"Eyes Wide Shut," "Saving Private Ryan" and the Princess Di Funeral

The funeral of Princess Diana, killed too young in a Paris car crash, took place on September 6, 1997.

Among the dignitaries attending -- all emerging from the same limousine -- were Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg.

The show biz press made much of how Hollywood was willing to send such Hollywood heavyweights to a state funeral. But it turned out those four were in London, working, anyway.

Cruse and then-wife Kidman were working for Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut. Hanks was working with Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan. Some agents must have put in some calls and assembled this "funeral dream team." After all in 1998, "the Two Toms" were the biggest male movie stars in the world.

I wondered how Tom and Tom handled riding together in the same car. Both had been in many $100 million grossing hits(back when that was the "magic domestic number") but Hanks had two Best Actor wins under his belt, Cruise...none. How did this affect the ride?

As for Cruise and wife Kidman...here a nice "public showing" of their marriage and their support for Princess Di. But that marriage wouldn't last much longer.

Some of its collapse may have been attributed to the rigors of filming Eyes Wide Shut.

Consider this: Cruise and Kidman; and Hanks and Spielberg, were all in London to film their respective movies in September 1997. But "Saving Private Ryan" would be out less than a year later(summer 1998) . "Eyes Wide Shut" would be out almost TWO YEARS later(summer 1999) and one year after "Saving Private Ryan."

The reason? Stanley Kubrick's legendary, 100-takes, slow work on his filmmaking. So slow was Kubrick on his filming that two actors who were filming -- Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh -- had to quit the movie to move on to other projects. They were replaced by Sydney Pollack and , uh...some actress.

"Saving Private Ryan" was a big one for Spielberg and Hanks. A Best Director win for Spielberg, a Best Actor nom for Hanks(and a "We Wuz Robbed" Best Picture miss.)

"Eyes Wide Shut" was somewhat less a big one for Cruise, Kidman, and Kubrick. Famously , Kubrick died before Eyes Wide Shut was released and there remains controversy: how finished was it?(A lot, I say - -he'd spent almost two years filming a very easy-to-film, intimate story.)
I don't recall Oscar noms for Cruise or Kubrick. Maybe one for Kidman.

Leaving where I came in: the world may have THOUGHT that the two Toms and the others were "specially sent to represent Hollywood" at Di's funeral, but it turns out "they were all in town anyway." And their joint 1997 appearance ended up telling a tale about how quickly Spielberg could make a masterpiece versus Kubrick.