Tom Cruise's on-screen roles in 'Knight and Day,' 'Tropic Thunder' match his off-screen reputation
By Anthony Benigno

Tom Cruise's reputation has made his way out of the danger zone - by diving a little deeper into it.

The 47-year-old actor is making a comeback several years after jumping Oprah's couch, scolding Matt Lauer ("you're very glib") and blasting Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants.
This time, Cruise has taken his stunts to the big screen where he is jumping a little higher, scolding a little harder and blasting everyone around him with fake bullets.

Cruise's new Hollywood persona is less "Top Gun's" smooth young fighter pilot and the boxing-short karaoke frat boy of "Risky Business" and more cartoonish larger-than-life eccentric like "Tropic Thunder's" Les Grossman and Roy Miller from "Knight and Day."

In short, the action star is embracing the person the Village Voice called "one spoke behind Michael Jackson on the freak wheel."

According to Hollywood.com's Paul Dergarabedian, Cruise needed to make this big screen transition if he wanted to change his reputation.

"[Les Grossman is] pivotal in redefining Cruise's public image," the box-office pundit tells the News of the uncouth Hollywood producer who recently tried to spank J-Lo's booty at the MTV Movie Awards and is about to get his own movie.

Cruise's old image can be boiled down to a humorless Hollywood heavy weight with a fanatical devotion to Scientology who bullies the faithless and can turn a former teen star into his own personal Stepford Wife.

The public's new perception of Cruise is that of a maniacal movie producer who yells at members of the "Twilight" cast and busts a move to Ludacris' "Get Back."

"He doesn't take himself quite so seriously," concedes Amanda Sanders, a New York - based image consultant, tells the News.

She adds that Cruise's willingness to parody his own image has allowed him to seduce a younger set of fans who have grown up on the likes of Kanye West and Lady Gaga "where everything is fast, furious and over-the-top."

Tortured characters like Jerry Maguire wouldn't curry Cruise much favor with the younger generation, whose support will be instrumental to his return.

"It has to be about escapism," says Sanders.

Though there is one inescapable reality Cruise must face: he will never be able to turn back the clock to a time when the public saw him as a squeaky clean heartthrob. And that's OK.

"He is who he is now," said Sanders. "I don't think he's shying away from this stereotype, but rather embracing it."

'Desperate Housewives' star Nicollette Sheridan's teeny bikini goes to work
By Rosemary Black

Since her much-publicized breakup with crooner Michael Bolton, Nicollette Sheridan sure hasn't been licking her wounds in private. Rather than turning into a camera-shy recluse, the blonde beauty's been photographed everywhere - sipping wine on the beach, romping with her dogs, jogging - and no one's complaining about the photo spreads appearing in celeb magazines.

"Have you seen how she looks in a bikini?" asks Amanda Sanders of New York Image Consultants.

"The message Nicollette's putting out there is that I look great, I'm on a hit show, and I'm not sad. And it's not a bad thing. We love a train wreck, but we also love looking at great visual images. We want images that we can aspire to."

The 44-year-old actress may be trying to present a new image, says Frank Navarre, owner of the LA based agency, X-17. "Nicollette wants to be photographed showing that she is very young, sexy and attractive," he says.

"The truth is, there was a time when she did not want to be photographed. That's all different now. She is really very athletic. She would beat Jennifer Lopez in a marathon!"

Noting that his agency has photographed the "Desperate Housewives" star numerous times since her breakup last summer, Navarre adds, "She is single and she's spending a lot of time in Malibu exercising and putting a lot of emphasis on her body." One type of shot you won't be seeing: a late night image of her coming out of a party.

"She wants to present herself in a more positive image, and when you put yourself out there for the photographer, you have more control over it," says Sanders. Sheridan is one of a group of older celebs who are redefining what approaching 50 (or above) looks like, says talent broker Lori Levine. Recent photos of the actress reinforce the idea that 50 can look pretty stupendous. "Women like Kim Cattrall, Fran Drescher, Terry Hatcher and now Nicollette are redefining what age means," Levine says.

"They aren't packing it in and saying they can't have a career. Instead, they're saying, look how hot I am. These women are gorgeous, they look as though they made a deal with the devil. It's very inspiring that they can not only grow old but be beautiful, be businesswomen, and have great careers."

College duds for fashion honor roll
By Diana Ransom

With jeans in hand, Stony Brook University student Christina Merritt will continue shopping for sweaters, button-down shirts and sneakers. "My whole summer job went straight to my wardrobe," said Merritt, who isn't done yet. She said she still needs to purchase sweaters, button-down shirts and cute sneakers like Pumas, Adidas or Converse.

Like most students eagerly preparing for school, she wants to be properly outfitted for the fall without spending more than she expected to spend. That means buying clothes that have a designer look without the couture price tag, and buying accessories that can travel from one season to the next. quot;The number one fashion statement for back-to-school is denim," said image consultant Elena Castaneda, owner of New York Image Consultant.

They are as basic as a white T-shirt or a little black dress, and they never go out of style. This season, however, looking fashionable in your denim may require a bit more attention to detail than it has in the past. "I've been going crazy over jeans," said Jenni Schuman, 23, Corporate Communications Major at Baruch College. "A lot of jeans are, like, $200. What are they made of, special denim?" Realizing the need to look fashionable for less, Merritt bought herself a $29 pair of hipsters from American Eagle Outfitters at a fraction of the price she would have spent on jeans with a designer label and a similar look.

Expecting the huge demand for denim, retailers like American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap have stuffed their sales floor shelves full of jeans. Retailers learned a valuable lesson this spring. Many stores like Abercrombie & Fitch didn't stock enough jeans and lost sales because of it, analysts said. To curb this, Howard Tubin of Cathay Financial said, retailers are increasing their inventory of jeans and others like American Eagle and Gap are marking them down to spur even more traffic. "I'm not talking a Gap jean," said Castaneda. Hoping to cash in, "both Abercrombie and American Eagle are offering new fits and new styles and they are offering more distressed or destroyed denim than they had this spring," said Tubin, whose company doesn't own any shares in either retailer. "That's it, it's new fits, new washes and new styles."

Destroyed jeans have pre-made holes, patches or loose threads. If you really want to make a back-to-school statement, Castaneda said, the look this year is more about finding jeans that fit, offers unique details and doesn't eat away at your summer job savings. New York Image Consultant owner Elena Castaneda offers this advice for picking fashionable jeans for the new school year:
Check out the hardware. Interesting pocketing is where jeans stand out. Look for unusual seams and metal attachments by the pockets.

Keep the calves covered. A little longer is better than too short. You'll want to give yourself a generous break in jeans that you can wear with various shoes.

Beware of overly cut-up jeans. Instead of stonewashed distressed, you should look for a graduated "Ombre" wash, which is a kind of shading that goes from light to darker down to the bottom. Fading on the side and on the rear can make you appear thinner.

Don't buy if they're stiff. If a pair of jeans can practically stand up on its own, it's going to stand away from your body, and it's going to be uncomfortable. The softer, more pliable, the jeans is to the touch the better they will mold to your body.

Allow for none to minimal stretch. Usually jeans without stretch hold their shape better. The problem with stretch jeans is if there is too much they lose their shape too quickly.