HOLLYWOOD - After a few weeks of hinting at it, Tom Cruise has indeed asked his newest lady love, Katie Holmes, to marry him--and of course, she said yes.The Associated Press reports that Cruise--speaking at a Paris news conference, with Holmes--said he popped the question early Friday morning atop the Eiffel Tower. The couple often shared smiles and blushes during the conference, as Cruise turned to look at her, with a massive diamond ring on her finger.
"It was early this morning at the Eiffel Tower, so I haven't slept at all," he told the reporters. "Today is a magnificent day for me, I'm engaged to a magnificent woman." Asked why he chose the famed Paris landmark, he said: "I've never been to the Eiffel Tower. It's Paris, it's a beautiful city, it's very romantic."
Cruise was in Paris to promote the French release of the Steven Spielberg film War of the Worlds next month. Holmes apparently kept quiet during the proceedings, prompting Cruise whispered to her at some point: "Are you OK?" Afterward, the two hurried into a car before leaving for a promotional event in Marseilles, southern France, AP reports.
"I wish them the happiest marriage that anyone has ever had," Dakota Fanning told reporters later. The child actress co-stars with Cruise in the film and sat next to Holmes during the news conference.
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Cruise, 42, and 26-year-old Holmes went very, very public with their romantic relationship in April after Cruise split from actress Penelope Cruz and Holmes called off her long-standing engagement to actor Chris Klein. Since then, Cruise has been seen on several talk shows, professing his love for Holmes, especially his now infamous appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show where in jumped up and down on the couch, fell dramatically to his knees and screamed, "I'm in love! I'm in love!"
While in Berlin two days ago, AP reports Cruise dismissed speculation by tabloid newspapers and celebrity gossip columns that their relationship is a stunt to promote their new movies. At the same time, Holmes, in London earlier this week to promote her new film, Batman Begins, also dismissed accusations that the couple had staged a relationship for publicity. Holmes said then that she was embracing Scientology--Cruise's religion.
Cruise told the reporters at the Paris conference the two have not set a date for the wedding as yet: "We haven't discussed that--one step at a time," he said. "Let's see. We're not sure."