BOSTON — June 23, 2005 — The Boston Phoenix received a nice big kiss this Wednesday from director Steven Spielberg at a press conference for his new big-budget movie, “War of the Worlds.” While at the press conference, Phoenix critic Gary Sussman managed to rub the sci-fi movie’s star, Tom Cruise, the wrong way. Sussman piqued Cruise’s ire when he asked how Tom balanced his belief in Scientology with the movie’s alien-invasion story line. The question prompted Cruise to snap, “What paper are you from?” When Cruise discovered the writer was from the Boston Phoenix, he looked to director Steven Spielberg for feedback. Spielberg responded by saying, “That’s a good paper,” which seemed to satisfied Cruise.

On June 17th, The Phoenix, New England’s largest weekly newspaper, was “unfolded” and distributed flat, debuting a whole new look. All aspects of the paper have dramatically changed, from an innovative new design and physical size change to new editorial content. This format change has created an easier-to-read paper, very similar in size to New York’s Village Voice.