Tom Cruise

by Andrew Morton

  Sofía is kinder. While she admits that she likes Tom as a friend and found their affair “fun,” having seen him in action she has a very clear vision of who he is and how he operates. “You have to have respect for his beliefs and trying to get his religion out there in any way possible,” notes a close member of Sofía’s circle. The bottom line was that she was not prepared to sacrifice herself or her faith to further her career—or to become the next Mrs. Cruise.

  Sofía was savvy enough to see the consequences of the game being played. It seems that Tom, for all his protestations of love and affection, saw it as a game, too, albeit a game with high stakes. Even before the blooms on Sofía’s flowers from him had faded, Tom was already sending bouquets to a new girl—a wholesome, wide-eyed actress from America’s heartland.

  For days, John Carrabino’s phone had been ringing off the hook. Every call to his Beverly Hills office seemed to be about the young actress he was managing—Katie Holmes—and her love life. Since March 5, 2005, when she had publicly called off her engagement to longtime boyfriend Chris Klein, star of the teen comedy American Pie, all the talk had been about a new man in her life. She had been spotted kissing heartthrob actor Josh Hartnett in a coffee shop in New York. The rumor mills whirred into action. Managing this kind of attention is never easy; Carrabino was deflecting inquiries from all over the country. So it must have been something of relief, as well as a surprise, when in early April he received a call from the office of Tom Cruise rather than from another gossip columnist. The request, which came out of the blue, was for a meeting between Hollywood’s leading man and the aspiring star.

  If her manager was surprised by Tom Cruise’s invitation, Katie Holmes was ecstatic. She had dreamt of meeting the Hollywood action man since she was a little girl growing up in Toledo, Ohio, her childhood crush a long-standing family joke. She told her three older sisters that she would marry him someday and live in a beautiful mansion where she would start the day by sliding from her bedroom into her own swimming pool. Even in 1996, when she snagged the part of Joey Potter, a teenage girl growing up in a suburban town, for the hit teen soap Dawson’s Creek, her crush continued. Indeed, it was her unworldly innocence—and her playful green eyes—that won her the role in the first place.

  “She had these incredible eyes, it was all about the eyes,” recalled writer Kevin Williamson. Educated by nuns and raised by a protective, God-fearing family, Katie, just seventeen, was a real greenhorn when she first arrived on the TV set in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her artlessness was exploited by her costars, James Van Der Beek and Josh Jackson, who teased her about her teenage crush and sexual naïveté.

  Close to her family and friends from Toledo, she daily phoned her mother, Kathy, who was recovering from ovarian cancer. Kathy visited the set often, while Katie’s longtime pal Meghann Birie, who impressed the cast with her loyalty and levelheaded nature, stayed with her friend for six months to keep her company. Her father, Martin, a partner in a law firm, was on hand to look over the contract when she bought her first condo, just as he was there when she signed up for the series. “She trusted him absolutely, and rightly so,” said a crew member.

  The family became anxious when they realized their youngest daughter was caught in a tug-of-love contest between Josh and James. The love triangle was like a real-life episode of Dawson’s Creek. At first she dated the mild-mannered, likable James, but then fell for the bad-boy charms of Josh, who once claimed that his Irish roots gave him a divine right to get drunk. The two young men, so close that they shared a room during the first season, became sworn enemies, on numerous occasions nearly coming to blows. They couldn’t even be in the makeup trailer together.

  Katie’s relationship with Josh, a notorious womanizer, worried her parents. As her sex education from school boiled down to the nuns telling the girls to practice abstinence, a Dawson’s Creek crew member decided to give her more practical advice. “I talked to her about condoms and the need for contraception,” the crew member recalled. “I can tell you she was certainly careful after that.”

  This tug-of-love made her grow up. By the third season she was no longer the sweet little innocent thing from Toledo, but a determined young woman—more savvy and cynical about the industry, yet still determined to make her mark in Hollywood. After her first film, Go, an action comedy, in 1999, she had small parts in several films, notably appearing opposite Michael Douglas in the 2000 movie Wonder Boys, about a college girl who is infatuated with her professor. It was a real thrill for Katie, the starstruck young woman even enjoying an on-screen kiss with the Hollywood legend. “Katie was so excited but very nervous,” recalls a Dawson’s Creek friend. “She was blessed by the fact that they could see she was young and inexperienced and took her under their wing.”

