Man, I have to admit to thoroughly enjoying digging up the photos for this story because the memories of Tom Cruise’s 2005 public breakdown (particularly while he toured for War of the Worlds and MI3) really needed some refreshing. You see, Tom was rather well behaved during the entire Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol promotional tour. Basically, Tom was so tame in his behavior that we all focused instead upon his botoxy, nebulous, tweaked-up, plastic-surgery face. Well, that and his adorable little lifts, which by the way, really are much different Robert Downey Jr.’s lifts (RDJ proudly owns those things, and Cruise pretends they don’t exist at all). Yet Tom did very well during this tour to reign in the crazy. Someone very wise advised him to focus on talking about the stunts. There was no jumping up and down on couches, no mention of Scientology, no fingers pointed in journalist’s faces, no crazed expressions, no happy trails revealed at baseball games, no motorcyle rides down the red carpet, and no strange body language. In other words, there was none of this:

Tom also didn’t pull any sketchy red-carpet PDA on director Brad Bird like he did to poor Steven Spielberg:

In addition, Tom also significantly toned down the public perception of his relationship to Katie Holmes. Sure, he paid brief lip service how “amazing” she is, and he etched a love note to her on the Burj Khalifa, and then he papped himself for an entire weekend with Katie and Suri, but he also left Katie at home for all of the international premieres. When she did show up on the NYC red carpet, things were so restrained that Kaiser declared that Katie and Tom were “phoning it in”. That’s certainly a natural reaction while observing a zombie couple who used to act like this on the red carpet:

Essentially, Tom has been working very hard to reign in his wacky OT Level VIII, Scientology personality so that he can appeal more to the general public (a.k.a., “wogs”). Now he’s fully “refreshed” in more ways than just his face. A story in this week’s issue of In Touch confirms that Tom has enlisted the help of PR experts, who helped him cultivate a less “obnoxious” and more “sophisticated” vibe while promoting MI4:

As Tom Cruise strolled down the red carpet at the New York premiere of his latest blockbuster film, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, he looked cool, calm and collected. “He spoke in a soft voice, and was gracious to reporters and fans,” an onlooker at the December 19 event tells In Touch. “Everyone was so impressed with how warm and polite he was.”

Tom’s demure behavior was shocking — considering he usually acts totally amped up at his premiere extravaganzas, often dipping his wife, Katie Holmes, and greeting fans over-enthusiastically. But this time, Tom acted like a grown man, and it was intentional.

Six years after jumping on Oprah’s couch like a lunatic — and seeing his popularity dwindle — he is finally heeding the advice of his handlers. “While promting Mission: Impossible, Tom was instructed to keep the focus on the film and not his personal life,” an insider explains of the star, adding that Tom’s wild antics after he began dating Katie were blamed for the failure of his flick War of the Worlds. “He really aliented his fans with his bizarre behavior back then. This time, he was given guidelines on what is and isn’t acceptable.”

He wants everyone to like him. Now, instead of over-the-top publicity stunts and passionate public makeouts with Katie, 33, on the press circuit, a much calmer Tom is sticking to the subject. “I think making movies is a dream come true,” the 49-year-old told In Touch at his new film’s premiere. “It’s something I’ve never taken for granted.”

And with his mature new attitude, it seems like the dream will continue to be a reality for Tom. As the insider sums up, “He’s well on his way to regaining his throne as the most popular star in the world!”

[From In Touch, print edition, January 9, 2012]

This story mostly gets it right except for the finer detail about when Tom’s box-office potential tanked as a result of his outlandish behavior. Neither War of the Worlds ($234,280,354 domestic) nor MI3 ($134,029,801) were significantly affected because these were action films based either upon a great literary work or an existing franchise that people still really wanted to see regardless of the Cruise. However, when Tom tried in 2007 for a political drama in Lions for Lambs, no one showed up. That movie made a mere $15 million on a $35 million budget, and even though Meryl Streep and Robert Redford played supporting roles, people just didn’t want to see Tom in a leading role at that point. Part of this failure could be attributed to subject matter, but even a political movie should be able to recoup its relatively small budget when it stars A-listers. Primarily, that movie tanked because Tom’s crazy face continued well into 2006 and further tainted the well.

