Screen legend Lauren Bacall has taken a caustic swipe at Tom Cruise, chiding the Hollywood star for his "vulgar" behavior and questioning his acting ability.
In an interview in the latest issue of Time Magazine, Bacall, 85, who has never been shy in voicing her opinion of fellow actors, made clear her distaste for Cruise's recent displays of emotion over his engagement to actress Katie Holmes.
"His whole behavior is so shocking," she said. "It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness," she added.
PHOTO AP
Bacall also had some less than complimentary words for Cruise's acting skills as she bemoaned the liberal way labels like "great" and "legend" were sprinkled over Hollywood stars.
"I mean the word `great' stands for something," Bacall said. "When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise."
The screen siren and widow of Humphrey Bogart had made similar remarks last year about Cruise's ex-wife, Nicole Kidman, with whom she worked on the film Birth.
PHOTO: AFP
At the time, Bacall took exception to one reporter's description of Oscar-winner Kidman as a legend.
"She's not a legend," Bacall snapped. "She's a beginner. What is this `legend'? She can't be a legend at whatever age she is. You have to be older."
More conflict has broken out this week in Scotland, where a little scuffle has arisen over boasting rights to fictional Star Trek engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott following the death last month of the 81 year old actor who played him, James Doohan, The Times reported Tuesday.
Linlithgow, central Scotland, was first off the mark, claiming as its own the character from the science fiction series set two centuries into the future soon after Doohan's death.
Local councillor Willie Dunn told the newspaper that Linlithgow had "information" Scotty was supposed to have been born in the city in 2222 in the Star Trek world, and that a plaque honoring him would be put up to boost tourism.
But now, the cities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Elgin have all made their own claims on the character.
Aberdeen believes Scotty was born there in 2220, citing a fan Web site which lists an episode in which the USS Enterprise's
engineer refers to himself as an "Aberdeen pub crawler".
Doohan was open about the fact that his occasionally shaky Scottish accent was based on someone from Aberdeen he met during military service in Britain in World War II.
However, Edinburgh has its own claim, based on another Web site which lists Scotty's birthplace as "Edinburgh, Earth," while Elgin bases its boast on an interview with Doohan in which he supposedly names it as his character's home.
Thankfully show business isn't all conflict, with Oscar-nominated child star Haley Joel Osment returning to the big screen after a two-year break. He will star in a coming-of-age movie titled Home of the Giants, industry press said.
The star of the hit ghost movie The Sixth Sense, now 17, will play a teenager who idolizes a basketball star in a Midwestern US town in the independent movie to be directed by Rusty Gorman.
This week for the box-office the comedy Wedding Crashers crashed its way to the top of the North American box office last weekend, raking in US$20 million in its second week on screens.
The film, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as a pair of slick Casanovas who masquerade as wedding guests and romance a succession of bridesmaids, displacing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from the number one spot.
The comedy's US$20 million weekend haul boosted its take in the US and Canada US$115.6
million in three weeks.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory dropped to second place, grossing US$16.3 million.
The superhero comedy Sky High, starring Kurt Russell, scored US$14.6 million and third place.
The opening of Stealth, starring Jamie Foxx and Josh Lucas in an action adventure about three top-secret military pilots who struggle to bring a rogue artificial intelligence program under control, was fourth with US$13.2 million.
The romantic comedy Must Love Dogs, starring John Cusack and Diane Lane, was fifth with box office receipts of US$12.8 million.
The comicbook hero adventure movie Fantastic Four was sixth with US$6.9 million, followed by suspense thriller The Island, about people trapped on an island populated by clones, with US$5.9 million.
The comedy Bad News Bears, starring Billy Bob Thornton in a remake of the 1976 hit starring Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal, was eighth with US$5.6 million, followed by Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise, with US$5.4 million.
The French documentary March of the Penguins, the story of love and tenacity among Emperor penguins in the antarctic, rounded off the weekly top 10 with a weekend haul of US$4 million.
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