Cruise Gushes About New Girlfriend
KARYN BRYANT, CO-HOST: Tom Cruise is all smiles, and Kelly Clarkson stops by. I`m Karyn Bryant.</s>A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST: And I`m A.J. Hammer. This is</s>SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.  BRYANT: Tonight, he`s so excited and he just can`t hide it. Tom Cruise is jumping out of his seat, and we`re just itching to tell you why.</s>HAMMER: Plus, "Star Wars" and the war on terror. Is Darth Vader just another Osama? Was the force really with President Bush? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT looks at the reality and the fantasy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is going to be our last scene.</s>BRYANT: And your ticket to TV finales. The season wraps up, and we`re on the sets of the hottest shows.</s>DAVID CARUSO, "CSI: MIAMI": I would say that there is an unresolved complication at the end of the show.</s>HAMMER: Plus, "Alias`s" Ron Rifkin joins us live.</s>TERI HATCHER, "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES": Hi. I`m Teri Hatcher. If it happened today, it`s on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.</s>HAMMER: Hello. I`m A.J. Hammer. This is SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, and you are at the top of the show.</s>BRYANT: I`m Karyn Bryant. You are watching TV`s only live nightly entertainment news program.</s>HAMMER: He swooned. He laughed. He even jumped up on the couch once or twice.</s>BRYANT: We`re not talking about a rambunctious 2-year-old, just, you know, the biggest movie star in the world. Tom Cruise was on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today to talk about his new girlfriend, actress Katie Holmes. And one thing we didn`t see from Cruise was control.</s>TOM CRUISE: I`m in love!</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT (voice-over): The ultra-cool Tom Cruise we all know was nowhere to be seen on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today. Instead, we got blushing Tom, gushing Tom.</s>CRUISE: I met her.</s>OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: You met her?</s>CRUISE: Yes. She`s extraordinary. She`s truly...</s>HAFFENREFFER: And the giggly-as-a-schoolboy Tom. And he says it`s all about his new lady, Katie Holmes.</s>CRUISE: I can`t be cool, you know what I mean? I can`t be laid back. I just -- it`s something that has happened, and I feel I want to celebrate it.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Leave it to Oprah to ask what we`ve all been asking about the newly smitten Tom Cruise.</s>WINFREY: What has happened to you?</s>HAFFENREFFER: What`s happened is that ever since we got our first glimpses of Tom and Katie traipsing around Rome last month, the usually private Tom has been very publicly showing off his new girlfriend. On today`s "Oprah," he even dragged her out for a curtain call.</s>SARA BERNARD, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: This is a totally different side of Tom, and the fact that both Tom and Katie have movies coming out this month is not lost on anyone.</s>HAFFENREFFER: He`s in "War of the Worlds," and she`s in "Batman Begins." Not to be cynical, but from a PR standpoint, having a high- profile relationship while you have a high-profile movie is awfully convenient, too convenient for some people to accept.</s>BERNARD: There`s definitely something fishy with this relationship. I think what`s been interesting is it`s not so much the age difference that everyone`s focused on. He`s 42, she`s 36. It`s more just the sort of fabricated nature of this whole presentation, the fact that they were so eager to meet the paparazzi in Rome, the fact that their publicist, who`s actually Tom Cruise`s sister, was so open about the details of their relationship.</s>HAFFENREFFER: How is the Tom/Katie relationship playing out among the public? I hit the streets of New York City to find out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I don`t usually think celebrities are really in love because it`s all -- you know, they put them together for publicity.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most people deserve a life of their own. Everyone should just butt out of their business and -- if he really wants her, he really wants her.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Well, as we saw on "Oprah," Tom Cruise apparently does want Katie, and he also wants us to know it.</s>BRYANT: That was SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s David Haffenreffer reporting. Now, Oprah, of course, had no problems asking Cruise if he planned to propose to Katie. His answer was, quote, "I`m going to discuss it with her." Well, now we want to know your thoughts. It`s our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: Is their romance a publicity stunt? You can vote at cnn.com/showbiztonight, or if you want to tell us more, e-mail us at showbiztonight@cnn.com. We`ll share some of what you had to say later in the show.