While Nicole is not so censorious, she concedes that she only allowed herself to be used in this way for Kubrick. “He didn’t exploit me. I certainly wouldn’t have done it for any other director and, yes, it was a little difficult to go home to my husband afterward.” It seems that when she did go home, she did not say much about the day job—as per Kubrick’s standing instructions. Only after he saw the finished movie a year or so later was Tom aware of some of the intimate scenes played out between his wife and Goba. “Yeah, who the fuck was that guy?” he later said to USA Today. (The newspaper removed the expletive.)
If the leading man was in the dark about important aspects of this enigmatic movie, the mass media was in a fever of speculation. One story claimed that Tom would wear a dress in the film, another said that the photographer Helmut Newton, a master at creating sexually explicit images, was hired to snap the couple in a bid to “loosen” them up. Another tabloid tale suggested that the couple had visited sex clubs as part of their research. When Harvey Keitel left the set, it was rumored that he had been fired because a masturbation scene involving Nicole had literally gotten out of hand.
The rumor mill was fueled not just by Kubrick’s obsessive secrecy and control, but by the continuing gossip about Tom and Nicole and the nature of their marriage. The most high-profile couple in Hollywood was also the most discussed, prompting endless rumors surrounding Tom’s sexuality, their decision to adopt, and Nicole’s career ambitions. Gossip about Tom first surfaced in 1986 after his blockbuster Top Gun became cult viewing in the gay community. Even Tom’s costar Val Kilmer later admitted that the film had “a couple of shower scenes too many.” Beefcake pictures from Tom’s early years, which apparently appeared in a New Jersey gay magazine, together with his abrupt split from Mimi Rogers in 1990 and her subsequent tongue-in-cheek comments about his desire to be a monk, had given the rumors greater traction.
When Tom played the sexually ambiguous character of Lestat in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire, journalists had the perfect excuse to put the spotlight on Tom’s private life. During publicity for the film, he dismissed the gay talk as “hard-line cynicism,” telling writer Kevin Sessums in October 1994, “It’s not true, but people are going to say what they want to say. . . . I don’t care if people are Martians. I really don’t care. Straight. Gay. Bisexual. Catholic. Jewish.” The rumor mill kept churning even after Nicole rallied to his defense, telling Vanity Fair, “I’ll bet all the money I’ve ever made, plus his, that he doesn’t have a mistress, that he doesn’t have a gay lover, that he doesn’t have a gay life.”
In 1995, when McCall’s magazine published an article suggesting that Tom and Nicole’s marriage was a sham and that Nicole only had a Hollywood career in exchange for hiding Tom’s gay lifestyle, the couple decided to act, Tom instructing his lawyer Bertram Fields to file suit. While many actors ignore the gossip, seeing it as part and parcel of life in Hollywood, Tom was much more sensitive, especially as both he and Nicole knew the medical reasons behind their decision to adopt two children. While McCall’s printed a retraction and apology, his lawyer was to spend many more years damping down flames of gossip that flared up all over the world. When the German magazine Bunte claimed in 1996 that Tom was gay and sterile with a “zero sperm count,” Tom instructed Fields to slap the journal with an $80 million libel suit. “The actor’s career depends on his fans’ willingness to believe that he does or could possibly possess the qualities of the character he plays,” said Fields. In other words, no woman would go weak at the knees at the sight of Tom if they thought he was gay or impotent. If the rumors persisted, his image as a clean-cut American sex symbol could be compromised. The magazine duly caved.
The acid test came during the filming of Eyes Wide Shut. In October 1997, just a few weeks after the couple had attended the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Sunday Express newspaper published a story claiming that Tom and Nicole’s marriage was a business-driven partnership of “convenience” designed to hide their homosexuality. The article also implied that the reason Tom and Nicole had adopted their children was because Tom was sterile and impotent. In keeping with previous policy, Tom decided to sue for libel, telling friends, somewhat oddly, that the story exposed his children, then ages two and four, to ridicule. For once the newspaper called his bluff and announced that it was prepared to defend the action. That meant that if Tom should decide to go ahead, he would have to appear in the witness box at the High Court in London and face hostile questioning about his marriage, his sex life, and his previous sexual partners.
