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Village Voice Media is an American privately held corporation, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona,^[1] that owns weekly alternative newspapers throughout the country, including The Village Voice, published in New York City, New York, America's oldest (founded in 1955) and largest alternative weekly newspaper.^{[citation needed]}

Village Voice Media also operates Backpage, a website with a 70% market-share for prostitution ads in the U.S. according to AIM Group. It is "the biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States."^[2] Until 3/31/2012, Goldman Sachs owned 16% of Village Voice Media, but sold its shares soon after Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times discovered and began asking them questions about the stake. ^[3] According to the bank, they "had no influence over operations,” of their asset.^[4]

History[link]

The company was previously named New Times Media. On October 24, 2005, New Times Media announced a deal to acquire Village Voice Media, creating a chain of 17 free weekly newspapers around the country with a combined circulation of 1.8 million.^[5] After the deal's completion, New Times assumed the Village Voice Media name.

In 2002, the previous Village Voice Media had entered into a noncompetition agreement with New Times Media, another^{[clarification needed]} national publisher of alternative weeklies, whereby the two companies agreed to stop publishing New Times LA (a product of New Times Media) and Cleveland Free Times (a product of Village Voice Media), so that the companies would not publish two, competing newspapers in any single city. This agreement and phasing out of the two newspapers, led to an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation resulted in a settlement, requiring the companies to sell off assets and the old newspapers' titles to any potential competitors.^[6]

In October 2007, Michael Lacey, the executive editor, and Jim Larkin, the chief executive, of Village Voice Media, were arrested in Phoenix on charges that a Village Voice Media publication, the Phoenix New Times, had published secret grand jury information. A state special prosecutor was investigating the newspaper's long-running feud with Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, including the publishing of Arpaio's home address, a crime under Arizona law. The special prosecutor's subpoena included a demand for the names of the readers of the New Times's website. It was the information about the subpoena which was deemed by prosecutors to be secret grand jury information.^[7]

Lawsuit[link]

The company was sued in September 2010 by a 15-year-old sex trafficking victim (identified in court papers as "M.A") for allegedly aiding and abetting forced prostitution and the exploitation of children and child pornography by failing to investigate the prostitution ads on Backpage,^[8] which is owned by Village Voice Media.^[9] A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in August 2011.^[10] The court case and Village Media's role in child trafficking has been highlighted by many national commentators.^[11]

Rebuttal[link]

In an article on the Village Voice website [1] The Village Voice rebuts the entirety of the allegations against it and says, "Backpage dedicates hundreds of staff to screen adult classifieds in order to keep juveniles off the site and to work proactively with law enforcement in their efforts to locate victims. When the authorities have concerns, we share paperwork and records and help them make cases." They also rebut the facts of the articles against them, "A video that accompanied his online op-ed was headlined: "Age 16, She Was Sold on Backpage.com" That is not true. According to Alissa's court testimony, she was 16 in 2003. Backpage.com did not exist anywhere in America in 2003."

Assets[link]

In addition to owning The Village Voice and backpage.com, the company also owns the weekly publications:

See also[link]

	Arizona portal
	Companies portal
	Media portal

• List of Arizona companies
• List of publishers

References[link]

External links[link]

• villagevoicemedia.com, company's official website
• Jessica (October 24, 2005). "Village Voice Sells Its Soul to New Times" Gawker. Retrieved March 18, 2012.

Coordinates: 40°43′42″N 73°59′28″W / 40.7283°N 73.9911°W / 40.7283; -73.9911

The Cooper Square head office of the paper

Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff; photo by Tom Pich

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City. It is also distributed throughout the United States on a pay basis.

It was the first of the big-city tabloids that came to be known as alternative weeklies.^[2]

History[link]

The Voice was launched by Ed Fancher, Dan Wolf, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer^[3] on October 26, 1955 from a two-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village, which was its initial coverage area, expanding to other parts of the city by the 1960s. The offices in the 1960s were located at Sheridan Square; they are now at Cooper Square in the East Village.

The Voice has published groundbreaking investigations of New York City politics, as well as reporting on local and national politics, with arts, culture, music, dance, film, and theater reviews. The Voice has received three Pulitzer Prizes, in 1981 (Teresa Carpenter),^[4] 1986 (Jules Feiffer)^[5] and 2000 (Mark Schoofs).^[6] Almost since its inception the paper has recognized alternative theater in New York through its Obie Awards.^[7] The paper's "Pazz & Jop" music poll, started by Robert Christgau in the early 1970s, continues to this day and remains a highly influential survey of the nation's music critics. In 1999, film critic J. Hoberman and film section editor Dennis Lim began a similar Village Voice Film Poll for the year's movies. In 2001 the paper sponsored its first Siren Festival music festival, a free annual event every summer held at Coney Island. That event has since been moved to the lower tip of Manhattan and re-christened the "4Knots Music Festival," a reference to the speed of the East River's current.^[8]

The Voice has published many well-known writers, including Ezra Pound, Henry Miller, Barbara Garson, Katherine Anne Porter, M.S.Cone, staff writer and author, James Baldwin, E.E. Cummings, Nat Hentoff, Ted Hoagland, staff writer and author, William Bastone of thesmokinggun.com, Tom Stoppard, Lorraine Hansberry, Allen Ginsberg and Joshua Clover. Former editors have included Clay Felker and Tom Morgan.

Early columnists of the 1950s and 1960s included Jonas Mekas, who explored the underground film movement in his "Film Journal" column; Linda Solomon, who reviewed the Village club scene in the "Riffs" column; and Sam Julty, who wrote a popular column on car ownership and maintenance. John Wilcock wrote a column every week for the paper's first ten years. Another regular from that period was the cartoonist Kin Platt, who did weekly theatrical caricatures. Other prominent regulars have included Peter Schjeldahl, Ellen Willis, Tom Carson, Wayne Barrett, and Richard Goldstein.

The newspaper has also been a host to promising underground cartoonists. In addition to mainstay Jules Feiffer, whose cartoon ran for decades in the paper until its cancellation in 1996, well-known cartoonists featured in the paper have included R. Crumb, Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, Stan Mack, Mark Alan Stamaty, Ted Rall, Tom Tomorrow, Ward Sutton, Ruben Bolling and currently M. Wartella.

