Showbiz411

The Tom Cruise movie “Jack Reacher” is opening on Friday, one way or another.It’s too late to turn back now, even though “Reacher” opens with a scene in which a sniper, training his gaze through a scope on a rifle, bloodily picks off five people in a mall. The timing couldn’t be worse.

“Reacher” in an unfortunate situation. Paramount postponed yesterday’s “premiere” in Pittsburgh, but rescheduled it to Wednesday sans a red carpet or glitz. (I’ll restrain myself from making a snarky comment here.) The Film Society of Lincoln Center cancelled tonight’s event, which was Cruise’s only public media moment in New York or L.A.– although it was underscored before the Newtown tragedy that the Film Society thing was “media not invited.” Anyway, Cruise did do Letterman today and will appear on Jimmy Fallon this week as well.

What can Paramount do? The theaters are booked, the ad money has been spent, everything is in place. The movie’s getting pretty good notices. I’ll tell you more about it after I see it on Wednesday at the all-media screening. If it’s good, none of this will matter.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.