Mark’s All Man

Tom Cruise drew heaps of praise from all present at last night's Vanilla Sky premiere (21 January) and his Mission: Impossible 2 co-star Thandie Newton was no exception. But while singing Cruise's praises, Newton did stop long enough to give Empire Online the lowdown on her latest project. "I've just finished a film with Mark Wahlberg, which Jonathan Demme directed. It's a remake of Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, so it's that kind of banter and the chemistry between those two characters." Based on the 1963 film, The Truth About Charlie sees Newton as a young woman in Paris who is about to divorce her husband when she finds out he's died and taken all their money with him. The plot thickens as a strange man (Wahlberg) tells her the money is really his and demands that she hand it over. Cue intrigues within intrigues and a string of dead bodies. "We're not trying to recreate the film," says Newton, "it's a complete departure but it's still a romance, a thriller-romance." The original involved the theft of a WWII payroll but this has doubtless been rewritten to bring the story up to date. With Newton having acted alongside Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and a number of other shapely actors, we can't help but wonder how well Wahlberg measures up? "He's great. I found him quite controlled and reserved, he's an incredibly sexy presence in life and on screen