Cruise control

The biggest grin in the world and the king of UK chat are to lock horns this September when Michael Parkinson begins his new run of chat shows.

11:56 24 August 2004

The biggest grin in the world and the king of UK chat are to lock horns this September when former BBC stalwart Michael Parkinson, now 69-years-old, begins his new run of chat shows on ITV1.

Tom Cruise, Hollywood icon, star of a hundred and one blockbuster smashes and one of the hardest working actors in Tinsel Town, is to join Parky on his debut show on ITV.

Parkinson will be chewing the fat in subsequent shows with, among others, Oscar winning actor Denzel Washington, controversial supermodel Naomi Campbell, Scottish funny man Billy Connelly and rapier tongued music mogul Simon Cowell.

A notoriously reclusive star who has been engaged in a cold war with the media since enduring the very worse elements of the British tabloid press during his split from then wife and now Hollywood A-list darling Nicole Kidman, Cruise will focus on promoting his new film Collateral during his prime time interview.

Cruise will head the line up for Michael Mann's return to his film noir roots, playing against type as the grey-haired and jaded assassin Vincent, who arrives in Los Angeles on a mission to take out five witnesses in a high profile drugs case.

The film also stars Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday), Mrs Will Smith Jada Pinkett and British up-and-comer Jason Statham.