Here’s more memories, this time of 2006 in Cruiseland:

Photos courtesy of Fame and WENN

Here are even more photos of Tom Cruise papping himself with his family to promote MI4. The man is just … well, he doesn’t stop. I realize that he’s got a product to sell and has much at stake with this movie, and Kaiser described Tom’s attitude well in terms of “hustle,” but Tom really needs to take a break soon. I’m actually startng to worry about the little fella. It’s simply not healthy to run this hard for so long.

Also, Tom should really think about disappearing for awhile after he finishes up this MI4 publicity blitz because the backlash is commencing in earnest and from more than just a gossip standpoint. Even Reuters has published an article (a really “amazing“ one) entitled “The Curse of Being Tom Cruise” that includes much of what we’ve already discussed here including a bit about those paid fans in Mumbai. Overall, it’s a pretty brutal take on Tom’s public persona and concludes that Tom’s fame is quickly approaching that of a reality star instead of an A-list movie actor.

Now Hollywood Reporter has jumped in with a piece dedicated solely to the topic of Tom’s morphing face, which Kaiser, CB, and myself have already covered at great length. The HR article even discusses the Mail’s piece about Tom’s makeup fetish (which I referenced yesterday) and goes into detail about Tom’s secret professional relationship with a famous Brazilian plastic surgeon:

Tom Cruise, 49, is looking eerily younger than ever. Which leads us to surmise that A. he’s getting some help or B. he’s got a scary portrait in his attic. The actor — who turns 50 on July 3, 2012, — has looked particularly fresh-faced as he promotes his new movie Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol

So what’s his secret? According to the Brazilian mag EPOCA, Cruise has had meetings with world famous Brazilian plastic surgeon Dr. Ivo Pitanguy. Cruise even invited the good doctor to the 2009 Rio premiere of Knight and Day. And on that same trip, Cruise, wife Katie Holmes and daughter Suri, were photographed having a lunch at Pitanguy’s private island in Brazil’s Bay of Kings.

British tabs are already reporting that Cruise has become more concerned with his skin, even using his wife’s creams. Since Dr. Pitanguy’s skin care line, Beauty By Clinica Ivo Pitanguy, is also available at U.S department stores such as Berdorf Goodman, Cruise could indeed be slathering on his friend’s pricey goop. The New York Times has already lauded Pitanguy’s new “It” Cream, the Restoring Formula in his PreVious skin care line. The cost: $300 for 1.7 ounces.

Pitanguy is credited with triggering Brazil’s obsession with plastic surgery. He’s allegedly worked on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Persian Empress Farah Diba, French president Francois Mitterrand and Frank Sinatra. A jet-setting multi-lingual Renaissance man, Ivo is also friends with Carla Bruni, the First Lady of France, Michael Caine and the late Salvador Dalí and Audrey Hepburn, The Times also profiled the good doctor, whose scapel has been said to be “guided by heaven.”

Another aging celebrity we’re keeping a close eye on is Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. Our sources say he’s now using his girlfriend L’Wren Scott’s magical skin potions from Dr. David Colbert, including Colbert’s Intensify Facial Discs, Stimulating Serum, Nutrify and Protect Day Dream and Heal and Soothe Night Cream, available at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and on his website.

If Dr. Colbert’s products can make a difference in Mick’s 68-year-old weathered face, we’re buying this stuff in bulk. And how many Frequent Flyer miles does it take to get to Brazil?

[From Hollywood Reporter]

A plastic surgeon who’s allegedly “guided by Heaven” doesn’t sound like he falls in line with the tenets of Scientology, right? Then again, the usual CO$ rules don’t necessarily apply to Tom. But yes, I totally buy that Katie and Suri were wined and dined while Tom was nipped and tucked.

Tom also appeared on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” to talk more about the MI4 stunts. Fallon’s praise was so effusive that I thought the poor guy was going to wet his pants in excitement, and when he called Tom a “manly man,” you could visibly see Tom’s feathers fluff right up. It was a lot like the final act of Black Swan. Anyway, Fallon totally beat Tom in a wreath-throwing contest too, and I bet it secretly killed Tom not to be the very best at something:

Meanwhile, here’s a photo of Katie stepping out alone on Tuesday evening (even robots need some breathing room) to check out the Broadway production of The Cherry Orchard, which sort of irks me because I adore Anton Chekov and even chose my daughter’s middle name based upon a character in that very play. Katie couldn’t possibly understand.

