Manuel Gómez Pereira (born 8 December 1958 in Madrid) is a Spanish screenwriter and film director of comedies. His 1999 film Between Your Legs was entered into the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.^[1]

He is the nephew of the film director Luis Sanz.

Filmography as Director[link]

• 1992: Salsa rosa
• 1993: ¿Por qué lo llaman amor cuando quieren decir sexo?
• 1994: Todos los hombres sois iguales
• 1995: Boca a boca (Mouth to Mouth)
• 1997: Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health (El amor perjudica seriamente la salud)
• 1999: Between Your Legs (Entre las piernas)
• 2001: Off Key (Desafinado)
• 2004: ¡Hay motivo!
• 2004: Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena
• 2006: Queens (Reinas)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Manuel Gómez Pereira at the Internet Movie Database

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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the Spanish Wikipedia. (December 2009) Don't speak Spanish? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|es|Gómez Pereira}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Gómez Pereira
Born	1500 Medina del Campo
Died	1567
Occupation	Doctor, Philosopher

Gómez Pereira (1500–1567) was a Spanish philosopher, doctor, and natural humanist from Medina del Campo. Pereira worked hard to dispel medieval concepts of medicine and proposed the application of empirical methods; as for his philosophy, it is of the standard direction and his reasonings are a clear precedent of René Descartes.^[1] He was famous for his practice of medicine, although he had many diverse occupations, such as owning businesses, engineering, and philosophy. He is credited with helping Descartes come up with the famous phrase cogito ergo sum, meaning I think, therefore I am in Latin.

Biography[link]

Not much is known of his life, because there was no one who took care of his manuscripts. What is known is the result of the investigation of unrelated documents to which researchers have given shape, many of them having to do with business or lawsuits.

Notary document of 1567 with Pereira's signature

Born in 1500 in Medina del Campo, he was the second of five brothers; his father, Antonia Pereira, owned a small shop of " xerguería," i.e., fabrics and low quality cloths. His mother, Margarita de Medina, died in 1515 and her sons went to the care of her aunt Ana de Avila. It is thought that Pereira descended from a family of converted Jews originally from Portugal, though this is not certain because the source of this was a neighbor that testified against him in a lawsuit.

However, we cannot rule out this conversion because we know that, until his marriage, Pereira lived with his parents on Serrano street, which is located in the old Jewish quarter of town.

Pereira studied natural philosophy at the University of Salamanca with professor Juan Martínez Silíceo (who later became the archbishop of Toledo between 1545 and 1557). There, apparently, he was actively involved in the disputes between the realists and the nominalists, preferring the latter and rejecting the authority of the old masters in favor of knowledge provided by experience and reason. Here, he also studied medicine, concluding his studies 1520.

He then returned to Medina where he established himself as a doctor. He married Isabel Rodriguez and lived on Rúa Nueva (now Padilla Street) where he worked as a doctor and managed the business that he inherited from his family. He possessed a considerable amount of capital and invested in a wide range of business including responsibility for making the actual income and managing the collection of several parishes, trading and warehousing wines, and renting rooms to other merchants who went to the "Great Exhibitions of the Kingdom" that took place in Medina.

His fame as a physician exceeded the boundaries of Medina, and he practiced in Burgos, Segovia, Ávila and other important cities of Castille. He even came to the court of Phillip II where he was summed to attend upon Prince Charles, heir to the unfortunate throne, who had suffered a serious accident. Thanks to Pereira, the Prince lived until 1568. He was also interested in the construction of hydraulic devices and, with his companion Francisco Lobato, designed a watermill dam that could function without water, which was patented in 1563.

