Tom Cruise Talks Dirty

The IMDB quote GQ quoting Tom Cruise today. And what did the Cruiser allegedly say?

"Sex is about the connection. Great sex is a by-product, for me, of a great relationship, where you have communication and it's an extension of that. Where it's just free. And that's how it should be. It's spectacular. If you're not in good communication with your partner, it sucks. (Meaningless sex outside of a relationship) is really horrible and pathetic and lonely."

Let's just suppose that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes really do have a "romantic", sexual relationship - not many people are prepared to assume that, but you and I are, so let's do so, just a moment.

And assuming that, sadly, it seems that nothing, really, is private between them. He's publicly declaring his love in a couch jumping session. He's talking about their "sexual connection" in a men's magazine. Its all out there for the world to see. She's virtually reduced to a big flashing badge on his jacket.

At least if she were just a beard for his proclivities, she'd have a private life different to the showbiz one, somewhere to retreat to, where Gawker couldn't get at her, where the public eye was blinded.

Worst case scenario is that this "showbiz" life would be real to her - real, but exposed, always out in the open - and that Tom would be carrying on affairs (which many would assume to be homosexual affairs) behind her back.

Best case scenario? That they are a real, loving couple but are so hungry for public attention that they'll commodify even the smallest detail of their private lives, parade their feelings in front of the world, always seek out the most visible arena in which to show their behinds.

I don't see how they could be happy, either way. And for two of the most regularly beaming grins on the magazine rack, that strikes me as particularly sad.

If Cameron Crowe ever does make his Phil Spector movie, and if Tom Cruise is cast in the part, I think Tom could sensibly use his performance as a platform to make personal statements - about how he has been feeling and about how he has been treated through his decades of fame.

For similar reasons, I can't imagine Vanilla Sky with another actor in the role. I loved the film - I'd confidently call it the most subversive popular Hollywood film since Vertigo. It might even look like an ego project for Cruise, but its far from that simple or one-sided. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's comments on Cruise and his lifestyle in the film that Crowe didn't even discuss, that the actor may have been - and may still be - unaware of.

Cameron Crowe seems to be the only director cutting Cruise enough slack - or, perhaps, handing him enough rope, if you want to look at it that way. Whatever Crowe eventually does next - the whipping Elizabethtown was subjected to may have slowed him down a little - I think it'd be good for Cruise to re-team with him, lay off of the Spielberg and Missions: Impossible, do something less anodine, more personal, deeper than his skin again.