The Voice is also known for containing adult content, including sex-advice columns and many pages of advertising for "adult services." This content is located at the back of the newspaper.

The Voice is also locally known for being the place where most hard rock or jazz concerts are announced, sometimes with full page paid ads. Most groups visiting New York advertise in the Voice for publicity. Most venues in NYC advertise their concerts in The Village Voice.

The Voice's competitors in New York City include New York Observer and Time Out New York. In 1996, after decades of carrying a cover price, the Voice became one of the last alternative weeklies in America to become free of charge.^[9] (The paper is free in the five boroughs only; it still carries a charge for home/mail delivery and for newsstands outside the city limits, such as on Long Island.)

The Voice’s web site is a past winner of both the National Press Foundation’s Online Journalism Award (2001)^[10] and the Editor & Publisher EPpy Award for Best Overall U.S. Newspaper Online Service – Weekly, Community, Alternative & Free (2003).^[11]

Early in its history the newspaper had a reputation as having an anti-homosexual slant. When reporting on the Stonewall riots of 1969, the newspaper referred to the riots as "The Great Faggot Rebellion". Two reporters, Smith and Truscott, both used the words 'faggot' and 'dyke' in their articles about the riots. (These words were not commonly used by homosexuals to refer to each other at this time.) After the riot, the Gay Liberation Front attempted to promote dances for gays and lesbians and were not allowed to use the words gay or homosexual which the newspaper considered derogatory. The newspaper changed their policy after the GLF petitioned the Voice to do so.^[12]

The Voice was the second organization in the US known to have extended domestic partner benefits, in July 1982. Jeff Weinstein, an employee of the paper and shop steward for the publishing local of District 65 UAW, negotiated and won agreement in the union contract to extend health, life insurance, and disability benefits to the "spouse equivalents" of its union members.^[13]

Seventeen alternative weeklies around the United States are owned by the Voice's parent company Village Voice Media. In 2005, the Phoenix alternative weekly chain New Times Media purchased the company and took the Village Voice Media name. Previous owners of the Village Voice or of Village Voice Media have included co-founders Fancher and Wolf,^[3] New York City Councilman Carter Burden,^[3] New York Magazine founder Clay Felker, Rupert Murdoch, and Leonard Stern of the Hartz Mountain empire.

The paper is referenced in the musical Rent during the song La Vie Boheme. The line goes: "To riding your bike midday past the three piece suits, to fruits, to no absolutes; to Absolut; to choice; to The Village Voice, to any passing fad."

Changes after New Times Media acquisition[link]

Wikinews has related news: An interview with gossip columnist Michael Musto on the art of celebrity journalism

Since being acquired by New Times Media in 2005, the publication's key personnel have changed and the content has become increasingly mainstream. The Voice is now managed by two journalists from Phoenix, Arizona. Some New York media critics perceive a loss of the paper's original iconoclastic, bohemian spirit.^[14][15]

In April 2006, the Voice dismissed music editor Chuck Eddy.^[16] Four months later the newspaper fired longtime music critic Robert Christgau. In January 2007, the newspaper fired sex columnist and erotica author Rachel Kramer Bussel; long-term creative director Ted Keller, art director Minh Oung, fashion columnist Lynn Yeager and Deputy Art Director LD Beghtol were laid off/fired soon after.

The paper has experienced high turnover among its editorial leadership since 2005. Editor-in-chief Don Forst resigned in December 2005. Doug Simmons, his replacement, was fired in March 2006 after it was discovered that a reporter had fabricated portions of an article. Simmons' successor, Erik Wemple, resigned after two weeks. His replacement, David Blum, was fired in March 2007. As of April 2007^[update], Tony Ortega, former editor of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, is editor.

In December 2008, The New York Times reported that the situation grew so strained that half of its entire staff was gone. One still-employed writer remarked that the Voice's managers "don’t seem to be able to sit there and just talk about them with their own work force to deal with these problems".^[17]

Tony Ortega and the Voice became embroiled in a legal dispute with philanthropist and businessman David Bruce McMahan after it published investigative reports surrounding his reported incestuous relationship with his daughter in 2010.^[18] The paper alleged that McMahan was also having the controversy systematically removed from his Wikipedia page.^[19]

The firing of Nat Hentoff, who worked for the paper from 1958 to 2008, led to further criticism of the management by some of its current writers, Hentoff himself, and by the Voice's ideological rival paper National Review (which referred to Hentoff as a "treasure").^[17][20]

Awards and honors[link]

• 2008: New York Press Club Continuing Coverage Award / Newspaper, for "Tall Tales of a Mafia Mistress" by Tom Robbins^[21]
• 2003: Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, Local Circulation Weekly Category, series "Lush Life of Rudy Appointee" by Tom Robbins^[22]
• 2003: American Society of Journalists and Authors Donald Robinson Award for Investigative Journalism, for "Final Solutions: How IBM Helped Automate the Nazi Death Machine in Poland" by Edwin Black^[23]
• 2003: New York Press Club and New York State Bar Association Crystal Gavel Award, for "Why the NYPD Is Fighting for the Right to Spy on You" by Chisun Lee^[24]
• 2002: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Mike Berger Award for "Crossing to the Other Side" by Michael Kamber^[25]
• 2002: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award for Feature Writing, for "Crossing to the Other Side" by Michael Kamber^[26]
• 2002: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award for Photography, for photograph of downtown Manhattan by Andre Souroujon^[26]
• 2002: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award for Photography for Arts Criticism, work by Greg Tate^[26]
• 2002: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award for Photography for Cartoon, "Tom the Dancing Bug" by Ken Fisher (Ruben Bolling)^[26]
• 2001: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Mike Berger Award for "Life on the Outside" by Jennifer Gonnerman^[25]
• 2001: National Press Foundation Excellence in Online Journalism Award for www.villagevoice.com^[27]
• 2000: Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, for "AIDS: The Agony of Africa" by Mark Schoofs^[28]
• 1986: Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, Jules Feiffer^[29]
• 1981: Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, Teresa Carpenter^[30]
• 1960: George Polk Award for Community Service^[31]

See also[link]

• Media of New York City

References[link]

Notes

Further reading

External links[link]

• The Village Voice (official site)
• About Us – Our History at official site

John Buffalo Mailer (born April 16, 1978) is an American author, playwright, actor, producer, and journalist.

