A Few Words From the Other Side

The defendants in separate legal actions by divorcing Hollywood power couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have surfaced in cyberspace with their denials.

At BeautifulButDangerous.com, Matthew E. Hooker, an aspiring actor, acknowledges that he received Kidman’s temporary restraining order but denies stalking her. He is ordered to keep at least 250 feet away from Kidman and her two children. Kidman, meanwhile, might be well advised to avoid her Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Westside, where, Hooker says, they met.

“I met a very beautiful woman who flirted with me,” Hooker says. “I was interested, so I tried to romance her and date her and cheer her up. Since when is it a crime to ask to take a woman to the ballet and bring her handpicked wildflowers, or to write a lovely poem about her and her beautiful eyes, or to ask to take her and her kids out for ice cream on a Sunday evening and cheer them up?”

The poem included these lines, according to another Web site of Hooker’s: “Oh, star eyes / Choose me as your goal / Look into my eyes / Nicole.”

His feelings toward Kidman have changed. “I have no intention of approaching this horrible woman again,” an unhappy Hooker writes. He does think he’s going to be a big star, though.

Meanwhile, at KYLEBRADFORD.com, the erotic wrestler of the same name denies “false and vicious stories” in European magazines that he had an affair with Cruise. “I haven’t the slightest evidence of Tom Cruise being gay,” Bradford says. “I understand Mr. Cruise’s anger over this article. It is disgusting. I am equally angry. If I can assist him in discovering the person or persons who started this completely false story, I will.”

Spinning Into Control

If you thought publicist-to-the-stars Pat Kingsley already was more powerful than God, just wait. Kingsley expands her A-list fiefdom this summer when her agency, PMK, merges with upstart competitor Huvane Baum Halls.

Merger talks started a year ago when Kingsley suggested an HBH buyout to PMK parent company Momentum Worldwide, a $171-million New York-based marketing machine. Momentum was hungry, and HBH, which was stuffed with the likes of Russell Crowe, Joan Allen, Gwyneth Paltrow and director Ang Lee, looked delicious.

The spin-meisters assure us there is nothing hostile about this takeover.

HBH partner Simon Halls called the merger “the coolest!” He raved about the PMK partners: “Pat Kingsley and Lois Smith and Leslie Dart were sort of the founders of this era of public relations. I mean, Lois represented Marilyn Monroe and Robert Redford when they were just starting out.”

Kingsley will lead 65 staffers and a 300-celebrity client list at the newly formed PMK/HBH.

“Instead of going after the same clients, we’ll be in the same shop,” she said by cell phone en route to New York.

Quote,

Unquote

“Bleach your mustache. Don’t date the stunt man. And remember, extras aren’t actors.”

--Jennifer Tilly,reciting show-biz career advice from older sister Meg Tilly.

It’s a Girl Thing

Supermodels Elle MacPherson and Naomi Campbell were the first female hosts of the Miss Universe pageant as the show celebrated its 50th anniversary Friday with a live broadcast from Puerto Rico. (Miss Puerto Rico won.)

Speaking from a cell phone, MacPherson said the pageant is “much more modern and much more exciting” with women hosting. “The fact that you have a man presenting women, it just seemed inappropriate,” she said.

The Aussie beauty then handed the phone to Campbell, who had just flown in from South Africa, where she and Nelson Mandela are organizing a “Frock and Roll” fashion show and concert to benefit Mandela’s charity for sick children. The event is set for June 29-30 in Barcelona, Spain. Campbell, who called Mandela “a saint,” has visited ailing kids in South Africa every few months since 1992 to raise public awareness and money for their plight.

Sightings

George Clooney, dining at Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood. . . . Jamie Lee Curtis, loading her cart with fresh veggies and sushi at Whole Foods in Brentwood. . . . Sandra Bullock, browsing in the furniture store Plantation in Los Angeles. . . . The Red Hot Chili Peppers, taking in the Lakers game at Staples. . . . The real Pennie Lane, promoting the band Storm Inc. at the Gig in Hollywood.

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Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug contributed to this report. City of Angles runs Tuesday-Friday. Email: [email protected].