Tom Cruise wants to travel into space, meet aliens: Favorite People

Tom Cruise arrives Thursday for the British premiere of Oblivion, at the BFI IMax cinema in central London. The Associated Press

Forget Saint-Tropez or Ibiza. The new status vacation for A-Listers is literally out of this world. In fact, Ashton Kutcher, Russell Brand and Kate Winslet have all booked their tickets aboard an exclusive private spaceship.

Tom Cruise says he's not only open to a $200,000 trip to space, but he'd like to meet an extraterrestrial friend, according to Britain's the Sun.

Virgin Galactic hopes to start commercial space flights this year, and already has hundreds of high-rollers signed up.

Who wouldnt want to do something like that?" Cruise said, speaking at the Moscow premiere of his new sci-fi film, "Oblivion." The discussion was quite relevant to the movie, as Cruise plays one of the last men on Earth after an alien battle tears up the planet in a dystopian future.

Cruise says space travel is a childhood dream, partially realized when he flew a space shuttle simulator at NASA's space center in Houston. As far as other life forms in far reaches of the galaxies?

I dont think you can actually count it out, he said. It might be a little arrogant to think we were the only ones in all the galaxies throughout the universe but Ive never met one!

Cruise, as you might know, is one of Scientology's most noted followers, so this line of thinking isn't alien to him. Though its foundin! g principles are shrouded in mystery, the controversial religion reportedly has its own "Old Testament" story involving Xenu, the tyrant ruler of the Galactic Confederacy, who brought billions of people to Earth in spacecrafts 75 million years ago. (These people were apparently stacked around volcanoes and killed using hydrogen bombs, but we digress.)

The brainchild of English magnate Richard Branson, the suborbital flights would last two hours and space tourists would experience six minutes of weightlessness; the next goal would be taking passengers on longer space trips. And it sounds like Cruise is content to let other A-Listers take the first trip.

"Im going to let a couple of other people test it out first but it would be great," he says. "I was always hoping when I was a kid that we would be traveling to different planets by now.

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New report: Rapper Ross shot at from car in January

A new police report says two witnesses saw a car pull alongside a Rolls Royce driven by rapper Rick Ross earlier this year in South Florida and heard numerous gunshots fired before the car crashed into a nearby building.

The Fort Lauderdale police report released Thursday says witnesses saw three or four people inside an older model, burgundy- or maroon-colored BMW before the shots rang out. Neither Ross nor his girlfriend, fashion designer Shateria L. Moragne-el, were injured in the Jan. 28 attack. The bullets mostly struck nearby businesses.

The witnesses told police that the car's occupants fired out of their passenger side window at Ross's vehicle, according to the report. Police recovered 18 bullet casings.

"The witnesses ducked for cover in their vehicle due to the rapid gunfire, but were able to see the vehicle flee eastbound," the report says.

The report also says that Ross was armed with a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun located in his waistband. Ross, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts II, did not draw the gun. The police report ! also note! s that Ross has a suspended concealed weapon permit.

Police are reviewing video from 20 surveillance cameras in the area for clues. The footage has not been made public. Ross and Moragne-el had gone to breakfast in Fort Lauderdale after celebrating the rapper's 37th birthday at a Miami Beach nightclub hours before. The couple lives in nearby Davie.

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Excitement in Cuba for Jay-Z, Beyonce

Beyonce and Jay-Z caused a big stir in Havana as they marked their fifth wedding anniversary Thursday.

R&B's power couple was mobbed by dozens of well-wishers at the renowned restaurant La Guarida on Wednesday night, and police had to step in to keep the crowds at bay.

La Guarida staffers showed The Associated Press pictures of the two dining on typical Cuban creole favorites fish, chicken, black beans and rice accompanied by their mothers. The privately run restaurant is famous as the filming location for the hit movie "Strawberry and Chocolate," and is a mainstay on Havana's tourist circuit.

