Tom Cruise Owes Sumner Redstone Lunch Again After Scathing 'Tropic Thunder' Cameo

Oh, now we get it: That Polo Lounge power summit last week between Tom Cruise and Sumner Redstone was not the prodigal-son mea culpa we thought it was, smoothing the waters on which Cruise would coast back into the safe harbor of Redstone's reeling Viacom flagship. Rather, it was just a quick bite to catch up about Katie, Suri, Laurie and maybe for Cruise to apologize in advance for his scathing, fat-suited cameo as a depraved studio boss in Tropic Thunder:

At an industry screening Tuesday night of the forthcoming comedy Tropic Thunder from Paramount Pictures and its unit DreamWorks, Tom Cruise brought down the house with his surprise portrayal of a bald, hairy-chested, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul of the kind who is only too happy to throw an actor to the wolves when his popularity cools. ...

'Tropic Thunder' Trailer Doesn't Exactly Bury The Whole Robert Downey Jr. Blackface Subplot

You'd be forgiven if a visit to Tropic Thunder's website—where the trailer premiered today—led you to believe the movie featured billed stars STILLER and BLACK DOWNEY, as the preview ballsily features a good deal of Robert Downey Jr.'s white-Method-actor in blackface (and muttering stereotypical, The Jefferson's-theme-inspired dialogue in blackvoice). That said, there's lots to enjoy here, including the movie star archetypes that inhabit this Platoon-set-turned-real scenario—particularly Stiller's "Action Guy," whose previous roles required him to deliver catchphrase, "Who left the fridge open?" while BabyBjörning two tiny pandas.

Black Like Downey: The Dark Overtones Of 'Tropic Thunder'

Unlike other, more culturally acceptable Hollywood race-swapping depictions—say, Rob Schneider's exciting work in the ugly-Asian-caricature arts, or even the Wayans brothers' attempt to slip into the alabaster skin of two chihuahua-toting cruise line heiresses—blackface steadfastly remains as reviled and controversial as ever. Which brings us, courtesy EW.com, to this first glimpse of Ben Stiller's "epic action comedy" Tropic Thunder—a movie he first conceived of as a young extra on the set of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. (Why does that one detail suggest what we might be looking at here is Stiller's own Heaven's Gate?) In it, Robert Downey Jr. plays an actor so committed to craft, he becomes African American:

Tom Cruise Acknowledges His Bear Fan Base

With preview scorecards rating his upcoming turn as a Hitler-hunting WWII war hero as "simply darling," and "eye-patch adorable! When and where can I get my kids a plush Col. Claus von Stauffenberg doll?" Tom Cruise has decided to take another drastic turn with his scrupulously managed big screen persona. A photo snapped on the set of Ben Stiller's superstar-cameo-packed Tropic Thunder reveals the actor has finally rid himself of his distracting Nazi bangs and SS uniform, replaced by a bald wig, prosthetic chest-fur collar, and a strap-on belly. (It bears mentioning that the latter is a mere enhancement, as his own doughy physique suggests one too many trips to Valkyrie's sauerbraten-and-strüdel-heavy cräft services table).

Steve Coogan Finally Gets His Breakthrough Moment As Owen Wilson's Enabler

At the height of Owen Wilson's very public personal crisis, Courtney Love uncharacteristically offered up her own, highly opinionated views on the topic—suicide and hard drugs being two subjects that run, pun only partially intended, deeply in her veins. Suspecting she knew exactly who and what led Wilson to his act of desperation, the singer told Us magazine that the culprit was Steve Coogan: A far bigger star in the U.K. than in the U.S., Coogan gained fame overseas for his TV portrayal of dim-bulbed newsman Alan Partridge. (In this clip, he fittingly admits he has no idea who Kurt Cobain is, and is baffled over why he might have taken his own life.) Coogan and Love had a brief affair, which was rumored to have caused a pregnancy, but that thankfully produced no illegitimate children—between Love's body dysmorphia and Coogan's English dental genes, the kid never stood a chance.