Life and career[link]

Mailer was born in Brooklyn, the youngest child of novelist Norman Mailer and author Norris Church Mailer.^[1] Mailer is a graduate of Wesleyan University. He has written several screenplays and is a freelance journalist. In 2006 he co-wrote The Big Empty (Nation Books, February ‘06) with his father.^[2]

Mailer founded Back House Productions in New York City with three other Wesleyan grads in October 2000.^[3] The following year, Back House became the resident theater company of The Drama Bookshop’s Arthur Seelan Theater, and developed, among many plays, the 2008 Tony winner for Best Musical, In The Heights. On being involved in theatre, John says: "I think theater will always be a powerful force because we need that human touch, particularly as we spend more and more time with machines, cell phones, computers we start to lose our humanity."^[4] In 2001, John’s first play, Hello Herman, had its New York Premiere at the Grove Street Playhouse and nine years later, its West Coast Premiere at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Los Angeles with John in the lead role. The result was Dramatists Play Services publishing the play in the Spring of 2010. John’s second play, Crazy Eyes, premiered in Athens, Greece in 2005.

John portrays the character Robby Mancins, an Options trader and the best friend of Shia Labeouf’s character Jake Moore, in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. He is a member of The Dramatists’ Guild, Actor’s Equity Association, SAG and The Actors Studio, has lectured at the University of Notre Dame, Wesleyan, the University of Athens, Syracuse University, The New York Society for Ethical Culture, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Long Island University, and has appeared on Hannity and Combs, Air America, Democracy Now, WNYC, CSPAN’s Book TV, and thebigthink.com. He has freelanced for Playboy, New York Magazine, Provincetown Arts, Lid, Stop Smiling, Corriera De La Sera, The Norman Mailer Review, ESPN Books and The American Conservative.

Mailer was selected as one of People Magazine's sexiest men alive in 2002.^[5] He lives in Brooklyn.

Plays[link]

• Hello Herman (2001)
• Crazy Eyes
• Dracula on Stage

As Actor[link]

• 1999: "Black and White"
• 2002: "Up to the Roof"
• 2006: "Kettle of Fish"
• 2008: " W."
• 2010: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

As Producer[link]

• 2008: "The End of America"
• 2002: "Up to the Roof"

As Writer[link]

• 2002: "Up to the Roof"
• 2011: "Hello, Herman" Film Adaptation

References[link]

External links[link]

• John Buffalo Mailer at the Internet Movie Database
• John Mailer on Film, Theatre & Writing: Big Think Interview nthWORD Magazine Shorts

Tom Cruise
Cruise on MTV Live in December 2008
Born	Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (1962-07-03) July 3, 1962 (age 49) Syracuse, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, writer, director
Years active	1981–present
Height	5 ft 7 in
Religion	Scientology
Spouse	Mimi Rogers (1987–1990) Nicole Kidman (1990–2001) Katie Holmes (2006–present)
Children	Isabella, Connor Cruise and Suri Cruise
Website
TomCruise.com Tom Cruise Facebook Tom Cruise Twitter

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV ( /ˈtɒməs ˈkruːz ˈmeɪpɒθər/; born July 3, 1962), widely known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards for the same movies: Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996), Magnolia (1999). He started his career with the movie Endless Love. Cruise's first appearance in a major film was in 1981's Taps. His first leading role was in the film Risky Business,^[1] released in August 1983. Cruise played the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and successful 1986 film Top Gun, and also secret agent Ethan Hunt in the series of Mission: Impossible action films.

He has starred in a variety of other successful films, including: Rain Man (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), and War of the Worlds (2005).

Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio,^[2] with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.^[3]

Early life[link]

Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York,^[4] the son of Mary Lee (née Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III (died 1984),^[5] an electrical engineer.^[6] Cruise's surname originates from his great-grandfather, Thomas Cruise O'Mara, who was adopted by a Welsh immigrant and renamed "Thomas Cruise Mapother".^[7][8][9] Cruise is of German, Irish, and English ancestry.^[10] He grew up in near poverty, in a Catholic family dominated by an abusive father whom Cruise has described as "a merchant of chaos".^[11] He was beaten by his father, who Cruise has said was a bully and coward.

He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life—how he’d lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang! For me, it was like, 'There's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.'^[11]

Cruise's family spent part of his childhood in Canada, and Cruise attended Robert Hopkins Public School in Ottawa, Ontario, for grades three, four, and five. The Mapother family then moved to the suburb of Beacon Hill, so Cruise's father could take a position as a defense consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces.^[12] There, Cruise completed grade six at Henry Munro Middle School, part of the Carleton Board of Education,^[13] where he was active in athletics, playing floor hockey almost every night, showing himself to be a ruthless player, and eventually chipping his front tooth. In the game British bulldogs, he then lost his newly capped tooth and hurt his knee.^[14] Henry Munro was also where Cruise became involved in drama, under the tutelage of George Steinburg.^[15] The first play he participated in was called IT, in which Cruise won the co-lead with Michael de Waal, one playing "Evil", the other playing "Good". The play met much acclaim, and toured with five other classmates to various schools around the Ottawa area, even being filmed at the local Ottawa TV station.^[16] Cruise was bullied regularly in the 15 different schools he attended in 12 years.^[11] When Cruise was twelve, his mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sister Lee Anne with her.^[11]

He briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati (on a church scholarship) and aspired to become a Catholic priest.^[17] In his senior year, he played football for the varsity team as a linebacker, but he was cut from the squad after getting caught drinking beer before a game.^{[18] [19]}

Career[link]

Acting[link]

1980s[link]

Cruise in 1989

Cruise first appeared in supporting roles the 1981 films Endless Love and Taps, the latter in which he played a crazed military school student. His first starring role was in the 1983 comedy Losin' It. That same year he appeared in All the Right Moves and Risky Business, which has been described as "A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker for Tom Cruise",^[20] and which along with 1986's Top Gun, cemented his status as a Superstar.

