US magazine issued a prominent retraction of its earlier story (which I blogged below) that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were disenchanted with S-c-i-e-n-t-o-l-o-g-y. “The US about-face reflects an increasingly common problem for

magazine editors in these days of steepening competition for a shrinking list of celebrities

who can actually sell newsstand copies. ‘Cruise obviously has his share of pull,’ says a

journalist who’s experienced the clout of Cruise and PMK. ‘At a magazine like US, they need

to be able to have Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on the cover. You can tell from the size

of the correction that they were interested in keeping him happy and available to the

magazine.'” Cruise’s publicist also warned reporters calling for interviews with the star about his forthcoming M:I-2 that any question they ask about S-c-i-e-n-t-o-l-o-g-y will be the last question they get to ask. I guess S-c-i-e-n-t-o-l-o-g-y’s thugs don’t have to make US an offer it can’t refuse when Cruise’s publicists and attorneys do it for them.