Tom Cruise pushes forward with space-filmed flick ‘In Space’

A new movie’s coming about the secret forbidden romance of Sammy Davis Jr. & “Vertigo” star Kim Novak. Hollywood pygmies call it a secret romance. It was about as secret as the whereabouts of Biden’s ventriloquist. We all knew this. They talked about it on Mars. Jeremy Pope, Emmy nominee for Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood,” plays …

We all knew this. They talked about it on Mars. Jeremy Pope, Emmy nominee for Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood,” plays Sammy. I don’t know who plays Novak. They don’t know either.

More. Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman are planning “In Space,” which will — theoretically — film in space. Estimated budget? $200 mil. Which doesn’t include trailers for Tom after he sets sneaker on Planet Whoknows. Plus hair and makeup with greasepaint and gel that doesn’t clash with comets, gas bubbles and carbon monoxide. Also, where’s Orion finding extras? Also, how do you do close-ups of density and infinity? Also, shove limos. He’ll want his own monogrammed parachute.

And in what black hole we watching this?

Even more. Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray are producing “With/In,” a cinema thing that explores today’s isolation. Shot while everyone’s home in lockdown. It’s Julianne Moore and husband Bart Freundlich, Emily Mortimer, Chris Cooper, Don Cheadle, Rosie Perez, Rebecca Hall, Carla Gugino, Griffin Dunne, Debra Winger and whoever’s not out shopping for toilet paper. All shooting their own home movies glued together as a two-hour film.

Listen, could be a double feature. Call it “In Place” and show it with Cruise’s “In Space.”

The state of certain estates

I told you about the late Marylou Whitney auction and widower John Hendrickson selling her red Jaguar. I now tell you the thing had engine trouble so he subbed their green Jaguar. Lucky they didn’t have some cockamamie Studebaker … and speaking of estates, Martha Graham’s is unloading her Alexander Calder spiral clasp. Registered in the Calder archives, it’s brass, circa 1935, 4 ¹/₂ inches wide and ¹/₂ inch high.

Not exactly a paper clip to hold your grocery list, it’s, give or take a farthing, $30,000.

On a short run

Television. Now it’s Kiefer Sutherland as “The Fugitive.” And this one’s a quickie Quibi, meaning episodes run 10 minutes max. Kiefer: “We’re doing a post 9/11 adaptation. Terrorism hit American soil, cameras everywhere, technology up your fibula. Tweet now, rush to judgment, confirm later. This is a cautionary tale.”
I don’t know whatthehell he’s talking about. I just report the stuff.

Lack of cents

I share this with you: A financier on the highway drives into a Connecticut gas station. The charge, $9.41. He gives the attendant a 20. Returning, the attendant hands back to the driver the necessary bills. It’s less than the proper amount. No coins. The driver, a VIP broker of a high-ranking financial institution, knows how to count. He asks: “Where’s the rest of what you owe me? The 50 cents.”

Attendant: “We’re having a shortage. No change. We’ve run out of coins.”

Nursery rhyme: Basement Biden sat in a hall/Basement Biden had a great fall/all the speechwriters and all the rich donors couldn’t put Biden together again. Or: Twinkle Twinkle little star/how I wonder where you are/down below the ground so far.

Only in the United States of America, kids, only in the United States of America.