Here is a list of the major cast members of Valkyrie :

• Tom Cruise: Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg
• Kenneth Branagh: Major-General Henning von Tresckow
• Bill Nighy: General Friedrich Olbricht
• Tom Wilkinson: General Friedrich Fromm
• Carice van Houten: Nina von Stauffenberg
• Thomas Kretschmann: Major Otto Ernst Remer
• Terence Stamp : Ludwig Beck
• Eddie Izzard: General Erich Fellgiebel

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There’s something provocative about movie stars falling in love while making a movie. What follows is a list of cuddly movie co-stars, some contemporary, some from days of yore.

You may wonder why Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson or Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward or Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh didn’t make the list. It’s because Cupid struck them during the production of a stageplay, not a movie. After all, we aim for total accuracy.

And now, the list, beginning with some golden oldies:

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Either way, the Stewart-Cramer dust-up was hardly ground-breaking. Television has spawned its share of notable feuds over the years, a phenomenon that did not escape the watchful eyes of the editors at Time.

Here’s their list:

Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer

Stephen Colbert vs. Bill O’Reilly

Bill O’Reilly vs. Keith Olbermann

Jon Stewart vs. Crossfire

Donald Trump vs. Martha Stewart

Dan Rather vs. CBS

Elizabeth Hasselbeck vs. The View

Donald Trump vs. Rosie O’Donnell

David Letterman vs. Oprah

Matt Lauer vs. Tom Cruise

To read more about these, and to access videos of these famous confrontations, visit Time.

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Comeback is a generic word, freely tossed around. To qualify for a comeback, an actor doesn’t need to have gone away. He just needs not to have been noticed.

Examples, both past and present:

Rourke is the real thing, with his tender, mesmerizing performance in The Wrestler definite Oscar-bait. The role of a has-been wrestler almost mirrors Rourke’s own status. Once a critic’s favorite, he’s made relatively few films in the last decade, with 2006’s Stormbreaker a critical and box-office dud. But he’s been navigating the comeback trail with great finesse, appearing on talk shows, apologizing for past excesses and even chatting up his pet Chihuahua.

Downey has never gone away. He was wry and witty in 2007’s Zodiac, but the film was not widely seen. His terrific turn in Iron Man helped make the comic book movie a Marvelous hit, and he followed it with inspired hilarity in Tropic Thunder. The one-time bad boy and substance abuser is now a Hollywood kingpin, to be seen in ‘09 as Sherlock Holmes, co-starring Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. One misstep, however: He started dissing The Dark Knight once the Batman epic surpassed Iron Man as the year’s biggest blockbuster.

Gwyneth Paltrow has announced that she wants to concentrate on her family and no longer cares about “carrying” a movie. So, after a slew of largely unseen artsy endeavors, Princess Gwyn made a wise career move by playing Pepper Potts in Iron Man. She was accessible, jolly and a regular salt-and-pepper gal who had strong chemistry with Downey. If Iron Man was a comeback for Downey, it was no less so for Paltrow.

Jim Carrey and Tom Cruise are hoping for holidays greetings.

Carrey’s last hit was 2005’s Fun With Dick and Jane, but it was a fleetingly popular film that few even remember. Otherwise, his recent starring vehicles have bombed. Yes Man, which borrows heavily from Carrey’s own Liar, Liar, opened nicely but below expectations. Carrey and Company are blaming its meek opening week on the weather.

Cruise’s alleged fall from grace has been widely documented. But his comic bit in Tropic Thunder won raves, including a Golden Globe supporting-actor nod, while his down-with-Hitler opus Valkyrie, opened Christmas Day with strong advance tracking but mixed reviews. Still, don’t count Cruise out. He knows how to play the game.

This summer, he went against type, playing a fat, bald, profane movie executive in Tropic Thunder, earning a Golden Globe nomination for his outside-the-box effort. On Christmas Day, he’s back as a Nazi officer plotting the assassination of Hitler in Valkyrie. (Okay, so that doesn’t really sound like a Christmas movie to us, either, but…)

Which are the films that made Cruise the star he is today?

Here’s our list:

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Mission Impossible (1996)

The Firm (1993)

A Few Good Men (1992)

Rain Man (1988)

The Color of Money (1986)

Top Gun (1986)

Risky Business (1983)

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It’s based on a world-wide best-seller. Its soundtrack was No. 1 on Billboard charts at least two weeks prior to the movie’s release. And Fandango reports that teen girls can’t get advance tickets fast enough.

Sounds like a “chick flick” vampire movie that guys won’t mind seeing.

For the uninitiated, Twilight tells the tale of independent-minded high-school student Bella Swan (what a terrific name!) who doesn’t fit in with the cool kids. But romance comes in the form of handsome bloodsucker Edward who looks dashingly youthful but is centuries old. He’s actually a sensitive soul. Being vegetarian, at least by vampire standards, he doesn’t drink human blood, preferring mountain lions and grizzly bears.

