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We're not sure why, but the shy and retiring double Oscar-winner Jodie Foster showed up at last night's MTV Movie Awards, where she presented the Movie of the Year Award to the fourth Twilight film, Breaking Dawn: Part 1. (How many of the kids in the audience do you think have watched The Accused?) At least Ms. Foster got to catch up with her old Panic Room costar Kristen Stewart, all grown up!

For the recent MTV Movie Awards, pop culture aficionados were delighted to see the resurrection of Les Grossman, the feral, vulgar movie producer from the Ben Stiller film Tropic Thunder, as the purported producer of this year's awards. It's worth remembering that when Thunder was released in 2008, the word was that Grossman was some kind of revenge caricature concocted by Mr. Stiller and Tom Cruise-who was brilliantly transformed into a bald, aging, Diet Coke-swilling mogul with oversize hands and hairy forearms-against Sumner Redstone, the billionaire who ultimately owns the Paramount movie studio. Mr. Redstone, as we all know, trashed and ostensibly booted Mr. Cruise publicly in The Wall Street Journal two years earlier from his long and profitable relationship with Paramount, citing Mr. Cruise's public championing of Scientology and seemingly over-the-top behavior on Oprah when he was promoting War of the Worlds. The Grossman character bears little literal resemblance to Mr. Redstone physically-though the latter is known to be irascible and profane-but it was not hard to infer that Mr. Cruise enjoyed a poke at the old man while  cutting loose from his usual role as intense leading man.

At the same time, Mr. Cruise was in fact trying to be a Grossman-level movie mogul himself, having struck a deal to effectively run the United Artists movie label owned by MGM in tandem with his longtime producing partner, Paula Wagner.

Fast-forward two years: Ms. Wagner is long-gone from UA; Mr. Cruise has not much to show for his time as a suit; and the fate of Mr. Cruise's career remains one of the most-chattered-about subjects in town. His trajectory faltered at a time when the whole business changed and the notion of mega-stars who can open movies big (Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio and Denzel Washington among them) has been called into question. Not one for small measures, Mr. Cruise's own Web site crows that his movies "have earned in excess of six billion dollars worldwide-an incomparable achievement."

Now Mr. Cruise is attempting something of a career back flip. For years, comic actors have tried to evolve into serious thespians, something at which Tom Hanks succeeded handily but others, from Mike Myers to Jim Carrey, have largely faltered. As part of his purported comeback, Mr. Cruise is doing the opposite-rather than chasing an elusive Oscar, he's showing he can lighten up and have a laugh.

Like most of the characters he's played, he's going full throttle. A full-fledged Grossman feature is being developed by Paramount, which-such irony!-along with MTV is controlled by Mr. Redstone. (Both Mr. Cruise and Mr. Redstone maintain they are now "friends"-my quotes.) And Mr. Cruise and Mr. Stiller are developing a comedy in which they play the teen sleuths of The Hardy Boys as middle-aged brothers, called The Hardy Men-though word is that it's a long way from production.

More pressingly, June 23 is the release date for Knight and Day, the comedy-thriller distributed by Fox that stars Mr. Cruise and Cameron Diaz, in which he plays an intense and possibly insane secret agent. It's the first time Mr. Cruise has been in a marquee role since the middling Valkyrie, which was done at UA. And once again his role involves large helpings of winking self-caricature.

The inside word on how the film will fare at the box office is mixed-no one seems quite sure who Mr. Cruise's audience is anymore. What's clear, and actually kind of admirable, is that he is willing to do whatever it takes to try to find out.   

rsiklos@observer.com

Andy Samberg: The “Best Intro-er of People Intro-ing Things Ever!”

This just in: Andy Samberg is really funny! As host, the Saturday Night Live star pulled out every tool from his bag of comedy tricks—a Rolodex of famous friends, pre-produced bits, musical parodies, a predilection for the word “dick”—and matched that with a perfect blend of “happy to be there” charm and “this is the stupidest thing ever” snark. (At one point he told the crowd, with the utmost amount of faux-sincerity: “This is our Woodstock, guys!”) Well done! Now if the Oscars could only figure out a way to have him and Justin Timberlake share hosting duties in 2010, we could be on to something.

Irrelevance-Off: Eminem Versus Bruno!

Party like it’s 2005? Whether or not the semi-teabagging stunt that Sasha Baron Cohen (as his alter-ego, Bruno) pulled on Eminem was real or not—for the record, despite the protestations of Ryan Seacrest, cast our vote for “not real,” if only because the camera angles were too perfect—we couldn’t get past the notion that the buzz surrounding these two lightning rod performers has seriously worn off. A tip: When the subversive becomes the expected, it ceases to be subversive. As for the incident, we sure hope one of the parties involved clears up what happened on his MySpace page.

A Tale of Two ‘Tween Heartthrobs: Robert Pattinson & Zac Efron!

Obviously, for girls of all ages, a large part of Robert Pattinson’s appeal is his brooding nature. But while receiving his many awards—Best Kiss, Best Breakthrough Male and perhaps even Best Hairline, though we can’t be sure—the Twilight star came off like a supreme jackass: aloof, humorless and utterly devoid of charm; he’s one-note. Contrast that with Zac Efron, who gave a very genuine and heartfelt speech while accepting his award for Best Male Performance, and, later, killed as part of a hilarious tribute to Ben Stiller that also featured Kiefer Sutherland and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Mr. Efron is hella talented and he can dance. We’d like to see Robert Pattinson do that!