Cher talks about her affair with Tom Cruise

Long before Katie Holmes or Nicole Kidman, even before his first marriage to Mimi Rogers, Tom Cruise paired up with Cher. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey set to air in May, Cher opened up about her brief fling with the actor and the intense emotions she felt for him.

“I was crazy about (Tom),” the 61-year-old said an excerpt of the interview published in the Daily Mail. The two met in the mid-’80s and dated for several months. Had it not come to an end due to the demands of their film careers, Cher claimed, “It could have been a great big romance because I was crazy for him.”

During her time with the then 23-year-old Tom, Cher discovered his awkward side. “He was shy,” she said. “He said he felt like such a boob in school and nobody talked to him. We went on a date once for dinner in a New York restaurant and the waitress was from his old school. He told me she never talked to him back in school, but now he was recognized, he got all her attention.”

Now single and with her Tommy days decades behind her, Cher told Oprah, “Dating is a strange thing. It’s not every man who can be comfortable with me. Being Cher is a hard thing and difficult for him to hold his place.”

Michael Emerson gets ‘Lost’ in his work
It’s tough work being the big baddie. Michael Emerson, better known to fans as the head Other from ABC’s “Lost,” spoke to the National Enquirer about the preparation it takes to transform him into Ben.

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“Ben looks really bad this season,” Michael told the Enquirer. “I long for those days when I can just go to the set and put on wardrobe without spending an hour in makeup to look bruised and battered.”

With Ben often playing the island’s resident punching bag, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. But it’s not the time he spends in the chair that gets to Michael the most. “What’s worse, you sometimes forget you look like you’ve been put through the meat grinder. One day, I sat down to lunch … and I started getting some funny looks. Then I looked down and realized why — I still had a bloody arrow sticking out of me!”

Dish on the fly
When Gwyneth Paltrow retires her designer outfits, she doesn’t sell or donate the castoffs. All the items are reserved for their future owner. “I save everything for (Apple),” the actress said in a quote posted to ContactMusic. “What if she grows up and she really likes dresses and then she sees an old picture of me and she says, ‘Why didn’t you save this for me?’” … Living is such a blast that William Shatner decided he never wants to give it up, according to a Star Pulse item. “I don’t plan to die,” the 77-year-old said. “I’m having too much fun. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not going to happen.”

Tabloid Tidbits is compiled by Ree Hines.

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