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

Paula Patton is featured in the January issue of GQ as part of the promotion for Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and I finally now have an opportunity to say something that’s been on my mind for quite some time. I honestly think that Paula is far too alluring to play the romantic love interest (or leading lady) of Tom Cruise. Sure, he’s good looking in a very anticeptic, plastic sort of way, but Tom is so not sexy, and he hasn’t been for quite some time (and I’m talking about the pre-couch jumping era too). So putting him up onscreen next to a woman with such obvious sensual allure is almost comical. Really:

On Her MI4 Role: Paula joins Tom Cruise’s gang as a sexy lady-spy-as if there were any other kind—who vamps it up and gets dirty in equal measure, per the international lady-spy handbook Vamping It Up and Getting Dirty in Equal Measure: A Primer. “I was doing physical stunts,” says Patton excitedly, “feet in the mud, fingernails full of dirt, shooting and fighting for my life.”

On Her Husband: Sadly for you, she is married to singer Robin Thicke-son of Growing Pains patriarch and proud Canadian Alan. Somehow she has figured out how to bridge the vast cultural divide between her and her in-laws: Canadians are a lot like us, actually,” Patton jokes. “I’ve figured out how to blend in.” Spoken like a true lady-spy.

[From GQ]

There’s really not much of an interview available as of yet, but the photoshoot is just phenomenal and makes me giggle at how inadequate Tom must feel next to Paula. Don’t get me wrong — I know that she signed onto MI4 because it’s a great opportunity to get the kind of exposure that the Tom Cruise circus would necessarily promise. Still, most of his recent leading ladies have been somewhat lacking in the sex appeal department — his last cinematic love interest was Cameron Diaz, who is pretty (I guess) in her own unusual way but certainly not a knockout like Paula.

To provide a point of reference, here’s Paula with Tom in a still from MI4. Awkward, much?

In addition, I’m also rather conflicted over Paula’s strange fashion choices for the MI4 international red carpet tour. Here she is in a not-so-bad Georgio Armani dress in Dubai:

Also just okay was Paula’s Naeem Khan minidress in London:

Things took a turn for the worse with this Kardashian-esque Dolce & Gabbana dress in Madrid:

And here’s Paula wearing Dolce & Gabbana once more at the Rio premiere. This terrible tent dress does nothing for her figure:

Photos courtesy of GQ, Fame, WENN & AllMoviePhoto

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

Honestly, this week of Tom Cruise international red carpet appearances for Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol has been a true pleasure to cover, but now something even better has happened. That is, the first Rock of Ages trailer has debuted, and it’s even more painfully amusing than I’d hoped it would be. This is why Tom practiced ten hours per day, folks. This is why he butched it up in well-heeled boots. And this is why he rocked out on a balcony to universal cringes. In a way, it was all worth it for Tom, who writhes shirtless onstage as the “legendary” Stacee Jaxx and spews out “sex, hateful music, and … sex.” Really:

Tom seems really uninspired by signing that chick’s rack at the end of the trailer, right? Method acting. As for the rest of this mess, it’s entirely horrific but the movie might find a small to moderate audience who doesn’t mind watching Paul Giamatti and (gasp) Catherine Zeta-Jones debase themselves. As for Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin, however, they’re totally playing versions of their own personas, and Diego Bonita and Julianne Hough sure are pretty.

Now for some more fun with Tom’s plastic surgery face, which some of you doubted in yesterday’s photos of the MI4 Madrid premiere. Indeed, Tom is aging well from a physical standpoint, but his “refreshed” face isn’t merely the product of clean living and lucky genetics. He’s definitely had some very subtle work done by a skilled, highly-paid surgeon. While Tom looks pretty natural in the below photo (from the London premiere of MI4), just hold on tight because sh-t is about to get real in the aftermath.

Now, if there was ever any doubt whether or not Tom’s ever had a facelift (or two or three), check out this picture that Kaiser sent to me (on a bit of a red alert) with a nudge-wink about the strange fold of skin behind Tom’s ear. Indeed, that’s pretty damning evidence of a facelift (or two or three) and undoubtedly the reason why Tom’s been favoring turtlenecks lately:

Doesn’t Tom look like an alien televangelist in these photos? I keep expecting bolts to start popping out of his skin like Xenu Frankenstein or something.

