-husband. "I don't want to talk about it, and I wish he didn't, but he does," she told reporters a week later at the premiere of "Cold Mountain."
A cynic might assume the ex-couple played the situation to their mutual advantage to promote each other's films. In his own defense, Cruise said he suffered a slip of the tongue in the interview, at a point where he was trying to say that he still cared for his former wife. While it's impossible to know what his true motivations are, it's fair to say that Cruise has one of the most complicated relationships with the media.
Here's a look at some of Cruise's recent battles over his privacy:
November 2004: Verbatim Verboten Axed
A Chicago theater company was forced to drop the reading of an illicitly recorded conversation between Cruise and Kidman. The scripted words came from a 1999 cell phone conversation taped by a paparazzo, and was supposed to be part of a production entitled "Verbatim Verboten." Cruise's legal team threatened to sue, and the theater company backed off. Instead, actors gave a theatrical rendition of Cruise's cease-and-desist letter.
June 2004: Diva Impossible
A supposed memo from Paramount Studios outlining Tom Cruise's outlandish on-set demands for "Mission Impossible 3" was published on Aflyonthewall.com. The document detailed how Cruise should be addressed, how his room is to be prepared and who is allowed to use his cell phone. Cruise maintained the document was "completely and utterly fabricated" and told MSNBC's Jeannette Walls that the person who faxed it to the Web site would be fired. The document was quickly removed from the Web site.
April 2004: Denial of 'Sexual Performance' Coach
Cruise lashed out at The Independent after the British newspaper ran quotes from drama coach Susan Batson, who told the paper that she assisted Cruise and Kidman to "give a convincing sexual performance" in their final film together, "Eyes Wide Shut." Cruise, who had thanked Batson after he won a Golden Globe Award in 2000 for his work in "Magnolia," insisted through spokesmen that Batson coached just Kidman.
June 2003: Cruz's Legal Triumph
Cruz won an apology from New Idea after the Australian magazine published an article that suggested she was seeing a Spanish actor behind Cruise's back. The actress agreed to drop her lawsuit after the magazine agreed to print an apology, pay legal costs and make a donation to charity.
January 2003: Judgment Against Gay Porn Star
A Los Angeles judge awarded Cruise a $10 million judgment against gay porn star Chad Slater, who had floated a story in the press that his sexual relationship with Cruise was the cause of the movie star's breakup with Kidman. Slater admitted he fabricated the story.
The judgment marked the latest in a series of legal victories to quash rumors that he is gay. Cruise had earlier sued Michael Davis, the Los Angeles publisher of Bold magazine, for $100 million, after Davis claimed to have a videotape of Cruise engaged in homosexual acts. The suit was dropped after Davis retracted his claim and agreed to a stipulation that Cruise "is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homosexual affair."
Upon announcing the victory over Bold, a Cruise spokesman said, "Tom is a great respecter of homosexual rights, but he's not gay."
In 1998, he took the tabloid Express to London's High Court after it published an article that said his marriage to Kidman was one of "convenience" designed to cover up their homosexuality. He accepted a printed apology and an undisclosed amount of cash.
Outside of court, Cruise addressed the media. "I don't take a whole lot of pleasure in being here today," he said. "It is the last recourse against those that published vicious lies about me and my family. I have to protect them. This was certainly not about money. Every penny of this very substantial sum will be donated to charities."