Cruise comes down to earth in Bray!

August 1991

MOVIE stars might be well paid, but theirs isn’t always a life of glitz, glamour and exotic all night parties.

That became apparent in Bray last weekend, when Hollywood golden boy Tom Cruise was thrust into work less than a day after touching down in Ireland – to begin on location filming for his new movie ‘Far and Away’.

An impromptu press conference was called at Ardmore Studios on the morning after the star’s arrival and the word spread quickly on the grapevine, with dozens of young fans of the heart-throb actor clamouring at the gates of the Herbert Road facility for an in the flesh look at their hero.

But it was to be an oh so brief glimpse, as Cruise and his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, rolled by in their chauffeur driven black limo and offered just a cursory wave through the smoked glass window.

He spent more than 40 minutes fielding media questions about his latest project – a film about Irish emigration set at the end of the 19th century – before cruising back out the gates and to his Dublin hotel.

Security was tight at Ardmore, and remained that way as director Ron Howard commenced shooting with the star on the Killruddery Estate the following morning.

Publicist Andy Lipschultz said that Tom and the others had been blown away by the beautiful estate at Killruddery and have found it in marked contrast with the intense heat and desert scapes of Montana, where they were filming until last Thursday.

‘ They don’t find it cold or unpleasant or anything like that, as the weather is pretty mild, and is a bit like a fall day back in Los Angeles,’ he said.