Morning Briefing:
Cruise: all wet: Four men have been arrested in connection with a prank in which they squirted Tom Cruise in the face with water at the "War of the Worlds" premiere in London during a fake interview for a British TV show. "It's exciting ... It's suspenseful, emotional, funny ... Actually, structurally, it's true to form. It's about a family, the journey of this family," Cruise said of the film in response to a faux reporter's question, and then began to stutter, "yes, yes, yes, yes, yes ..." as the reporter's mike squirted him in the face with water. Though at first Cruise seemed amused by the prank, chuckling, he quickly grew increasingly incensed, grabbing the man's hand and asking, "Now why would you do that? Why would you do that? Come here. Now why would you do that? ... What's so funny about that? It's ridiculous ... I'm here giving you an interview and answering your questions and you do something really nasty. You're a jerk. You're a jerk. Well, you know what? You're a jerk." Once Cruise had toweled off and finished delivering his tongue-lashing, he continued to work the line of cheering fans. The comedy-show crew (who reportedly recently pranked Sharon Osbourne as well) may be charged with assault, and the channel for which they were filming their show, British TV Channel 4, issued a somewhat halfhearted apology to the actor. "The water squirting was not intended to cause offense and was very much in a spirit of fun," a Channel 4 spokesman told the press. "We hope Tom Cruise will be able to see the joke in the spirit with which it was intended." (Tampa Bay's 10 News, The Guardian, Reuters)
Spielberg speaks ... Lord knows how "War of the Worlds" director Steven Spielberg is taking the upstaging of his U.K. movie premiere by Cruise's surprise splash attack. But here's what we do know -- he was a "little upset" about the distraction caused by Cruise's couch jump on "Oprah." "I was a little upset -- not at Tom, but at the press for making such a big deal out of a kind of small thing," Spielberg says in the current issue of Newsweek. "Tom lost his cool because he was deliriously happy, and now he was being punished for his public display of happiness. Tom lives a happy life. On set, when we do a good shot, and we're both happy, we do a little celebration. What Tom did on 'Oprah' was exactly what Tom did with me when he first told me about Katie Holmes. But the press didn't like the way Tom bared his soul to Oprah." Spielberg also had this to say about his current lead actor and longtime good buddy: "To me, Tom has always been like the most popular kid in school who goes out of his way to befriend the geek ... me ... He has a pure heart." And sometimes an unexpectedly wet face. (Newsweek)
Bob's buddy Bush? Bob Geldof is reportedly warning Live 8 performers about going off-message and bashing George W. Bush and Tony Blair from the stage. One manager of a Live 8 musician told the Drudge Report that Geldof told him, "Please remember, absolutely no ranting and raving about Bush or Blair and the Iraq war, this is not why you have been invited to appear ... We want to bring Mr. Bush in, not run him away." Geldof also has kind things to say about both Bush and Blair in the current issue of Time magazine, all the while trying to maintain his angry rocker creds. "Bono's in love with the world. He wants to embrace it," he says. "I want to punch its lights out. We're a psychotic Tweedledum and Tweedledee." How cuddly. (Drudge, Time)
Sunshine-y day: Spokesman for the stars Ken Sunshine was working overtime this weekend, confirming and denying a couple of reports about two of his biggest clients. That report that Leonardo DiCaprio got clonked in the head with a beer bottle by a woman just as he was leaving a party at the home of Paris Hilton's porn-tape costar Rick Salomon in the wee hours of Saturday morning -- and had to get 12 stitches to repair his noggin? True, according to Sunshine: "While leaving a small private gathering, Leo was attacked by a woman who was trespassing and had repeatedly been asked to leave the property." And what of those rumors that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner got hitched in West Virginia, where Garner hails from, over the weekend. False, false, false. " [Ben and Jen] are not in West Virginia," Sunshine insisted. "They did not get married yesterday. They did not get married today." The rumor was apparently touched off by a local florist, who claimed to have received an order for the wedding party, but Sunshine says the flower guy is "totally lying." (People magazine via Reuters, N.Y. Daily News)
Also: We apparently haven't heard all of the allegations Ed Klein is making in his new Hillary Clinton ripfest, "The Truth About Hillary." He's also alleging that Bill Clinton had "a torrid affair with a stunning divorcee in her early forties, who lived near the Clintons in Chappaqua." (Drudge) ... Sean "P.Diddy" Combs says he's furious at a judge's recentish ruling that he be required to pay $250,000 a year in child support for his 11-year-old son Justin, the priciest child support anyone in New York State has ever been required to pay. "This is not about the money. This is about me as a father," he told the New York Daily News. "And this is not about my son. My child is being used. There's a scam that's going on." (N.Y. Daily News) ... The raging success of "Batman Begins" has reportedly prompted Warner Bros. to begin to plan to make more Batman movies featuring Christian Bale as the caped crusader -- but without Katie Holmes as his love interest. (Page Six) ... Staffers at Hermes in Paris reportedly refused to let Oprah Winfrey into their store because they didn't recognize her and had recently been "having a problem with North Africans." Delightful. (Page Six) ... One of the jurors in the Michael Jackson trial showed up to a party thrown by the musician's family celebrating his acquittal. Jackson himself did not attend. (Associated Press)
Money Quote:
Robert Redford, who played Bob Woodward in "All the President's Men," on Watergate ... and the presidency today: "[I'm] waiting to see if anybody is going to connect where we were then and where we are now ... You can go right down the line [in the Bush administration], there's about 15 issues as strong or as big as the Watergate break-in was that have come and died out ... There are guys out there digging and digging. There are stories appearing every single day. But is it getting any traction with the public?" (Fox News)
Turn On:
On Monday night, "Star Wars" fans can watch Steven Spielberg present the 33rd AFI Lifetime Achievement Award -- and other celebs pay tribute -- to George Lucas at 9 p.m. EDT on USA.
-- Amy Reiter
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