LOS ANGELES—A-list Hollywood celebrities Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, considered by many to be the most important humans on the planet, walked through the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel Monday, drawing the attention of dozens of reporters and photographers and thrilling millions of television viewers, Access Hollywood sources reported.
Cruise, universally admired for his sly, charismatic grin and stunning good looks, and wife Kidman, who has garnered worldwide acclaim for her breathtaking beauty, were reportedly in the hotel “for some reason” and traversed the lobby “to exit it and leave” when Access Hollywood captured their beautiful images.
“They were definitely at the location with their actual physical persons undoubtedly present,” a statement from producers of the popular syndicated infotainment program read in part. “Luckily, our cameras were there to verify the momentous event and broadcast it, without delay, to as many people as humanly possible.”
By all reports resplendent in designer Versace ensembles, Cruise and Kidman, married in 1990 in a hush-hush Christmas Eve ceremony following a whirlwind courtship, kept their ravishing gazes fixed breathtakingly toward the floor during their brief passage from one end of the lobby to the other. They then entered the back of a waiting car and were driven away, bringing the star-studded lobby walk to an end.
“It was magical. They were in rare form, giving the revolving door just enough of a push to set it in motion, exhibiting the grace, style and poise for which they have become so renowned,” said Ellen Donahue, an unremarkable nobody who happened to be in the lobby at the time. “And you could totally tell it was them, because of all the cameras and everything.”
The gorgeous Kidman and her hunky husband set tongues wagging with their attention-grabbing lobby walk, Access Hollywood host Pat O’Brien said in a nationally televised statement.
“Hollywood’s hottest real-life lovebirds were at it again yesterday,” he told viewers Tuesday, “walking through a lobby with their unmistakable style, on their way to someplace fascinating and exciting.”
Added co-host Nancy O’Dell: “That’s right, Pat, and we’ll be seeing some more scintillating snippets of that fabulous footage later in the show. But first, Access Hollywood correspondent Bob Reese catches up with everybody’s favorite Eight Is Enough star, Dick Van Patten.”
The program then segued into a feature showcasing Van Patten and his family at a celebrity charity rollerblading event.
Response to the Hollywood power couple’s lobby walk has been overwhelming. Film critic Michael Medved called Cruise’s confident, deliberate stride—immortalized in such blockbusters as The Color Of Money, Rain Man and A Few Good Men—”a smashing return to form for Tom Terrific after the fizzle of the Stanley Kubrick box-office bomb Eyes Wide Shut.”
Celebrity-watchers added that Kidman, who met Cruise on the set of Days Of Thunder, more than held her own during the 15-second stroll, matching her heartthrob husband’s million-megawatt star power with the grace and confidence that have earned her the respect and admiration of critics and moviegoers alike around the globe.
“It was wonderful,” said Irene Davis, a Bristol, CT, plebian who saw the couple’s lobby walk on television. “Normally I’d never have a chance to rub elbows with the likes of Tom and Nic, but thanks to Access Hollywood’s exclusive, inside peek at the comings and goings of Movieland’s hottest couple, I got to feel like I was right there in the lobby with them.”
Despite the raves from the public, some celebrity-watchers are unimpressed with the lobby stroll.
“This was a real disappointment, coming from stars of Cruise and Kidman’s magnitude,” New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith said. “In the past, we’ve seen much more impressive lobby-walks from both—dressed to the nines, waving at cameras and smiling at crowds at restaurants, gala benefits and award shows. But this time, it seemed like they were just phoning it in. Frankly, I’m unwowed.”
“The least he could have done was give a thumbs-up to the camera,” Smith added. “C’mon, Tom… Your fans deserve more!”
Nonetheless, O’Dell said, the general consensus is that Cruise and Kidman have done it again, proving that “when it comes to walking across the surface area of a lobby floor, they’re at the top of the Hollywood heap.”
Cruise, currently filming Mission: Impossible 2, is expected to walk through at least three more lobbies before beginning work on Minority Report, a Steven Spielberg sci-fi thriller with a Christmas 2000 release date. And, according to Kidman publicist Lisette Rose, the Aussie actress, who is following up her buttock-baring performance in the Broadway hit The Blue Room with the psychological horror flick The Others, has “a very busy schedule” but has not ruled out the possibility of appearing on a Rodeo Drive sidewalk “sometime soon.”
