No mingling for Kidman and Cruise

Plus: Washington blogger bares all for Playboy

Dylan Martinez / Reuters file

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in happier days.

By Jeannette Walls

msnbc.com

updated 12:06 a.m. ET Sept. 1, 2004

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are both going to the Venice Film Festival — but not as a happy couple.

Cruise will be at the festival to promote “Collateral” on Sept. 3, and Kidman will be showing up a few days later, to tout “Birth” on Sept. 7.

Sources are buzzing that the formerly married mega-stars made sure that their films would be showcased on different days so they could avoid running into each other; in the past, they have reportedly taken pains to make sure that their paths don’t cross at awards shows.

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“It’s always terribly awkward, especially if the press is there and makes a big deal over it,” says one source. “Besides, some of the tabloids keep trying to say they’re getting back together again –—which they’re not. So, if they’re photographed together in Venice, that will just be fuel for the fire — unless they snub each other, which, of course, then causes a whole new type of story.”

Kidman’s rep, however, nixes that story. “She’s there when she’s there because that’s when her film is showing,” says the spokeswoman. “She can’t be there earlier because she’s filming ‘Bewitched’ and doesn’t have the luxury of going any earlier.”

Naked truth
IMAGE: Cutler
That blogging Washington intern is baring all.

Jessica Cutler (shown at left), former aide to Republican Ohio Senator Mike DeWine who scandalized the beltway by posting details of her sex-for-hire escapades on the Internet, has a nude pictorial on Playboy.com. Cutler also gave the site an interview about her wild ways, and revealed the “craziest” spot she ever had hanky panky. “On the [Capitol] Mall, but that was before 9/11 and all the security,” Cutler said. “A lot of people still get away with it. That was a popular thing to do.”

Cutler, who allegedly was the kept woman of a Bush appointee, says she’ll never reveal the man's identity. And she also says it’s easier to be considered hot in Washington than in New York. “The thing about D.C. is it’s not Miami or New York where there are all these hot people everywhere,” she said. “I’m cute by New York standards, but when I came here, my stock just shot up fast.”

Notes from all over
IMAGE: Simpson
Dave Hogan / Getty Images
Reality-TV star and singer Jessica Simpson refused to go in to the VIP room of the Shore Club in Miami, where Blender magazine was throwing a party after MTV’s VMA awards, until her hubby Nick Lachey showed up nearly an hour later. Simpson even sent a search team out to find her MIA sweetie. Lachey, however, seemed happy to party without his lovely wife, and a source says he stayed hours after Simpson left. . . .Is Farrah Fawcett hoping to give Jessica Simpson some on-air competition? The former “Charlie’s Angels” star was being followed by cameras at the Blender party, and her handlers told people it was for a reality-TV show. . . . Elsewhere at the same event, Ashlee Simpson was spotted enjoying mojitos and the company of her drummer, Ray Brady, as well as offering weight loss tips to Hulk Hogan’s stunning daughter, Brooke Hogan.