Cruise followed up Top Gun with The Color of Money, which came out the same year, and which paired him with Academy Award-winner Paul Newman. 1988 saw him star in Cocktail, which earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. Later that year he starred with Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, which won the Academy Award for Best Film and Cruise the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise finished the decade by portraying real-life paralyzed Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic in 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Actor, a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Cruise's first Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

1990s[link]

In 1994, Cruise starred along with Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater in Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, a gothic drama/horror film that was based on Anne Rice's best-selling novel. The film was well received, although Rice was initially quite outspoken in her criticism of Cruise having been cast in the film, as Julian Sands was her first choice. Upon seeing the film however, she paid $7,740 for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and apologizing for her previous doubts about him.^[21]

In 1996, Cruise appeared as superspy Ethan Hunt in the reboot of Mission: Impossible, which he produced. In 1996, he took on the title role in Jerry Maguire, for which he earned a Golden Globe and his second nomination for an Academy Award. In 1999, Cruise costarred with wife Nicole Kidman in the erotic Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut, and played motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey in the ensemble film Magnolia, for which he received another Golden Globe and nomination for an Academy Award.

2000s[link]

In 2000, Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of the Mission Impossible films, releasing Mission: Impossible II. The film was directed by Hong Kong director John Woo and branded with his gun fu style, and it continued the series' blockbuster success at the box office, taking in almost $547M in worldwide figures, like its predecessor, being the third highest grossing film of the year. Cruise received an MTV Movie Award as Best Male Performance for this film.^[22] His next five films were major critical and commercial successes.^{[23] [24]} The following year Cruise starred in the romantic thriller Vanilla Sky (2001) with Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz. In 2002, Cruise starred in the dystopian science fiction thriller, Minority Report which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick.

In 2003, he starred in the Edward Zwick's historical drama The Last Samurai, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as best actor.^[22] In 2005, Cruise worked again with Steven Spielberg in War of the Worlds, which became the fourth highest grossing film of the year with US$591.4 million worldwide. Also in 2005, he won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Movie Star, and the MTV Generation Award.^[22] Cruise was nominated for seven Saturn Awards between 2002 and 2009, winning once.^[22] Nine of the ten films he starred in during the decade made over $100 million at the box office.^[23]

Cruise in 2006

In 2006, he reprised his role as Ethan Hunt in the third installment of the Mission Impossible film series, Mission: Impossible III. The film was more positively received by critics than its predecessor, and grossed nearly $400 million at the box office.^[25] Cruise's 2007 film Lions for Lambs was a rare commercial disappointment. In 2008, Cruise appeared in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Jack Black. This performance earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. Cruise's role in the historical thriller Valkyrie released on December 25, 2008 to box office success.^[26] As of 2009, Cruise's films have grossed over $6.5 billion worldwide.^[27]

2010s[link]

In March 2010, Cruise completed filming the action-comedy Knight and Day, in which he re-teamed with former costar Cameron Diaz; the film was released on June 23, 2010.^[28] On February 9, 2010, Cruise confirmed that he would star in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth Mission:Impossible film, which was released in December 2011.^[29]

On May 6, 2011, Cruise was awarded a humanitarian award from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Museum of Tolerance for his work as a dedicated philanthropist.^[30].

In mid-2011 Cruise started shooting the movie Rock of Ages, in which he plays the character Stacee Jaxx. The film is scheduled to be released in June 2012.^[31]

Producing[link]

Cruise partnered with his former talent agent Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993,^[2] and the company has since co-produced several of Cruise's films,^[32] the first being Mission: Impossible in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer.

Cruise is noted as having negotiated some of the most lucrative film deals in Hollywood, and was described in 2005 by Hollywood economist Edward Jay Epstein as "one of the most powerful – and richest – forces in Hollywood". Epstein argues that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are regarded as able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar film franchise. Epstein also contends that the public obsession with Cruise's tabloid controversies obscures full appreciation of Cruise's exceptional commercial prowess.^[33]

Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise's film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller, The Devil in the White City about a real life serial killer, H. H. Holmes, at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. Kathryn Bigelow is attached to the project to produce and helm. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film about Holmes and the World's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.^[34]

Breakup with Paramount[link]

On August 22, 2006, Paramount Pictures announced it was ending its 14-year relationship with Cruise. In the Wall Street Journal, chairman of Viacom (Paramount's parent company) Sumner Redstone cited the economic damage to Cruise's value as an actor and producer from his controversial public behavior and views.^[35][36] Cruise/Wagner Productions responded that Paramount's announcement was a face-saving move after the production company had successfully sought alternative financing from private equity firms.^[37] Industry analysts such as Edward Jay Epstein commented that the real reason for the split was most likely Paramount's discontent over Cruise/Wagner's exceptionally large share of DVD sales from the Mission: Impossible franchise.^[38][39]

Management of United Artists[link]

In November 2006, Cruise and Paula Wagner announced that they had taken over United Artists film studio.^[2] Cruise acts as a producer and star in films for United Artists, while Wagner serves as UA's chief executive. Production began in 2007 of Valkyrie, a thriller based on the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. The film was acquired in March 2007 by United Artists. On March 21, 2007 Cruise signed on to play Claus von Stauffenberg, the protagonist. This project marks the second production to be greenlighted since Cruise and Wagner took control of United Artists. The first was its inaugural film, Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford and starring Redford, Meryl Streep and Cruise. Lambs was released on November 9, 2007,^[40] opening to unimpressive box office revenue and critical reception. In August 2008, Wagner stepped down from her position at United Artists; she retains her stake in UA, which combined with Cruise's share amounts to 30 percent of the studio.^[41]

Relationships and personal life[link]

Cruise had a relationship with his Risky Business co-star Rebecca De Mornay; they cohabited in New York from 1983–85.^{[42][43][44][45]}

With Katie Holmes in May 2009

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers on May 9, 1987; they divorced on February 4, 1990.^[1] Rogers is generally believed to have introduced Cruise to Scientology.^[46] He met his second wife, Nicole Kidman, on the set of their film Days of Thunder. The couple married on December 24, 1990. He and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella Jane (born December 1992) and Connor Antony (born January 1995).^[1] They separated in February 2001 when Kidman was three months pregnant; she later miscarried.^[47]

