Does anybody else find Tom Cruise's recent wholehearted embrace of romance and honesty completely and utterly refreshing?

First it's the whole Katie Holmes thing – and it's a little odd to see Tom Cruise courting a girl who is, I believe, younger than I am – and his meltdown on Oprah. Jumping on couches, falling to his knees, the guy's lovestruck, and I for one am hugely happy for the guy. I want to believe it's not an act. I've been there before, I know how it feels to be head over heels for someone, and I'm happy to see it when it happens. I find myself wondering at all the cynics rolling their eyes – yeah, we've seen celebrity couples hook up for the good of their careers before, but isn't it more fun to believe in romance?

And now there's the whole face-off with Matt Lauer. Man, I wish I'd seen that. These smug talk show hosts who are just reading from cue cards and have no idea what they're talking about most of the time need to be schooled on their arrogance. While I'm no scientologist, I love the idea of Cruise laying the smack down when he's being pooh-poohed by someone whose only knowledge of the subject probably came off the index card he was handed five minutes before air time. I would have loved to see Cruise commandeer the rest of the segment to lecture Lauer with hard data. Crack open the whole twelve-pack of whoop-ass, Tom, not just a single can.

Some people are crying that this is the end of Cruise's career. Malarkey. I hope it isn't scripted, because this kind of honesty (if it is honesty) is snapping my perception of him out of "oh, ho hum, it's Tom Cruise, I know exactly what to expect from Mr. Prettyboy" into "holy cow, Tom, tell it like it is!" I can't wait to see what he does next, and I'll bet that most of America feels the same way.