In folio 26 of the Manuscripts of Francisco Lobato, the Medinan engineer decided to design a special mill, at the initiative of King Maxmilian II of Austria, who at the time was in Vallodolid (ca. 1550), a refugee from the wars against the Protestants. The future king of Bohemia took a fancy to go up the Douro River, so he commanded a galley be built and ordered the removal of any building that disrupted his navigation, i.e., fisheries and mills. This greatly harmed the locals who came to Lobato and Pereira to design a mill that could grind with the force of water without being directly on the river bank. Lobato goes on to explain that a model they tested on the Zapardiel River "milled and shook with reasonable force…, but it sucked in so much water that, by midday, there wasn't a single drop." Although the model was refined with a dam that returned the water to the river, the king paid no attention, and the project fell into oblivion. Lobato complained bitterly that, despite the promises of funding by the Hapsburgs, "we have already spent 150 ducats…and he never paid me anything—someday I'll have to ask for it."

Siphoning mill of Francisco Lobato and Gómez Pereira

Work[link]

Pereira's unique thought arose from his synthesis of philosophy and medicine. He rejected the authority of the old masters and medievals in favor of reason, logic and experience. Moreover, he often used paradoxes and syllogisms to expose the errors of those he questioned. Thus, it can be argued that his philosophy was more negative than positive, but this is understandable considering the context of ideological suppression in the face of religious authority, as well the veiled accusations about Pereira's Jewish origins. The famous essayist Menéndez Pelayo wrote of this famous thinker:

In experimental psychology, Gómez Pereira is, without a doubt, more advanced than his time, more than the seventeenth century, more than Bacon, more than Descartes. None noted the phenomenon of his intelligence.

[edit] Novae veraeque Medicinae

Novae veraeque Medicinae is a medical treatise that focuses on the study of fevers [its causes and types] as well as other specific diseases like leprosy and smallpox. In this work, which he dedicated to Prince Don Carlos, Pereira follows in the tradition of Aristotle and Galen, as well as the medieval tradition of "magister dixit," which is based entirely on an empirical and rational method, as well as the authority of the experience of the physician. The healing methods are simple, and the doctor, because of his method and experience, is the final criterion of truth (as opposed to truths of religion or faith). "In no case of religious things will I give the opinion and sentence of some philosopher if it is not based on reason."

Gómez Pereira felt that the heat generated by a fever is the body's defense mechanism to remove the damage that affects it and, thus, nature restores the natural balance of any body, a surprisingly modern conception of fever as a reaction against disease. As for his studies of diseases such as leprosy or smallpox, Pereira's conclusions were later commended by the physician and historian Antonio Hernandez Morejon.

[edit] Antoniana Margarita

Antoniana Margarita

Antoniana Margarita was reprinted many times but only very recently translated into Castilian (2000, form the original Latin). The work is dedicated to his teacher Juan Martinez Silicium and is a tribute to his parents, Antonio and Margarita, even though the subtitle of clearly indicates its scientific and philosophical contents: "a work so useful and necessary for medical, physical, and theologians ("Opus NEMP phisicis, ac medicis teologis, non minus utile quam neccessarium").

A difficult text to read because there are no chapters or paragraphs, the document uses the language of the "christianos nuevos" (New Christians) to explore new ideas from empiricism and materialism, possibly an effort to hide potentially controversial and blasphemous methods of reasoning (16th Century Castile, the Council of Trent had already begun). Thus, the Pereira did not venture to develop the logical conclusions to their fullest extent.

It is a philosophical treatise that addresses three key issues: the "automatism of beasts"; the theory of human knowledge; the immortality of the soul.

The Insensibility of Animals[link]

Pereira's paradigm is typical of the Christian humanism of the Renaissance, denying that animals are equal to humans, while acknowledging some resemblance. Both have a body with five senses, but in the case of animals, the senses do not lead to knowledge, but cause automatic reactions. Indeed, many animals are capable of acting on internal impulses (soma), upon external stimuli (specie and phantasma), and have some non-conscious ability to learn (memoria). Nevertheless, Pereira denies animals the capacity for real knowledge: "bruta sensu carent."