Cruise was next romantically linked with Penélope Cruz, his co-star in Vanilla Sky. That relationship ended in 2004.^[48] In April 2005, Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes. On April 27 that year, Cruise and Holmes, dubbed "TomKat" by the media, made their first public appearance together in Rome.^[49] A month later, Cruise declared his love for Holmes on The Oprah Winfrey Show famously jumping up and down on Winfrey's couch during the show.^[50] On October 6, 2005, Cruise and Holmes announced they were expecting a child,^[51] and their daughter, Suri, was born in April 2006. On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood stars.^[52][53] The actors' publicist said the couple had "officialized" their marriage in Los Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony.^[54] David Miscavige served as Cruise's best man.^[55]

Popularity[link]

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes interacting with fans in 2006

In 1990, 1991 and 1997, People magazine rated him among the 50 most beautiful people in the world. In 1995, Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history. Two years later, it ranked him among the top 5 film stars of all time. In 2002 and 2003, he was rated by Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list.^[1]

In 2006, Premiere ranked Cruise as Hollywood's most powerful actor,^[56] as Cruise came in at number 13 on the magazine's 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor.^[57] The same year, Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity.^[58]

In August 2006, "a USA Today/Gallup poll in which half of those surveyed registered an 'unfavorable' opinion of the actor" was cited as a reason in addition to "unacceptable behavior"^[59] for Paramount's non-renewal of their production contract with Cruise. In addition, Marketing Evaluations reports that Cruise's Q score (which is a measure of the popularity of celebrities), had fallen 40 percent. It was also revealed that Cruise is the celebrity people would least like as their best friend.

October 10, 2006 was declared "Tom Cruise Day" in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star.^[60]

Controversy[link]

Litigation[link]

During Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he successfully sued the Daily Express, a British tabloid which alleged that his marriage to Kidman was a sham designed to cover up his homosexuality.^[61] In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he had had an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this^{[clarification needed]}, and in August 2001, Slater was ordered to pay $10 million to Cruise in damages after Slater declared he could not afford to defend himself against the suit and would therefore default.^[62] Cruise also sued Michael Davis, publisher of Bold Magazine, who alleged but never confirmed that he had video that would prove Cruise was gay. The suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis that the video was not of Cruise, and that Cruise was heterosexual.^[63]

After The Beast's publication of their 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004, which included Cruise, Cruise's lawyer Bertram Fields threatened to sue. Seeing the opportunity for nationwide exposure, The Beast actively encouraged the lawsuit. No lawsuit was ever filed and Cruise was included more prominently in the 2005 list.^[64] In 2006, Cruise sued cybersquatter Jeff Burgar to obtain control of the TomCruise.com domain name. When owned by Burgar, the domain redirected to information about Cruise on Celebrity1000.com. The decision to turn TomCruise.com over to Cruise was handed down by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on July 5, 2006.^[65]

[edit] Oprah Winfrey Show

Cruise has made several expressions of his feelings for Holmes to the media, most notably the "couch incident" which took place on the popular The Oprah Winfrey Show of May 23, 2005. Cruise "jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend".^[66] The phrase "jumping the couch", fashioned after "jumping the shark", is used to describe someone "going off the deep end" in public in a manner extreme enough to tarnish his or her reputation.^[67] It enjoyed a short-lived popularity, being chosen by the editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang as the "slang term of the year" in 2005^[68] and by the nonprofit group Global Language Monitor as one of its top phrases for the year.^[69]

The "couch incident" was voted No.1 of 2005's "Most Surprising Television Moments" on a countdown on E!^{[citation needed]} and No.5 at BoxOfficeProphets.com.^[70] and was the subject of numerous parodies, including the epilogue of Scary Movie 4, an episode of South Park, a short on Sesame Street,^[71] and an episode of Family Guy. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Lesson learned: Tell, don't show".^[72]

In early May 2008, Cruise reappeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate 25 years in the film business. The feature was a two hour special, the first hour was Oprah spending the day with Cruise at his house in Telluride, Colorado on May 2.

Scientology[link]

Cruise is an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology. He became involved with Scientology in 1990 through his first wife, Mimi Rogers.^[73] He has said that Scientology, specifically the L. Ron Hubbard Study Tech, helped him overcome dyslexia.^[74] In addition to promoting various programs that introduce people to Scientology, Cruise has campaigned for Scientology to be recognized as a religion in Europe. In 2005, the Paris city council revealed that Cruise had lobbied officials Nicolas Sarkozy and Jean-Claude Gaudin, described him as a spokesman and militant for Scientology, and barred any further dealings with him.^[75][76] Cruise co-founded and raised donations for Downtown Medical to offer New York City 9/11 rescue workers detoxification therapy based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. This drew criticism from the medical profession,^[77] as well as firefighters.^[78] For these activities and others, David Miscavige awarded Cruise Scientology's Freedom Medal of Valor in late 2004.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2004, Tom Cruise said: "I think psychiatry should be outlawed."^[79] A controversy erupted in 2005 after he openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using the drug Paxil (paroxetine), an anti-depressant to which Shields attributes her recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. Cruise asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance, and that psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. Shields responded that Cruise "should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them".^[80] This led to a heated argument between Matt Lauer and Cruise on NBC's Today on June 24, 2005.^[81] Medical authorities view Cruise's comments as furthering the social stigma of mental illness.^[82][83] Shields herself called Cruise's comments "a disservice to mothers everywhere".^[84] In late August 2006, Cruise apologized in person to Shields for his comments.^[85] Scientology is well known for its opposition to mainstream psychiatry.