Later, Katie stepped out with Suri and Tom (photographed separately below) for yet another late night:

Suri, in an unusual gesture, seemed perfectly happy to interact with the paps:

Finally, here’s Tom walking by his lonesome behind Katie and Suri, which is strange because he usually likes to be front and center:

Photos courtesy of Fame

Tom Cruise isn’t quite finished pimping out his family for the sake of promoting Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, which I guess is sort of understandable since he doesn’t mave much else to talk about other than his insane stunt work in the movie. I mean, he’s finally figured out that no one wants to hear him talk about Scientology and the evils of psychiatry, so that’s something positive. Still, Tom’s been around the globe a few times in the past few weeks, and then he returned to New York City to get papped with the family all weekend while carting poor Suri around without a coat. By the time he and Katie actually walked the red carpet, they both looked exhausted as hell.

As a general rule, I can’t even imagine how exhausting it must be for Katie to deal with Tom on a consistent basis and even experience his suffocating “lovebombing” when he’s away for work too. Make no mistake that Tom is still thrilled to have Katie as his wife (whatever that actually means to them as a couple), and he’s still giving interviews to discuss her “amazing” qualities. He really needs to learn some new adjectives, right?

The parties just don’t stop for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes this holiday season. The couple celebrated their five-year anniversary last month and her 33rd birthday on Dec. 18.

“Every day I fall more in love with her,” Cruise, 49, told PEOPLE at the New York premiere of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on Monday at the Ziegfeld Theatre. “It’s been quite an amazing five years because of her. She’s an incredible woman. She’s everything to me.”

To mark her birthday, the couple enjoyed a Big Apple tradition at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes with daughter Suri, 5, and her grandparents, Kathleen and Martin Holmes.

The family then dined at Buddakan for a birthday meal on Sunday.

“We had a lot of fun. It was a great day,” Cruise says of the party, which included some romantic treats for his wife. “We had flowers and cake. All that stuff.”

[From People]

Yeah, Katie’s birthday must have been quite the event, what with the Sciento-clown in attendance. Shudder. Meanwhile, Tom hasn’t forgotten about his other girl either, for he’s also paying lipservice to Suri as well:

Suri Cruise isn’t a sartorial copycat.

The fashionable 5-year-old — who’s been known to rock faux fur jackets and kitten heels over the years — has an innate sense of style, according to her dad Tom Cruise.

“She was just born that way. I don’t know what to say,” a proud Cruise, 49, told Us Weekly at the Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol premiere in NYC Monday. “She really creates her own outfits.”

Adding that Suri “dresses herself,” Cruise said his wife Katie Holmes, 33, has helped curate their daughter’s love of clothes.

“Katie has her create things and sew and stuff like that. It’s kind of amazing,” Cruise said. “It’s beautiful. It’s really beautiful.”

Holmes — who recently admitted to coordinating outfits with her celeb BFF Victoria Beckham — also helps her action star hubby get dressed for red carpet events.

“Whatever my wife wants me to wear, I wear,” Cruise laughed. “It’s simple. She has amazing taste.”

[From Us Magazine]

Okay, that last part must have been a lie because, seriously, are we supposed to believe that Tom only wears lifts because “amazing” Katie dictates that he must do so? I think she sort of enjoys towering over him sometimes. Rather, it’s Tom who can’t handle the truth.

In addition to Tom’s vomit-inducing words about his lovely and incredible wife, the Cruise also stopped by “The Late Show with David Letterman” on Monday evening to promote MI4, and he barely gets a word in about his wife and daughter because Dave (mercifully) keeps quizzing him about the movie stunts. However, Tom does make quick mention of Katie staying home from the international MI4 tour because the schedule was jam-packed, not because she was lounging somewhere on a recharging dock as I previously guessed. My bad.

On a slightly amusing note, the Daily Mail has some photos of a very heavily made-up Tom outside the Ed Sullivan show after chatting with Letterman. While I’m aware that guests on the show wear make-up for the cameras, the amount of blusher and lipstick on Tom is ridiculous, and someone should’ve made him wash that stuff off before heading onto the street. Fortunately, you can’t really see it while he’s chatting to Dave onscreen though. Here’s a clip of the show, which is largely uneventful because Tom’s apparently taken a few PR lessons on how to hide the crazy. He does slip once though when Letterman says the word “ass” — Tom begins laughing hysterically and then repeats the word. What a freak.

Now as a special bonus, here’s ore of Tom’s freaky plastic-surgery face from the MI4 NYC premiere. You know you love it.