He hired the best lawyer in Britain, the flamboyant George Carman, famous for defending, among others, Elton John, politician Jeremy Thorpe, comedian Ken Dodd, and cricketer Imran Khan. When the couple was ushered into his chambers, Carman was immediately struck by how nervous these Hollywood A-listers were at the prospect of going to court.
For all his bluster, Tom was particularly anxious about the prospect of facing a rigorous cross-examination. Few would blame him. In the sober quiet of his book-lined office, the silver-haired barrister walked Tom and Nicole through the financial and personal costs of appearing in court. In Britain, while the courts tend to favor celebrity plaintiffs, libel cases are notoriously unpredictable and ruinously expensive. Winners often end up losers, their reputations in tatters. Litigants who lie in court for the sake of protecting their good name can end up in jail, like novelist Jeffrey Archer and former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken.
During their conversation Carman ran through the allegations about the couple, asking them individually if they were prepared to repudiate the newspaper’s claims under oath. Carman’s son Dominic, who wrote his father’s life story, recalls: “My father formally asked Tom Cruise if he was gay. He categorically denied it. However, he warned him that he would have a rough time in court and asked him point-blank if there were any relationships that he may have forgotten about that the other side might bring up.” Again Tom denied that he had any skeletons in his closet that could embarrass him. Carman was impressed. “George felt Tom would make an excellent witness as he was highly cooperative and had a certain charm without seeming arrogant,” remembers Dominic. “George was more than satisfied with his honesty.”
Certainly Tom’s replies would have come as no surprise to the women in his life—past and present. Not only had Nicole and Mimi publicly testified to his virile heterosexuality, but his earlier lovers were equally perplexed by the constant whispers about his sexual preferences. High-school girlfriends Nancy Armel, whom he’d wanted to marry, and Diane Van Zoeren both found Tom a regular red-blooded teenager. As Diane, who dated him from high school until he made the movie Taps, recalled, “I don’t get it. I find these stories just hard to believe. We romanced in my dad’s Oldsmobile doing what you are not supposed to.”
If anything, Tom was uncomfortable around gay men. Those who saw him in the company of some of Nicole’s gay friends, who included designer John Galliano, noticed that he was awkward and ill at ease, much preferring the company of jocks who talked about football rather than fashion. His discomfort was understandable, given Scientology’s view of the gay community. In Dianetics, Ron Hubbard famously described homosexuals as “sexual perverts” who should be taken from society “as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized.” Indeed many men—and some women—joined Scientology in the hope that their homosexuality would be “cured.” After spending $500,000, painter Michael Pattinson, who reached OT VIII, the highest level attainable, sued Scientology for his money back because after years of auditing he was still gay. He eventually dropped the suit when his funds ran out.
While Tom could step into the witness box with a clear conscience, the upcoming trial troubled him greatly, the actor frequently asking George Carman to visit him on the set of Eyes Wide Shut and at his rented Hertfordshire home. From time to time he and Nicole, or Tom on his own, drove to Carman’s chambers in central London. Even though Carman found Tom’s need for such extensive h
and-holding “bizarre,” he did not begrudge them his time, charging them about three thousand dollars an hour for consultations that could last several hours. It was not only the impending court case that bothered Tom; he was “obsessed” about his public image, continually pointing out articles that irritated him and discussing the possibility of seeking redress. Over the next few years he consulted George Carman on at least a dozen occasions.
In the end it was not Tom’s demeanor in the dock that won the day, but Nicole’s admission that she had suffered at least one ectopic pregnancy during the early years of their marriage. It was the smoking gun, proof not only that Tom was fertile but that the couple were involved in a regular, loving marriage. Once Express Newspapers was informed of these medical facts, they threw in the towel. While their decision came as a relief to Tom and Nicole, it rather robbed George Carman of his moment of glory. Instead, the newspaper agreed to pay $200,000 in damages and publish a comprehensive apology and retraction.
