There have been some dribs and drabs of Tom Cruise news here and there the past few days, and some of it is really funny. Tom’s been in Europe promoting Valkyrie, and I’m starting to suspect that maybe the translations aren’t so great. There were a few headlines like “Tom Cruise loves sausages” that cracked me up, but I couldn’t find his original statements.

Katie Holmes has joined him for the European tour, now that her play’s run is over. Yesterday, as they were exiting Berlin, they apparently made out in front of the trailing paparazzi, so that made even more headlines. Today they attended the UK premiere of Valkyrie. Katie looks surprisingly well-rested and put-together, donning an attractive black cocktail dress, black panty hose and short heels.

In other Tom Cruise news, Milk director Gus Van Sant has recently admitted that Cruise was his original choice for the role of Dan White, Harvey Milk’s assassin. It would have been interesting casting, but I doubt it would have worked.

Gus Van Sant has revealed that he originally wanted Tom Cruise to star in the Harvey Milk biopic.

The director said he thought Tom in the role of the outspoken gay politician’s assassin, and Sean Penn in the titular role, would get the fledging project off the ground. And he was keen to make the movie before the memory of the real-life Harvey Milk faded.

“I thought if I connected those two guys at the time I could go into the studio and say ‘look I have these two guys’ and they would do it. There was always the problem with the gay community aspect of the film so they needed a reason to overcome that fear that they had of making a film that wasn’t going to have a very big return money wise, so that was my plan,” he said.

Van Sant said that when the idea launched again, with a different writer at the helm, he forgot he had offered Sean a part.

“We had a meeting with him at his house, and half way through the meeting – it took me that long for me to remember – I realized that I’d actually gone through all this and met him before, I’d somehow forgot,” he said.

The part of Dan White was eventually played by No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin.

[From AP Hosted by Google]

It would have been a hell of a comeback role for Tom Cruise, but I’m sure Xenu wouldn’t approve. Just the “Tom Cruise starring in film of gay icon’s life” headlines alone would irked Xenu. But I bet Valkyrie does well in Europe, especially in England. So many of Cruise’s co-stars are great British actors. I’m sure audiences will go see the film just to support them.

Here’s Tom and Katie at the UK premiere of Valkyrie today. Images thanks to WENN.