Hi, it's Tom Cruise, are you there? Hello?

Tom Cruise

Cruise and his girlfriend and co-star Penelope Cruz talked to admirers and signed autographs for an hour outside the cinema - much more time than actors usually spend.

But one fan, Nuala O'Leary, 20, who had been waiting for five hours before the Vanilla Sky premi�re, handed him a mobile phone and asked him to speak to her mother.

He agreed, but Nuala's mother Elaine, of Wilby, Northamptonshire, was on the line to her ex-husband at the time - and ignored the beep that told her she had another call.

Elaine O'Leary says she would have liked to have spoken to Cruise

Nuala was in the front row of fans who had flocked to see the stars in Leicester Square.

"I was ringing frantically to try to get through to her but she was on the other line to her ex-husband, my dad," she told BBC News Online.

"[Tom] signed some autographs, shook my hand, and then I asked, 'Would you mind speaking to my mum?'"

But when she handed him the phone, he got the answering service and said: "Hi, it's Tom Cruise, are you there? Hello? Well, hi Elaine, this is Tom. See ya."

Mrs O'Leary, who admits she finds the star "sexy", did not believe her daughter when Nuala finally managed to get through.

You just don't expect Tom Cruise to give you a call

Elaine O'Leary

She told Nuala: "Look, I'm on the phone to your father, go away," when she called again a couple of minutes later.

Mrs O'Leary says she would have liked to speak to Cruise - but probably would have thought it was one of her daughter's friends playing a joke and been rude to him.

"I would rather have been speaking to Tom Cruise than my ex, that's certain," Mrs O'Leary said.

Cruz and Cruise met during the filming of Vanilla Sky

"You just don't expect Tom Cruise to give you a call."

Thousands of people crammed into Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of Cruz and Cruise.

It was while making Vanilla Sky film last year that Cruise, 39, petitioned former wife Nicole Kidman for divorce, falling in love with co-star Cruz, 27.

Cruz also appeared in the original film, the 1997 Spanish thriller Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes).

In the remake, Cruise - who plays David Aames, a young New York publishing executive - gets into trouble when he ditches his casual girlfriend (Cameron Diaz) for Sofia Serrano, Cruz's character.