Thursday, July 12------Tom Cruise will be honored with a tribute at the Museum of the Moving Image's 23rd annual black-tie event in New York this Fall. The salute, set for November 6th  at the Cipriani in midtown Manhattan, honors the 27-year film career of the actor, producer and United Artists studio head. "Tom Cruise is one of the premier American actors of his generation," MOMI director Rochelle Slovin said. "Working with the great directors of our time -- (including) Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and now Robert Redford -- Cruise has given us indelible characters and performances." Past recipients of the honor include Sidney Lumet, Robert De Niro, Richard Gere, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier, Julia Roberts and James Stewart.

Cruise will next appear opposite Meryl Streep and director-star Redford in UA's political drama LIONS FOR LAMBS. The actor was recently in the news when the German Finance Ministry turned down an application for his production company to shoot key scenes of the World War II thriller VALKYRIE at a historic location. In the film, Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who headed the so-called Generals' Plot to assassinate Hitler during World War II. The Ministry cited Cruise's involvement with the Church of Scientology, which is banned in Germany as a "cult group". This despite the fact that a German film fund had committed over $6 million to the project, which is being partly shot on location in Germany.

Sandy Mandelberger, Awards Watch Editor