The idea had many supporters, because, as indicated by the author himself, if animals feel just like humans, there would be nothing to differentiate, and if humans and animals are equal, animals can also learn about the Universal, which would be "absurd and impious." But he also had detractors, some of them very close. The physician Francisco de Sosa, who published in 1556 his work "Endecálago against Antoniana Margarita, in which is treated many and very sensitive reasons and authorities of the proofs of the feeling and movement of brutes. "

Human Knowledge[link]

In this sense, Pereira's ideas are radically opposed to medieval scholasticism. He argues that knowledge enters through the sensory organs, as in animals, but only the human soul, its spirit, is capable of converting the information provided by the senses into real thought. This is one of the qualities of the soul, the ability to extract from physical sensations the substance of things ( Universals) through this process of abstraction. But Gómez Pereira believes that sensation and intellect go together in such a way that in human beings there is something that identifies the faculty of feeling with the quality of thought, in the same way, e.g., that thought and language are linked: "if you feel, you understand."

The Immortality of the Soul[link]

Thus, knowledge would be an essential faculty of the soul, and, moreover, the human being has a soul conscious of itself, that exists thanks to the thoughts it develops. In this work, there is a phrase that no doubt surprises those that are unaware of Pereira, for obvious reasons: "nosco me aliquid noscere, et quidquid noscit, est, ergo ego sum." "I know that I know something, anyone who knows exists, then I exist."

Although Pereira recognizes that animals have souls, it dies with them. The human soul, however, is self-sufficient and thus immortal. He provides three proofs that he claims had not been discovered. First, because of its consciousness, the human soul is capable of knowing independent of the body, and thus is capable of existing despite the body's death. Secondly, the human soul does not change even though the body ages or becomes diseased, that is, its essence is not affected by extrinsic factors. Thirdly, it is the desire of all humans to attain happiness, which, alongside the wish to know the future and the consequences of our actions, are the reasons that prompt us to do good, because evil deeds lead to punishment and misfortune.

Pereira and Descartes[link]

After René Descartes published his Discourse on Method in 1637, the originality of the thoughts was questioned and even said to be an overt plagiarism of Gómez Pereira, as the Spanish philosopher had been studied by many prestigious intellectuals during the 16th and 17th Centuries.

The first to suggest the similarities between the two was Pierre Daniel Huet, originally a follower then an opponent of Cartesian philosophy. Descartes himself was forced to defend himself against these accusations, as is evidenced by a latter he wrote in 1641 to his friend Father Marin Mersenne:

I have not seen Antoniana Margarita, nor do I have a great need to see it any more than the Theses of Louvain or the book of Hansenius, but I would like to know where to find a copy if you think it necessary.

Many scholars of the 17th and 18th Centuries sided with Descartes and despised the work of Pereira, among them Pierre Bayle (although he did recognize the similarity between the two) and the Enclyopedists Diderot and d'Alembert who said:

Descartes is the first philosopher who dared to consider animals as mere machines: therefore, Gómez Pereira, who said this some time before him . . . stumbled upon this hypothesis by chance.

However, many others have defended the contrary thesis. Even accepting that Descartes may not have read the work of Pereira, they argue that he was influenced indirectly, especially through the work of another Spanish physician and philosopher, Francisco Valles, who read it in French. Among those who accuse Descartes of being a counterfeit are Isaac Cardoso and Voltaire.

The basis for this criticism is the striking similarities between the two thinkers on some key points:

1. The empirical method: Descartes' is a priori and deductive, whereas Pereira's is a posteriori and inductive.
2. Souls of animals: for both, it is a material soul, limited and mortal
3. The "automatism of beasts": whereas Descartes says that animals have a body, mind and memory, Pereira says the same using different language, viz., animals have internal structure or soma, external stimuli or phantasmae, and the ability to learn or memoria.
4. The basic syllogism is strikingly similar in both, the "Cogito ergo sum" ("je pense, donce je suis") of Descartes versus the "quidquid noscit, est, ergo ego sum" of Pereira (which precedes Descartes by some one hundred years).

References[link]

1. ^ Santos López, Modesto (1986). Gómez Pereira, médico y filósofo medinense (Spanish). Eufemio Lorenzo Sanz, coord. Ayuntamiento de Medina del Campo. ISBN 84-505-4412-2. 

