Spielberg: Tom & Katie's Love Is Genuine

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/20/2005 at 11:00 AM EDT

Some may debate the genuineness of the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes romance, but director Steven Spielberg says it's real.

While Cruise took on the pranksters Sunday, Spielberg, director of Cruise's upcoming movie War of the Worlds, came to his aid on another matter – defending his jumpy star's infamous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

"What Tom did on Oprah was exactly what Tom did with me when he first told me about Katie Holmes," Spielberg tells the current issue of Newsweek, referring to his leading man's sofa-jumping antics on the daytime talk show.

Still, the director (who also helmed Cruise in Minority Report) tells the magazine: "I was a little upset – not at Tom, but at the press for making such a big deal out of a kind of small thing. … Tom lost his cool because he was deliriously happy, and now he was being punished for his public display of happiness. Tom lives a happy life."

As for those who still don't believe the very public whirlwind romance, Spielberg opines: "I think what that really says is that people think that the people who make movies are fake … our movies aren’t real, and our private lives aren’t real."