Photos courtesy of Fame and WENN

I’m embarrassed to admit how excited I was to see the NYC premiere photos for Mission: Impossible 4. I’m also embarrassed to admit that I’ll probably be seeing this movie over the holidays. As for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes… well, they should both be embarrassed by their appearances on the red carpet last night. I’m not saying that they both looked like hell or anything – they didn’t. But it just seemed like both Tom and Katie were phoning it in. I’m not even sure if Tom was wearing his special red carpet lifts! And he just looked tired. He probably is really tired – the man has been hustling and hustling for weeks, and this premiere comes after a “candid” photo-op blitz in which every photo agency got thousands of new images of Tom, Katie and Suri. Poor Tom. You have to give him credit, though – very few movie stars have his hustle.

As for Katie – well, I don’t know what’s going on with her. When she’s flying solo, her styling has been improving so much, and I kept thinking that she had found a good makeup dude and a great hair person, but now I’m wondering if she pissed them off. Her makeup looks too cakey to me. Her hair is a boring ponytail. And the dress? The dress is Holmes & Yang. Meaning, Katie designed this herself, if you think “designing it herself” equals “copying a Lanvin design.” So… overall, not the best from either of them. But I’ll still see MI4. I might not admit it, though.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Well, I suppose that these several new batches of photos are what we get for wondering where Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise have been hiding out, right? Here’s Tom Cruise dragging his unwilling daughter (seriously, she is not enjoying the act of getting papped) out in the brisk Manhattan weather on Friday. As you can see, Suri’s wearing what looks to be a spring-summer dress, no tights, and strappy kitten heels even though, as of late, NYC has been enjoying highs in the mid-30s and lows. Also, Tom is carrying Suri’s coat instead of making her wear it. Naturally. Later on, Tom was snapped picking up Suri from gymnastics class. He carried her while wrapping her up in a blanket but was still conspicuously carrying that damn coat:

This was only the beginning of a frenzy of appearances by the Tom and his two ladies. Over the past few weeks, Cruise has been showing off his excellent plastic surgery work while doing international promotion for Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. There was the big question of where he’d stashed Katie during this entire extravaganza, but then last Thursday, Katie and Suri returned to public view after a month of absence. Then we heard about how Tom had been “lovebombing” his amazing wife while he was away, and suddenly, he returned to their side as if by synchronized dance. Now the trio has commenced a publicity blitz in New York City, which I can only assume will eventually culminate in the NYC premiere of MI4.

See this side-eye that Tom’s giving the camera? It’s the “Not only am I a sexy and botoxed-up, good little dancer who is both manly and sensitive, but I’m also a loving family man too. Now go see my movie!” look:

But the fun didn’t stop there. Here are Tom, Katie, and Suri on Friday evening as they headed out to watch The Nutcracker, and at least Suri was wearing a coat:

Then on Saturday, Tom and Katie stepped out for some alone time and headed towards a dance class together. You know he loved that. I bet he wore some tap-dancing shoes with lifts too.

On Saturday evening, the loving, perfectly normal family headed out for the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.

Oddly enough, a very sad-looking clown was photographed Sunday outside the Cruise-Holmes abode and was thought to be headed for the celebration party of Katie’s 33rd birthday. Introducing Sciento-clown:

Finally, Tom took his girls out to celebrate Katie’s birthday with dinner at Buddakan restaurant on Sunday evening. Yes, that’s three consecutive late evenings out for poor Suri in a row. But hey, Tom’s got a movie to promote! On a side note, how bad must those faux-work boots smell by now? Tom probably needs to air those things out for a good few weeks, you know, unless he just never takes them off. Ever.

Photos courtesy of Fame

This morning, Kaiser asked a very relevant question: Why has Katie Holmes disappeared for the past month only to surface immediately before the NYC premiere of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol? It’s like she’s been stuffed in a closet somewhere.

Meanwhile, Tom Cruise has literally travelled around the world in the past week and a half to promote his latest jaunt as (the possibly washed-up) super-spy Ethan Hunt. He’s walked red carpets solo in Dubai, Moscow, Munich, Madrid, London (not to mention those fake fans in Mumbai). Now we have these photos from the Rio premiere on Wednesday, which took place immediately before Tom ‘coptered out of there and flew back to New York where he and Suri were snapped ogling a baby.