Clara Lago

Clara Lago Grau (born March 6, 1990 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish actress.

Lago portrayed Eva, a leading role, in the 2011 Spanish thriller Fin.^[1]

Filmography[link]

• Tengo ganas de ti (2012)
• The End (2012)
• La Cara Oculta (2011)
• El Mal Ajeno (2010)
• El Juego Del Ahorcado (2009)
• El club de los suicidas (2007)
• Arena en los Bolsillos (película)|Arena en los Bolsillos (2006)
• La vida que te espera (2004)
• El viaje de Carol (2002)
• Terca vida (2000)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Clara Lago at the Internet Movie Database

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 may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the Spanish Wikipedia. (March 2009) Don't speak Spanish? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|es|Joan Manuel Serrat}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Joan Manuel Serrat
Joan Manuel Serrat
Background information
Birth name	Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa
Born	(1943-12-27) December 27, 1943 (age 68)
Origin	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Genres	Nueva Canción
Occupations	Singer, Songwriter
Instruments	Singing, Guitar
Years active	1965–present
Labels	Sony BMG
Website	www.jmserrat.com

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa (Catalan pronunciation: [ʒuˈam mənuˈɛɫ səˈrat]) (27 December 1943) is a Spanish singer.

Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music in both the Spanish and Catalan languages. He became involved with music at the age of 17, when he got his first guitar, to which he dedicates one of his earliest songs, "Una guitarra".

In the early '60s, the young artist participated in a pop band, playing along with classmates at Barcelona's Agronomy School and performing mainly Beatles songs and Italian 'pop-of-the-era' songs translated to Spanish.

In 1965, while singing in a radio show called Radioscope, host Salvador Escamilla helped him secure a record deal with local label Edigsa, where he recorded his first LP, as well as joining the group Els Setze Jutges.

Joan Manuel Serrat's first live stage performance in 1967 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, served to establish him as one of the most important artists inside the Nova cançó movement in Catalonia.

The following year, Spain entered Serrat in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 to sing "La, la, la", but he asked to sing it in Catalan, to which the Spanish authorities would not agree. This would be the first time he would come into conflict with the language politics of Francoist Spain, because of his decision to sing in his native Catalan language, repressed by dictator Francisco Franco. Defiantly, Serrat refused to sing the Spanish-language version, and was hurriedly replaced by Massiel, who went on to win the contest with her Spanish-language interpretation.

As a result, Serrat's songs were banned and his records burned in the streets. He then traveled to South America and participated in the Rio de Janeiro's World Music Festival, where he took first place with the song "Penélope".

In 1969, Serrat released an album containing songs with texts of Antonio Machado, a well-known Spanish poet of late 19th-early 20th century. This album brought him immediate fame in all Spain and Latin America though, in spite of this, his decision to sing in Spanish was criticized in some Catalan nationalist circles. Regarding this and other times when his choice of language (sometimes Spanish, sometimes Catalan) raised controversy on either side of the political sphere, he once explained: "I sing better in the language they forbid me."

The release of the Mediterráneo LP in 1971 consolidated the artist's reputation worldwide. During that year, Serrat sang a seminal concert at the theater of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, which was highly influential in the Puerto Rican music community of the time, and which had repercussions as late as 2006.

In late 1974, Serrat was exiled in Mexico due to his condemnation of arbitrary executions under Franco's regime. It wasn't until Franco's death on November 20, 1975 that Serrat was able to return to his homeland. In 1976, Joan Manuel Serrat was acclaimed for the first time in the U.S.A., while performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

In January 1995, the Spanish government awarded him a medal for his contribution to Hispanic culture. That same year, a tribute album called Serrat, eres único was made to honor his career, featuring artists such as Diego Torres, Ketama, Rosario Flores, Joaquín Sabina, and Antonio Flores. On November 28, 1998, Serrat performed the Cant del Barça during the FC Barcelona Centenary festival at the Camp Nou.

In 2000, the Spanish Association of Authors and Editors (SGAE) awarded him with one of ten Medals of the Century.