  As her career was moving onward and upward, so was her love life. Friends introduced her to actor Chris Klein, riding high with the hugely successful teen comedy American Pie. With appearances on TV’s Saturday Night Live as well as several movies, including Phone Booth with Colin Farrell, under her belt, Katie was ready to talk about her life and career for an hour-long TV special with host Jules Asner.

  In fall 2002 her family spent days with Asner’s film crew, allowing them total access to their rambling, clapboard home in Toledo. In a fascinating documentary, first screened in October 2002, the young actress came across as a wry, confident, strong-willed, occasionally stubborn girl with a wide streak of sparky, self-deprecating humor. It was clear, too, that her adoring family had supported, nurtured, and advised her every step of the way. She was a bright, much-loved, well-understood jewel in a solidly conventional Catholic family.

  When they all attended midnight Mass at their church, Christ the King, on Christmas Eve 2003, just after Katie’s twenty-fifth birthday, they had special reason to give thanks. That night Katie’s longtime boyfriend, Chris Klein, had asked her to marry him—after first nervously asking her father for his official blessing. As proof of his serious intent, Klein had spent a reported $500,000 on a wedding ring—the kind of money that could have bought a substantial five-bedroom house in Toledo. The excited couple planned to marry in Los Angeles during the fall of the following year.

  In the meantime, she had work to do. Katie spent months in London, where she had been given the chance to star in a Hollywood blockbuster, playing the love interest, Rachel Dawes, opposite Christian Bale in Batman Begins. She also attended film premieres—including the one for Tom Cruise’s action thriller Collateral—and was a guest at numerous fashionable parties, rubbing shoulders with the likes of model Elle Macpherson, actress Sienna Miller, and actor Jude Law. She had clearly left behind her tomboy Joey Potter image, emerging as a beautiful and talented star.

  When she returned to Hollywood in September 2004, the strain in her relationship with her fiancé became apparent. Although she was a rising name, Chris was struggling to find work, having turned down the chance to appear in the final American Pie film. A public argument in a restaurant in October confirmed media rumors of a rift.

  While the wedding was postponed until after Christmas, the couple spent the festive season together skiing in Aspen, Colorado, a place that Chris said “held a lot of good memories.” But their holiday “honeymoon” did not last long. Katie was working on a starring role in the comedy Thank You for Smoking. She was unimpressed when Klein was caught driving drunk outside San Diego in February and given 150 hours of community service and an eighteen-hundred-dollar fine. It was the final straw for Katie, the couple officially calling off their engagement in March. By then they were not speaking. Chris was enigmatic about the reason for their parting. “We grew up. The fantasy was over and reality set in.”

  The reality was that her star was rising. That is what probably appealed to Tom. When his office called Katie’s manager, they said the meeting would be about work and should take place as soon as possible. They said Tom had been interviewing actresses for weeks in search of a leading lady to play Ethan Hunt’s fianc
ée in Mission: Impossible III. It was Katie’s big chance, but she seemed to be one of many, and it did not take long for rumors to start circulating that there was more to this auditioning process than met the eye. It was the choice of candidates that gave rise to this story.

  It was said that the list included Jessica Alba, who had split from her fiancé the previous year, as well as Kate Bosworth—she, too, had split from her boyfriend, actor Orlando Bloom, back in February. Next was Scarlett Johansson; she was single but had expressed a keen interest in older men. The word among gossip columnists was that Cruise might be looking for more than just a leading lady for a film: There was a gap in his own life that needed filling.