On January 15, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Cruise was posted on YouTube, showing Cruise discussing what being a Scientologist means to him.^[86][87] The Church of Scientology said the video had been "pirated and edited", and was taken from a three-hour video produced for members of Scientology.^[87][88] YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under threat of litigation.^[89]

Cruise's more open attitude to Scientology has been attributed to the March 2004 departure of his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley. He replaced her with his sister, fellow Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette, who served in that role until November 2005.^[90] DeVette was replaced with Paul Bloch from the publicity firm Rogers and Cowan.^[91] Such restructuring is seen as a move to curtail publicity of his views on Scientology, as well as the hard-sell of his relationship with Katie Holmes backfiring with the public.^[92][93]

Filmography[link]

As producer[link]

See also[link]

Brat Pack (actors) List of people from Syracuse, New York List of Scientologists Rock of Ages (2012 film)

Biography portal Film portal Scientology portal Supercouple Tom Cruise (disambiguation) Tom Cruise: Unauthorized (1998) Tom Cruise: All the World's a Stage (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikinews has news related to: Tom Cruise

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tom Cruise

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tom Cruise

• Official website
• Tom Cruise at the Internet Movie Database
• Tom Cruise at Yahoo! Movies
• Tom Cruise at the Open Directory Project
• Transcript of the Matt Lauer interview
• Rolling Stone Interview: "The Passion of the Cruise"; 08/11/04
• Tom Cruise at Rotten Tomatoes

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (May 2012)

Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes at the National Memorial Day in Washington, D.C., May 24, 2009
Born	Kate Noelle Holmes[n 1] (1978-12-18) December 18, 1978 (age 33) Toledo, Ohio, US
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1997–present
Spouse	Tom Cruise (2006–present)
Children	1

Kate Noelle "Katie" Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers including Abandon. She has also played on Broadway in a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. She achieved worldwide celebrity for her marriage to Tom Cruise, with whom she has a daughter, Suri.^[8][9]

Early life[link]

Holmes was born in Toledo, Ohio.^[10] She is the fourth daughter and youngest child of five children born to Kathleen (née Stothers), a homemaker and philanthropist, and Martin Joseph Holmes, Sr., an attorney specializing in divorces,^[11][12] She has three older sisters and one older brother: Tamera, Holly Ann, Martin Joseph, Jr., and Nancy Kay.^[4]

Holmes is of Russian, German, English and Irish ancestry and was baptized a Roman Catholic. She attended Christ the King Church and parochial schools in Toledo.^[13] She graduated from the all-female Notre Dame Academy (also her mother's alma mater), where Katie was a 4.0 student.^[14][15] At St. John's Jesuit, a nearby all-male high school, Holmes appeared in school musicals, playing a waitress in Hello, Dolly! and Lola in Damn Yankees.^[16] She scored 1310 out of 1600 on her SAT and was accepted to Columbia University (and attended for a summer session);^[10][14] her father wanted her to be a doctor.^[15]

At age 14, she began classes at a modeling school in Toledo run by Margaret O'Brien, who took her to the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Competition held in New York City in 1996. Eventually, Holmes was signed to an agent after performing a monologue from To Kill a Mockingbird.^[7] An audition tape was sent to the casting director for the 1997 film The Ice Storm, directed by Ang Lee. She was cast in the role of Libbets Casey, in the film which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.^[16]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

In January 1997, Holmes went to Los Angeles for pilot season,when producers cast and shoot new programs in the hopes of securing a spot on a network schedule. The Toledo Blade reported she was offered the lead in Buffy the Vampire Slayer but she turned it down.^[16] Columbia Tri-Star Television, producer of a new show created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson, asked her to come to Los Angeles to audition, but there was a conflict with her schedule. "I was doing my school play, Damn Yankees. And I was playing Lola. I even got to wear the feather boa. I thought, 'There is no way I'm not playing Lola to go audition for some network. I couldn't let my school down. We had already sold a lot of tickets. So I told Kevin and The WB, 'I'm sorry. I just can't meet with you this week. I've got other commitments.'"^[16][6][17]

The producers permitted her to audition on videotape. Holmes read for the part of Joey Potter, the tomboy best friend of the title character Dawson, on a videotape shot in her basement, her mother reading Dawson's lines.^[6][18] The Hollywood Reporter claimed the story of Holmes's audition "has become the stuff of legend" and "no one even thought that it was weird that one of the female leads would audition via Federal Express."^[19]

Holmes won the part. Paul Stupin, executive producer of the show, said his first reaction on seeing her audition tape was "That's Joey Potter!"^[20] Creator and executive producer Kevin Williamson said Holmes has a "unique combination of talent, beauty and skill that makes Hollywood come calling. But that's just the beginning. To meet her is to instantly fall under her spell."^[21] Williamson thought she had exactly the right look for Joey Potter. "She had those eyes, those eyes just stained with loneliness."^[22]

[edit] Dawson's Creek

"Joey Potter is a headstrong, vibrant, wily, sultry, and determined go-getter. And yet, in a gloriously contradictory manner, in spite of her tough-as-nails exterior demeanor, Joey's also a frail, sometimes uncertain, emotionally sensitive, in-need-of-love person", said the show's official book.^[23] Joey, named for Jo in Little Women, for years had been climbing in Dawson's bedroom window and platonically sharing his bed. Joey's mother had died from cancer when Joey was thirteen and her father, Mike (Gareth Williams), was in prison for "conspiracy to traffic in marijuana in excess of 10,000 pounds." Her harried, unmarried, and very pregnant sister, Bessie (Nina Repeta), about ten years older than Joey,^{[n 2]} was raising her while running the Ice House restaurant, where Joey worked as a waitress. GQ described Joey as "kind of an uptight fussbudget—one who's always twisted up over doing the right thing and bungling-up ways to hook up with her crush and across the creek neighbor, Dawson."^[22]

"I'm a lot like Joey", said Holmes. "I think they saw that. I come from a small town. I was a tomboy. Joey tries to be articulate and deny that she doesn't have a lot of experience in life. Her life parallels mine, which is all about new everything—relationships, personal perceptions—and about being guarded." Holmes filmed the pilot of Dawson's Creek in Wilmington, North Carolina, during spring break of her senior year of high school in 1997.^[3]

The 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) tall^[22][24] brunette enchanted the press, writers of both sexes commenting how Holmes was the sort of girl one wants to bring home to meet the parents and to marry.^[15][22] "The Audrey Hepburn of her generation", was one typical comment.^[25] Time called her "impossibly lovely" and Entertainment Weekly said she was "next up for idolhood."^[26][27] Variety, reviewing the pilot, said Holmes "is a confident young performer who delivers her lines with slyness and conviction."^[28] Holmes made such an impression in Hollywood, The New York Times Magazine claimed everyone was seeking to cast a "Katie Holmes type", who, the reporter claimed, "is a throwback to the 1950s: she is a smart girl next door (as opposed to the babe-o-rama blondes)".^[29] But her "type" was no less attractive, Arena magazine declaring her "the most coquettishly sexy woman on television. Anywhere."^[30]