And there’s the rub. It seems that In Touch has received word that Tom’s gunning for another mini-Cruise (that is, besides himself), and Kaiser’s half-joking theory about Tom sending Katie back to the assembly shop for some “reprogramming” might be more correct than we’d like to seriously believe. It’s a scary possibility, really. However, in that vein of thought, Tom has been keeping tabs on Katie’s whereabouts while he’s away by “lovebombing” (a term of art where cults are concerned) her in their own home. Of course, Tom’s so hardwired to the Scientology mindset that he probably believes he’s only truly expressing his unconditional love to his amazing, remarkable, utterly devoted wife. In reality, what he’s telling her is to stay put, enjoy the pampering, and get prepared to pop out another one:

Tom Cruise’s real “mission” is to get Katie Holmes to agree to baby number two.

Tom Cruise may have been 5,000 miles away from his wife Katie Holmes, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from serving her a super-romantic dinner in their Beverly Hills mansion. According to an insider, Tom recently hired the sushi chef from famed restaurant Nobu to prepare all of Katie’s favorites — and even got an assistant to make sure the table was bedecked with candles and fresh flowers. “She spent more than $3,000 on the sushi chef alone,” the insider marvels. “But he’ll do anything to keep Katie happy.”

You can say that again! On an all-out campaign to convince Katie, 33, to have a second child, Tom has returned to the over-the-top romance of their courtship — and has been showering her with pricey gifts on a daily basis. Even though he’s been traveling the globe promoting Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, he’s been working overtime to make sure Katie keeps him — and baby number two — in her thoughts. “Instead of pressuring her to get pregnant, Tom is trying to show her how committed her is to her,” a friend explains. And in Tom’s mind, nothing says committment like flowers. The friend reveals that Tom’s been having Katie’s favorites, orchids and hydrangeas, delivered to the house every day, along with her favorite foods. “He’s spoiling her,” the friend laughs. And it seems to be working. Even though getting pregnant again isn’t Katie’s top priority, the friend says she just might give in — for Tom.

Tom isn’t the only one lobbying Katie to get pregnant again. A friend of the couple shares that their daughter, Suri, 5, has been asking for a baby brother or sister for more than a year. “It’s Suri who really might be the one to persuade Katie to have another child,” the friend notes. After all, Katie lives to please her little girl!

[From In Touch, print edition, December 26, 2011]

So will another over-the-top courtship convince Katie to get out the turkey baster? It worked the first time, and Katie’s not exactly gaining a will while being married to Tom. If anything, she’s regressed further with the passage of time. Tom will probably get what he wants, but it might be because of Suri’s desire for a sibling also. She’s about the same age as when my daughter started asking for a baby sister; and although I haven’t given in yet, I’d like to think that I’m a bit more stubborn than Katie.

Just think — another pregnancy would do wonders to promote One Shot next year. In other words, Katie might very soon be doing more than merely wearing flats to promote another movie for Tom.

Here are a few more photos from the MI4 Rio premiere. Nice tent, Paula Patton.

Photos courtesy of WENN

These are new photos of Katie Holmes, out and about at various times on Thursday. Katie and Tom Cruise have been reunited after a longish absence, while he traveled around Europe to shill MI4. While he traveled, I’m assuming Katie and Suri stayed behind in NYC (and LA), although there were very few photos of Kate-bot over the past month. Seriously, she was photographed steadily in the first weeks of November, and then in the middle of last month she just *poof* disappeared. Where does Katie go when Tom isn’t around? Does she still exist? Or does she simply “power down” and go into sleep mode until Tom comes back and reboots her?

Anyway, she traveled solo to the dance studio at some point, and as you can see in some of these photos, there were about a million paparazzi waiting outside for her. Photograph Katie Holmes and then go see MI4! Is that the messaging? Then, at some point in the day, Tom and Katie took Suri out to FAO Schwarz where Suri threw a tantrum – go here to see those photos. After that, Suri and Katie went to Locanda Verde, where Suri sipped a drink like a little lady and Katie looked like a refugee from the Planet Xenu. Seriously, look at her:

Her eyes are saying, “Are we being watched? Are the police going to come and get us? Suri, send out another SOS. No, don’t move. We’re being watched. They have eyes on us. Can’t you feel it? I can feel it.”

I don’t know when the MI4 premiere in NYC is going to be, but I hope we get to see Katie on a red carpet soon. I’ve missed seeing her. If I don’t see her for weeks at a time, I worry that she’s being reprogrammed.

Photos courtesy of Fame, Pacific Coast News and WENN.