In October 1998, just a year after the original libel suit, Carman and Tom Cruise appeared at the High Court to confirm that the money would be given to charity. In an eloquent address, Carman told the court that Tom and Nicole “married solely because they loved each other and their marriage is a close and happy one; they both love and are very devoted to their two young adopted children. They have brought proceedings to put an end once and for all to these highly offensive rumors which have been so hurtful to their married life together and to their role as parents.”
The only thing missing as Carman made his victory address was Mrs. Cruise. While Tom, Carman, and Bert Fields, calling from Los Angeles, had pressured Nicole to attend the triumphant occasion so they could stand side by side on the court steps, she had consistently refused. Even though Carman judged Nicole “cold and distant” during their meetings, he still found her decision one of the “oddest” in his professional career. Tom explained her absence by saying that she had a cold. Carman didn’t believe a word and pressed him further. The plain answer was that she did not want to be part of the circus. As with most libels, the winner was really the loser. In order to prove that her husband was virile and heterosexual, she had to have the secrets of her womb placed on public display. She had gone along with the case, probably reluctantly, to support her husband in his legal pissing contest with an unimportant British Sunday tabloid. There was a price to be paid, as was shown on the steps of the High Court, where Tom was alone in waving to the crowds and accepting the applause of well-wishers.
Although George Carman feared that it would look “terrible,” the media failed to comment on Nicole’s absence. Only those associated with the couple appreciated the significance, seeing it as a further sign of the growing distance between them. In the year between the publication of the Sunday Express article and the court victory, cracks were beginning to appear in the marriage. Nicole bridled more and more at Tom’s controlling behavior, finding fault in everything he did for her. His constant love notes became irritating, the endless gifts of flowers a bore.
Romantic gestures like spontaneously taking her to their favorite London restaurant, the Ivy, or for a weekend away to the Cipriani Hotel in Venice with dinner at Harry’s Bar no longer made her heart sing. “She was an unhappy wife,” noted an associate. “She was constantly wrestling with the fact that she did not love him anymore.” For his part, the more he tried to woo her with gifts, the more she pulled away. “There came a point where nothing Tom did pleased her,” recalls an associate. “Tom adored Nic. I have never known a man who was so loving and giving. But that love was not reciprocated by Nic.”
Nicole’s disgruntlement with her husband was increasingly played out through their friends. For example, Tom’s buddy Emilio Estevez, best man for his first marriage, was no longer as welcome as he once was, and on the odd occasions Tom saw his old school friend Michael LaForte and his wife, Fran, Nicole seemed ill at ease and distracted, as though the rough-talking New Jerseyan was not quite socially acceptable. However, in the company of her girlfriends, like actors Naomi Watts and Rebecca Riggs, as well as gay men from the world of fashion, she was a different person, smiling, relaxed, and full of fun, happy to sing and dance the night away at places like the Buffalo Club in Santa Monica. Curiously, if she went out on her own, she would often take the couple’s driver Dave Garris, who had worked for them since Days of Thunder, along for company. If they went to the movies, she would even allow Garris, who has been described as a Tom Cruise wannabe, to choose the film they were going to see.
As she pulled away from Tom, by necessity Nicole became much less involved with the children’s upbringing than her husband. When she was away filming or, increasingly, flying to Sydney to spend time with her parents and sister, it could be days before she would phone to see how Isabella and Connor were coping. Those who saw the family close up concluded that Tom was much more comfortable and enthusiastic as a parent. The actor was in constant—and controlling—touch with the youngsters and their nannies no matter how busy he was.
In keeping with Hubbard’s theory that children were small adults, Tom never babied his children, striking a balance between mentoring and nurturing. Unsurprisingly, Tom was an energetic, noisy dad, always chasing, joshing, playing with the children, his hearty laugh echoing through the normally quiet house. Thankfully, after a stage in which Connor gave Bella terrible bites, the youngsters bonded, Tom appreciating the differences in their characters: Connor bright but mischievous, Bella assertive but playing by the rules. As soon as Connor was walking and talking, Tom took him off on boys’ adventures, whisking him away in his private plane for the weekend with only his communicator, Michael Doven, for company. Like most fathers, he wanted to re-create the happy aspects of his own youth for his son, building a ramp at the family home in Telluride so that Connor could be taught daredevil jumps on a tiny motorbike.