Serrat revealed in October 2004 that he had been undergoing treatment for cancer of the urinary bladder and in November that year he had to cancel a tour of Latin America and the U.S. in order to undergo surgery in Barcelona, where he still lives. His signature song "Mediterráneo" was selected as the most important song of the 20th century in Spain.

His recovery was satisfactory, and in 2005 he went on tour again ("Serrat 100×100") around Spain and Latin America with his lifelong producer and arranger, Ricard Miralles. During the tour Serrat played symphonic versions of his songs with local symphony orchestras.

A second volume of Serrat, eres único was also released this year, featuring Alejandro Sanz, Estopa, and Pasión Vega. Around the same time, Cuban artists such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Chucho Valdez, and Ibrahim Ferrer came together to make another tribute CD, Cuba le canta a Serrat.

By 2006, the theater of the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras where Serrat sang in 1970 had undergone a multi-million dollar renovation, after being closed for ten years. The university planned to reopen the theater with Serrat as its first popular culture act, thus recalling his first performance there. However, student protests over the university conceding private entities control over some theater administration functions ended up in a physical confrontation between some student leaders and patrons attending the theater's inaugural gala, the day before Serrat's first scheduled performance. As a result, the concerts had to be postponed and changed to another venue. Serrat felt particularly uneasy about the whole situation; when he was pressed to take sides in the controversy he opted to remain neutral.

In 2006 Serrat also released Mô, his first album completely in Catalan in 17 years. The album title refers to the city of Mahón, capital of the Spanish island of Menorca, where he likes to get away from it all during long touring seasons.

Serrat is a part owner of the Mas Perinet winery producing both DO Montsant and DOC Priorat wines in La Morera de Montsant.

Discography (LPs)[link]

• 1967 – Ara que tinc Vint Anys
• 1968 – Cançons Tradicionals
• 1969 – Com ho fa el Vent
• 1969 – La Paloma
• 1969 – Dedicado a Antonio Machado, poeta
• 1970 – Serrat IV
• 1971 – Mediterráneo
• 1972 – Miguel Hernández
• 1973 – Per al meu Amic
• 1974 – Canción Infantil
• 1975 – ...Para Piel de Manzana
• 1977 – Res no és Mesquí
• 1978 – 1978
• 1979 – Mi Biñez
• 1980 – Tal com Raja
• 1981 – En Tránsito
• 1983 – Cada Loco con su Tema
• 1984 – Fa Vint Anys que tinc Vint Anys
• 1984 – En Directo
• 1985 – El Sur también Existe
• 1986 – Sinceramente Teu
• 1987 – Bienaventurados
• 1989 – Material Sensible
• 1992 – Utopía
• 1994 – Nadie es Perfecto
• 1996 – Banda Sonora d'un Temps d'un País
• 1996 – El Gusto es Nuestro (live with Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel, and Miguel Ríos)
• 1998 – Sombras de la China
• 2000 – Cansiones (Tarrés)
• 2002 – Versos en la Boca
• 2003 – Serrat Sinfónico
• 2006 – Mô
• 2007 – Dos Pájaros de un Tiro (live with Joaquín Sabina)
• 2010 – Hijo de la Luz y de la Sombra
• 2012 – La Orquesta del Titanic (studio album with Joaquín Sabina)

Tributes (LPs)[link]

• Varios: Serrat, eres único (BMG Ariola, 1995)
• Ricardo León: 'Antes que lleguen los perros' (Whitehill Records, 2002)
• Ricardo León: 'Levementeodioso' (Whitehill Records, 2004).
• Varios: Serrat, eres único (volumen 2) (BMG Ariola, 2005)
• Varios: Cuba le canta a Serrat (Discmedi, 2005)
• Varios: Per al meu amic Serrat (Discmedi, 2006)
• Varios: Cuba le canta a Serrat (volumen 2) (Discmedi, 2007)

External links[link]

• JOAN MANUEL SERRAT... Desde siempre y para siempre
• Joan Manuel Serrat discography
• English translations of Serrat's songs