Michelle Monaghan Defends Co-Star Tom Cruise: 'No Preaching'

In a recent interview, Michelle Monaghan, Tom Cruise's sexy co-star in Mission Impossible:III, spoke out openly regarding her experiences working with the Scientology star, insisting Cruise never promoted his non-religion on the film set, and that he never tried to convert her to his beliefs.

Monaghan said that Cruise's beliefs play no part in his professional life, and that, "He didn't give me any Scientology advice, and I never got any Scientology questions from him either."

Monaghan gushed about the actor's work ethic, saying, "I enjoyed every single minute of working with him. He's such a complete professional and he couldn't have been a more patient guy.

"On top of that, he's such a generous guy. I've never seen any actor I've worked with treat the cast and crew the way he did. He's incredible."

Gee, and he's still single, too. Except maybe for that fiance/dad thing.

Keira Knightley to act in mum's movie.

Keira Knightley has found time to play a part in a movie written by her mother. The news comes after concerns the Oscar-nominee would not be able to fit The Best Time Of Our Lives into her schedule, despite being keen to work with her playwright mother Sharman Macdonald.

Filming was set for this summer but has been delayed until next January to accommodate Knightley. The movie is about a bizarre episode in 1945 when a fried of Dylan Thomas shot with a machine gun at the poet's house. It looks at the background to the incident, with Knightley playing Thomas' wife Caitlin.

Box Office Wrapup: Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 3 Beats Poseidon to Remain at #1

Gitesh Pandya writes: "Tom Cruise's spy sequel Mission: Impossible III remained the most popular film in North America for the second straight weekend while the big-budget disaster film Poseidon opened in second place to disappointing results.

The frame's other new releases, the Lindsay Lohan comedy Just My Luck and the soccer drama Goal! The Dream Begins, opened miserably as well giving the industry little to celebrate. Overall ticket sales fell behind those of the comparable weekend in each of the last four years as a sluggish marketplace waits for that one true summer blockbuster that draws the masses into the multiplexes.
Despite a weaker-than-expected opening weekend, Paramount's MI3 enjoyed a respectable sophomore frame dropping 49% to an estimated $24.5M to retain its standing as the number one film. Playing in an ultrawide 4,059 theaters, the Ethan Hunt actioner averaged a solid $6,039 per location and raised its ten-day total to $84.6M. The decline was very similar to the 48% second weekend fall for last summer's big spy flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith which grossed $26M in its sophomore shot after a $50.3M bow. The Pitt-Jolie vehicle, however, captured a more muscular $96.7M in its first ten days thanks in part to a June release when more students were out of school.

With so many action sequels tumbling by 55% or more on the second weekend, Mission: Impossible III managed to hold up relatively well. Competition from Poseidon was not formidable so moviegoers were not drawn away to another big event pic. The latest Ethan Hunt film will face its true test this Friday when the much-anticipated thriller The Da Vinci Code starring that other Tom opens followed a week later by the mutant juggernaut X-Men: The Last Stand. At its current pace, look for MI3 to reach $130-140M domestically making it the lowest grossing installment of the decade-old franchise. The first Mission: Impossible grossed $181M in 1996 while MI2 took in $215.4M in 2000. Overseas, MI3 jumped to $129.2M in foreign sales putting the worldwide tally at $213.8M in under two weeks. The global box office gross looks to be on a trajectory to hit $350M.

Failing to sink Cruise's ship, the ocean liner disaster pic Poseidon settled for the runner-up spot this weekend opening with an estimated $20.3M from 3,555 locations. Warner Bros. generated a decent but not impressive per-theater average of $5,717 with its first pricey entry of the summer movie season. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm, Air Force One), the PG-13 film was a remake of the 1972 picture The Poseidon Adventure and starred Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, and Richard Dreyfuss as passengers on a luxury ship who must fight to survive after a rogue wave capsizes the vessel. Poseidon opened weaker than other big-budget maritime action films like 2003's Master and Commander ($25.1M), 2000's The Perfect Storm ($41.3M), and even 1995's infamous Waterworld ($21.2M).

Although audiences in years past have flocked to May disaster films like Twister, Deep Impact, and The Day After Tomorrow, this time Poseidon lacked the goods to draw in a paying audience. Reviews were not kind which also made the adult-skewing picture a tough sell. Varying reports on the film's budget put the production cost in excess of $160M so a stellar run internationally and on DVD will be needed in order to turn a profit. Poseidon set sail in a handful of Asian countries to the tune of $4.4M this weekend, but will open in most foreign territories in June and July.

MTV: Jessica Alba Tapped To Host MTV Movie Awards; Leather Chaps Not Yet Confirmed

She might not show up in fringed leather chaps and a diamond-studded bra, but Jessica Alba's newest leading-lady role still seems destined to be fantastic.

The "Fantastic Four" and "Sin City" star has signed on to host the 2006 MTV Movie

Awards, ending speculation over who will MC the proudly irreverent annual bash. The program will air Thursday, June 8, at 9 p.m. ET/PT (see "Alba, Carell, 'Crashers,' 'Virgin' Big Nominees For MTV Movie Awards").