  Katie Holmes was on the same list as the rest of them. While she may have been excited, Cruise had cast his celebrity net wide. She did fit the bill, but so did many others. What really mattered was whether she passed the test. As soon as Carrabino called Katie about the meeting, she flew to L.A. from New York, where she had been living. That was around April 11, 2005—less than three weeks after Tom’s frantic pursuit of Sofía Vergara. Katie would not be seen again by friends or family for over two weeks. She seemed to have disappeared. The time she spent with Cruise that fortnight was all-transforming. It was the period that separated her from the rest of the women who had tried out for the role.

  As with the first meeting between Tom and Nicole Kidman, the connection was immediate and powerful. “It was instant,” she told talk-show host Jay Leno. He took her on her first motorcycle ride, to the beach at Santa Monica. “It was amazing and fast,” she recalled later. “I was in love from the moment that I shook his hand for the first time.” As Katie was not cast for Mission: Impossible III, it was clear that she had made a different kind of connection. Soon after their meeting, a limousine filled with chocolates and flowers arrived at Katie’s place. In a generous gesture, he apparently had her own car cleaned and repainted. Courtship was something Cruise had mastered—it was only weeks since he had been doing the same thing for Sofía. Just for good measure, he also presented Katie with a copy of a Scientology handbook.

  Their first proper date was a sushi dinner held in one of his parked private jets at Santa Monica airport. It was a taste of things to come—not just because of the luxury, but because they were not alone. Cruise’s close circle of Scientology friends joined them throughout the dinner. It is impossible to know exactly who attended—but it is likely the guests included church leader David Miscavige and the tall, watchful figure of Katie’s designated new best friend—Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez. Katie would be seeing more of these people than she could possibly have imagined.

  It seems that she passed her social audition. Tom was eager to introduce the young actress to his children, Isabella and Connor, who had been playing with Vergara’s son, Manolo, a few weeks before. Katie flew back to New York with a sparkle in her eye. A few days later, in a Starbucks on Waverly Place, not far from her SoHo apartment, she was overheard gushing to a friend about her new love. “He introduced me to his kids!” she whispered. “And he’s taking me to Rome on a private jet this weekend.”

  Tom picked Katie up in New York on April 23 and flew her to Italy to stay in the $3,500-per-night suite in the Hotel Hassler in Rome. He had arranged for the double bed to be scattered with red rose petals, and took her to the same restaurant where he and Penélope Cruz had dined just over a year before. They were spotted by the paparazzi, and this became their first appearance as a couple who were head-over-heels in love. It was a picture that would become very familiar in the following months. Back in the U.S., Sofía Vergara saw the images of Tom and his latest love on television. Only then did she fully recognize her own narrow escape. A friend said, “Sofía privately pitied the poor girl. Katie is a much weaker, more innocent person than Sofía.”

  If Sofía felt sorry for the girl who had taken her place, Katie’s family and friends in Toledo could be excused for being in shock. It had been only six weeks since she had split with her fiancé, Chris Klein. Now she was dating a twice-married man sixteen years her senior. As they watched the footage of Katie walking the red carpet with Tom at the David di Donatello Awards on April 29, they must have noticed other changes in their normally vivacious daughter. While she smiled, kissed her new love, and posed for photos, Katie was uncharacteristically silent—and stooping. It set the pattern for future public appearances; Tom occasionally giving an impromptu interview to tell the world how “amazing” and “beautiful” Katie was, and how much in love they were. All the while Katie would smile but say absolutely nothing.

  Spontaneity was alien to Tom Cruise. He knew about control and command, about calculating and calibrating the odds. There was no risk in his business. As one friend, choosing his words carefully, told me: “He is meticulous and particular. Just like Martha Stewart.” In May 2005, a few weeks into his romance with Katie Holmes, he joined Oprah Winfrey in Chicago for her TV show, ostensibly to publicize his latest movie, War of the Worlds.

  Tom was an old hand at the publicity circus. Under the glare of the studio lights, he was in charge, affable and jovial but with a reputation for giving away only those personal details he wished to divulge. As Oprah later observed, “Tom’s usually very closed and has his own ideas about what he’s going to tell you and not tell you.” Oprah was an old hand at this, too, fully accepting her role as cheerleader for his new movie while trying to tease out some tidbits about his latest romance. Months after his marriage to Nicole, for example, the newlyweds had taken a seat on Oprah’s sofa and told her how happy they were, while managing to plug their new movie, Far and Away.