When Nicole won a leading role in the comedy Practical Magic, it came as no surprise that she left the children with Tom in London while she flew to Los Angeles in January 1998 to rehearse her part. A couple of weeks after beginning work, she was rushed to the hospital for surgery to remove what was officially described as a benign ovarian cyst. Given that her mother had a history of breast cancer and that Nicole had her own gynecological difficulties, it was a worrying time, Tom flying out to the West Coast to be at his wife’s side. She recovered sufficiently to continue work on the movie, which was shot in Washington state, allowing Tom to return to London to conclude filming of the interminable Eyes Wide Shut. An illicitly recorded telephone conversation between the increasingly distant couple, published in March 1998, gave the world an insight into their fractious marriage.
Celebrity photographer Eric Ford, who recorded the conversation, was subsequently fined and jailed, but in the meantime everyone could listen in to the Cruises uncut and in private. Away from the glamour and smiles of the red carpet, they were revealed as a tired and spoiled married couple getting tetchy with each other. During the chat, made on a car phone, Tom is clearly more conciliatory, Nicole unwilling to be soothed. Noticeably, the love notes and flowers are now weapons in a war of emotional attrition rather than tokens of affection.
After Tom tells Nicole that she makes him “feel like shit,” Nicole responds by saying, “We’ve been hanging on by a fucking thread, okay? A thread. You know it and I know it.” Even though Tom says that he wants their relationship to work, Nicole continues to carp, asking why he hasn’t sent her a rose or a love note. The conversation continues in this vein, sometimes lightening up, sometimes getting more serious. The couple changes gears, like most married couples, between discussing practicalities—notably plans for Connor’s third birthday—and issuing serious complaints.
Nicole tells her husband baldly, “Tom, there’s no love here, right? You’re under emotional abuse, I’m abusing you, you’re abusing me. Tom, this isn’t worth it! You have two unhappy people, okay, who spend too much time apart and in the past have hurt each other too much. .
. . And I tell you something, we haven’t spent any time together, Tom! You just don’t make an effort. I come home and all you ever say is, ‘I’m exhausted.’ ”
After a brief interjection from her husband, Nicole continues her litany of complaints: “I’m sick of it, I’m sick of it! And if it’s not, ‘I’ve got to get the kids from school,’ it’s ‘I’m working, I don’t have time for you.’ And Tom, I’ve heard this for so long now and you’re not working now and you’re still saying it.”
In an attempt to placate his wife, Tom is cajoling and consoling. “I miss you. I love you. I think about you all day long. You’re a knucklehead, a knucklehead for thinking that I don’t care, I’m not loving. I’m embarrassed that I was tired last night. I apologize, okay?” Like many married couples who have a fight, by the end of the conversation the couple is managing to laugh, and signing off by saying “I love you” to each other. Unlike most married couples, however, Tom and Nicole had to justify their spat to the gossip-hungry world, their spokeswoman Pat Kingsley issuing a statement saying that the conversation was taken out of context and the couple’s words edited to make their discussion sound like a row. When she was asked, Nicole sensibly made light of the squabble. “We were fighting about how many people to invite to our son’s birthday party,” she said. “And about which one of us was more tired and who was working harder. Quite boring, actually.”
Others who witnessed Tom and Nicole’s daily life were more frank. “To me,” says an associate, “their marriage wasn’t a ‘happy marriage,’ but it was one that had found a certain groove, and they went with it. Tom chased after Nicole, who was always unobtainable, and that cycle continued. I think he was in love with her up until the end, but that she had grown out of love with him and was unhappy in the marriage. She seemed so much more mature than he was. He’s a jock; a guy’s guy. He isn’t sophisticated. She is. I believe she loved him when she met him, but she outgrew him. He seemed happier in the marriage than she was and she was always finding fault with everything.”
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