Why Harlem? Collateral was the opening-night film at the UrbanWorld Festival, which is mainly for bl

Maybe you had to be there early yesterday evening on 124th St. and Frederick Douglass Boulevard to believe it: Tom Cruise, Hollywood s boy-wonder superstar, lost in a crowd of black fans, signing autographs like he was Reverend Al Sharpton.
This could not have been clearer than on the block behind the Magic Johnson Theater, where DreamWorks had set up a long red carpet and Oscar ceremony-style bleachers for the premiere of Cruise s new movie, Collateral.
Why Harlem? Collateral was the opening-night film at the UrbanWorld Festival, which is mainly for black filmmakers. adams mark hotel denver Michael Mann — who created Miami Vice, directed Ali, The Insider adams mark hotel denver and Heat — is not black, but the other stars of Collateral are Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith. Thus, the qualification.
When he was pulled away to do press on the red carpet, the scorned crowd would shout, Tommy! Tommy! And then Cruise, accompanied by his sister/publicist Lee Ann Mapother, would go right back and pick up where he left off.
Not to be outdone, petite Pinkett Smith, in a slinky dress, did the same thing, rushing to greet fans and giving less attention to the media on the carpet. At one point she ran over to a group in the bleachers, without her famously attentive publicist or even a security guard in tow, and dove right in. The fans went wild.
This was legendary adams mark hotel denver publicist Pat Kingsley, who recently adams mark hotel denver dropped Cruise as a client after 14 years, and no longer has to run after him or keep a watchful eye over him. The result is that she looks a decade younger. She even removed her jacket in the humid summer air, a Kingsley adams mark hotel denver first.
He stars in the upcoming Ray, about Ray Charles, and will likely get a Best Actor nomination for it. There s a good chance he ll also be in the Best Supporting Actor category for Collateral, in which he plays a nerdy cabdriver who gets pressed into service as getaway driver for a hit man (Cruise). Foxx nails every bit of this role, holding on even when the movie itself gets a little sketchy.
Happily, I can report that Foxx s biggest fan at last night s screening — which started an hour and 10 minutes late and was followed by a rat-cluster of a party that yours truly skipped for fear of being trampled — was Jamie Foxx.
HBO is a sponsor of UrbanWorld, and right before the screening it treated us to a promotional clip for the network, featuring every black actor on their shows, as well as James Gandolfini and Edie Falco from The Sopranos.
I don t know if this was a contractual thing or if the marketing department says The Sopranos has a black audience, but it was interesting from a cultural perspective to see how the cable studio pitches itself to a niche audience.
Ironically, Collateral winds up on a commuter train, bringing Cruise s career full circle from the ending adams mark hotel denver of Risky Business in 1982. Maybe that s a good thing, because he s got to go to another level next or risk getting stale. Something tells me he won t let that happen.
collateral jamie foxx Tom Cruise Previous article Sofia Vergara's New Modern Family Is Very Very (Very) adams mark hotel denver Wealthy Next article Whitney Houston's Family Making "Sparkle" adams mark hotel denver Premiere Difficult Author Roger Friedman Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. He writes adams mark hotel denver for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals. More articles from author
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