Waitress Silvia Fernandez said Beyonce toured the eatery and looked at photos of past celebrity clients: Jack Nicholson, Jodie Foster, Danny Glover, Will Smith, James Belushi and more.

Their bodyguards' presence outside set the gritty, bustling neighborhood of Center Havana abuzz, and a crowd gathered downstairs shouting Beyonce's name until she went to a balcony and waved.

Police arrived and made sure she was able to exit without incident.

"She was beautiful, without a drop of makeup, very natural," waitress Silvia Fernandez said. "What happened with the people was incredible."

On Thursday the couple toured colonial Old Havana wearing dark glasses and surrounded by bodyguards and excited fans. Beyonce posed for pictures with local schoolchildren while Jay-Z puffed on a Cuban cigar, and then they popped into another restaurant that boasts a rooftop terrace with a sweeping view of the harbor.

Beyonce and Jay-Z declined to speak to r! eporters,! and it was not clear why they traveled to Cuba. State-run website CubaSi called it a tourist trip.

Washington's 51-year embargo makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba for mere tourism, although tens of thousands of Americans travel here each year on academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange licenses. In the past, artists who were challenged by the government have said they visited for cultural purposes.

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Nick Carter says his wedding may be a TV special

Nick Carter could bring his wedding to the small screen.

The Backstreet Boys singer proposed to fitness trainer Lauren Kitt in February, and he says their marriage could be filmed for a TV special.

"There have been offers and opportunities to film the actually wedding, like a TV show," the 33-year-old said in a recent interview. "I was up for it to a certain degree, but then at the same time, I might not even do that. We might just keep it private. We'll see what's up."

Carter and Kitt haven't set a wedding date, but he says they're thinking about "early next year." The couple co-star in a series of fitness webisodes called "Kit Fitt." Carter is also busy recording a new album with the Backstreet Boys, due out later this year. He says the band is "90 percent done" with the album.

Carter says the Backstreet Boys have recorded a song with longtime collaborator and mega-hit maker Max Martin, who produced the boy band's hits including "I Want It That Way," ''Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)."

"It's a smash," he says of the new track. "A beautiful song."

Carter says he's also written three screenplays, including a horror film in which he'd play a villain.

"We're shopping them now to big studios in Hollywood," he says.

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Madonna visits Malawi children's ward

Pop diva Madonna held ailing children when visiting an overcrowded children's ward in Blantyre, Malawi's largest city.

! Madonna, ! spending her fourth day in the southern African country Thursday, visited Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital which she has been assisting for five years, through its chief pediatrician, Dr. Eric Borgstein. He said the ward performs at least 500 surgeries per year on poor children.

Trevor Neilson, president of the Global Philanthropy Group that is managing Madonna's projects in Malawi, said Madonna is the largest individual donor to the hospital and funds programs run by Borgstein that include treating children with cancer. Borgstein said Malawi has only three pediatric surgeons. Borgstein is currently a partner of Raising Malawi, the non-profit organization Madonna co-founded with Michael Berg in 2006 to help Malawian children.

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Springer doing a show on tabloid newspapers

Jerry Springer is getting another television show.

The Investigation Discovery network said Thursday that Springer will be host of "Tabloid," a new weekly series that will look at some of the bizarre stories in the tabloids found at supermarket checkout lines. The series will debut early next year.

ID said Springer was a natural choice because he's no stranger to over-the-top characters. His brawling talk show is a staple of daytime television. Springer said he enjoys telling stories that cover the full range of human experiences and emotions.

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Friday's birthdays: Country singer Tommy Cash is 73. Actor Michael Moriarty is 72. Singer Allan Clarke of The Hollies is 71. Actor Max Gail is 70. Actress Jane Asher is 67. Singer Agnetha Faltskog of Abba is 63. Actor Mitch Pileggi is 61. Guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam is 47. Country singer Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry is 46. Singer Paula Cole is 45. Country singer Pat Green is 41. Rapper-producer Pharrell Williams is 40.

The Oregonian and The Associated Press