</s>HAMMER: Well, tonight, "Star Wars Episode III" has smashed seven -- that`s right, seven -- box office records. "Revenge of the Sith," which blasted into theaters last Thursday, had the biggest opening day ever. So let`s go through the rest of these statistics. The movie also broke gross records for single-day, two-day, three-day, four-day and five-day openings at the box office. It also had the largest midnight show when it opened up last Thursday. The only record that Darth Vader and company did not beat? "Spider-Man`s" three-day opening weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in May of 2002. As of this afternoon, "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" has grossed a total of $158.5 million.</s>BRYANT: Well, tonight, our "SHOWBIZ In Depth" -- "Star Wars</s>III: Revenge of the Sith." Last week, it seemed like everyone was drawing comparisons between creator George Lucas`s galaxy far, far away, the situation in Iraq and President George Bush. Now, after its opening weekend, the country is buzzing about it even more. Is Darth Vader really George Bush in disguise? Is the clone war taking place in Iraq? Is the Jedi Council a mock-up of the United Nations? And if so, where the heck does Yoda fit in? Well, joining us live to talk about it are Curtis Sliwa, co-host of WABC radio morning show "Curtis And Kuby." We`ve got Neil Rosen, entertainment critic for the cable news station NY1, and Jason Apuzzo, director the Liberty Film Festival. Of course, they have all three seen the movie. Now, guys, I want to start with one of the quotes in this, of Anakin, who is, of course, the future Darth Vader, says, "If you are not with me, then you are my enemy." And this is this is some people drawing the comparisons to what George Bush said after 9/11, saying, You`re either with us or with the terrorists. Jason, I`m going to go to you first. What`s your take on this?</s>JASON APUZZO, DIRECTOR, LIBERTY FILM FESTIVAL: Yes. I mean, I don`t think there`s any question that that line isn`t there by coincidence. What a lot of people don`t know about the "Star Wars" series is that about 30 years ago, when George came up with the original idea for the series, he intended it to be actually a parable for America`s involvement in Vietnam, with America as the evil empire and the supposedly primitive Vietnamese, low-tech Vietnamese, as the rebel alliance. Now, obviously, the series developed into much more than that, and to some extent, got out of his hands. But what he`s doing now I think is sort of returning the series back to its original roots in making the analogy that America, perhaps, is itself becoming the empire. I personally think it`s a tremendous film. I think most people believe that, but that aspect of the film, to me, is a little troubling and I don`t think is particularly going to go over well with audiences when they dwell on that level of it.</s>BRYANT: Well, Curtis, what do you think of this? Do you think that, you know, George Lucas has created this, you know, movie just to poke at George Bush?</s>CURTIS SLIWA, CO-HOST, WABC MORNING SHOW: Well, I got to tell you something. There were people poking at me with their light sabers in the movie theater. I had to duck. When you have adult men fighting in the aisles -- and I think the "Star Wars" cultists are not going to see any political connections. But when the French gave George Lucas a Michael Moore standing ovation, like they gave him for "Fahrenheit 9/11," and saw the direct connection between George Lucas`s film here, "Stars Wars: The Revenge of the Sith," and the Sith look like right-wing religious fundamentalists, who are at war with the United Nations, the Jedi knights, young Skywalker obviously George W. Bush -- and I think, the chancellor, who ultimately becomes emperor, he`s the Dick Cheney-type that nobody`s really talking about. So yes, it`s a shot below the belt at George W. Bush, our war in Iraq, and definitely Vice President Dick Cheney.</s>BRYANT: All right, Neil, let`s go to you. You`re an entertainment critic. When you watched this movie, were you thinking of Senator Palpatine? Were you comparing his, you know, efforts in the film to George Bush trying to get the Patriot Act passed? I mean, what did you think of all this?</s>NEIL ROSEN, ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC, NY1 NEWS: Well, that`s a great question, Karyn, because I have to tell you, you know, having sat through now six "Star Wars" films, and specifically the last one, which you asked about, I didn`t think about any of this. I mean, I did hear the line, you know, Who would invade a- you know, a country or -- you know, I heard those lines, but I did not think that there was any political connection whatsoever. I mean, all this talk that I`m hearing now did not even, you know, come across my head once through sitting through this movie. I mean, these movies -- Darth Vader was -- was written by -- the first movie came out in 1977. The character was created by George Lucas -- you know, was written on the set of "American Graffiti" a number of years before that. So you know, George Bush -- George Bush`s father was not really in the public consciousness. So I think you can read into this anything that you want, but no, to answer your question, this was not on my mind. I didn`t see it as a political movie. I just saw it as a great movie and a great conclusion to the series. After the lousy last two films, finally, George Lucas came through with a good one.