James Packer, one of Australia's richest men (once worth $7 billion) and Scientology's richest member, is pulling away from the Xenu crew.

He was introduced to Scientology by Tom Cruise in 2002 at a low point in his life. Fat, depressed, and divorcing his first wife, Jodhi Meares, he was suffering through the public collapse of of his family's business, One.Tel.he had lost $350 million. Having bounced back, he reportedly told his friends he no longer "needs it." Packer's neck deep in a casino venture now, which doesn't quite jibe with Scientology-approved behavior. The chruch founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in 1977 that "An obsessive gambler is a psychotic just like a drug addict or an alcoholic." Or as Packer's come to know them, regulars.

The cast of Broadway musical "Hairspray" got a big surprise after they finished last Friday's show and walked off stage to find Tom Cruise and his wife, Katie Holmes, waiting in the wings.

The Hollywood couple attended the stage version of the hit show with their 2-year-old daughter Suri and were granted a backstage visit afterwards to meet the actors.

But the cast had not been informed of the stars' visit and were shocked to be greeted by the family after the performance.

Jenifer Lewis, who plays Motormouth Maybelle in the hit show, was delighted to meet Cruise and Holmes.

She tells New York Daily News, "I turned, and there was Tom Cruise saying to me, 'Oh my God, you're wonderful!'

"Suri was so sweet in her little velvet and taffeta dress."

Cruise later sent the whole cast flowers and a large basket of candy in time for their next performance.

The actor returned to the Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday and talked about his love for Katie Holmes, but this time he was denying marital problems instead of jumping on the couch to prove his passion for the young actress
“That’s laughable to me,” Cruise said when Winfrey told him there was speculation that “what you and Katie have is not real.” It was the first time Cruise appeared on the show since his couch-hopping stunt three years ago drew a flood of satire and ridicule. “It was something that I just felt that way, and I feel that way about her. That’s just how I felt,” he said in the interview aired last Friday.

The Hollywood star said he could not articulate “the feeling, the connection,” with Holmes and noted their daughter Suri, now 3, was born a year to the day after he met Holmes.

Cruise also was showered with opprobrium after other comments criticizing actress Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressant drugs and for over-medication of children generally. “You’ve just got to take it in stride,” he said.

Winfrey interviewed Cruise at his mountaintop home near Telluride, Colorado, surrounded by the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. The show marked the 25th anniversary of Risky Business, his breakthrough movie.

Holmes, 29, and Cruise, 45, both greeted Winfrey when she arrived at the sprawling log home, where they gave her moccasins with her name stitched on them waiting in a mud room cubicle marked Oprah with a brass plate. Holmes said she loved them both and left them to their interview.

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Tom Cruise could be in the frame to reprise his Mission: Impossible role as agent Ethan Hunt - despite famously falling out with studio Paramount Pictures two years ago and setting up a rival house, United Artists.
It has emerged that the 45-year-old actor is in talks to star in a fourth instalment, and that Sumner Redstone, chair of Paramount's parent company Viacom, will not raise any objection, despite ending the company's the relationship with Cruise in August 2006. Prior to the falling out, Cruise and business partner Paula Wagner had enjoyed a lucrative 14-year deal to develop projects for the studio.

Victoria and David Beckham participated in a wild night out with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes - by doing the conga through a Spanish restaurant.

The power-couples, who became close friends after Posh & Becks moved to LA from Britain, all danced together in a posh Madrid eatery after Tom serenaded his blushing bride Katie.

Speaking on a special edition of the Oprah Winfrey show to celebrate Cruise’s 25 years in film, Victoria made the revelation.

She said: “We all conga-ed around . . . they really know how to have a laugh.”

In a weird coincidence, Victoria also revealed that her and David shared their first kiss after watching Tom on the big screen in Jerry Maguire.
 
She said: “We told Tom and he sent us the jacket that he wore in one of the scenes, and he signed it.

“David hasn’t taken it off since. I make him wear it

Entertainment mogul Sumner Redstone said Tuesday he has no objection to Tom Cruise starring in the next segment of the popular "Mission Impossible" movie series, despite cutting his relationship with the actor in 2006.

Redstone - executive chairman and controlling shareholder of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. - severed a 14-year relationship with Cruise and his producing partner in August 2006, kicking them off the Paramount lot and ending their lucrative deal to develop projects for the studio.