  Both Oprah and Tom knew the rules of the game. After all, they had been sparring with each other for years, professionally and socially. Indeed, at various times both Tom and her neighbor John Travolta had tried to recruit her to their faith. Today, though, it seemed as though Tom had thrown away the rule book, leaving Oprah wondering what his game really was.

  As soon as he walked into her studio, he put on a performance worthy of that elusive Oscar. In front of an audience of howling, near hysterical women, he dropped to one knee as though the Romeo from New Jersey were about to propose to the astonished talk-show host. He punched the air. He laughed hysterically. He leapt backward onto the couch, which is no mean feat even when not on live TV. He held his head in his hands as though completely overcome. Oprah shrieked at him, both in amazement and encouragement as he spoke, at times incoherently, about his new love. As Tom burbled about romance, red roses, and scuba diving, Oprah yelled, “You’re gone!” some nineteen times.

  “I’m in love! I’m in love,” Cruise proclaimed loudly, throwing his hands in the air. “I can’t be cool. I can’t be laid back. It’s something that has happened, and I feel I want to celebrate it. I want to celebrate her. She’s a very special woman . . . she’s amazing.” Once he hit his stride, there was just no stopping him, Tom praising Katie’s “generosity, her élan, her vital life force.” During the extraordinary performance, he revealed that the now-infamous motorbike ride was on a machine given to him by Steven Spielberg. The director appeared on a video link, pleading in vain with the actor to plug the film rather than himself and his new love. “Talk a little bit about War of the Worlds because we’re opening really soon!”

  It was only when Oprah asked how long he had known the woman who had rocked his world that Tom adopted his default interview position, saying they should talk about his new movie. Oprah had uncovered an uncomfortable fact: Tom had known Katie for only a little over a month. Still, he seemed ready to marry her, indicating that he didn’t want to disappoint the girl who had once told Seventeen magazine that her dream was to be Mrs. Tom Cruise.

  Oprah, who had met the couple at her Legends Ball in Santa Barbara two days before the interview, later confessed that Tom’s behavior left her mystified—and not a little suspicious. During the interview, she was trying to decide whether this was real affection or a premeditated act. She said, “It was wilder than it was appe
aring to me. I was just trying to maintain the truth for myself because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was not buying—not buying. That’s why I kept saying, ‘You’re gone, you’re really gone.’ ” One clue of his intentions was that he had warned Katie about his “spontaneous” nature: “I told her, ‘Look, you never know what I’m going to do, Katie.’ That’s the point.” Perhaps Oprah might have been even more confused if she had also had him on the show a few weeks earlier. Then he could well have been jumping on the sofa about Sofía.

  Certainly the public shared Oprah’s misgivings, viewing the romance and his on-screen antics as little more than a gimmick. A poll in People magazine showed that nearly two-thirds of the public thought the romance was a publicity stunt. This view was echoed not only by the supermarket tabloids, but even by the venerable New York Times, with an article titled “I Love You with All My Hype.”

  Tom’s behavior on Oprah set the whole world talking. It was compared to the moment when Michael Jackson dangled his baby son over the edge of a hotel balcony. The phrase “jump the couch” even entered the language; it was named the Slang of the Year by the editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, who defined it as “Tom Cruise–inspired slang meaning to exhibit frenetic or bizarre behavior.”

  Tom’s motives came under scrutiny, too. Why was a forty-two-year-old man with two marriages behind him and two impressionable children watching him on TV acting in this way? Even if he seemed to be the picture of happiness, it was not normal behavior, certainly not for a man who had given new meaning to the phrase “Cruise control.” He had acted out an erratic, uncontrollable, overpowering ecstasy, almost as if he were experiencing a heightened mental state. As Janet Carroll, his screen mother from Risky Business, drily observed, “People say to me, ‘Did you know that when you worked with him, your son was going to be a nut?’ ”