Don't ask Cruise’s ex about Katie

Tom Cruise’s ex-wife isn’t happy with the media.

Mimi Rogers abruptly cancelled a publicity tour in the U.K. after a Brit paper ran an interview with her that focused largely on Cruise and his romance with Katie Holmes. “Mimi is in England, participating in the World Poker Exchange, and she granted an interview, and they make it mostly about Tom,” says an insider. “And she wasn’t terribly happy with the pictures they used, either.”

Rogers cancelled a series of subsequent interviews, including a television appearance that she was scheduled to give live on Wednesday morning. “Her people pulled out Tuesday evening, leaving the producers high and dry,” says the source. “They were pretty upset.”

Rogers is quoted as saying that Tom wasn’t terribly romantic when he proposed to her. “He’s always been a very intense guy who is openly passionate about some things. But we didn’t go through that very public courtship stage,” Rogers allegedly said. “He proposed to Katie while they were up the Eiffel Tower, but with me he didn’t do anything dashing, like going down on one knee. It just, well, it just sort of happened.” Rogers rep didn’t return the Scoop’s calls for comment.

Hey you! Wanna be in a movie?

Kathy Willens / AP

Ron Howard is having a man shortage.

The director of “The Da Vinci Code” was banned from shooting scenes of the film — which is to star Tom Hanks — in Britain’s Westminster Abbey after church officials denounced the book as “theologically unsound,” so those scenes will instead be shot at the Lincoln Cathedral in eastern England.

Apparently, the relatively sparsely populated area is short on potential extras, because in a desperate e-mail sent to employers in the area, the casting company that is working on the film is begging for men aged forty and up. “We are working on an American feature film shooting in Lincoln in August,” notes the email, according to the Lincolnshire Echo. “We have been casting in Lincoln but we are still desperately looking for men aged 40 and over to take part."

“Most of us are working and probably don't have time for auditions like this,” 46-year old Ian Pilcher told the paper. “It’s also school holiday time and family men will be off with their children. Add to that the embarrassment factor and you're not going to get many of us. I guess some people might view it as a bit of an unmanly thing to do.”

Notes from all over

Jefferson Bernardes / AFP - Getty Images file

Athina Onassis Roussel, one of the world’s richest women, has surgically added to her physical endowment, according to the Brazilian press — which has become slightly obsessed with Onassis ever since she got engaged to Brazilian Olympic equestrian Alvaro de Miranda Neto.  . . .Speaking of enhancements, AwfulPlasticSurgery.com lives up to its name with before and after pics it has posted of model/actress Hunter Tylo.  . . . Speaking of before and after, Paul McCartney regrets his pre-animal-rights fashion choices. “Look at early pictures of me in 'Help,' and I’ve got this black fur coat on that Linda [McCartney] liked because it was such a cool coat, or so it seemed at the time,” McCartney says in an interview with PETA.com. “I understand all too well the attraction of, when you first earn money, you want to show off. You want the most ridiculous furs, you want chinchilla dripping off you, you want jewelry. The trouble is, the difference between fur and jewelry is fur hurts someone.”

Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com

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