Holmes was soon on the covers of magazines such as Seventeen, TV Guide, and Rolling Stone. Jancee Dunn, an editor at Rolling Stone said she was chosen for the cover because "every time you mention Dawson's Creek you tend to get a lot of dolphin-like shrieks from teenage girls. The fact that she is drop-dead gorgeous didn't hurt either."^[31]

Reviews of Dawson's Creek were mixed. The Toledo Blade said the characters "just talk like they came from a planet ruled by Manhattan psychologists, one where small talk is punishable by death."^[32] Holmes herself needed help with the dialogue. "Sometimes before we read a script, I have to get my dictionary and call people to make sure I'm pronouncing some of the words correctly."^[14] The show brought her national attention and many fans back home; Toledo's Thanksgiving Day parade in November 1998 had record attendance when Holmes was named grand marshal.^[33][34]

Dawson's Creek ran from 1998 to 2003, and Holmes was the only actor to appear in all 128 episodes. "It was very difficult for me to leave Wilmington, to have my little glass bubble burst and move on. I hate change. On the other hand it was refreshing to play someone else", she said in 2004.^[35] Holmes confirmed that, as often happens on soaps, the character was a caricature of the actor:

"As Joey", said Life magazine, "Holmes has had seismic influences on teen life... Through it all, Joey has managed to hang on to her integrity... The show—and Katie's character in particular—has touched a nerve."^[18]

Film[link]

This article is missing information about reception of Holmes' performances in Go, Teaching Mrs Tingle, Phone Booth, The Singing Detective, The Extra Man, The Romantics, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, The Son of No One. Please expand the primary text and the lead to include this information. (September 2011)

In 2005, Holmes characterised her film career as being a string of "bombs." "Usually I'm not even in the top ten", she said, the highest grossing film of her career then being Phone Booth.^[3] She lamented "It's not like I have a lot of stuff that's great just waiting for me to sign on to."^[36]

Her first leading role came in Disturbing Behavior (1998), a Scream-era Stepford Wives-goes-to-high school thriller, where she was a loner from the wrong side of the tracks. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote her character, Rachel, "dresses in black and likes to strike poses on the beds of pickup trucks and is a bad girl who is in great danger of becoming a very good one."^[37][38] The actress won a MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance for the role, though Holmes said the film was "just horrible."^[15]

Holmes played a disaffected supermarket clerk in Doug Liman's ensemble piece Go (1999).^[39]

She had an uncredited cameo with Dawson's Creek co-star Joshua Jackson in Muppets from Space (1999), which was also filmed in Wilmington.^[40]

In Kevin Williamson's Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), which he wrote and directed, Holmes played a straight-A student whose vindictive teacher (Helen Mirren) threatens to keep her from a desperately needed scholarship.^[41]

In Wonder Boys (2000), directed by Curtis Hanson from the novel by Michael Chabon, Holmes had a small role (six and one-half minutes of screen time) but nevertheless attracted the attention of numerous film critics with her performance as Hannah Green, the talented student who lusts after Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), her creative writing instructor and landlord. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said she was "just right as the beauty with kind of a crush on the old man."^[22][42][43]

In The Gift (2000), a Southern Gothic story directed by Sam Raimi and starring Cate Blanchett, she played the antithesis of Joey Potter: a promiscuous rich girl having affairs with everyone from a sociopathic wife-beater (Keanu Reeves) to the district attorney (Gary Cole), and is murdered by her fiancé (Greg Kinnear). Holmes did her first nude scene for the film, in a scene where her character was about to be murdered. Her appearance was lamented by Variety's Steven Kotler.^[44] In Ohio, the scene met with disapproval from Russ Lemmon writing in the Toledo Blade.^[45]

In Abandon (2002), written by Oscar winner Stephen Gaghan, Holmes was a delusional, homicidal college student named "Katie." Todd McCarthy of Variety and Roger Ebert commended her performance,^[46] but other critics and audiences savaged it.^[47] The actress played the mistress of the public relations flack played by Colin Farrell in Phone Booth (2002) and Robert Downey, Jr.'s nurse in The Singing Detective (2003). Holmes's next starring role was in Pieces of April (2003), a gritty comedy about a dysfunctional family on Thanksgiving. Variety said it was "one of her best film performances."^[48] "Each actor shines", wrote Elvis Mitchell, "even Ms. Holmes, whose beauty seems to have fogged the minds of her previous directors" in playing "a brat who is slaving to find her inner decency and barely has the equipment for such an achievement, let alone to serve a meal whose salmonella potential could claim an entire borough. Yet it is her surliness, as well as her intransigent determination to make Thanksgiving work, that keeps the laughs coming."^[49]

In 2003, Holmes was a contender for the role of Christine Daaé in 2004's The Phantom of the Opera,^[50] but lost the role to Emmy Rossum.

Holmes played the President's daughter in First Daughter, which was originally to be released in January 2004 on the same day as Chasing Liberty, another film about a president's daughter, but was ultimately released in September 2004 to dismal reviews and ticket sales. First Daughter, directed by Forest Whitaker, also starred Michael Keaton as her father and Marc Blucas as her love interest. The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt called her character, Samantha Mackenzie, "a startling example of how a studio film can dumb down and neutralize the comic abilities of a lively young star."^[51] In the 2005 film Batman Begins, the most successful film of her career to date^[52], she played Rachel Dawes, an attorney in the Gotham City district attorney's office and the childhood sweetheart of the title character. Variety was unenthusiastic. "Holmes is OK", was its critic's sole remark on her performance.^[53] She was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for "worst supporting actress" for the film.^[54]

In 2005, she appeared in the film version of Christopher Buckley's satirical novel Thank You for Smoking about a tobacco lobbyist played by Aaron Eckhart, whom Holmes's character, a Washington reporter, seduces. Variety wrote one of the film's "sole relatively weak notes [came] from Holmes, who lacks even a hint of the wiliness of a ruthless reporter" and The New York Times said the cast was "exceptionally fine" except for Holmes, who "strain[ed] credulity" in her role.^[55][56]