Tom Cruise and his CO$-endorsed Fountain of Youth have arrived in Madrid for the Spanish premiere of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. In the past week, we’ve already seen him in Dubai, Moscow, and Berlin; and surely at this point, even Paula Patton and Simon Pegg are wondering where Katie Holmes might be and why she’s not walking the red carpet to support her manic husband. Naturally, this is a very valid question; but I’m gonna cut Katie a break here and assume that, since it’s December, maybe she’s already fulfilled her quota of contractually required appearances for the year. As such, Katie’s probably lounging comfortably somewhere atop a recharging dock in preparation for whatever creepy public displays of affection that January might bring. After all, next year will be a busy one with Tom finishing up his sensitive portrayal of Jack Reacher in One Shot and also trying to get Top Gun 2 off the ground. Tom still says that sequel is gonna happen, but I think it ultimately depends on how well MI4 fares at the box office.

Can we talk about Paula’s dress though? Honestly, she’s a beautiful woman and a rising star, but this dress seems like she’s dressed up as a Kardashian for Halloween. As for Tom, well, he’s wearing his favorite faux-steel-toed lifts again. Very manly. Also, Kaiser thinks that Tom’s little leather coat makes him look like a child. I think it makes him look like he’s trying too hard to stay hip, which is par for the course.

Now for more about Tom’s miracle face. Kaiser, CB, and I were talking about how strange it is that Tom’s face looks really natural yet obviously refreshed in a cosmetic manner. Yet it’s really hard to pinpoint exactly what type of work that Tom’s had done because other aspects of his face (such as fine lines) have been strategically left “undone” to throw everyone off the scent of the surgical trail. If Tom had it his way, we’d all believe that his new face is merely the result of clean living and lots of vitamins. But we know better than that, right?

Photos courtesy of WENN

Last week, we covered Tom Cruise and his Everlasting Youth at both the Dubai and Moscow premieres of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and here’s Tom at the film’s premiere in Munich, Germany. To date, Tom’s had an interesting relationship with Germany including an embarrassingly rambling speech that he gave at the Bambi awards. He then played a Nazi in Valkyrie but required journalists to like Valkyrie and read a letter about how Germany hasn’t banned Scientology before he’d even talk to them. Never mind that Scientology doesn’t have status as a religion in Germany, right?

But let’s talk about these premiere pictures for just a moment. In the photo above, Tom is flanked by director Brad Bird as well as fellow actors Paula Patton and Simon Pegg along with producer Bryan Burk, but there’s still been no sign of either Jeremy Renner or Katie Holmes on this promotional trail. Very strange, indeed. It must also be noted that Tom’s rather underdressed for this premiere. I mean, we all know that he loves his jeans and faux-steel-toed lifts, but he could have made more of an effort to match the style of his co-stars for this event. Still, at least he’s wearing heels to match those of Paula Patton:

Oh and if you weren’t already aware by now, Tom does his own crazy stunts in this movie. As far as I can tell, that’s been the main selling point for this fourth installment to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Well, other than Ethan Hunt (presumably) handing the reins over to Renner’s character, but Renner isn’t even around for the international premieres. So basically, it’s all about Tom’s crazy stunts atop the Burj Khalifa, which is located in Dubai and is currently the tallest building in the world:

There’s actually a plot point to this madness though, if that even matters. In the movie, Ethan Hunt has been tasked with finding stolen nuclear launch codes from the nefarious Russians, who have hidden them inside a secure server room located within the Burj, so Hunt scales the side of the building to a height of half a mile. Oh, and that’s not all. While Cruise was on a break from filming, he climbed even higher to the spire of the building and left a little love note to Katie. This info comes courtesy of a NY Post article that’s hilariously titled, “The height of insanity!”

A pop-culture oddity is hiding some 2,700 feet above the baking Dubai desert. Atop the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and its 160 stories of glass filled with condos, hotels and offices, sits a thin, white spire that seems to puncture the sky. This is the highest any person can get on a man-made structure on the planet and more than double the height of the Empire State Building.

And there, scrawled 15 feet from the very top of the spire, is Tom Cruise’s autograph. Not that you or anyone else on the planet will ever see it. But it’s there, his name and a doodled heart with an inscription to his wife, Katie Holmes, and children.

Cruise used the Burj Khalifa as the signature set piece in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, the fourth movie in the franchise, which launches in a limited IMAX-only engagement Friday before turning up in theaters nationwide on Dec. 21.

