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Date published: 5/15/2009
By JOHN ANDERSON Newsday Tom Hanks must have done something heinous in his life, right? Something awful? Nasty? Unspeakable? Unprintable? Something he wouldn't tell his mother? No? Cheated on his taxes? Stole a parking space? Didn't recycle? Forgot to wear a flag pin? Perhaps not. Long one of America's leadingest leading men, Hanks, 52, is a real disappointment to connoisseurs of celeb-rity misbehavior. Married to the same woman (actress-producer Rita Wilson) for more than 20 years, he's been irritatingly on target about doing the right thing. He received the U.S. Navy's highest civilian honor in 1999 for "Saving Private Ryan." He was instrumental in pushing through the World War II memorial in Washington. He helped make AIDS part of the national conversation via dying Andrew Beckett in "Philadelphia" (1993). When it comes to salacious scandal, he generates as much juice as a turnip. Frankly, it makes you wonder why we're writing about him at all. There is, of course, The story involves dead popes, a secret society, a good-looking woman, a fanatical, unstoppable assassin--it could be the "The Da Vinci Code," except for all the Einsteinian hoo-hah about antimatter and Galilean astrophysics. But amid a project in which so much is being repeated, the most surprising thing, in the endless summer of Tom Hanks' career, is that the actor is repeating himself. Unlike most long-lasting stars in Hollywood, that's something he hasn't done--at least not as a star. This wouldn't have been surprising two decades ago. Back then it was all boyishness all the time. And quite a few mediocre movies--"Bachelor Party" (1984), "Volunteers" (1985), "The Money Pit" (1986) "Dragnet" (1987), "The 'burbs" (1989), "Turner and Hooch" (1989)--it' a wonder Hanks survived the '80s. How about "The Man With One Red Shoe" (1985)? The point is that Hanks was being boyish, and boyishly unwise about what the heck he was doing.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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