NAMES IN THE NEWS : Tom ‘Cruise’s Too Fast in Role

Cruise took his latest movie role too far and it cost him $125. Cruise was fined after getting caught driving 66 m.p.h. in a 35-m.p.h. zone on March 2 in Darlington, where he is playing a race car driver in the movie “Days of Thunder” at Darlington Raceway.

The fine would have been worse had not Judge Dan Causey reduced the speeding count to the lesser charge of careless operation of a vehicle. But Darlington Mayor Ronnie Ward says city officials had even discussed dropping the charge altogether but were concerned about possible adverse publicity.