It's all Tom: 'Samurai' premiere ( 2003-12-04 10:53) (Agencies)
Just how mighty is Tom
Cruise's draw? Based on Monday evening's premiere of The Last Samurai, pretty
darned powerful.
Penelope Cruz walks
the red carpet with boyfriend Tom Cruise at the L.A. premiere of his new
film, The Last Samurai. [AP]
An army of
Cruise-gawkers including Alyssa Milano, Anne Archer, Annette Bening, Robert
Downey Jr., JAG's Catherine Bell, Evan Rachel Wood, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
and, of course, David Hasselhoff, assembled for the Westwood screening.
The movie, which stars Cruise as a Civil War veteran who embraces the way of
the samurai warrior in 19th-century Japan, opens Friday.
Heavy praise was lavished on Cruise, with no one cooing more than lady love
Penelope Cruz. "I have learned so much from Tom," said Cruz, wearing black
Ungaro. "Integrity. Respecting yourself. It's not a coincidence that he has been
(on top) for so long and that people love him so much."
Dressed in a black turtleneck with a close-cropped haircut, Cruise arrived
looking very much like his Mission Impossible character, Ethan Hunt, although
MI:3, he says, won't shoot until he nails the script: "It's a Rubik's Cube we're
banging our heads against the wall trying to crack."
Currently, Cruise is working with Jada Pinkett Smith on Collateral (that
title likely will change, says Cruise's producing partner Paula Wagner).
"I'm getting the chance to be in the light and glory of Tom Cruise," marveled
Pinkett Smith, who came in a brown leather Gucci trenchcoat on the arm of hubby
Will Smith. "Tom's been so busy, but he definitely wants to get our kids
together."
Will Smith admitted even his action characters would be a hard match for
Cruise this time around. "It's kind of hard to fight a dude with a sword," said
Smith. "I should have been a black samurai."
Like the samurai, Cruise too would sacrifice his own life for honor: "I
believe my own integrity is more important than my body," he said, although many
of his female fans would no doubt disagree.
Among them: pregnant Charmed actress Holly Marie Combs, who was anxious to
see Cruise's strapping bod draped in a kimono. Said Combs: "Tom Cruise in even a
burlap sack is just so much more spectacular than any other ordinary man."
With Cruise and Cruz retreating to the East Coast after their red carpet
duties to make the New York premiere, the celeb quotient at the after-party was
shockingly low. Too bad, considering all the work Warner Bros. special events
department put into transforming the Armand Hammer Museum courtyard into a
19th-century Japanese village.
