Cruising for a bruising with the paparazzi

Plus: There’s a reason he went by ‘Puffy’

Scott Gries / Getty Images file

Tom Cruise is the latest celeb to be involved in a clash with paparazzi.

By Jeannette Walls

msnbc.com

updated 10:22 a.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005

Tom Cruise is the latest celeb to be involved in a clash with paparazzi.

Cruise’s bodyguard got into an altercation with photographers last week outside the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles after paparazzi followed him to the center during a break in shooting “Mission Impossible.”

The photographers swarmed around the center and a security guard went out to photograph the crowd of lensmen. But a Scientology spokesman disputes an account from ContactMusic that suggests that the incident got ugly when one of the paparazzi tried to swipe the guard’s camera.

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“The paparazzi were outside our property and our security guard went to photograph him out of concern for the safety of our parishioners,” Scientology Celebrity Centre spokesman Greg LaClaire told The Scoop. “[Later] our security officer drove away and was at a stop light on a corner. While he was sitting at the stop light, the paparazzi jumped through the passenger window and started beating him. Our security officer defended himself as best he could and then made a citizen arrest on felony charges of battery. He held [the paparazzi] until the police came.”

Cruise’s rep didn’t respond to requests for comment.

It's always 4:20 somewhere
No wonder he was nicknamed Puffy.

Damian Marley, the youngest son of reggae great Bob Marley, claims he recently smoked pot with the rap impresario now known as Diddy.

Marley says he met Diddy in Miami recently, but the rapper didn’t buy champagne for him, as he is known for doing. “No, we didn’t drink Cristal. But we were puffing…we were puffin’ up with Puffy!” Marley told the November issue of Stuff magazine. “I don’t think it was his first time. Let’s say no, I’m sure it wasn’t his first time.” Marley made it clear that it wasn’t his first time, either. “It’s part of our daily routine. Like, all day, every day. We’re herbalists.”

Notes from all over
Jude Law has allegedly dropped his efforts to win back Sienna Miller after finding out that she reportedly became very close to his friend Daniel Craig, according to Hello magazine. . . . Toni Collette lost out to Renée Zellweger on not one but two big parts. “I was doing [the Broadway play] “Wild Party.” I [had also been] offered “Bridget Jones’s Diary” at the time, but couldn’t do it because I didn’t know how long “Wild Party” was going to play,” Collette tells the upcoming issue of Fade In mag. “Then the “Chicago” lot said, ‘We want you to do this, don’t take anything else. We want to put you on tape just as a formality. Catherine [Zeta-Jones] is really excited to work with you.’ Then “Bridget Jones’s Diary” came out and I guess the Weinsteins [who produced “Chicago”] had their way.” . . . Melanie Griffith, who plays a dumb blonde in TV's "Twins," is having trouble remembering some of her lines. The problems, arise, she says, because of last minute script changes. “It’s harder than I thought it would be,” she says.

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