The Three Strike Rule: Tom Cruise on Oprah Winfrey, 5/2/08
Monday, May 5th, 2008 by Scott Malchus
Watching Tom Cruise appear on Oprah last week, I was surprised at how authentic he appeared. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend who did the makeup FX for Cruise on Collateral. We’ve all heard the tales of how Scientologists try to convert everyone they come in contact with, and I was prepared to hear horror stories of a whack job superstar trying to change my artistic friend into an L. Ron Hubbard clone. Instead, my friend told me that Cruise was really down to earth, and spent most of his time in the makeup chair discussing his kids and parenting. I was pleasantly surprised. This was also the impression I got from the intimate interview that took place between Winfrey and Cruise at his Colorado mansion.
The show began with the typical setups. Wife Katie Holmes just “happened” to be there to say hello, and then took off with the kids. Cruise gave Oprah a tour of the house. To that point, it felt like just another typical celebrity interview. Then they sat down in his living room (which looks out on the Colorado wilderness) and Winfrey began to ask him direct questions about the past three years. His crazy couch-jumping, his rants on television about Brooke Shields and antidepressants, his notorious interview with Matt Lauer, and that bizarre Scientology video that hit YouTube last year.
One has to presume that Cruise knew these questions were coming, but I was impressed that Winfrey did not let up when he merely gave answers like he was “misunderstood” and that his quotes about anti-depressants were actually aimed toward medicating children. Still, Cruise was humble, and for the first time in recent memory, he was not “on.” He spoke endearingly about his wife and especially his children and made a point to always include his older children, Isabella and Connor, in the conversation, even though Winfrey continually veered the discussion back to his two-year-old daughter, Suri. As a parent watching this, I was impressed with Cruise’s devotion to his family and his protectiveness.
We’ve all seen in the past couple years how the paparazzi can act like vultures, circling and waiting for something dreadful to happen. Over the years, with the Internet and channels like “E!” thriving on gossip, stars don’t have the luxury of calling off the attack dogs on certain nights. In fact, Cruise explained that he used to be able to actually have human conversations with photographers, asking them to ease off every now and then in exchange for pics the next night. Obviously that is not the case anymore. Still, he seems to have done a decent job of shielding his children from the spotlight and allowing them to grow up in a relatively normal way (if being the child of an international superstar spokesman for a little-understood religion can ever be normal). Furthermore, his protectiveness of his family, basically stating “come after me, but leave my kids alone,” was admirable. (more…)



Mention the words “silent movie” and most people will become glassy-eyed or chuckle some comment like “You know they make movies with sound now, don’t you?” It’s not that these people are elitist or snobs about movies. It’s just that the average moviegoer has only seen the occasional silent-film clip that makes it look like people in the early 20th century moved at a very fast pace (films in the silent era were shot at a different speed than modern films), or they expect to hear clunky piano music playing over slapstick-comedy one-reelers. Most people are unfamiliar with the history of motion pictures and fail to realize that many of the techniques we see in films today were originally incubated during that time; they don’t realize that while there were films made for the masses, there were also grand epics shown in glamorous movie palaces with live orchestras accompanying the wonderful images flickering on the screen.
Brothers & Sisters, ABC’s latest hit family drama (Sundays at 10 pm), came back to the airwaves last night, and for some of us, it was a welcome return of quality television. It is rare that an adult drama like this one has managed to remain all-inclusive of its male and female characters.
The most memorable television shows from my youth were Battle of the Planets
Beginning this week, the major television networks will begin rolling out new episodes of regular series that have been on extended hiatus since the writers strike began last winter.
In honor of the Three Strike Rule’s move to Mondays, I want to highlight the best series airing on Monday nights. No, I’m not talking about Heroes, which pretty much blew for the duration of its 13-episode run in the fall.
Hey everybody!
Try as I may, I’m not feeling the love that so many other critics have for Breaking Bad, AMC’s latest original dramatic series. In it, Bryan Cranston portrays Walter White, the mildest of mild-mannered high school chemistry teachers. Walter has a teenage son, a pregnant wife, and has recently learned he has lung cancer that will likely kill him within a year. The White family is far from wealthy; let’s face it, the guy’s a teacher. In the pilot, he’s also pulling down a second job at a shitty car wash (where he’s easily manipulated by his sleazebag boss) and the family is just making ends meet. Like I said, Walter’s wife, Skyler is expecting, and their teenage son, Walter, Jr. has cerebral palsy. Realizing that he has no money to leave to his family, Walter schemes to score a truckload of money by making crystal meth. Using his chemistry know-how, he teams up with a local dealer, Jesse (who used to be one of his students) and winds up cooking the purest meth crystals their small New Mexico city has ever seen.
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