Meanwhile, on home screens, HBO’s vampire saga True Blood is mesmerizing large groups of spellbound couch potatoes.

Other noteworthy movies of the undead:

Interview with the Vampire (1994). Until Twilight, this was the most hotly anticipated vampire flick. Vampire Chronicles author Anne Rice was mightily miffed when Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were cast, scoffing that they would seem like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. After viewing the film, she recanted, taking out ads in Hollywood trade papers apologizing for her judgment call. She also may have remembered that she had a share in the profits.

Queen of the Damned (2002) was another episode of the Anne Rice chronicles. Lestat is now a rock idol, played by Stuart Townsend rather than Cruise. R&B singer Aaliyah played Queen Akasha, christened “The Mother of All Vampires” in the ad campaign. A year before the film’s release, Aaliyah’s death in a plane crash at the age of 22 cast an eerie spell over the entire project.

Dracula, the most famous creature of the night, has had many cinematic reincarnations. Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) was faithful to the novel but met a mixed response. Gary Oldman, best-known to Harry Potter fans as Sirius Black, played Drac, while Anthony Hopkins, only a year after The Silence of the Lambs, appeared as his nemesis Van Helsing. In 1979’s Dracula, Frank Langella, soon to be seen as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, was the long-fanged title character, with no less than Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing. More successful was the same year’s surprise hit comedy Love at First Bite, which became George Hamilton’s lone box-office smash, helped by Richard Benjamin’s befuddled Van Helsing. Hamilton was so encouraged that he camped it up again two years later as Zorro, the Gay Blade. Moviegoers definitely preferred his Dracula.

Here’s a list of actors and entertainers who overcame their dyslexia and went on to enjoy successful careers:

Harry Anderson
Orlando Bloom
Harry Belafonte
Tom Cruise
Dave Foley
Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Susan Hampshire
Jay Leno
Keanu Reeves
Keira Knightley
Edward James Olmos
Oliver Reed
Billy Bob Thornton
Tom Smothers
Robin Williams
Henry Winkler
Loretta Young

To find more lists of famous dyslexics, visit dyslexia.com.

Forbes took a look at some of Tinseltown’s best-paid stars and weighed their paychecks against box office earnings. A few old favorites may have a harder time negotiating that next big contract.

Here’s the list of Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Movie Stars. The second number indicates how much the performer’s last three films grossed per dollar he or she was paid.

Nicole Kidman: $1-$1
Jennifer Garner: $1-$3.60
Tom Cruise: $1-$4
Cameron Diaz: $1-$4
Jennifer Lopez: $1-$4.10
Jim Carrey: $1-$4.11
Nicolas Cage: $1-$4.16
Drew Barrymore: $1-$4.38
Will Ferrell: $1-$4.67
Cate Blanchett: $1-$4.97

To read more about these, and to see a slideshow, visit Forbes.

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It’s also got a trio of hot cameos. Early reports indicate that Tom Cruise should get a career boost with a screamingly funny extended cameo as a fat, bald, foul-mouthed producer. Matthew McConaughey plays a slick, slick, slick agent, while Tobey Maguire appears briefly but significantly in a preview of the Downey character’s upcoming movie.

Like much Hollywood jargon, “cameo” has a flexible definition. Basically, it’s a small part played by an A-list star whose name is mentioned, if at all, only in the final credits. Let’s take a gander at some earlier cameos.

• Bruce Willis played himself in an Ocean’s Twelve cameo, greeting Julia Roberts like an old friend. Julia’s character, you see, was pretending to be Julia Roberts. It makes sense in the movie. Well, not altogether. Anyway, there was something smug about the “inside joke” that didn’t help the movie. In the original 1960 Ocean’s Eleven, headlined by Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, then a member of Sinatra’s Rat Pack, made a fleeting appearance at a bar.

• In the original Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston played the astronaut stranded in Apeland. In the inferior remake, Mark Wahlberg had the lead, but Heston appeared briefly as the wise simian poppa of menacing ape Tim Roth. As in the first movie, Heston also had the last line.

Good looks help. Talent isn’t necessarily required. More and more these days, people are famous for nothing more than being famous.

Still, we live in a disposable society, and sometimes enough is simply enough. When the public grows weary of seeing your face on too many magazine covers and Web sites, your 15 minutes may be just about up.

The folks at Forbes appreciate the phenomenon. Hence, by way of Encino, Calif.-based E-Poll Market Research, this list of “Most Overexposed Celebrities.” If you’ve had your fill of Paris and Britney and Lindsay, consider a few others who may have worn out their welcome.

Here’s a sampling:

1. Paris Hilton

2. Britney Spears

3. Lindsay Lohan

T4. Pamela Anderson

T4. Nicole Richie

6. Mary-Kate Olsen

7. Kim Kardashian

T8. Tom Cruise

T8. Heidi Montag

T8. Donald Trump

To see the rest of the list — and believe us, it doesn’t get any better – visit Forbes.