"The MTV Movie Awards is like a three-ring circus, and I'm thrilled they asked me to be this year's ringmaster," the actress said.


Alba — who has starred in three movies since last year's awards — might want to bring a stunt-double along to help out with her new gig. The actress has already been announced as a nominee for "Fantastic Four" (Best Hero and a member of Best On-Screen Team) and "Sin City" (Sexiest Performance), creating the very real possibility that she'll be yielding the podium to someone who looks suspiciously like her. If so, it would be the first golden-popcorn award for Alba, who recently celebrated her 25th birthday.

Taking a break from the currently in-development sequels to both "Fantastic" and "Sin," Alba will oversee an anarchic list of nominees led by the likes of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson (one Best Comedic Performance nom each and a Best On-Screen Team nod for "Wedding Crashers"), as well as Steve Carell (Best Performance and Best Comedic Performance) and his "40-Year-Old-Virgin" improv veterans (Best On-Screen Team).

Alba, however, might be secretly rooting for 25-year-old heartthrob Hayden Christensen, nominated twice for "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" (Best Fight and Best Villain). He and Alba recently wrapped filming the psychological thriller "Awake," which is due in theaters in early 2007. (Another member of the "Awake" cast, "Hustle & Flow" star Terrence Howard, is nominated for Best Kiss and Best Performance.)

Featuring new categories of Best Hero, Sexiest Performance and the mtvU Student Filmmaker Award, this year's show is taking place at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Fans are invited to vote for their favorites by visiting movieawards.mtv.com before May 19 and voting from their mobile phones by texting "MOVIEAWARDS" to 91757 to receive a ballot. A third option is available by dialing toll-free 1-877-MTV-VOTE, where a different category is available for your vote each day.

The 2006 MTV Movie Awards will be seen in 171 countries and territories in 23 languages and more than 470 million households.

Eva Longoria tops Maxim's 'Hot 100' list.

NEW YORK - Eva Longoria tops Maxim's seventh annual "Hot 100" list of the most successful women in film, TV, music, sports and fashion for the second year in a row.

The "Desperate Housewives" actress told The Associated Press that her repeat selection for the No. 1 spot was a shock.

"I was actually really shocked last year when I made the list," said the 31-year-old Longoria, who ranked No. 91 on the 2004 roster.

"So 91 to No. 1 was a big jump, and then to get it a second time in a row - I just couldn't believe it," she said Friday. "I was like, `Surely there are more beautiful women in the world.' I can name 10."

Maxim said it is the first time the magazine has bestowed the No. 1 honor back-to-back. Editors made the selections for the issue, which will be on newsstands Thursday.

The magazine said all of the women on the list have several things in common, including "a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding them, undeniable beauty and a promise of greater things to come."

Jessica Alba is No. 2, followed by Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, Stacy Keibler ("Dancing With the Stars"), Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz, Kate Bosworth, Keira Knightley and singer-actress Christina Milian.

The list also includes "Desperate Housewives" stars Nicollette Sheridan (No. 48) and Teri Hatcher (No. 73).


"I would have voted all of our `Housewives' on the list," Longoria told the AP in a phone interview.

"The Maxim Hot 100 continues to get hotter, and it is all because of girls like Eva Longoria, who always looks sensational and continues to reach new heights in her career," Rob Gregory, the magazine's publisher, said in a statement Monday.

What does boyfriend/San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker make of all this?

"Oh, he's very proud," Longoria told the AP. "He thinks he's with a beautiful girl every day, so for him, it's, you know, someone else solidifying what he already thinks."

News: Britney Spears To Play Naked Superhero Opposite George Clooney?

Britney Spears is preparing to play a nude superhero opposite George Clooney in her attempt at movie stardom.

The singer has been speaking about her acting ambitions as she tries to match her musical success with a career in films, and has revealed she's prepared to strip off if the role requires it.

She says, “Yes (I would go nude). And I'd love to play a superhero. That would be really cool."

The curvy star has also targeted handsome actor George Clooney as her perfect leading man.

She laughs, “I'd like to do something with George Clooney. He's pretty cute - but don't tell my husband."

News: 'Da Vinci Code': the film likely to be a sure-fire box office winner.

It's the film that has got everyone talking long before its release, for in a world of conspiracy theorists, "The Da Vinci Code" has the conspiracy theory to beat them all.

So intriguing is the book's central contention that descendants of Jesus Christ survive today that 50 million copies have been sold since its publication in 2003 and it has been translated into 44 languages.

US director Ron Howard, already crowned with an Oscar for "A Beautiful Mind", would seem to have hit on a sure-fire box office winner by adapting Dan Brown's bestselling book onto the big screen.

And the 125-million-dollar movie has been kept jealously under wraps ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday and release across France, before it is seen worldwide on Friday.

Even though the stars, Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, as well as Howard have shied away from giving many interviews, the controversy surrounding the book has created a buzz of interest.

