Move over, Brad and Angelina, there's a new hot tandem in Tinseltown.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have coupled, according to publicists for both actors.
The confirmations came late Wednesday after Cruise, 42, and Holmes, 26, were spotted canoodling this week in Rome. The Mission: Impossible man is in town to pick up a lifetime-achievement award Friday at the David di Donatello Awards, Italy's version of the Oscars.
Leslie Sloane, the rep for Holmes, said the two "are dating," while Cruise's publicist-sister, Lee Anne Devette, said the pair have been seeing each other for a few weeks.
On Friday, Holmes' father, Marty, called the local TV station WTOL in the family's hometown of Toledo, Ohio, and said the newly minted couple hooked up after Cruise's business people set up a meeting between the two. Cruise called Holmes' parents to discuss the budding relationship, according to the father, who described the actor as a "class act" and the couple's romance as "the real deal."
No word if Cruise's camp tracked down Holmes after reading October interview with Seventeen, in which she said, "I think every little girl dreams about her wedding. I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise."
Just last month, the Dawson's Creek beauty called off her engagement to American Pie guy Chris Klein after five years together.
And this is just the latest high-profile romance for Cruise, who was previously married to Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman. He divorced Kidman in 2001 after 10 years of marriage.
Not long after, he began dating Spanish siren Penélope Cruz, whom he met on the set of Vanilla Sky. The two ended their three-year romance late last year, after which Cruise was linked briefly to Latina model Sofía Vergara.
Holmes, who got engaged to Klein in December 20003, was previously linked to fellow Dawson's Creek denizen Joshua Jackson.
While Holmes may have been in kindergarten when Cruise first hit it big in 1983's Risky Business, the pair aren't letting a 16-year age gap get in the way of their good time.
Nor does a height difference seem to matter: Holmes is about five-foot-nine (and tops six feet in heels), while Cruise is generously listed at five-foot-seven. (He, of course, is accustomed to being towered over by leading ladies. The statuesque Kidman stands at five-foot-ten.)
Cruise and Holmes picked a perfect time to get together. Both have major blockbusters coming out this summer--Batman Begins for her and War of the Worlds for him in June--and their coupling should guarantee plenty of magazine coverage in the coming months.