Tom Cruise, OB/GYN
By SHARON FINK
Published December 2, 2005
Here's something else to add to the list of things Tom Cruise has done this year that you shouldn't do unless you want people to think you're unhinged:
Buy a sonogram machine and do sonograms on your pregnant friends and neighbors in your home.
Cruise has gushed in recent interviews about how he bought a machine and uses it on pregnant fiancee Katie Holmes . "You just read the instructions - and see the baby dancing around!" he told Entertainment Tonight . "I saw the baby posing." (That's supposed to be a joke.)
But there are more reasons than public scorn (and the $15,000 to $20,000 price tag) to keep this off your do-it-yourself project list. The American College of Radiology tells E! Online that a baby can be harmed by sonograms done without a doctor's supervision. And the Food and Drug Administration says that anyone using the machine without a doctor's order could be breaking state or local laws on prescription medical devices.
Cruise's new PR people - on the job less than a month since his sister-spokeswoman left - didn't respond to E!'s request for comment. (Our guess: They were in an emergency staff meeting brainstorming how to get out of this deal.)
COINCIDENCE? CONFIRMATION? CONSPIRACY? CROCK OF NOTHINGNESS? The bridal registry section of the Neiman Marcus Web site was "temporarily unavailable" Thursday - the day the British tabloid Sun ran an item saying that Cruise and Holmes had registered for wedding gifts at the Beverly Hills store and were encouraging gift-givers to buy on the site.
The Sun claimed to have seen the gift list and it includes plates, bowls, wine glasses, martini glasses, a coffee pot, soup bowls (at a very reasonable $30 apiece) and a gravy boat. (Did Nicole get everything in the divorce? Does Katie just not want Nicole's stuff?)
And because we don't want to be accused of being overly sensational, we've left this for last: The wedding date said to be listed is Oct. 21, 2006.
DRINK GEISHA, SMELL GEISHA, DRESS GEISHA, SEE GEISHA: How does a studio try to lure Americans to a movie about Japanese geishas that stars Asian actors most of us have never heard of? It appeals to the basic human instinct to buy stuff.
Sony, the maker of Memoirs of a Geisha , set up deals to produce bath and body products and tea with the movie's name, and Banana Republic clothes tied to the movie, and got them in stores in advance of the Dec. 9 limited release (it opens locally Dec. 23).
"I can't think of another movie that has prompted retailers to go into new product lines," John Barker of DZP Marketing Communications told USA Today.
THE REAL FEMALE ELVIS; AND IT'S NOT LISA MARIE: When Madonna's latest single, Hung Up , moved into the Billboard top 10, she tied Elvis for most top 10 hits in the rock era at 36.
In a more bizarre grouping of influential pop culture figures, a publishing company has released small books of what it calls inspirational thoughts from John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Madonna. Madonna's include, "I am the epitome of the American dream," "When in doubt, act like God" and "I wouldn't have turned out the way I was if I didn't have all those old-fashioned values to rebel against."
-- Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com