On the heels of today"s Page 6 revelation that Cruise"s fellow crazies were responsible for rigging a recent Parade poll on his popularity, or lack thereof, I thought I"d share with you some insider gossip originating from the magazine community in NYC. Not terribly smutty but an insightful bit of information that illustrates just how much clout this freak has really lost in the last 12 months. And you know the drill when it comes to this guy - forgive my cautious language…lawsuits all over my chinese ass, you know what I mean? So word is last year, as part of the publicity campaign surrounding War of the Worlds, the studio arranged a series of interviews for Tom, one of them being a big piece for Parade. While negotiating the piece however, Tom supposedly wanted to make Scientology a part of the article, including a visit to the Scientology Centre and a formal presentation to the journalist assigned to the story. Impressively, the folks at Parade declined and the WoTW people were furious, kicking off all those reports in the media last year of a rift between Tom and Spielberg, who allegedly blames Tom for the film"s underachievement in terms of domestic performance. Another year, another film. But this time, a new media specialist is at the helm of Team Cruise. And this time, they went back to Parade, with nary a word about Thetans or Xenu. "The buzz at Parade"s office is that Tom essentially gave them the abuse story as "a sign of respect" (direct quote) and as a way to make up for last year"s debacle. It was a way to build good faith." However, when the writer turned in the article, rumour has it the editor was not happy - calling it a "puff piece", wanting something with a little more grit. Now 3 years ago, a "puff piece" about Tom Cruise would have been fine. But given the current landscape, a "puff piece" about TomTom just wouldn"t do. The story was apparently sent back to the writer asking to inject some juice and that"s how we all ended up reading the following passage at the end of the article: "Before I left Cruise, he introduced me to Katie Holmes, who is about 5 foot 10 (he’s 5 foot 7) and pretty. She wore a large diamond engagement ring. She seemed dazed, passive and vacant. She never stopped smiling. The minute she appeared, Cruise’s now-familiar public mode of behavior returned. He began hooting how beautiful she was, touching and kissing her like a teenage boy on his first backseat date, aware that he was being watched." LOVE the use of the word "hooting". Brilliant, non? Anyway, the piece is actually a very good read. Check it out here. The photos are also gorgeous. It"s been years since I"ve found him attractive but in these shots, he just looks so pretty - gayer than Jesse Metcalfe - but so pretty and so pleasing, it almost makes you forget he"s a repressed deranged freak. Which is why I now feel the need to pull out the old classic. Quite possibly my favourite photograph of all time.