“How about that!” Tom Hanks marveled last night when we ran into him on the red carpet for the Arts for Humanity Gala just moments after he’d been chatting with writer Eli Wiesel, the night’s host. “Elie Wiesel just corrected me with his pronunciation as soon as I said it. I thought Elie WI-sel, which is the way I’ve been saying it all my life. And it’s VE-sel. Okay.” Hanks was there to accept an honor from Wiesel’s Foundation for Humanity, but he’d like it known that this is a totally separate function from the movie press tour he’s been on for the last month. “Please print that I am so embarrassed about the timing of this, because this seems like this is part of the Cloud Atlas publicity junket schedule,” said Hanks. “It seems as if I’m squeezing this in between appearances on Good Morning America and David Letterman. I’m not. Get that out there!” Not that Hanks is at all shy to talk about the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas, in which he plays multiple roles. After confessing to us that he’s now seen the movie three times — “It’s not like I’m pushing Turner and Hooch or Angels and Demons” — Hanks enthused, “I’m not allowed to say it’s the most extraordinary movie I’ve ever seen, because one, I’m in it, and two, I’ve promoted a lot of movies … but I think it is!”
