Tom Wants Tract of Turf

Tom Cruise is looking to buy land in Ireland supposed to have once been owned by his ancestors.

Mr Cruise is believed to have visited the area around Kilteevan three years ago as he traced his Irish roots.

The Collateral star was born Tom Cruise Mapother IV in New York in 1962.

The small ruined cottage included as part of the sale of the farm was once occupied by members of the Mapother family, and Mr Cruise's great grandfather Thomas is said to have emigrated from Roscommon to America in the early part of the last century. [Link]

Umm, make that his great-great-grandfather Dylan Henry Mapother, who emigrated in 1850. Correct country of origin, though!

[Photo credit: tomcruise-1 by Alan Light]

Top Ten Signs Tom Cruise Is a Genealogist

10. So excited about an SSDI update that he jumped up and down on Oprah's couch.

9. Wanted to film Risky Business subway scene with Elizabeth Shown Mills instead of Rebecca De Mornay.

8. Demanded proof that Ron Kovic really was born on the fourth of July.

7. Had nearly finished compiling a 7,000-page Cruise genealogy when his publicist reminded him his real last name is "Mapother."

6. Was spotted at an after-Oscars party transcribing the guest list.

5. Named his baby after his great-great-grandmother—a pointy-nosed Indo-Japanese pickpocket banished from Israel.

4. Shouts "Show me the Mommy!" whenever he's handed a birth certificate.

3. Wrote a Mission Impossible script in which agent Ethan Hunt infiltrates a records vault in Utah.

2. Bought the film rights to the 1930 census.

1. Made Katie convert to Legacy Family Tree.

[Photo Credit: Kevin Ballard (license)]