Sundance: Katie Holmes sex scene cut from Smoking?
Filed under: Sundance, Celebrities and Controversy, Tom Cruise
Sundance is abuzz this morning over a sex scene, featuring Katie Holmes, that mysteriously disappeared from Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking in between its Toronto premiere and Sundance screening. Most people on the ground here don't believe, as various tabloids are reporting, that Tom Cruise had anything to do with the scene's excision, but it is odd that the director himself isn't taking any responsibility for it. Claiming he was "in shock" when he saw the sex scene-less version projected on Saturday night, Reitman told the LA Times that a projectionist had accidentally snipped off the scene whilst changing reels. As implausible as that sounds – even the shortest scene would live on several feet of film stock, making any kind of accidental snip both unweildy and conspicuous – there doesn't seem to be another credible explanation at this point. I did not see the film in Toronto, but my sources tell me that the original scene wasn't graphic in any way – certainly not as graphic as anything Nicole Kidman did whilst co-starring opposite then-husband Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut – and considering that Holmes herself appeared topless several years ago in the Gift, any squeamishness on the part of Holmes' fiancee would just be really, really crazy. When I saw Smoking here at Sundance, I actually sort of admired the lack of hardcore action in the innuendo-laden film – I thought Reitman was trying to be Preston Sturges. Guess not. But what do you think is going on here? If nothing else, isn't it a little funny that this not-inherently controversial film finds a way to cause some kind of silly hoopla everywhere it goes? Here's one more scrap of "evidence": when the film screened again on Sunday, the scene in question had not been replaced.Related Headlines
Reader Comments
(Page 2)22. If Katie Holmes were my daughter, I'd stage an intervention and immediately take her to one of those brainwashing specialists. This poor childs has obviously been brainwashed and is being controlled. As for Tom Cruise... the man is just plain crazy. I will NEVER watch another Tom Cruise movie. Ever. I think, he is a monster in disguise.
Posted at 4:07PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Lynne Orr
23. Katie looks miserable, pregnant, disheveled, dirty, greasy and in a fog. She almost looked angry in one scene wrapped around "him" at the film festival. It is scary what he has done and she has allowed him to do to her. .remember, she is an adult, and did "allow" him to impregnate her by whatever means. The whole thing is gross and disgusting.
Posted at 4:09PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Dianne
24. I agree with everyone else. He is definately controlling her. When she is alone she has nothing to say but she may speak if her man is present and the things she does say sounds totally scripted by Mr. Movie star himself. She said on the Oprah show that as a child she dreamed of marrying Tom Cruise. Some childhood dreams should be left in the past!!
Posted at 4:12PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Marci Cobb
25. Tom Cruise is a nut job yes. He has total control over Katie and just wanted to use her as an incubator to bring a son into that weird religion of his. But for pete's sake, the guy is not gay. That is one of those stupid Hollywood rumors that goes around.
Posted at 4:12PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Phineas
26. Whether Tom is gay or not actually isn't the issue. What IS known in and around Hollywood (having worked for a HUGE Director/Producer in the early 90's and a few others up until 2001) is that he CAN'T have children. He and Nicole visited with my old boss and his wife sometime around 1990 when they wanted to adopt. My boss had adopted and so had Michael Eisner and his wife Jane and a few others from the Las Vegas Catholic place that was oh so popular back then. It was discussed that he was unable to - well - you know - he shoots blanks. That's why Mimi divorced him. (I worked as an assistant director on a play she was briefly in in the mid-80's.) When Nicole turned up pregnant - and he immediately divorced her - the one and only quote in publications from good ol' Tom was this: "Nicole knows exactly what she did". (Verbatim)
The man CAN'T have children. How and by whom is Katie pregnant?
Posted at 4:12PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Evan Summers
27. Interesting. Has anyone thought that perhaps the best way to keep in the spot light is to CREATE news. No mystery, publicity.
Posted at 4:18PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Darrin
28. I think assuming Tom Cruise was behind the mystery of the said "missing scene" is perhaps giving him too much credit. I also know that it would be extremely unlikely to just clip off a scene during the loading of a reel or what have you. Then just splicing it back together is equally unlikely,the splice would be so apparant. Also, if the director expresses true shock, like he did, then there really is a mystery.
Posted at 4:25PM on Jan 24th 2006 by jeff bloomer
29. She's either dumber than a rock or Cruise has her hooked on drugs.
Posted at 4:25PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Jim Lancaster
30. I have heard the story many times throughout the years about Tom being gay. One story perpetuated or is there truth because it keeps appearing?
One thing is undeniable - the man is strange - the sudden escape from Nicole weeks before the 10 year community property rule would kick in - the Brook Shields thing - I will never pay to see another Cruise flick. I'd rather see OJ Simpson or Robert Blake. At least their crimes are in the past. Who knows what Tom will do.