The action star took a break from filming one day to navigate a series of elevators, steep staircases and 200 feet of vertical ladder to make his way to the very top of the building’s spire. He was harnessed and lowered down the outside to make his graffiti. All of this for something that wasn’t filmed and won’t even be in the movie.

“The only person who will ever see [his signature] is the guy who paints the building some day,” says Mission stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz.

Even for Cruise, a notorious adrenaline junkie, the vertigo-inducing Burj sequence will probably go down as one of the craziest things he has ever done. And we all saw him jumping on Oprah’s couch, right?

Producer J.J. Abrams, who directed the third installment, first saw the Burj during a 2009 Star Trek promotional tour and had the idea to film something there. He passed it along to director Brad Bird, and Bird and the Ghost Protocol crew originally planned to shoot the stunt on a soundstage, with Cruise climbing a replica of the building.

Finding someone to insure the film, when the leading man was going to be dangled like a cat toy thousands of feet off the ground, was also an issue.

“Our stunt person’s first safety briefing lasted five hours and the insurance company insisted that anyone hanging outside a window had to have on a parachute,” Cruise said at the Dubai Film Festival last week. “We got a new safety officer.”

The crew originally planned to knock out just one window on the 123rd floor to stick a camera crane through. They ended up removing 15 to 20 — no small matter in a building that size, where howling winds sweep through the openings and disturb the elevators.

Once the windows were cut, a safety perimeter was established with red tape. Anyone inside it had to wear a harness. Cruise was fitted with one and strung up by wire attached to various points along the building. He moved across the facade with a combination of the rigging and his own energy.

Before he stepped outside for the first time, Cruise admits that falling crossed his mind. His wife couldn’t bear to watch, and went off shopping instead.

Cruise apparently had an utterly practical, Zen philosophy on the Burj sequence.

“Tom’s whole point of view was that once you get above 50 feet or so, it doesn’t really matter if you fall. The results are the same,” Bird says. “The only difference is, you have longer to think about it on the way down.”

[From NY Post]

Isn’t it interesting how Katie went shopping to avoid watching Tom doing his manic, insane stunts on top of the Burj? That’s basically how she deals with life since getting together with him. Very romantic stuff.

As for Tom’s adrenaline-junkie status, part (if not all) of his fearlessness can be attributed to his beliefs as a Scientologist. As an achiever of (or as a guy dumb enough to pay for) OT Level VIII, Cruise believes that he’s been bestowed with amazing powers including but not limited to telekinesis and “basically the ability to make anything in the physical universe happen just with the use of [his] mind.” And since he also necessarily believes in reincarnation, there’s always the next life to look forward to if he happens to fall off the tallest building in the world.

No word though on whether he can take all that crap that’s been injected into his face into the next life.

Photos courtesy of fame and AllMoviePhoto

This past July, Katie Holmes famously declared that daughter Suri is “an amazing athlete, singer and dancer.” Now, Katie can add one more “occupation” to her daughter’s list — author. Of course, Katie can’t even be bothered to make sure her daughter attends school during fashion week. My point is that Suri’s parents haven’t exactly made her education a priority in life, yet now they are declaring her a self-made author? For the biological daughter of Tom Cruise, the Xenu-blessed sky is the limit:

Suri Cruise, author? According to a family friend, the 5-year-old is currently penning her own children’s book! And her parents, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, think it’s so good, they plan to publish it when she’s finished. “Suri is smart beyond her years,” the family friend tells In Touch. “Not only is she writing the book, she’s also working on all the illustrations. She is actually very talented for someone so young.”

And her parents couldn’t be more proud. “Tom and Katie are careful not to push her too hard, but of course they think she is a little genius,” adds the friend. Although Suri hasn’t come up with a title just yet, the insider reveals the story is about the adventures of a little girl who lives in a big house in Beverly Hills. Sounds like more of an autobiography to us, Suri!

[From In Touch, print edition, December 5, 2011]

Oh boy. Isn’t that “amazing“? To Katie, everything truly is amazing because she’s been re-programmed that way. In addition, Scientologists essentially believe that children are merely adults in small bodies, but the notion of Suri penning anything more than a few stapled-together pages is ridiculous. Naturally, most parents believe that their kids can walk on water, but most parents also don’t have the money and/or power to get their kid’s random scribblings published as a book. However, I don’t doubt that Tom will eventually strong-arm some poor publisher into doing his daughter’s bidding. And then poor Connor will have just one more reason to rage against the machine. Team Connor.

Photos courtesy of Fame