Finally, here are Tom’s special lifts for the brisk London evening. They’re a lot more subtle than usual, aren’t they? Then again, he didn’t really pose next to anyone else on the red carpet this time around. Good plan, Tom.

Photos courtesy of WENN and AllMoviePhoto

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

Yesterday, Bedhead covered the photos of Tom Cruise and Paula Patton at the Dubai premiere of Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol. These are photos from the Moscow premiere, and once again, only Tommy, Paula and Simon Pegg are around. Where is The Renner?!? Where is Josh Holloway?!? Why can’t Tom Cruise take an international promotional tour with the boys? That is what I live for, not photos of Tom with Paula Patton – who, granted, is gorgeous, but Tom isn’t interested in that. I can feel Tom’s displeasure from here.

Anyway, some of you yelled at Bedhead yesterday because she didn’t talk enough about how Tom Cruise seems to be channeling an ageless, Xenu-obsessed vampire. (I could have name-checked Lestat there, but really I want to forget that ever happened.) Yes, Tom is “ageless” in the sense that he looks younger now than he did four years ago. Don’t you remember that suspicious trip that Tom and Katie took to Brazil? They were suspiciously in Brazil for weeks in 2009, but he was only photographed at certain times. I keep coming back to that – I think that was when Tom went in for a facelift. I give him credit for getting good work too – it was subtle, and he looks like himself only younger. He doesn’t look puffy or waxy or frozen – maybe he should give the number of his doctor to his ex, Nicole Kidman. But enough about Tom’s face. Look at his little overcoat! How cute is that? And his little fingerless gloves. And his little lifts! I love Tom. He brings joy.

Meanwhile, Tom has a new interview with E! News – you can read and see the full interview here, and here are some highlights:

Doing stunts 100-stories high on Burj Khalifa in Dubai: “[Director Brad Bird] said ‘Can we do this?’ And I said, ‘We’re gonna figure out how to do it. We have to do this!’ It was so incredible in seeing what he designed for this scene…We spent months trying to figure out how to do it. I admire the storytelling and athleticism and wanting to entertain an audience and create ways to do it and put them in their seats so hopefully their palms will sweat.”

What Katie Holmes thinks: “That’s why I do it. I couldn’t do it without them but I’ve been doing stuff like this my whole life…For Kate, it’s wonderful to be able to share that with her and all the kids…she knows I do a lot of training. I just don’t go out there and do it. It takes a lot to do it and it takes a group to do it.”

On fame and getting some private time: “I love making movies and being on the set, and being at home, we do have a private life. I’m not the guy who sits there in the trailer…I like being with the crew and being with the cast…and when Kate makes a film, I like being there with her so our family’s together and have that time…it’s times I really cherish.”

On being a struggling actor early in his career: “I was lucky. My first audition I got it. I did Taps. But I remember being on the set of Taps when I was doing it, I didn’t know whether I’d ever be able to make another movie.”

On how his life changed after making Taps: “I remember working on The Outsiders with all those guys and making Risky Business with [helmer] Paul Brickman and suddenly there I am making Top Gun and working with [Paul] Newman. I remember that in 1985, it was incredible to me.”

On Rock of Ages: “Luckily all the training I had done with the [Mission] stunts, I had to apply to this because I was dancing four hours a day and singing three, four hours a day for months and months. I had to also find the voice. What kind of vocal quality that we needed for this rock voice for the character.”

[From E! News]

“I was dancing four hours a day and singing three, four hours a day for months and months…” Oh, girl. You know he loved every minute of that. Oh, and TOP GUN 2 is still happening – Tom confirmed that he was all for it.

PS… Where is Katie, by the way? Why is she on Xenu-lockdown while Tom promotes MI4?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Within the modern spectacle of Hollywood, we’ve grown so used to seeing women going to great lengths to stay youthful, so it’s almost — for lack of a better word — refreshing to watch a man struggling to do the same. In this case, that man is Tom Cruise, who is shown here (Katie-less on the red carpet) with Anil Kapoor, Brad Bird, Paula Patton and Simon Pegg at the world premiere of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at the Dubai International Film Festival. (No Jeremy Renner? Boo.) Presumably, the film is being unleashed in Dubai because the phallic Burj Khalifa is featured quite prominiently within the film, and Tom has either heavily tanned or been made up to fit right in with the desert atmosphere of the city.