Holmes had agreed to play in Shame on You, a biopic about the country singer Spade Cooley written and directed by Dennis Quaid, as the wife whom Cooley (played by Quaid) stomps to death. But the picture, set to shoot in New Orleans, Louisiana, was delayed by Hurricane Katrina, and Holmes dropped out because of her pregnancy.^[57][58][59]

After speculation about Holmes reprising her role in The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, it was finally confirmed that she would not appear. Her role was later recast with Maggie Gyllenhaal in her place.^[60] Instead, Holmes decided to star in the comedy Mad Money, opposite Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah.^[61] The Canadian Press criticized Katie Holmes's performance "While Keaton has long done zany and giddy well, and she and Latifah have an interesting contrast of personalities, Holmes' presence feels like an afterthought."^[62] The New York Post, The New York Times and Variety also criticized Katie Holmes's performance in the film, and The New York Times called Holmes "the movie's weakest link."^[63][64] In early July 2009, Holmes began filming a remake of the 1970s ABC telemovie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark; the film was released in August 2011.^[65]

Holmes and Chace Crawford have been cast as the leads in the romantic comedy Responsible Adults, to begin shooting in Los Angeles in "fall 2011".^[66]

Stage[link]

Holmes made her Broadway debut in the revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons^[67] in September 2008. She opened to mixed reviews. Ben Brantley of The New York Times claimed "the neophyte Ms. Holmes" is a "sad casualty" of director Simon McBurney's "high concept approach" to the play. He adds that "Ms. Holmes delivers most of her lines with meaningful asperity, italicising every word."^[68] Clive Barnes of the New York Post was similarly unimpressed by Holmes – and had few compliments for her co-stars. He wrote, "Lithgow starts in a sunny, benign fashion, but eventually finds himself screeching alongside Holmes, looking tough under a glossy wig."^[69] However, The New York Daily News' Joe Dziemianowicz was won over by the actress' first stint on stage, writing, "Holmes, a TV and film vet, makes a fine Broadway debut. Her rather grand speech pattern takes getting used to, but she seems comfortable and adds a fitting glint of glamour."^[70] In 2009, Holmes appeared in the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C. in a dialogue with Dianne Wiest celebrating the life of an American veteran seriously wounded in Iraq, José Pequeño.^[71]

TV work[link]

Holmes hosted Saturday Night Live on February 24, 2001, participating in a send-up of Dawson's Creek where she falls madly in love with Chris Kattan's Mr. Peepers character and singing "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity. On the November 9, 2003 episode, she was Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher and the next year she was the subject of an episode of the MTV program Diary.^[72]

In 2008 Holmes appeared in an episode of Eli Stone as Grace, a lawyer, and her singing and dancing was praised by Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly.^[73]

In 2011, Katie Holmes played the role of Jackie Kennedy in The Kennedys. Linda Stasi felt that Holmes took a while to get into the role, but was ultimately convincing as Kennedy.^[74] Bob Owen felt that while Holmes resembled Kennedy, Holmes could not perform her accent correctly.^[75] Dorothy Rabinovitz felt that while Holmes had Kennedy's "whispery tone", that she could not pull off Kennedy's class.^[76]

In October 2011 she also played the role of the "Slutty Pumpkin" (Naomi), in the TV show How I Met Your Mother, episode "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns".

Other work[link]

Holmes was annually named by both the British and American editions of FHM magazine as one of the sexiest women in the world from 1999 forward. She was named one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2003; its sibling Teen People declared her one of the "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" that year;^[77][78] and in 2005, People said she was one of the ten best dressed stars that year.^[79] She has appeared in advertisements for Garnier Lumia haircolor, Coach leather goods, and clothing retailer The Gap.^[80]

On November 4, 2007 Holmes ran, and successfully completed, the New York City Marathon in 5:29:58.^[81]

After much speculation, in late November 2008 it was confirmed that she would be the new face of the spring 2009 campaign for the high-end fashion line Miu Miu.^[82]

In 2008 Holmes started a high fashion clothing line called Holmes &Yang with longtime stylist Jeanne Yang.^[83]

In January 2011 she became the new face of Ann Taylor Spring 11 collection.^[84] In April 2011, she ranked 6th in People magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful issue.^[85]

Awards[link]

In June 2011 Katie Holmes received the Women in Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award. ^[86]

Personal life[link]

Relationships[link]

Holmes with Tom Cruise in May 2009

Holmes dated her Dawson's Creek co-star Joshua Jackson early in the show's run. Holmes met actor Chris Klein in 2000. Klein and Holmes were engaged in late 2003, but in early 2005 she and Klein ended their relationship.^{[87][88][89][90]}

Weeks after her relationship with Klein ended, Holmes began dating actor Tom Cruise. Cruise proposed to Holmes in the early morning of June 17, 2005, on top of Paris's Eiffel Tower.^[91] On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood stars.^[92] The actors' publicist said the couple had "officialized" their marriage in Los Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony.^[93]

Holmes, who was raised a Roman Catholic,^[8] joined the Church of Scientology shortly after the couple began dating.^[9]

On April 18, 2006, Holmes gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Suri. The Los Angeles Times summarized the written statement Cruise released on the birth, saying the name "is a word with origins in both Hebrew and Persian. In Hebrew, it means 'princess' and in Persian, 'red rose,' it was claimed in the release."^[94] Although some Hebrew linguists had never seen the word for "princess" spelled this way and its meaning,^[95] others said it was a Yiddish pronunciation of the Hebrew name "Sarah".^[96] The first photographs of Suri appeared in the October 2006 issue of Vanity Fair, shot by Annie Leibovitz,^[97] and became the publication's second best selling issue of all time, selling more than 700,000 copies.^[98]

Legal issues[link]

In July 2009, Holmes, Nigel Lythgoe, Adam Shankman, and Carrie Ann Inaba announced the launch of a dance scholarship fund called the Dizzy Feet Foundation.^[99]

In early March 2011, Katie Holmes filed a $50 million libel lawsuit against the Star Magazine following a cover story which insinuated that she took drugs.^[100] The suit was settled on April 27, 2011 when Star wrote a public apology in the May 6, 2011 issue along with an undisclosed "substantial" donation to Katie's charity Dizzy Feet.^[101]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

Notes[link]

Scientology portal

References[link]