The prolonged scene far outshines the much-talked-about sportscar romp between Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton in the recently released Mission Impossible 2.

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British actress Thandie Newton will also be treading the boards this autumn, this time in a revival of the Ariel Dorfman play Death and the Maiden.

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The ghost, at first an unseen presence, smashes crockery to the floor, then appears as a beautiful young woman (Thandie Newton) who growls and talks very, very slowly.

NEWYORKER: Beloved

Which is you have these scenes between Terence Howard and Thandie Newton, who are both light skinned and probably are biracial, again defining themselves as how black they are.

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"Everything that I've learned, any pain I've been through, any joy I've been through, I think I rehashed it all in order to play this role, " said Winfrey's co-star, the actress Thandie Newton.

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The screenwriter is Robert Towne, who wrote half of the movies that made Jack Nicholson a star, and the leading lady is Thandie Newton, whose face could make a thousand ships do pretty much anything she wants.

NEWYORKER: Mission Impossible 2 (M: I-2)

Don Cheadle, as a withdrawn, melancholy police detective, is the star, and the other players include Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton as an upper-class African-American couple, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock as an L.A. district attorney and his bitchy wife, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges and Larenz Tate as carjackers, Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe as cops, and Shaun Toub as an Iranian shopkeeper who thinks everyone is out to cheat him.

NEWYORKER: Crash