But Howard told journalists in Los Angeles recently that he had mixed feelings about the controversy, saying: "It's not my nature at all to be confrontational, combative or provocative.



"I chose this story because I thought that many of the ideas in this novel were very thought-provoking and very intriguing."

Few clues about the film have been leaked ahead of its release, although there is just enough tantalising detail to keep appetites whetted.

The Oscar-winning Hanks beat off competition from other Hollywood names like George Clooney and Russell Crowe to take the role of Robert Langdon, a symbologist called in when the curator of the Louvre museum is found murdered, his body splayed out in a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing "The Man of Vitruve."

Langdon, with the help of the curator's cryptologist grand-daughter Sophie Neveu played by Tautou, are soon caught up in a web of intrigue, racing against time to decode symbols hidden in Da Vinci's work in a trail which takes them from Paris to London and then Scotland.

All the signs point to a centuries-old mystery supposedly covered up by a secretive Vatican-backed organisation, which is ready to do anything to stop the world discovering a truth which could shake the very foundations of the Church.

The truth, according to Brown's novel, is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children with her, whose descendants still survive and are venerated and protected as Christ's direct bloodline.

Amid anger by some religious groups, Brown has been at pains to point out that the work is a fiction and merely a spring board for a discussion about Christianity.

Howard has also sought to fend off criticism, particularly from the Opus Dei, the powerful organisation named in the book, refusing to its request for a disclaimer. And in his own way he has added to the enigma.

"I laid out clues in a lot of different scenes," Howard said. "Some of them are reflective of Langdon's journey. Some are reflective of Sophie's journey. Some reflect the underlying threats that exist in the scene.

"Sometimes you have to freeze the frame to find it."

British actor Paul Bettany, who plays the murderous albino monk Silas who is seen flagellating himself, also entered into the spirit of things by wearing a pain-inducing barbed cilice under his robes.

It was just "from time to time to remind him of what the character was going through," Howard told the LA Times. "I didn't want these characters just to be chess pieces in a game."

The Louvre gave unprecedented permission for Howard to film inside the building renting out the space for some 24,000 euros a day, but Westminster Abbey in London declined, allowing outside shots only and forcing the crew to use Lincoln Cathedral instead.

Ian McKellen plays Sir Leigh Teabing, a British expert on the Holy Grail, while French actor Jean Reno has taken on the role of the police chief Bezu Fache in charge of the murder investigation.

Tautou, of "Amelie" fame, was chosen over other French actresses such as Amira Casar and Vanessa Paradis.

The 26-year-old was so convinced that she wouldn't be picked she took a picture of Hanks and Howard after reading for the role in Los Angeles to prove that she had met them.

Now amid the frenzy surrounding the film, she told France's weekly cinema magazine Studio earlier this year that she is worried whether she will be able to retain her anonymity.

"My biggest fear given the size and expectations surrounding this project is about celebrity and popularity. I hope I will be able to continue to lead the same life as today," she said. - AFP

'That was a major shock' - I Still Loves Tom Cruise..

This undated but recent photo of Nicole Kidman was shot by James White for Ladies' Home Journal. Kidman says her divorce from Tom Cruise was a 'major shock' -- and, she still loves him.'That was a major shock,' the 38-year-old actress says in an interview in the June issue of Ladies' Home Journal, on newsstands Tuesday,May 9, 2006.(AP Photo/Ladies' Home Journal, James White)
NEW YORK - Nicole Kidman says her divorce from Tom Cruise was a "major shock" £­ and, she still loves him.

"That was a major shock," the 38-year-old actress says in an interview in the June issue of Ladies' Home Journal, on newsstands Tuesday.

"He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him," she tells the magazine.

Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001 after 10 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized later that year.

"I always knew the rug was going to be taken out from underneath me at some stage," Kidman says. "I didn't think it was going to happen in the way it happened. I had seen my mother battle breast cancer, so I had a fear of my health being jeopardized ¡ª that was really where I was thinking mine would come.

"I knew I was going to get hit with something. But I think a divorce, and the demise of what your family is, is a little death in itself."
Cruise and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella, now 13, and Connor, now 11.

"I feel enormous love for whoever my children's birth parents are," Kidman says. "And if my children choose to go find them at some stage, I can't wait. Because ¡ª it's the weirdest thing ¡ª I actually feel (they're) very connected to us as a big, strange family, and whether they choose to search for them or not, who knows."

The 43-year-old actor's latest movie, "Mission: Impossible III," debuted with $48.025 million this weekend, a solid opening yet well below industry expectations and almost $10 million lower than the franchise's previous installment, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Katie Holmes, Cruise's 27-year-old fiancee, gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, Suri, last month.

Kidman, who stars in the upcoming "Fur," about photographer Diane Arbus, is reportedly dating country singer Keith Urban, 38.

"I'm pretty careful about who I share my life with," she says. "I surround myself with truthful, kind people, most of whom are not in the business. It's the life I want to have when I'm an old woman with long, gray hair."