Posted at 4:25PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Kitty
31. When was Nicole pregnant?
Posted at 4:26PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Joann
32. Enough already...who cares?! I am so sick of seeing TomKat sucking face all over town..even at his poor children's soccer games. It's very distasteful and so fake. I have no desire to see his work or hers.
Posted at 4:29PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Shelly
33. To Evan Summers.....the quote was actually "Nicole knows why." It was not....."Nicole knows what she did." Ok, now that we have that straight. Onto the part about Katie's sex scenes. So what if Tom had something to do with those scenes going AWOL. If any of you men married a woman and sexual pictures, video, etc. involving her were about to come out, wouldn't you want to try to stop them? I think Cruise played a hand in this.....but again, so what?????? He may be acting like he has very little north of his eyebrows right now, but that's what love does to some people. And maybe, just maybe they really do love each other. If they are truly happy together....and I mean that both are happy with each other, than why is this such a big deal to everyone else? I used to be a huge Cruise fan. My attraction to his movies, etc. has diminished as I aged, but I still say everyone should just leave him alone.
Posted at 4:31PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Joni Mitchell
34. Everyone is quiet over dramatic here I believe...Katie is capable of taking care of herself, I'm sure her family wants her to be happy. Tom Cruise is not dangerous, he is a very nice & generous man who has his own religous views..but I don't beleive he would TAKE OVER her life and keep her in harms way or seperate her from her family. Katie could have had someone cut the part of the film herself.
Posted at 4:33PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Tee
35. Tom Cruise...was it easy before the lime light got you...bach-party...the good old days...life in the lime light...?????? always asked..is he is he gay???
do you even have a life???good luck and to your kid or alien
Posted at 4:41PM on Jan 24th 2006 by jake
36. Poor Katie.And Tom will get caught with kiddie porn,I'm almost sure of it.
Posted at 4:42PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Taire
37. Oh, those wacky Scientologists...always up to something. Tom, really, come on out of the closet, we would respect you so much more.
Posted at 4:44PM on Jan 24th 2006 by T Garrett
38. Katie who? You mean Miss Dawson's Creek? And that fake, plastered on smile with the tongue sticking out between her choppers! God Forbid. Yes, Tom Cruise is an ass and I have never cared for his acting, long before this. But Katie needs to pull her head out of her own rear and make some "smart" decisions on her own. An intervention by her family won't help. He has too much influence and money and her family may never see her again.
Posted at 4:51PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Pam
39. As to Tom Cruise being unable to father a child, I had heard that he just refused to have sexual relations with his wives. Something to do with it "dissipating his energies", or some such Scientological foolishness.It could be that he just put it around town that he was unable to procreate, so as to avoid having the true story (if it is true) from surfacing. Poor Katie Holmes. She went from a good Catholic girl who was outspokenly a virgin, to a glassy eyed, mindcontrolled unwed mother in a matter of months.Her parents must be losing a lot of sleep, and I don't blame them for a minute. Tom Cruise is seriously mentally ill, and Scientology is feeding and fueling it.He needs major psychiatric help and a good cult deprogrammer. Chase that with proper spiritual help.I have one word for all this: TOMfoolery.
Posted at 4:52PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Kamineko
40. I have never been able to like Tom Cruise. It didn't start with the Oprah show; my dislike of him has been from the beginning. I don't care for phonies, and he struck me as one. His ego comes through loud and clear every time he opens his mouth. Since Katie arrived on the scene, I have disliked him all the more.
As for TomKat, Katie's father is a tough lawyer, and I think he has the reins in his hands. He will not allow Katie to sign a premarital agreement unless it suits HIM, and it must provide for her and her child even better than Tom has offered to, according to sources in the media.
This business with the film is more than suspicious. It could mean that the director had a guaranteed way of creating a buzz, or it could mean that the Scientologists had a way of getting to the film -- on Tom's behalf, of course.
Tom Cruise has a lawyer who stifens columnists with threats of lawsuits. Check it out at www.defamer.com.
To me, Tom Cruise is a laughable man for his idiocy, but a dangerous man. Katie walked in to a serious web when she associated with Tom. The Scientologists far and wide will support him.
Let's not be too quick to put all the blame on Cruise, though. Katie walked into this mess with her eyes wide open. She is an adult who has been around the block, not a hayseed who doesn't know the time of day. She knew exactly what she was doing, so whatever play they think they're starring in, let them play it out and take their bows.
Posted at 4:53PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Anne
21. Can you say Napoleon complex?
Posted at 4:07PM on Jan 24th 2006 by Vanessa