Tom Moves On

07/20/2001 at 12:00 PM EDT

It's one of those things divorcing couples do. You book and pay for a vacation, months in advance, then the relationship sours and you agree to split it. According to his publicist, that's what Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman decided to do with the two-week paid-up holiday they had planned a year ago at the exclusive $1,475-and-up-a-night Wakaya Club resort in Fiji. Kidman took the first week, arriving with the couple's children, Isabella and Connor, on July 6. Four days later she was joined by Russell Crowe, sparking fevered speculation that the two were an item. In fact, Crowe, a longtime Kidman friend, had brought along his own tall blonde companion.

The real surprise came when Cruise turned up with a date too. On July 15 the star jetted in to Wakaya and rented the entire resort with his sister Lee Anne and a few friends from his next movie, Vanilla Sky, including his Spanish costar Penélope Cruz. The next day the actor's spokeswoman Pat Kingsley confirmed that Cruise, 39, and Cruz, 27, had been going on dates in the days preceding the trip. Kidman heard the news the next morning in Sydney, where she has been continuing her vacation with the children. "Nicole was just totally in shock," says a close friend, adding that Kidman, 34, had asked Cruise about rumors linking him with his costar while Vanilla Sky was being filmed in New York City and L.A. from November to March. "She said, 'He flat out swore to me up and down that there was nothing going on,' " says the friend. Kidman's initial reaction was to suspect otherwise. "She said, 'He obviously had her waiting in the wings and just waited until he started looking like a nice guy again (to go public with the romance).' All this time she's been wondering why the marriage ended, and this could be it."

What's more, Kidman's spokeswoman denies that they had ever planned to split the trip and says Nicole had no idea that Cruise was planning to visit the island -- let alone with Cruz. Regardless of the travel plans, Kingsley insists that Cruise and Cruz, who finished filming Sky in March, hadn't seen each other again until his birthday party at a Santa Monica nightclub on July 6, where they took to the dance floor three times. The following week "they went out a couple of times," Kingsley says, including a lunch date at the trendy L.A. eatery Spago Beverly Hills, where they hugged and cheek-kissed as they bade each other goodbye. For her part Cruz kept even her Spanish pals in the dark about her South Pacific plans. "She didn't tell me and I didn't ask," says her friend and Madrid-based agent Katrina Bayonas. "That way I don't have to lie to the Spanish press."