Are Cruise and Kidman back on track?
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-16 08:37

Tom Cruise, 41, announced March 25 that he had split from Penelope Cruz, 29, in January and officially re-entered the love market. Very soon, the concept of Cruise rekindling love with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, 36, was on magazine covers. Fans, too, are hot to see the couple, who were divorced in 2001, back together.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman used to have a ten-year marriage. [file photo]

"They had a beautiful 10-year marriage and seemed like the happiest couple in Hollywood,” says Louise Barile, senior editor at In Touch magazine. The public loves each star individually, adds professional matchmaker Samantha Daniels. “Put them together and you have this great, happy power couple."

Driving the reconciliation mania: "The fact that neither of them has found a serious relationship since they broke up," Barile says.

Kidman poured herself into her work and had a fling with Lenny Kravitz last year. At red-carpet events, she consistently showed up with family. Cruise had Cruz on his arm at Hollywood events for nearly three years. But for American fans who “never got a feel” for the Spanish enchantress, “it didn’t seem like a strong relationship,” Barile says.

Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz have ended their three-year relationship. [AP/file]

Persistence in reuniting celebrity divorcees isn't customary in the tabloid press, where scandalous affairs and nasty divorces usually prevail. No one was clamoring for Demi Moore and Bruce Willis to reconcile, even though they had one of the strongest marriages in Hollywood in the 1990s. There’s no push for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to schedule another wedding. And fans seem quite content to see Jennifer Garner, Jude Law and Meg Ryan move on.

But with Tom and Nicole, “there is the lack of scandals, the lack of general weirdness that we get from a lot of celebs these days,” Barile says. “They were what a Hollywood couple should look like and act like — like a couple in love.”

Cruise and Kidman stand apart, even though, on the surface, a 1.78 meters Australian beauty and a 1.70 meters American icon don’t appear to be well-matched.

“When they broke up, it was hard for both of them, and over time they’ve grown into friends,” Daniels says. “Recently, you read about them being in touch and being supportive of each other. (They also have two adopted children they share.) It set the stage for, ‘Hmm. They’re getting along. Maybe they could get back together.’”

Nicole Kidman

As speculation mounts that they may get back together, Kidman continues to be one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood.

She is now in New York filming The Interpreter, an action drama directed by Sydney Pollack and also starring Sean Penn.

As well as The Interpreter, Kidman has committed herself to five movies to be filmed in 2005, according to Web site IMDB.

She is said to be in contact with Cruise after he split with Cruz.

As for Cruise, he is also a busy man. Since splitting in 2001, Cruise and Kidman have spent holidays together, and are believed to have an amiable relationship.

Cruise met Cruz in 2000 when they were filming Vanilla Sky and began dating in 2001 after his decade-long marriage to Nicole Kidman crumbled.

Cruise is currently in pre-production on a third Mission: Impossible film while Cruz is in Morocco filming the action movie Sahara.

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