Uh-oh. From the sound of it, Tom Cruise may not only have lied to us about when his dalliance with Penelope Cruz kicked off. He may have done a little fibbing to his soon-to-be-ex-wife Nicole Kidman, too.
And now that the Cruise/Cruz news is out, Kidman's camp is kicking into high spin gear, raising questions about pre-split philandering on Cruise's part.
According to People magazine, Cruz is, in fact, with Cruise on Fiji this week. (He and Kidman split their preplanned two-week vacation in half -- Kidman and the kids got the first week and were joined by friend Russell Crowe and his date; Cruise and his entourage got the second.) And Kidman, in Sydney with the kids, is none too tickled about the whole thing.
"Nicole was just totally in shock," a Kidman confidant told the magazine. "She said, 'He flat out swore to me up and down that there was nothing going on.'"
Now, the friend said, Kidman suspects that Cruise "obviously had [Cruz] waiting in the wings and just waited until he started looking like a nice guy again" to announce their involvement.
"All this time she's been wondering why the marriage ended," the friend said, "and this could be it."
A position that'll come in right handy for Kidman when the two meet to divide up their assets later this month.
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And if they said you could jump off a cliff ...
"The Italians said I could do it."
-- Former Spicer Geri Halliwell on why she jumped into the historic Bernini fountain at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome after her performance at the annual outdoor fashion gala "Woman Under the Stars." (Not stairs, stars.)
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Look who's got a shit-eatin' grin
Téa Leoni's reasons for taking the role on "Jurassic Park III" are apparently at least threefold.
1) The part -- of a woman risking her life to save her child -- gave her a chance to explore her greatest fears as a mother. "Which is my child would go missing specifically on an island with dinosaurs? OK, that was not my nightmare," she clarifies to Mr. Showbiz. "Mine was leaving my daughter on top of the car when you go get your Starbucks and drive off. But that idea, I recognized it immediately."
2) Running from all those whateverosauruses got her in shape. "I just hate working out," she tells the Web site. "I think it's dumb and I don't like it."
3) And best of all, as far as Leoni is concerned, it allowed her to eat dino doo. "They smear it all over you. It was fine," she says. In fact, it was sheer delight. "I was always [telling the makeup people], 'I do not nearly have enough dinosaur shit on.' The thing was it would not stick after a while. It was oatmeal. It was good. Every night I'd gross people out by eating it."
Sounds like someone's been spending a little too much time with her 2-year-old daughter ...
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Juicy bits
If Janet Jackson fans in Milwaukee were disappointed that the singer had to postpone an appearance there, they should know ... the cancellation hurt Jackson way more than it hurt them. The singer had to undergo an emergency root canal after chipping a tooth during the show's setup, Milwaukee TV station WISN reports. Just how the tooth was chipped is unclear. No, I don't suppose she was biting into a particularly tough cheese curd.
More disappointed concertgoers ... Safety officials in Reading, England, are insisting that Eminem swap his trademark chainsaw for a toy chainsaw when he performs at a festival there in August. "If a real chainsaw flew out of his hands into the crowd it could be disastrous," one official, displaying impeccable logic, told the U.K. Sun. "We have received an assurance that he will use a toy one." Who even knew they made toy chainsaws?
It must be jam ... Those intrepid reporters at the Associated Press have apparently seen fit to quiz the members of Destiny's Child about the meaning of the word "jelly" in the lyrics for their hit song "Bootylicious": "I don't think you're ready for this jelly." It sort of means "booty" only ... not, they said, refusing to nail down a particular body part. "If it's your mind, it's your mind. If it's your eyes, it's your eyes," Kelly Rowland explained. "Whatever makes you feel confident is your jelly." Get William Safire on the case.
Extra bits
Luther Vandross is making like Richard Simmons and Suzanne Somers and penning a book on weight loss. But if you're hoping for a miracle cure, fat chance. "Everybody wants to know, 'How did you do it?'" the singer told the AP, explaining that he trimmed down from his peak 330 pounds by eating less and exercising regularly. Of his daily step-class, he says that as time goes on, "it's not that I love it -- it's that I resent it less." Are you listening, Tia Leoni?
Will Richard Pryor play in Peoria? The comedian, currently struggling with multiple sclerosis, may not wow 'em onstage there anytime soon, but he may have a section of the town named after him. The Peoria, Ill., City Council is apparently exploring the possibility of naming a seven-block stretch after the comedian, who grew up there. The council has twice rejected naming a section after Pryor, onaccounta his previously wild-living ways. Let him who has not free-based cast the first stone.
John Major: the musical? A group of theater producers is reportedly exploring the possibility of a West End musical based on the life of the former British prime minister. "There is a classic rags-to-riches story there," the show's spokesman, Guy Phillips, told the BBC. "He had two parents who were circus performers and he's managed to make his way to Number 10." Phillips dismisses naysayers. "We are fighting the sneering press saying 'you've got to be joking,' but we're deadly serious."
That's just what we were afraid of.
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