Cruise Strips Off Again

Tom Cruise has snapped up the chance to play a sleazy TV sex guru in Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film Magnolia, a drama focusing on relationships between father and son. Anderson, the acclaimed director of Boogie Nights, earmarked Cruise for the role when the two met while Cruise was filming Eyes Wide Shut. Speaking to Mr Showbiz, Anderson said: "It's an actor's dream part, the macho actor onstage and then the daddy bedside scene. Once I saw Eyes, where he is such a repressed character, I thought, 'He's going to be running for this." Following the huge success of Boogie Nights Anderson planned to make a low-budget, quick film, but instead found himself writing Magnolia which has a $25 million budget. Cruise, who is described as a 'directors dream' 'plays a character estranged from his dying father. His role is small but in a memorable TV interview scene with a female reporter he strips down to his underwear and jumps up and down - a performance which has earned him a Golden Globe nomination, the well known precursor to a possible Oscar. Well if Dame Judi Dench can scoop one for eight minutes work, why not.