Media conglomerate Viacom owns entertainment businesses including Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central.

"I consider Tom Cruise a great actor and a good friend," Redstone said. "And if Paramount decides - and they will make the decision - to move ahead with him, I will not object."

Redstone was responding to a reporter's question after a speech at a conference in South Korea.

Cruise, 45, is in talks to star in a fourth "Mission: Impossible" film.

When Redstone cut the relationship with Cruise he cited the actor's "recent conduct." Their split came after Cruise jumped on a couch while he was a guest on Oprah Winfrey's TV show and had a tussle with "Today" show host Matt Lauer over antidepressant drugs.

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Further junking rumours of a growing distance between the two couples, Tom Cruise reportedly organised a surprise party for friends David and Victoria Beckham last week.

David turned 33 on Friday and according to the Sunday Mirror, Tom told them that he had arranged a luxury wine tasting trip for the birthday boy and wife Victoria at a friend’s vineyard in the Napa Valley in northern California as a present for David and a belated gift for Victoria, who turned 34 last month.

A source told the newspaper: “They were expecting a quiet trip for two [but a surprise party was] waiting in the jet with cake and champers!”

Guests included Tom and wife Katie Holmes, and other Hollywood friends including Kate Beckinsale & Len Wiseman, and Heidi Klum & Seal.

The source added that as well as the tour and wine tasting, the group enjoyed a dinner cooked by a private chef, before they all flew back to Los Angeles.

"I never stop learning," Tom Cruise boasted proudly from his corner of the couch, and Oprah Winfrey beamed back at him from hers. Together again on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (but this time on Cruise's couch) for their first powwow since Cruise made like a jumping jack three years ago, the two superstars put their heads together and tried to effect a little Cruise control.

Since leaping about on Winfrey's studio furniture as he declared undying love for third wife Katie Holmes, Cruise has bumbled through a series of embarrassing antics and tarnished his status as a box office barnstormer. Winfrey obligingly tossed softball questions his way during the first half of a two-part Cruise schmooze broadcast yesterday; Part 2, taped in a studio, airs Monday.

Arriving at the movie star's mountaintop mansion near Telluride, Colo., Winfrey gaped at the postcard views and gushed, "I want to weep, it's so beautiful." She hugged Katie and Tom in the mudroom -- where a pair of personalized moccasins awaited Winfrey's arrival-- and then got a tour of the woodsy house from Cruise, Holmes quickly making herself scarce. She and Cruise had made a point of holding hands, however, while on-camera together.

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Tom Cruise didn't jump on Oprah Winfrey's couch this time. The actor was in Chicago on Thursday to tape an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," a tribute to his showbiz career that took off 25 years ago when he danced in his underwear in "Risky Business." Audience members told The Associated Press that Cruise's demeanor was nothing like his infamous coach-jumping incident three years ago, when he made a spectacle of himself while proclaiming his love for now wife Katie Holmes.

"He was really calm and collected," said Diane Andonovski of Toronto, Canada.

Cruise was accompanied by immediate and extended family members, including Holmes and the couple's 2-year-old daughter Suri, audience member Jenny Hume of England said.

It was half of a two-part interview Winfrey did with Cruise that will air Friday and Monday. For Friday's show, Winfrey interviewed the 45-year-old actor at his home in Telluride, Colo. Monday's show was taped at her Chicago studio in front of an audience.

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We all know that Will Smith and Tom Cruise are very good friends, given that they are usually spotted at each other's functions. Even at last year's 'I Am Legend' NY premiere, Cruise was there to support his friend.

Now, word is out that Smith is adding Cruise's adoptive son, Connor, in his latest film, 'Seven Pounds'.

The Hollywood Reporter states that the 13 year old, the adopted son of Tom Cruise and ex-wife Nicole Kidman, has a minor, non-speaking part as a younger version of Will Smith's character. .

Connor Cruise shot his part over two days more than a month ago, playing Smith as a young man and mostly shown in photographs.

The movie, which is still in production, co-stars Rosario Dawson and Michael Ealy and is directed by 'The Pursuit of Happyness' filmmaker Gabriele Muccino. The drama follows the story of a man who affects the lives of seven strangers.