NEW YORK -- Tom Cruise's romance with Katie Holmes and his missionary zeal on behalf of the Church of Scientology has movie insiders wondering if War Of The Worlds will be hurt.

"Of course it's a distraction," a Hollywood executive told the Sun recently. "It has completely taken the focus off the movie."

But War Of The Worlds producer Kathleen Kennedy, a longtime collaborator with Steven Spielberg, says that idea is a myth.

"I think it's a media construct," Kennedy told the Sun. She says the media obsession with the romance, especially, is strange.

"First of all, I don't even understand why it's such a big story. I don't get it. And I can't imagine it's going to have any impact on the movie. He fell in love with somebody and got engaged." She shrugs, as if to say: "So what?"

Cruise says he is not paying attention to the gossip and criticism. "Nope! No, listen, I really don't pay attention to it. It doesn't bother me. I do my work. I live my life and it's never affected anything before. It doesn't matter. It's what I do. I make my movies and I live my life in the way that I feel that I can and I can't control what people are going to say or do."