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How much damage has Tom Cruise's recent publicity rampage (the infamous Oprah "love" conniption, the Access Hollywood special, et al) done to his career and/or the ostensible reason that he undertook said publicity rampage, War of the Worlds? Enough damage that the NY Times is now speculating about the repercussions. It seems that even DreamWorks and Paramount are trying to hold down the flailing action star and strap on a muzzle before further harm is done to their blockbuster:

"You can have so much attention on a particular issue that maybe the movie doesn't get as much attention as it might," Marvin Levy, a spokesman for Mr. Spielberg, a partner in DreamWorks, said of the show. "It's the topic of conversation, for many reasons."

The two studios have already curtailed the normal promotional press junket ahead of the June 29 release of "War of the Worlds," limiting it to what Mr. Levy called a smaller number of "preselected interview sessions." He said the decision had nothing to do with Mr. Cruise but was made because there had been enough promotion already.

Did the flack make airquotes around "enough promotion already"? Of course, Cruise probably wouldn't agree to the curtailing of his promotional responsibilities, so these "preselected interview sessions" will take place in a "special junket room" containing only footprint-resistant couches and a pile of e-meters, where the star can safely get "all of his love for Katie Holmes and Scientology" out of his system while on "national television."

And just for good measure: Page Six claims that Cruise "persuaded" Holmes to drop a pill-popping role in Factory Girl; naturally, her publicists deny she was attached to the project.

[Make sure you click through to the Times and visit the collage of our photoblog. It's purdy.]