ouldn't television interviews be fascinating if more guests were like the hyper-active, very talented, passionate fellow, Tom Cruise. At a party last night much of the conversation dealt with a clash of words on the Today show between host, Matt Lauer, and the film star guest. Cruise was ostensibly there to plug his current film, War of the Worlds. I shouldn't think his publicists would be happy by the performance, but the audience was. Has Cruise, now desperately in love again, flipped, gone bonkers, or is he just being refreshingly obnoxious? Possibly some of each. The New York Times put his performance this way, "Mr. Cruise seemed unbound, even a little unsound." Morning talk shows are so heavily scripted and Matt was easily out ad-libbed and debated by his guest, who took him to task on the subject of Ritalin and psychiatry. The Times summed up the current Cruise news by adding "his over the top declarations of love may look to some like a publicity stunt, but there was nothing self-serving or career-enhancing about his rant with Mr. Lauer." The usually affable Tom Cruise  we've all grown to expect was nowhere present and that alone made it a worthwhile show. I wonder what comes next. Might he appear with me on KNX? Who knows.

I don't have all the facts about the Oprah story out of Paris, last week, but  what I've heard and read from respected sources, it would appear that the event was a storm in a demi-tasse. A close friend of TV's super star described what happened at Hermes as the most humiliating event in Oprah's life! I doubt it, but I do hope so, because if not being admitted into the famed store, well after closing time, was the worst that has happened to her, then she has lived a charmed and unreal life.  Not only was the store closed it was being set-up for a private event. Oprah can and does do a lot of good for many people and causes in this world, but the apparent petulance that her privileged position and enormous wealth did not get her admission into Hermes has nothing to do with racism or bigotry. They knew who she was and her stature would normally gain her entree anywhere, anytime...but not this time. Case closed, I hope, unless there is something yet to be revealed. I doubt it. Sometimes we trip over our egos.

The president's popularity is dropping. His handling of the war in Iraq is becoming more and more criticized and scrutinized. Even some of his own Republican Senators are complaining and calling for some assurance that there'll be an end to the death and carnage. The president remains optimistic. During the past few days one of our top generals said that the insurgency, far from diminishing, is actually growing. I would so respect the opportunity to sit face to face with the Chief Executive to ask him whether he thought that the war had gone as planned and that it was continuing according to plan. What plan?
Could he possibly look me in the eye and say that this war has made the world safer in the struggle against terrorism. Or the United States, are we safer?
You may have heard the crude and irresponsible comments of Carl Rove last week. He said that conservatives and liberals had different reactions to 9/11. In part Rove said, "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." He added, Liberals saw what happened to us and said, "we must understand our enemies."
Mr. Rove, you should resign if that is your understanding of what happened. Trying to divide this country for political gain is an insult to us all. Not your first. I wonder if the President feels the same way.