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We probably all realized this already, but sometimes we need the hard data to back it up: No matter how many times Tom Cruise wrestles Oprah, engages Matt Lauer in a tense glib-off, makes Brooke Shields cry, or unconvincingly impregnates Katie Holmes, we're still powerless against him at the box-office:

Actor Tom Cruise led a poll of movie exhibitors aimed at determining the top 10 money-making stars of 2005.

Cruise, who appeared in last year's "War of the Worlds," has won the annual survey by Quigley Publishing Co. seven times, Arnold Robinson, the actor's publicist, said Thursday.

Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds and Bing Crosby have all snatched the No. 1 spot five times.

The Quigley Poll, conducted every year since 1932, asks motion picture exhibitors to vote for the 10 stars who generated the most box-office revenue for their theaters.

We blame ourselves. No matter how badly we wanted to sit out War of the Worlds, we still showed up at the theater on the Fourth of July weekend, staring gape-mouthed with wonder at the blockbuster spectacle—not at Steven Spielberg's impressive special effects, but at how a movie star who flies planes and jumps motorcycles couldn't be bothered to learn how not to throw like a girl while playing catch in the backyard with his teenage son.

Excuse us—threw like a girl just the one time.