Honestly, it’s not that I necessarily set out to make a huge point of Tom’s appearance, but it’s just an unavoidable tactic when Tom he tries so hard to cling to the sexy. Although I’ll give him credit for undertaking a very subtle set of refreshments during his quest, for he certainly hasn’t yet arrived in the cat-faced territory of Shane Warne. In fact, Tom still looks pretty natural when he tilts his face and gets all angular with the camera:

Yet when you look at him straight on when his face is level, it’s fairly obvious that this man is developing a serious case of Madonna-esque Pillow Face:

Here’s some more photos of Tom at the premiere, including one with some paid fans. Just kidding. Maybe.

Photos courtesy of WENN

This story sounds almost too good to be true, but you never know. Yesterday, we covered Tom Cruise preening in front of Taj Mahal during his weekend visit to promote Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. In the process, Tom declared that he’d willingly go Bollywood, and many of you thought he was merely hoping for an opportunity to once again play a dashing young leading man. Indeed, Tom’s got the try-too-hard oozing from his pores and is often desperate to impress even while rocking out on a balcony to universal cringes. So what would Tom think if he knew that the hundreds of screaming “fans” that had greeted him at the Mumbai airport didn’t actually know who he was? According to Firstpost’s Bollywood division, these people were in fact hired greeters who were paid to cheer and shout for Tom as he enthusiastically waved back at them. Really:

When the world’s biggest star and possibly the most famous Scientologist on earth, Tom Cruise, stepped out of the Mumbai domestic airport on Saturday with his entourage, little did he know that the screaming crowds he was waving out to were not his Indian fans at all!

In fact, the 200-and-odd people gathered there didn’t even know who he was and they couldn’t care less. They had been hired at the rate of Rs 150, or $3 per person approximately, by a model coordinator to do the same!

“Tom kaun? I don’t know who he is or what he does. We were told to come here by 1pm today and wait for a foreign VIP to come out of the airport gate and scream and shout when he came. None of us know who Tom is. There was a buffet lunch also for us and we were paid Rs 150 for this job today. We do this for television shows and other such events where crowds are required,” said one of the junior artistes at the airport, who was hired as an excited Tom fan.

Given that the absolutely handsome Cruise of the disarming smile has a huge fan base in the country, thanks to some really great and popular cinema (Jerry Maguire, Top Gun, Cocktail, Risky Business, The Last Samurai, Rain Man, A Few Good Men and the Mission Impossible series) it would not have taken much to get more than half of the city’s population to converge at the airport or any venue to catch a glimpse of the star they love and adore.

Cruise is in the city to promote the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which also sees Anil Kapoor playing an Indian character, Brij Nath, in the film.

For someone who is chased down by the paparazzi all over the world in fast cars and helicopters and whose every movement is tracked down by tabloids and magazines, including his wife Katie Holmes’, and daughter Suri’s too, it’s going to come as a shock to him that he was greeted by a motley group of paid people posing to be his fans in Mumbai. Of course he doesn’t know it yet, but when he does, it is not something Cruise is likely to forget in a very long time!

[From Firstpost]

We don’t have access to photos of Tom’s arrival in Mumbai, but you can see the claimed fans-for-hire in action here. Poor Tom. I know the guy is so full of delusions in so many ways (ahem, Scientology), but this news might just crush him if anyone dared to inform him of the matter. He supposed to be a worldwide superstar who’d never need paid reinforcements even on an international level. In order to cope, he’d have to crank his lifts to the very highest setting. Oh, who am I kidding? He’d never believe a story like this. “It’s lies! All lies from the apostates!”

Update: Tom’s rep has responded to this report: “The idea that fans were paid to cheer is completely ludicrous and entirely false.” Not that a denial means anything at all, and ten bucks says that Tom himself still hasn’t heard about the story.

Photos courtesy of WENN