Daily Insider for January 6

Tuesday January 06, 2004 05:06 PM EST

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January 7, 2004
THE YOUNG MR. CRUISE
We all know him as his larger-than-life characters – the Navy fighter pilot, the racecar driver, the vampire, the samurai – but what was Tom Cruise like during his adolescence? In high school, "I was always open," the actor told James Lipton for the interview show Inside the Actors Studio. "I was kind of friends with everybody. I didn't necessarily have a clique I was part of." High school also marked the start of his acting career. "I did Guys and Dolls my senior year," Cruise recalled. "I played (leading man) Nathan Detroit." After high school, the young Cruise "traveled through Europe on a bike" before moving to New York, where he earned his first movie role, a small part in 1981's Endless Love. The rest, of course, is history. Cruise's interview airs Jan. 11 on Bravo.

FREE ASSOCIATION WITH TINA FEY
Daily Insider caught up recently with the Saturday Night Live star and got her off-the-cuff insights on some of the major issues of the day.
The Atkins Diet: "Bacon"
Prenuptial agreements: "Gross"
Jessica Simpson: "Porn. She has a porn star face"
Gwyneth Paltrow's pregnancy: "Get married! Did she?"
Reality TV marriages: "Don't care"
Ellen DeGeneres: "Nice sweaters"
Jimmy Fallon: "Sweet lil' piece of pumpkin pie"

THE EYES HAVE IT
Hollywood stars are seeing things a bit more clearly thanks to L.A.'s Assil Sinskey Eye Institute, which gave away free Lasik corrective vision surgeries (worth $5,200) to winners and presenters at the recent Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas. "Both Courteney Cox and Brad Pitt have had the procedure," Dr. Kerry Assil tells Daily Insider. "(Pitt) is now seeing 20/10, which is actually better than most people, and Courteney is 20/20."

Reported by: KC BAKER, SEAN DALY and KEENAN MAYO

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