</s>BRYANT: All right, well, let`s have a little fun with this, Jason. If people are making these comparisons, who then would Yoda be in today`s public -- public arena?</s>APUZZO: Oh, I don`t know. You know, look, I just want to respond to something said a little bit earlier, though. I think it is deluded to think tat there isn`t politics in this film. I mean, when you have Anakin in the climactic moment of the film, and frankly, the prequel trilogy -- he`s going down the path to the dark side, he`s becoming Darth Vader, and he borrows a line from a Bush speech, I mean, I don`t think that`s coincidental.</s>BRYANT: Well, certainly...</s>ROSEN: I think there are a couple of lines, I agree with you, that were thrown in. I was asked if I was thinking of that when I saw the movie, and I was not. But I agree that I think there were some lines that were thrown in. But I don`t think that`s the crux of the movie. I think you`d have to agree with that.</s>APUZZO: I don`t think -- no...</s>ROSEN: ... that George Lucas was making a political statement with this movie.</s>APUZZO: Yes, I don`t think it`s the crux, either. I think that what is irritating a lot of people, quite frankly, is that -- and myself included because I`m a real admirer of Lucas as a filmmaker -- is that we`re even talking about this with respect to a "Star Wars" film. And it just brings up the larger issue to me of how now, even in fantasy films, Hollywood is essentially imposing politics into an area that previously had been free from that.</s>ROSEN: Yes, but...</s>APUZZO: It`s frustrating to a lot of people.</s>ROSEN: But you...</s>APUZZO: They want to have an adult -- an unadulterated experience at the movies, where they`re able to enjoy this stuff and not get yanked out of something they`re enjoying in order for someone to make a political statement...</s>BRYANT: Go ahead...</s>SLIWA: Well...</s>APUZZO: ... about the war or what have you.</s>BRYANT: Go ahead, Curtis.</s>SLIWA: You asked who is the Yoda figure Well, that`s obviously John McCain because, if you notice, John McCain is liked by Democrats, he`s liked by Republicans. The Samuel Jackson character -- clearly Colin Powell, who never really trusted the Bush administration, although he served it in this capacity...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But doesn`t Palpatine look like Lieberman, though? He looks a lot like Lieberman to me.</s>BRYANT: Well...</s>SLIWA: No, no, no. I mean, Lieberman, you know, always sounds a bit constipated. I think the chancellor, in the end, is sort of full of himself, very much like Dick Cheney. But clearly, George Lucas took applause at Cannes and continued his verbal attacks on Bush and the Iraq war. So I have to see...</s>BRYANT: Guys...</s>SLIWA: ... see this written into this new "Star Wars" flick.</s>BRYANT: All right, guys, we`re going to have to wrap it up. Obviously, this is something that`s going to keep going on, I think, as the summer plays out and as the film continues to make more and more money. Thank you, Curtis Sliwa, Neil Rosen and Jason Apuzzo. And there you go, "SHOWBIZ In Depth,"</s>A.J.  HAMMER: Well, to be clear, also, George Lucas has made it clear, since all of this came up, that he, indeed, wrote that line before George Bush ever made that speech.</s>BRYANT: Sure. Sure. Definitely.</s>HAMMER: I just wanted to point that out.</s>BRYANT: Thank you.</s>HAMMER: All right. Well, coming up on</s>SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: Instead of firing people, the Donald is accepting people. We`re going to tell you about Trump`s latest venture and how it could help you learn a thing or two.</s>BRYANT: Plus, Kelly Clarkson. From "American Idol" to superstar on her own. Kelly opens up about life on top and on the road when she joins us one on one for a "SHOWBIZ Sitdown."</s>HAMMER: And SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s got your season finale pass. We are on the set of "</s>CSI: Miami" for the big action that`s promising to fool everybody. So stay with us. Now tonight`s "Entertainment Weekly Great American Pop Culture Quiz." In the 1952 film "Singing in the Rain," what was added to the rain to make the water stand out better on the screen during that famous Gene Kelly title number, paste, confetti, milk or coffee? Mix it all together for a tasty treat. We`re coming right back with the answer.